Very few biographies have more headlines than Crashed and Byrned: The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw. The book turned into a film focuses on the methetric driving force of Irish racing Tommy Byrne, its brief brush with the ugly look of the Formula One circus and the aftermath that followed in the following years.
Byrne will say he knocked on the door of Formula One a few years before his time, but his undeniable diction, impeccable attitude and predilection for complicated parties mean she’s a decade or two behind. Somewhere between the rebellious playboy pilots of the 60s and the subtle and friendly drivers of the 90s’ sponsors, there’s Byrne. Somewhere in the middle.
As the winner of the Formula Ford Festival in 1981, with 22 professional victories to his credit, on the podium in more than 33% of the races in which he participated and six championships to his credit, Byrne’s driving ability is undeniable. However, what makes his story special are his efforts and his off-piste clashes. Meet characters like Ayrton Senna and Ron Dennis, and run and drive in search of volatile characters with weapons south of the border.
There is no shortage of entertaining stories in his book, however, I sat down to contact Byrne by phone about what he calls “the ultimate life story” that is not in the cinema: the 1982 McLaren Formula One check at Silverstone. An occasion that probably replaced the course of his career.
Bryan Campbell: How did you get this now notorious driving with the McLaren F1 team?
Tommy Byrne: The 3 most sensible drivers in that year’s Formula One championship passed a 25-lap check with McLaren at Watson or Lauda on F1. That year I was the F3 champion, so it’s part of my prize. But even before the review, I told him, through Ron Dennis, that there was no seat at McLaren, regardless of my performance. He had already signed Lauda and Watson for the following year. I knew I wasn’t going to drive myself, but I’d show you what I could do.
Of course, we went out the night before the date with some women and met other women. I don’t think he’s had much to drink yet. He definitely smoked pot. I knew it was going through to get to McLaren’s check fast, and it became the icing on the cake.
When we went to the track the next day, I with a Formula One photographer, my boyfriend John Townsend, brought the women with us, and that’s when it started to happen to me. When I entered the Silverstone track, I started thinking, “What am I thinking?” So I made sure I kept them away from everyone. So no one knew about women, no one knew I had gone out the night before. And when I went to drive the car, I did a very smart job.
When I saw the other driving force go forward, Thierry Boutsen – for whom I have a lot of respect as a driving force – I heard him on his return pass and heard him complain of the understeer. And I think ‘shit’. I hope I can do as well as I said, because if you complain about understeer, the car will have to go pretty bad. “So I was a little worried about that.
Campbell: How’d it go?
Byrne: I got hit in the car. I did a lap, two laps, three laps and then in the fourth round I learned a little understeer. So I started to brake a little earlier, turn a little earlier and gas a little earlier, and the understeer disappeared. So after the first 15 laps, during the time I had to pick up new tires, it was already faster than Thierry [Boutsen].
I came out with new tires and the car was also smart on rails. I’ve never driven anything like this. But I was glad I did what I said I was going to do.
He’s talking about drugs. Driving a car like this, going so fast, it’s like all drugs at once.
But I was disappointed not to enter the range of 1: 09.00 s. I think I got 1: 10.1 in my round 22. No one’s been in 1:09.00 for a long time at Silverstone in a Formula One car. So I bowed my head and started backwards and got exactly the same time, 1:10.1. I’m so close, so I started again and did it again in 1:10.1. I did exactly the same time 3 laps in a row. I think that’s as fast as I can go.
Joey Greenan, a friend of mine at the time, was there to time me and then he told me he had done a 1:09.6. Honestly, I didn’t. I d McLaren and I didn’t think twice.
Campbell: When did you get the genuine explanation of why the difference?
Byrne: I think it was 20-25 years later, I was a driving force trainer at Road America and I ran into the mechanic who was running in my car the McLaren test. We started talking and he said, “Dude, you went so fast that day. I don’t forget how we talked about it later. And you didn’t even have the most productive car. And I said, “What do you mean by that? “Did he have the same car as the other two boys?” He said, “They told us not to give him full acceleration.” I asked him why and it was because they didn’t need it to happen too fast.
The most productive engineers and mechanics came together and not only to give me the right timing, but also to sabotage my throttle. Let’s say I did the 1:09.6. It was the fastest time ever achieved at Silverstone with racing tires (at the time, qualifying tires were about two seconds consistent with a faster lap). A smart accelerator would have stored another 3-4 tenths, I would have been at the low-1:09, consistent with maybe 1:08. If I had that, who knows what could have happened. Time 1: 10.1 was enough for others to communicate for years.
It took me years to get over the fact that I got to Formula One and I couldn’t do it. It’s pretty disappointing.
Campbell: Did McLaren’s most sensitive officials admit it?
Byrne: We asked Mark Hughes, a well-known Formula One reporter, who helped write my book, to play one of the engineers who publicly stated that McLaren had stepped on the accelerator. [Hughes] then asked McLaren team manager Ron Dennis, and he admitted it too, but he said so because he didn’t need me to destroy Niki Lauda’s Formula One car. That is, because he let Nick Mason and Leo Sayer (two complete rookies) drive the same car the next day. Basically, Ron Dennis lied about everything.
Campbell: What do you think of reasoning?
Byrne: I think it’s because Jo Ramirez, McLaren and the Theodore Racing team are too arrogant. That’s all I can think about.
I’ve never been interested in Ron [Dennis]. I had a meeting with him once before all this about my contract with Theodore Racing and McLaren’s choice for my services, and it was embarrassing because I left without education.
When it came time to make the film, the band that combined it left all that component behind. Then I asked them “what happened to the film’s maximum vital component?” They told me that Mark Hughes had told them not to mention the check in the film, in a different way that Ron Dennis would pursue them.
And it may have only been defamation, because he and the mechanic have already said it in my book.
If it happened today and I did a driving test with McLaren, sponsored through Marlboro, and fell and other people were getting settled, it would be a big problem. Because it ruins someone’s career.
Campbell: Were there other groups interested in hiring you because of the time you set up at Silverstone for the test?
Byrne: No. Everyone knew what time it was, but they already had their pilot lineups. It wasn’t enough for them to change their minds about drivers.
I’m about to move to America in 1983, after that. I’m done with F1. Because you don’t win six championships, move on to Formula One, you don’t participate, and then do it again. It’s almost impossible. Eddie Jordan convinced me to stay another year in European Formula One because he thought I might have another chance. I did, but I didn’t win the championship, I finished fourth. We talked to some sponsors and talked to Ken Tyrell about a trip, but he asked for a million euros.
A few years later, it would have been a different story. Things would have been very different, as verification drivers became more common in teams. But who knows?
It has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Crashed and Byrned: The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw is on sale, here and in Amazon.com
As a car enthusiast, I’m passionate about everything about cars and motorcycles, whether old, new or future. At the time of writing, I’m
As a car enthusiast, I’m passionate about everything about cars and motorcycles, whether old, new or future. At the time of writing, I am one of only two people in the United States who have a master’s degree in automotive journalism from Coventry University in England. In the years since I returned to the U.S., I completely immersed myself in the industry and discovered that these are the ever-changing aspects of design and performance, and the surrounding lifestyle the most exciting thing about writing. When I don’t talk about cars and motorcycles, I make the most of them with my own eyes or plan the next adventure with one. Follow us on Instagram @BusinessBryan.