ATLAS F1 - THE JOURNAL OF FORMULA ONE MOTORSPORT
A Tall Story:
Interview with Justin Wilson

By Mark Glendenning, Australia
Atlas F1 Columnist



Not so long ago there was, at least in theory, a clearly-marked path into F1. The standard version went something along the lines of karts, Formula Ford, Formula Three, Formula 3000, and then the big time. For variation, you could maybe slot in a year of Formula Vauxhall, Formula Renault, or even Formula Palmer Audi somewhere. At the end of the day though, it amounted to the same thing - a clear hierarchy of categories that depended upon success in a lower class in order to take the next step up the ladder.

Justin WilsonAll too often though, grand ideals struggle when applied to the real world. (Just look at communism!). Thus, on one hand we have drivers such as Kimi Raikkonen, who bypassed the traditional routes by getting into the sport a good couple of years before he was supposed to be ready for it - and then threw another spanner into the works by being on the pace virtually from the first moment the Sauber rolled out of the garage at Albert Park. And on the flipside, there are the drivers who follow the 'traditional path', only to reach the doorstep of F1 and find it triple-bolted with a sign saying 'No Vacancy - and please shut the gate on your way out'.

Justin Wilson is one of the latter. Having moved through the Formula Vauxhall ranks, the Yorkshire-based driver went on to become the inaugural Formula Palmer Audi champ in 1998 before embarking upon an F3000 career that was ultimately rewarded with the 2001 title while driving for Nordic. On paper this should have put him right into the frame for a shot at F1 in 2002, but things didn't quite turn out that way. Hampered by the difficulty of folding his six foot three-and-a-half inch frame into an F1 cockpit that 'regular-sized' drivers consider to be excessively snug, Wilson found himself left on the sidelines. With no serious options open, he spent the year competing in the Telefonica World Series by Nissan, where he finished fourth in the championship.

It's no surprise, then, that the announcement that he will grid up in Australia in March behind the wheel of a Minardi came as a tremendous relief to the 24-year-old. "It's fantastic," he said. "I just can't wait to get behind the wheel. I'm really looking forward to the challenge of the Championship. Everything about it is very exciting."

According to Wilson, the deal was made all the more sweet after the disappointment of being called up to replace Alex Yoong at Minardi for two races in 2002, only to find that he couldn't fit into the car. "When I was trying to stand in for Alex earlier in the season and I realised that I wouldn't be able to fit in the car, that was a very low point," he admitted. "That night, I sat in the hotel thinking that maybe Formula One is not going to be after all and that maybe I should look elsewhere. But the constant words of support from Paul (Stoddart) in the press here in England, and the support that I gained from that was incredible, and it just made us all the more determined - Jonathan (Palmer, Wilson's manager), myself and my father - that we'd make it into Formula One this year."

Wilson during his Formula Palmer daysWilson's height has been something of a bugbear throughout his career. The 2003 Minardi has to be extensively modified to fit him, however he claims he is still not one hundred percent comfortable in the car.

"It's not like sitting on the sofa, put it that way!" he explained. "I've always been in the same situation, so for me, I've been able to get into a position which I'm happy with. Whether that's as comfortable as other people get it … but I'm happy, I'm not complaining, and I think I'm capable of driving the car in that situation. I feel as comfortable in the Minardi as I do in the Nissan, or the 3000. So as long as I'm up to the required fitness, I can't see a problem at the minute. It might change when I start driving, but I feel at the minute that I'm in the same seating position, with the same amount of room, as the cars that I've driven for the last three or four years.

"Obviously it's something I've always had to cope with right through my career, starting in karts. I was always very tall. And when I moved into cars, it's always been an issue and I just had to get on with it. I moved into Palmer Audi, which was able to accommodate my size much better, 3000 was difficult but possible, and then I got to Formula One where it's been very difficult. With the setback last year, when I was unable to stand in for Alex Yoong at Minardi, it made everybody very determined to make it happen for 2003. It's difficult, but it's not impossible."

Palmer, who has steered Wilson's career for some time, confirmed the difficulty that Wilson's height had presented when the pair were making house calls to team bosses along pitlane. "Well, it has been difficult," he admitted. "I think if Justin was five foot nine, he probably would have been a Williams or McLaren test driver last year, having won the Formula 3000 championship. But the problem with his height is that it is not easy to just drop Justin into another Formula One car.

