Thank Frankel it's Friday: The ultimate Formula 1 fairytale

And having decided there and then that there was no possible better candidate for this week’s column than this extraordinary assembly, I turned to thinking about how to write it. Which is where I am indebted to one Will Smith (presumably not that Will Smith) who responded to my tweet on the subject asking which was my favourite.

It wasn’t an easy question to answer. The first, chassis R1 (later re-named R9) won two Grands Prix but rules itself out of contention by being one of the two chassis not in Birmingham on account of having been written off. The second is probably the most famous: as R2 it was Jim Clark’s personal transport and won first time out at Zandvoort in 1967 before doing so again in Britain and America. It then won half the rounds of the 1968 Tasman Cup, again with Clark driving, and eventually was re-numbered R11 for American racer Pete Lovely. It’s probably the most important of the 49s. But my favourite? Not quite.

R3 did a lot of racing between 1968 and 1970 and remains highly original, but never won a World Championship Grand Prix. R4 did, but only one before being destroyed in the fire at Rob Walker’s garage.

R5 is interesting because it was the prototype 49B and won Hill’s penultimate Monaco Grand Prix as R5 and his final one as R10. R6 is probably most famous for the images of Jackie Oliver’s simply enormous accident at Rouen in 1968 where the back and front of car finished some distance apart and from which Oliver emerged dazed, bruised but otherwise miraculously unharmed. But it also won three Grands Prix, one for Hill and two for Jochen Rindt, one in each of 1968, ’69 and ’70. R8, the last 49 built for racing (R12 was and remains a show car) was mainly used for the Tasman series.

Which bring us to R7. It looks completely different to all the others because it is neither green like the earlier cars, nor Gold Leaf red like the later models. Instead, it is blue, the colours of Rob Walker Racing.

Rob was the last of the true privateers, a man who simply bought cars from manufacturers and hired the best he could afford to race them. And while once a force to be reckoned with, largely thanks to the services of one S Moss Esq, by 1968 Rob Walker Racing had not won a Grand Prix for seven seasons. And then the factory burned down.

R7 was the car that was ordered to replace R4 which had succumbed in the flames but it arrived so late the team were still working on it as practice began for the British Grand Prix. When it did fire up and howl out onto the Kent circuit, it was with the mercurial Swiss racer, Jo Siffert at its wheel. He did well to qualify fourth, behind the two works 49Bs of Hill and Oliver and Chris Amon’s factory Ferrari.

In the race Chapman’s cars both suffered mechanical failure and were forced to retire, leaving Siffert to fight Amon for the duration of the race. Eventually, it was resolved by less than 5 seconds in Siffert’s favour, scoring him his first points-scoring F1 win, beating as he did World Champions past, present and future including Jackie Stewart, Denny Hulme and Jack Brabham, not to mention the likes of Jacky Ickx and Dan Gurney.

What no-one knew at the time is that it would be the last ever victory at the top level by a truly privateer team, a minnow among sharks, dusting the lot of them.

So, Mr Smith, the answer to your question is R7. It is neither the most successful nor the most famous of the Lotus 49s. But as someone who delights in the success of the underdog and who got to know Rob Walker just a little towards the end of his life and discovered first hand what a thoroughly charming man he was, I couldn’t call it any other way. To me, a car from a tiny customer team still being prepared as the big boys took to the track yet which nevertheless managed to humble the lot of them is the ultimate Formula 1 fairy tale. And thanks to Jo Siffert, Rob Walker Racing and Lotus 49B chassis R7, on July 20^th,1968, the dream came true. If you want to pay your respects, it’s in the NEC right now, with every one of its surviving brethren.