Ayrton Senna’s first Formula 1 racer
“Start small, think big,” runs a quote popularly attributed to technology entrepreneur Steve Jobs. In January 1984 Jobs, whose company had begun operating from a suburban garage in Los Altos, California, unveiled the first Mac computer in a revolutionary blaze of hype, setting Apple Computer Inc on the path to becoming one of the biggest companies in the world. Four months later and thousands of miles away, a group of unproven individuals destined for greatness in Formula 1 narrowly missed out on achieving one of the greatest upsets in the history of motor racing.
Monaco 1984 is F1’s great shoulda-woulda-coulda moment, an event still hotly debated. The narrative is stuffed with Hollywood tropes: a struggling, underdog team; a new car created by a who-are-you-anyway designer; a driver talented enough to have caught the eyes of top teams, but not so much that they wanted to employ him straight away; a surreal race flagged before the finish and the win awarded to a driver who had already been overtaken; and the long-tail intrigue of whether the car which crossed the line first, only to be denied a sensational victory, would have made it to the chequered flag if the race hadn’t been stopped early. And most of it is true.
Indubitably Toleman was not a team of which grand prix greatness was expected. South African-born businessman Ted Toleman’s father and brother were keen racers, and the family company revolved around the motor trade – delivering Fords to dealerships – so it was a natural fit as a sponsor. But when Bob Toleman suffered fatal injuries in a Formula Ford 2000 race in 1976, it would have been understandable if the family interest in motor racing had evaporated. Instead, driven largely by the energy of Toleman employee and race team manager Alex Hawkridge, it set its sights higher – to Formula 2.
Toleman Group Motorsport entered F2 in 1978 running a BMW-engined March chassis engineered by former Royale designer Rory Byrne for ex-Royale works driver Rad Dougall, both also South African. The operation was based in a corner of Tom Walkinshaw’s workshop at Kidlington, near what is now called London Oxford Airport. After finishing third in the season opener at Thruxton, Dougall’s results petered out and the team began a works association with Ron Tauranac’s Ralt company for 1979, but the car was overweight and late arriving.
For 1980 Toleman and Hawkridge signed off on an in-house chassis designed by Byrne and John Gentry, using new Pirelli radial tyres. The car was built in new premises in Witney, just west
