Brothers in Racing

[BootsOntheSide]

As a corollary (no Toyota pun intended) to the thread about father and son racing combinations, it's interesting to ntoe that there have been 9 pairs of brothers racing in F1 - not couting the World Championship Indy 500s - Schumacher, Stewart, Scheckter, Fabi, Villenueve, Winkelhock, Brabham, Rodriguez, Fitipaldi and another which escapes me.

Wilson Fitipaldi, Jacques Villenueve Snr (uncle of the recent one), Ian Scheckter and Stewart's brother (who I believe was also called Ian - which is also my brotehr's name, what a shame I never took up racing....) were seriously outshone by their brothers, Pedro Rodriguez and Manfred Winkelhock weren't around long enough to prove themselves, Teo Fabi had a longer career than Corrado but was probably more talented, none of the younger Brabhams got a great chance, and Ralf arguably hasn't matched Michael.

Generally the younger siblings have been more successful - which I would attribute to the fact that they're likely to become interested around the same time as their older brother, making them younger when they start, also they won't repeat any strategic mistakes their brother makes on the way up.

DO you see it as strange that only 19 brotehrs have raced in F1, out of around 800 entrants? Or is it a strangely high total, especially considering others such as Aldo and Jeff Andretti, Jordi Gene, the Kayes, the Blairs, the Sperafico clan, the Bodines in NASCAR, the Jourdains, the Earnhardts (strictly half-brothers) and so on?

[santori]

No, Ralf hasn't matched Michael. And I think Corrado was said to be the more talented Fabi.
Ricardo Rodriguez was said to be the better brother but he was killed so soon.... One of those like Brise, Bellof, Pryce.

The figure doesn't seem unusually high or low to me. It is to be expected that people in the same family will influence each other but the demands of the sport mean that few families will produce a winner twice.


In the future we may have Piquet brothers racing and maybe the first brother-sister combination, courtesy of the Frentzens.

p.s. Jimmy Stewart.

[GP Racer]

Good question.

I think its rare when brothers, or sisters for that matter, are both born with similar skills, desires, or personalities. It seems that there rarely born alike, in other words, one maybe born with all the tools to be a great racer, but the other one might be more suited to being a mechanic, or such.

Its this rarety, which I believe is the major reason we don't see more pairs of brothers racing together.

[BootsOntheSide]

My mistake on the Rodriguez brothers and on Jimmy Stewart's name.

As an aside, there are lots of cases in music of brothers or sisters being in acts together, or producing the same style - Oasis, The Darkness, Orbital, B*Witched, Bros, Embrace and The Kinks all come to mind. Is this because these people were born with isntinctively similar taste in music, and similar ability to play instruments, or is it because both were exposed to the same influences from a young age? In essence, nature against nurture, which is a very wide subject of debate.

[santori]

Mmm, but in music talents can complement each other. Would Dave Davies have been heard of without Ray's writing abilites? But would Ray have done so well without Dave?
The style is a result of a combination of the abilites - people often sound very different when they leave a group.

Whereas in F1 there's not much one can do for the other.

[deeks6]

I think the other set is Graham and Peter Whitehead (before my time, so don't know who was better but I knew of Peter).

I don't think there's anything "arguable" about Ralf and Michael, do you?

Both of the Rodriguez brothers were very talented - I think Pedro is one of the greatest underrated drivers ever.

In USA, the Unsers deserve mention.

Australia has Bob and Bill Jane, Ian and Leo Geoghegan and currently, F3 star Will and Carrera Cup man Alex Davison (their father Jon also raced and so did their grandfather Lex).

[John Turner]

Since we've mentioned sisters as well, and I know it's not FI, but Stirling's sister, Pat, was pretty good in rally cars, including big Healeys. She just liked horses as well!

[BSchneiderFan]

Not forgetting Colin and Alister McRae, and - stretching a point - Gilles and Herve Panizzi. And, as was pointed out on the Fathers and Sons thread, Jean-Michel and Philippe Martin.

[BMW V10]

I think a lot of it has to do with opportunity. Very few people have the opporunity to develope their racing skills and see if they have what it takes to become a professional. Probably less than one in a hundred people have this opportunity. If your brother has the opportunity to drive karts and what not you probably would too. Sports like running or swimming most people have the chance to see how good they are. Whether or not they make it to the highest level has less to do with their family background or income.

[Bleu]

Kimi Räikkönen's brother is driving rally. He has been one of the best in Finnish junior series.

[Rennen]

Imagine if Jim Clark had had brothers not sisters!

[Knowlesy]

Depends which way you swing, Rennen.