Driver spotlight #1: Bertrand Fabi - Shades of Senna

With Formula 1 in its off-season, Jaap Grolleman dives into historic data and opinion to highlight a few not-so-famous yet remarkable racing drivers of the past. First in the series; young Canadian Bertrand Fabi.

People often forget that the death of three-time Formula 1 champion Ayrton Senna, on that dreadful May 1st 1994, was not the first time Damon Hill had to cope with the death of a team-mate.

In 1986, only a year after Hill had switched from racing bikes to racing cars, he graduated from the British Formula Ford championship, and landed a seat in British Formula 3 at the team of West Surrey Racing, ran by New Zealander Dick Bennetts. His team had won three of the last five British championships – with Jonathan Palmer in 1981, Ayrton Senna in 1983 and Maurício Gugelmin in 1985.

West Surrey Racing also signed young Canadian Bertrand Fabi for the 1986 season, and was backed by sponsor Ricoh.

Bertrand – or Bert as his friends would call him – had started his racing career in Canada at the age of 21. After two years, in 1985, he moved from Canada to England. He arrived in Europe largely unknown, although that quickly changed when he won the 1985 British Formula Ford 2000 title in his rookie year, while driving a 1984 Reynard, converted to 1985 specifications. In doing so, Fabi was instantly considered one of the great talents, and a future Formula 1 champion in the making. And thus his next natural step on the motorsport ladder was British Formula 3, and West Surrey Racing gladly signed him.

Fabi in 1985, in the British Formula Ford 2000 championship.

In February 1986, the team would test its Formula 3 car – a Ralt RT30 with a Volkswagen engine – on the Silverstone track, but bad weather made driving impossible. A few weeks later, the team switched to the Goodwood circuit in the south of England. The track was officially closed, but available for private tests only.

And although weather wasn’t much better at Goodwood, the team started testing on Friday February 20th, 1986. It was cold and slightly damp, and there was some icing on the surface of the track. Fabi, fearlessly, went out anyway and drove some blistering fast laps that day.

Testing resumed in similar conditions the following day, and Bertrand went out again. In his typical all-out approach style with superb car control, he went faster and faster, driving the car up to its very limit. His mechanics looked on from the pitwall – partly amazed by Fabi’s ability with the car, partly petrified with the chances of an imminent crash.

One onlooker: “I remember asking myself: How is he getting grip? The track was slippery like snot on glass.”

Fabi brought the car in for some adjustments, and set out again. A few laps later, the combination of Bertrand’s search for speed and the slippery track proved tragic. The Ralt left the road at nearly 200 kilometres an hour, at Madgwick corner. Fabi crashed violently against the barriers and his car flipped over.

The fast Madgwick right-hander, one of the most difficult corners of the Goodwood circuit.

Team owner Dick Bennetts: “I didn’t see the accident. We were just about to tell him that he had clocked his best time on the course.”

Fabi was gravely injured to his head, legs and abdomen, and was taken to the nearby Royal West Sussex Hospital in Chichester. In an three-hour long emergency operation, the medical team amputated one of his legs, and fought for his life. With Fabi in critical condition in the intensive care unit, his family in Canada was informed of the accidents. His parents directly flew to England, and reached the hospital the following day, on Saturday February 22nd, 1986.

Bertrand’s brain was severely injured, and the doctors deemed the damage irreversible. Fabi’s parents decided to turn off the supporting equipment that kept him alive, and he passed away that same morning. Bertrand Fabi was only 24 years old.

The Montreal Gazette – February 24th, 1986.

Some years later, Henrik Larsen – who finished in second place in the 1988 Formula Opel Lotus championship, only one point behind future two-time Formula 1 champion Mika Häkkinen – would say: “Mika is not the best driver I’ve raced against. That would belong to Ayrton Senna, and the young Canadian Bertrand Fabi.”

And he wasn’t the only one to compare the two.

Nearly a decade later, when asked about the best drivers that ever drove for his team, Dick Bennetts singled out Ayrton Senna and Bertrand Fabi. He summed up the similarities between the two: “Ayrton and Bertrand were tremendously fast, showing car control skills that was impossible for others. Their personalities were alike. Incredibly focussed, comitted and hugely self-condident."

And there's more. Both Senna and Fabi won championships under controversial circumstances. Senna won the 1990 Formula 1 Championship by crashing into Alain Prost in the first corner of the Japanese Grand Prix, while Fabi won the 1985 British Formula Ford 2000 series in similar fashion, when he crashed into Martin Donnelly at Oulton Park.

And a final parallel between Senna and Fabi, is that for their love of racing, both had to pay the ultimate price.