THE FIRST TIME AROUND
Aston Martin’s only previous foray into Formula 1 was a short-lived and unsuccessful affair, but it could have been so different…
“Well, you could say that Jack made the right decision!” said a laconic Roy Salvadori of Brabham’s opting to stay where he was for the 1959 grand prix season.
Both had driven for John Cooper the year before and also competed in sportscars with the Aston Martin team. When it was decided that Aston would enter F1, team manager Reg Parnell was keen to keep them on board: both men agreed terms and shook hands on the deal.
Brabham, though, had misgivings. To this point, Coventry-climax had built nothing bigger than a 2.2-litre engine, putting Cooper – and Lotus – at a disadvantage to such as Ferrari, Vanwall and BRM, who had the full 2.5-litres permitted by the regulations. For 1959, though, there was to be a 2.5 from Climax, and Brabham suspected rightly that this – in the only rear-engined car of the moment – would be the thing to have. His arm didn’t need much twisting, and when Esso came up with extra funding to keep him at Cooper, it didn’t need twisting at all.
“Jack and I talked about it,” said Salvadori, “and I said I thought he was probably right about the Climax 2.5, but I felt we’d committed ourselves to Aston. Jack, though, said he was definitely driving for Cooper, and thought I should do the same: ‘I’m going to ring Parnell to tell him – so you think it over…’. I did, and although the happiest years of my career had been with Astons, I tried hard to get out of the agreement, but Reg said, ‘I’ve heard from Jack… Roy, you wouldn’t do that to me, would you?’ By the end of the conversation, I was still with them – and Brabham went on to win the next two world championships!”
Salvadori wasted those seasons on a car outdated even before its debut.