"And actually, it's quite ironical that Justin has managed to fit into Formula Vauxhall, Formula Palmer Audi, Formula 3000 cars, in each of these cars, to go well enough to win or be right on the pace. And yet at the very top level, where you'd think, with the most horsepower, you know, seven or eight hundred horsepower, you'd have thought that his height would be less of an issue than it is lower down. But of course what happens is that the FIA make the regulations for the size of the cars, and indeed the cockpit regulation for Formula One is that same as 3000. But of course the teams themselves are always using huge amounts of expertise to optimise the regulations, and part of doing that means that many of the cars, in fact all of them, end up slightly smaller than F3000 cars."

With his manager Jonathan Palmer before an F3000 raceNevertheless, he denies that Wilson's height will interfere with his climb through the F1 ranks. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Thinking back to his days in Formula Palmer Audi and back in 3000, once he's there racing against other racers, other teams, people don't think about his size," Palmer claimed. "Nobody in 3000 wandered around thinking, 'well, he's very tall'. All they looked at was the timesheets, the qualifying results, and the margin, and what was happening on the track. And Justin Wilson was only ever appraised in that sort of way. It just at this sort of threshold stage, when he's trying to get up to the next level, is when it's become an issue

"I think Justin's height is a real asset in fact, because it does set him apart. It makes him a little bit different, and when spectators, enthusiasts, fans follow what's going on, they'll label Justin as the 'tall guy' in the way that I was labelled out as the doctor who went motor racing. These things aren't a bad thing to identify drivers. But what's really going to matter is what he does in the car."

Wilson had been in contention for a Minardi seat for the 2002 season, but he was beaten to the drive by Mark Webber, who finished runner-up to Wilson in the 2001 F3000 championship. At the time, he claimed that the pair were in with an equal chance of scoring their name on the side of a black F1 car. "We are talking with Minardi and me and Mark are in the same position - we both need to find a backer." said Wilson at the time. "It would be nice to beat him to the drive." After Webber won the seat, a handful of news outlets suggested that Wilson was deeply disappointed by Stoddart's decision on the grounds that he felt that his F3000 crown gave him a more legitimate claim to the drive. Asked about the situation twelve months down the track, Wilson remembers things very differently.

"Myself and Mark always got on very well, and even though we were competing against each other, I was quite pleased that he got the opportunity," he said in perfect F1 PR-speak. "We weren't exactly going after the same drive at the same time. We both spoke to Minardi, but Paul was much further down the line with Mark than we were together. So I didn't feel bitter in any way, and I was just looking forward to seeing how Mark got on, because I knew that we were very closely matched.

Wilson and Webber, after an F3000 race"So for me, it was just like seeing a friend go out there and prove how good he was, because I know that I'm at a similar level. "I got to the point where I felt confident that if I did get the opportunity, I had the experience and was at the right level to get into Formula One. But at no point did I expect to be in Formula One. I know how difficult it is to get there, and some people have it easier than others, but like most things in life, if you expect something, it doesn't seem to come."

Besides a CART test with Newman-Haas, Wilson's seat time in 2002 mostly came courtesy of his Nissan campaign. While the series is a far cry from F1, he claims that it was still a worthwhile experience. "In some ways it's helped," he mused. "The power is quite a bit different to Formula One - we're only producing 415hp - but the grip levels are very similar. We still run skirts. Well, they call them skirts, they're little nylon slides on the sidepods that produce ground effect. We pull three, three-and-a-half G's through some of the quicker corners … not too far from an F1 car. So in that respect, I think it's been a big advantage, as well as keeping in touch with the racecraft and feeling the pressure and fighting for races."

From counting down the months until the opening race of the season, we're now down to counting the weeks. And while any driver's first race in F1 is a special one, Wilson's debut will come on the first anniversary of Webber's sensational outing that saw him net fifth place after a late-race dice with the Toyota of Mika Salo, sending the local crowd into orbit. Undoubtedly, Wilson would like to give Minardi a similarly memorable start to the season, however he is being cautious about his chances. "They had a fantastic start last year and it would be nice to do something similar," he said. "But I'm not getting too carried away at the minute. You've got to keep both feet on the ground and just get on with the job at hand, trying to do the best thing possible."

A few extra factors will be thrown into the mix for Wilson's first F1 race. For one thing, the Albert Park circuit is one of the few F1 tracks that Wilson did not visit on the F3000 tour, so he is denied the luxury of starting his Grand Prix career on a familiar circuit. With that in mind, I asked him, does he plan to give the Playstation a workout over the next few weeks?

