The greatest showman
One of motorsport’s great money men, John Hogan, passed away earlier this year. We pay our respects
he year got off to a ter‐ rible start when John
Hogan succumbed to a Covid-19-related illness.
Hogan’s quiet role in the back‐ ground of global motor racing cannot be overstated. As a key player in Marlboro’s motorsport for four decades, the Australian was instrumental in bringing in the money that helped F1 grow to the busi‐ ness it is today.
Hogan’s influence provided the financial bedrock for the revamped Mclaren team in the 1980s; it helped keep Ferrari’s F1 efforts alive and, along the way, funded the early careers of many F1 drivers, such as James Hunt and Mika Häkkinen. Yet, throughout all this, Hogan avoided the limelight.
As a marketing man, Hogan’s sense of realism helped him understand that, without a decent show, there would be nothing to promote. His favourite expres‐ sion, “It’s all about what happens between the white lines” was a reference not only to the edges of a racetrack, but the sporting boundaries of any stadium or playing field.
He saw things in black and white, liter‐ ally. “There’s no point in sponsors decorat‐ ing cars with fancy colour schemes and lots of logos and statements,” he’d say. “You want one name – preferably in big black let‐ ters – on the sides of the cars. That’s it. The rest is secondary.” Any image of Marlboro Mclarens or Ferraris bears witness to this. Hogan emigrated to London in the 1960s and began work with an ad‐ vertising agency. He knew little about motor racing; and even less about James Hunt when a mutual friend sugges‐ ted John could find sponsor‐ ship for this aspiring F3 driver with a reputation for crash‐ ing. When Hogan arranged a deal for Hunt with Coca-cola, it would the start an involve‐ ment with motorsport that would endure for 50 years.
A significant moment in that journey came in Septem‐ ber 1973 when Hogan joined Philip Morris, tasked with expanding the to‐ bacco company’s image in motorsport. He developed the Marlboro World Champion‐ ship Team, a revolutionary and well-funded concept that embraced not only the BRM team, but drivers of different nationalities.
Hogan astutely switched Marlboro’s sup‐ port to Mclaren in 1974 and immediately won the world title with Emerson Fittipaldi. When the Brazilian suddenly left Mclaren at the end of 1975 to form his own team, Hogan played a crucial negotiating role at the eleventh hour and helped Mclaren sign Hunt for 1976.
This was the prelude to the famous championship battle between Hunt and Niki Lauda, with Hogan caught in the cross‐ fire thanks to Marlboro also paying Lauda’s retainer at Ferrari. The fact that Hogan maintained the friendship and respect of both drivers was thanks to his engaging and practical personality. An incident at Mos‐ port in Canada at the height of the 1976 rivalry summed it up perfectly.
Having checked in late to one of the few hotels in town, Hogan went for dinner and found Hunt and Lauda sitting at opposite ends of the dining room, studiously ignor‐ ing each other. Each driver immediately beckoned Hogan to sit with them. He moved between both tables, using Aus‐ tralian words of one syllable to tell the two drivers to stop acting like children. Hunt and Lauda – much to the chagrin of media stoking this enmity – shook hands not long after and resumed their warm rapport.
When Mclaren began to fall from grace in 1979, Hogan was the driving force behind an initiative to merge the ailing team with a progressive young outfit run by Ron Dennis and form a powerful partnership that would dominate during much of the 1980s. At the same time, Hogan – now the marketing dir‐ ector at Philip Morris – engineered a vastly increased association with Ferrari that en‐ dures to this day. He was also responsible for funding the Penske Indycar team and Marlboro’s motorcycle racing. When Lauda thought about making a comeback in 1982, Hogan was his first port of call.
Hogan retired as vice president of marketing in 2002 and maintained his links with F1 as a consultant. He continued to keep a low profile but remained the go-to person for those of us fortunate enough to tap into this extraordinary font of common sense, kindness and, when needed, wither‐ ing good humour. Hogie (as he was fondly known) was one of a kind and will be sorely missed by all.
Maurice Hamilton is an internationally acclaimed Formula One reporter and author. He’s been a CAR contributor since 1987 and provides Formula One insight to a number of international radio and TV stations.