This day and age Formula 1 Grand Prix races are propping up in oil rich countries, regardless of any motorsports or karting heritage. Cash is King. Show me the money and you get a slot on the ever-expanding schedule.
There was a time when a country had to host a non-championship Grand Prix before they could be allocated a championship round. Hence, the non-championship Moroccan Grand Prix in 1957 - won by French driver Jean Behra in a Maserati 250F - before the season-ending Formula 1 Championship 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix at the Ain-Diab Street circuit near Casablanca produced the first British World Champion in Mike Hawthorn.
It was at such a non-championship Formula 1 race weekend in 1962 at the Magdalena Mixhuca circuit in Mexico City which cost the life of a young and exceptionally talented local driver, Ricardo Rodriguez. Gone too soon at the tender age of twenty, seriously injured after crashing his Rob Walker-entered Lotus at the fast final Peraltada corner, and dying in the arms of his older brother, Pedro.
The Early Days
The Rodriguez brothers inherited their passion for speed from papa Don Pedro, a wealthy and well-connected businessperson. Like father, like son. Ricardo’s racing career started on two wheels. After success in motorcycle racing, he moved to racing on four wheels at the wheel of his FIAT Topolino.
In 1957, Papa Rodriguez drove his fifteen-year-old performance prodigy to Riverside track, east of Los Angeles. The kid drove his Porsche RSK to victory in both races on Saturday and Sunday. Quite an international debut for a teenager not old enough to hold a driver’s license for public roads.
Ricardo was a boyhood friend of Jo Ramirez who went on to become Team Manager at McLaren in the halcyon days of Senna and Prost. Jo, in his “Memoirs of a Racing Man” writes of Ricardo:
“He was a born racer who didn’t have to work at it – it all came naturally. He had a talent for speed and was completely fearless. In short, he had all the ingredients of a World Champion. On another occasion I saw him driving in six different races on a Sunday at the Mexican Autodromo Magdalena Mixhuca, now renamed the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The first race was for small saloon cars (which he won in a Renault Dauphine), then there came a race for bigger saloon cars, then sports cars, and so on to the main event, Formula Junior. Ricardo proved his versatility by winning all of them.”
Ricardo was refused entry to 1958 Le Mans because he was 16 at the time
Ricardo dated and married a girl, Sarita Cardoso, who lived in the same neighborhood as Ramirez.
The ACO, organizers of the Le Mans 24 Hour, refused Ricardo’s entry for the 1958 race due to his age, sixteen at the time. Two years later he became the youngest driver on the Le Mans podium after his second-place finish with Andre Pilette in a Luigi Chinetti’s NART (North American Racing Team) Ferrari 250, behind the works Ferrari of Olivier Gendebien and Paul Frere.
Ricardo made an impressive F1 debut by qualifying on the front row for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at the ultra-fast pre-chicane Monza Autodromo. His Ferrari teammate and championship leader Wolfgang von Trips took pole position by only 0.1s. Ricardo escaped the carnage from the von Trips tragedy on Lap 2 and ran as high as second but retired from the race after 13 laps with mechanical issues.
The High Flying & Final Season of Racing
His first Grand Prix of the 1962 season was at Zandvoort where he qualified his Ferrari 156 eleventh. A spin on lap 73 of 80 led to his retirement from the race. His second appearance at Spa-Francorchamps in the Belgian Grand Prix had great historical importance. His fourth-place finish made him the youngest driver to score world championship points in a Formula 1 race. This record was only broken in 2000 when Jenson Button finished sixth in the Brazilian Grand Prix in his rookie season with Williams-BMW.
Rodriguez earned the final championship point of his brief Formula 1 career from his sixth-place finish at the Nürburgring in the German Grand Prix.
His final F1 championship appearance came at the same venue as his debut, Monza Autodromo. His engine gave up on Lap 63 of 86, he was classified fourteenth.
Other achievements during the ’62 season were victory in the Sicilian classic, the Targa Florio, again driving for Scuderia Ferrari and partnered by a pair of Belgian drivers, Gendebien and Willy Mairesse. The ‘Hermanos’ – Ricardo and Pedro - won the Paris 1000kms at Montlhéry in a Ferrari 250 GTO over the sister car of future world champion and motorcycle legend John Surtees and Mike Parkes.
Ricardo in his shark nose Ferrari 156 also placed second in the prestigious Pau Grand Prix behind local ace Maurice Trintignant in a Lotus-Climax.
The Final Lap
Scuderia Ferrari decided to skip the inaugural albeit non-champion Mexican Grand Prix in November 1962. Rodriguez, keen to race on home soil, struck a deal with Rob Walker to race a Lotus 24. Sadly, he would not even make the start.
A suspension failure in the opening practice session cost Mexico its first racing star. His older brother Pedro, after pondering retirement, would go on to carry the family legacy to Grand Prix and Sports Car success.
Today, the Autodromo in Mexico City is renamed in honor and memory of its two most successful racing brothers.
The Unforgettable Ricardo Rodriguez. Born on February 14, 1942. Died on November 1, 1962.
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