"Oh yeah, for sure!" he laughed. "Any track information you can take on board. And in those situations, you usually use a couple of different games because everyone's got a different viewpoint on it. Any information, data, looking at last year's data, is all going to help when you get to the circuit and drive around in an F1 car. It's a little bit different driving a road car round (compared with) in an F1 car. It always knocks you back, those first few laps that you get into a circuit. Even one that you know, it's amazing how different that feels. It feels like a completely different track to what you remember from your previous experience."

Another thing that Wilson will have to contend with is single-lap qualifying. Given that this will be something new for every driver in the field however, it at least puts him on an equal footing on one regard. "I think it's going to be quite intense," Wilson noted. "I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on that one lap to get it right, and there's going to be situations when it doesn't go right, and there might be situations where, when we get to some of the European tracks, the weather could change throughout qualifying and really mix up the grid. I'm personally looking forward to the challenge, it reminds me of karts over here in England. When you reach the top level, you have the single lap qualifying and it's quite a challenge and it's good fun for the drivers. I'm looking forward to that."

In previous years, goals for Minardi drivers were rather modest - try to stay in touch with the midfielders, and hope like mad to luck into a point or two somewhere. The new points system, combined with the diminished field, virtually guarantees that Minardi will haul more points in this year than they did in 2002. The problem for them is, so will most of the other teams. But the 2002 Minardi actually boasted a very tidy little chassis - not the first time that the tiny team have managed to produce a respectable car on the tightest of budgets. This year, the package will be bolstered with the use of the Cosworth engine. With this in mind, I asked Wilson whether he had set any targets for 2003.

"Well the car has improved since Mark drove it," he answered. "We've got the new engine, the Cosworth engine, which is a much better package I believe, and I think Paul (Stoddart) believes as well. With the way the points system is now, the points going down to eighth, I feel that I should be looking to get into the points on a bit more of a regular basis than what Mark was given the opportunity to do last year. I know he finished seventh quite a few times, and this year that's going to count. We're both just hoping that we can score a few points and just make a real impact. You never know what can happen."

Wilson finished 4th in the Telefonica World Series last yearWilson is bringing money with him - two million sterling, according to British reports, most of which is being raised through an investment scheme in which supporters stump up some cash in the hopes of seeing a return if Wilson starts making some serious money in years to come. According to Paul Stoddart, Wilson got his drive for the lowest possible rate.

"Never let it be said that Justin is a pay driver," Stoddart said firmly. "The record of his career to date shows that he is nothing of what might in the past have been described as a pay driver. He's so, so superior to that. But yes, in times like this, the teams do look toward sponsorship and we are no exception. And we are setting different levels per different level of talent. And it is fair to say that Justin's was the minimum because we actually think the guy's going to do a fantastic job for the team and for himself.

"And I think he's going to go on to continue in our little tradition of first Alonso and then Webber as being not only rookies of the year, but really, race winners of the future. So there is an entry level for someone with Justin's undeniable talent, that perhaps may be raised for a driver that may have the talent but it may not have come to the surface in anything he's done to date. So therefore from the team's point of view, it's a slightly bigger risk."

Not only is it a bigger risk, but it can also lump the more talented driver, who may be a rookie himself, with the burden of supplying all of the feedback and single-handedly spearheading the team's technical development. Indeed, it was this kind of situation that Webber found himself in when he was saddled up alongside Alex Yoong last year.

Wilson's contract with Minardi sees Stoddart continue to develop his team's reputation as something of a junior development squad. Having produced the likes of Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli a couple of years prior to the Australian assuming control of the team, Wilson's arrival comes on the rather illustrious coat-tails of Webber and, before him, Fernando Alonso.

Wilson and Paul Stoddart"Our track record is not bad, is it?" he laughed. "I said to Justin at the launch, you know, we really have had a (good) driver a year, and I genuinely believe that Justin will continue in that mould. And I really do believe that the guy is capable of doing in Formula One what he's shown he can do in every other formula, which is go on to much bigger and better things. Yes, a lot's been made of the size. You've got to look at the man behind the size. And Justin is an undeniable talent.

"You've got a guy who is really capable of doing a good job for himself and I think he'll do his talking on the track. I think you'll be well pleased when you see him in Melbourne."

In seven short weeks, we'll find out for ourselves.


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Volume 9, Issue 3
January 15th 2003

Atlas F1 Exclusive

Interview with Justin Wilson
by Mark Glendenning

Giancarlo Fisichella: Through the Visor
by Giancarlo Fisichella

Columns

Off-Season Strokes
by Bruce Thomson

The Verstappen Trivia Quiz
by Marcel Borsboom

Elsewhere in Racing
by David Wright & Mark Alan Jones

The Grapevine
by Tom Keeble



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