Ricardo Divila: Straight Talk
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Ricardo Divila: Straight talk A selection of columns from Racecar Engineering magazine by the legendary motorsport designer and engineer A tribute to Ricardo Divila (1945-2020) RICARDO DIVILA – A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Comms lesson PIT CREW here was something quite extraordinary about Editor Ricardo Divila. A world-renowned engineer with Andrew Cotton @RacecarEd a career that spanned six decades, his racing Deputy editor life began washing the wheels of Juan Manuel Gemma Hatton @RacecarEngineer TFangio in his native Brazil and continued through all walks Chief sub editor of motor racing, most famously in F1 where he was involved Mike Pye Art editor in 286 Grand Prix to this year when he was set to oversee Barbara Stanley the Brazilian Formula 4 series, complete the design of his Technical consultant Peter Wright own ‘Formulina’, a cost-eff ective F4 car and oversee the Contributors engineers employed at Bob Neville’s RJN squad in the GT Ricardo Divila World series. He never tired of taking on new projects and Photography James Moy only lamented that he didn’t have the time to do what he Managing director – sales and create wanted. He once decided that he needed a 36 hour watch as his Steve Ross Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3730 Email [email protected] 24 hour clock wasn’t doing the job that he required from it. Sales director His CV included racing 99 Formula 3000 races, 47 in Formula Cameron Hay Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3700 Email cameron.hay@ Nippon where his team and driver were champion for fi ve chelseamagazines.com consecutive years, 25 Indycar races including 2009 with Alex Advertisement manager Lauren Mills Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3796 Tagliani at the Indy 500, 98 Formula 2 races and 45 in Formula 3. Email lauren.mills@ chelseamagazines.com He also did 97 Super Touring races and was a team member on the Circulation manager Daniel Webb Paris Dakar fi ve times. However, the one thing missing from his CV Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3710 Email daniel.webb@ that he wanted more than any other was an overall win at Le Mans. chelseamagazines.com In 31 attempts he won his class 16 times, and had fi ve second place Publisher Simon Temlett fi nishes and two further podium fi nishes. Other targets included Managing director Paul Dobson Editorial and advertising winning the Indy 500, the Dakar rally and competing in NASCAR. Racecar Engineering, Chelsea Magazine Company, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, What was also extraordinary was his ability to communicate that London, SW3 3TQ information in the written word. His columns were run past several Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3700 Fax +44 (0) 20 7349 3701 of his contemporaries before we were able to publish them and he was Subscriptions quite proud of most of them. Some were written on a pit wall mid-race, Tel: +44 (0)1858 438443 Email: racecarengineering@ others from his offi ce in France and some were from airport lounges. subscription.co.uk Online: www.subscription.co.uk/ He worried about the topics being fresh after nearly eight years, but chelsea/help never concerned himself that they would not be readable, or funny. That Post: Racecar Engineering, Subscriptions Department, Sovereign Park, Lathkill St, part of it just came naturally to him and it was always a pleasure to receive Market Harborough, Leicestershire, them, if for no other reason than they arrived on deadline day. I can only United Kingdom, LE16 9EF Subscription rates imagine that his computers are worn out to the point of destruction as UK (12 issues) £89 I often pictured them heaving a sigh of relief that another frenetic night ROW (12 issues) £100 [email protected] was over for them. Back Issues www.chelseamagazines.com/shop At Racecar Engineering we were honoured to have him as our News distribution columnist. Here Deputy Editor Gemma Hatton and I have brought Seymour International Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT together our favourite columns. He was a fan Tel +44 (0) 20 7429 4000 of open-source learning and so we put this Fax +44 (0) 20 7429 4001 Email [email protected] together purely for your enjoyment. We also Printed by William Gibbons have included his famous Bullshit Bingo for any Printed in England ISSN No 0961-1096 race engineer who tired of the usual excuses USPS No 007-969 in post-session debrief. We will miss him, but are grateful for his incredible contributions to Racecar Engineering. ANDREW COTTON Editor www.racecar-engineering.com I imagine that his computers are worn to the point of destruction STRAIGHT TALK – RICARDO DIVILA Where there’s hope… Our new columnist laments the old engineer and champions the new n the course of the racing pointing out that the lambda with Carrol Shelby on the Cobras a huge amount of information, weekend at Monza I was sensors were miscalibrated, and to Stock Cars with Holman and analysis and simulation into the booked into the legendary nobody is at fault as they are Moody to winning Indy with game, and the new generation IHotel Fossati at Canonica such sensitive items and prone to Gurney and endurance racing at of engineers brings to the track Lambro, which was the hotel fits of sulking. Fellow engineers Le Mans with the Fords. And he’s a plethora of shining tools. Yet to stay in if you were a racing will, of course, back such tech- still building parts for racecars, the essential one has always driver in the ’60s and ’70s. As speak as they recognise the at a youthful 91 years of age. A been there and remains – the you walk into the lobby, the walls usefulness of the ploy. legend in motor racing, and long curiosity about how things work, are covered with signed pictures Walk down a pit lane now may he wave. are built and used, and how it can of all the name drivers of that and you will see the peripatetic And one cannot move away be improved. period. A high percentage are engineer hunched over a laptop from this subject without tipping Delving into an interesting not with us any more – the cost (the breed is know to have one’s hat to the 24 Hours of Le mechanical (and increasingly of racing in those days – but it anxiety attacks when separated Mans-winning Audi’s engineer, electrical) concept from any set me thinking about the racing from said laptops), but it was not Lena Gade – a woman showing field always seems to turn up a crews that also stayed there, always like that. that the other half of mankind possible utilisation in a racecar, building and maintaining the cars and the great thing about the the celebrated drivers raced. technological advances of the Without the anonymous “Whatever happens, one must last century is that it happened in unrecorded builders, engineers all sectors. Even drivers are now and mechanics, none of the look and sound in control” computer literate and can spend drivers would have achieved more time on data plots than the what they did, and the same Whilst at Daniel Sexton (er, yes, non-PC, but one refuses engineers. I am flabbergasted. goes for racing nowadays. One Gurney’s AAR workshop in to use ‘personkind’. Age hath its Perhaps there is hope for can comment on them in a Santa Ana, I had the honour privileges) can do a better job humanity after all. detached way, despite being to see one of the icons of the than the usual suspects. Having just come to the a member of that class for far trade – Phil ‘Rem’ Remington, In short, one does not staggering realisation that my longer than is decent. And one the embodiment of the breed, at believe the new generation time is up, I leave you with also has a sense of humour, work. Rem designs, builds and is as skilled with its hands as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s quote, which explains the longevity. runs cars, and has done for a their predecessors, but that ‘Easy reading is damn hard The role of the racing very long time, from the dry lakes also shows the evolution in the writing.’ Cheered by the thought engineer has evolved enormously running hot rods in the ’30s to technology. That CPU in the that if the dictionary is full of over the last century. Initially, an being with the Lance Reventlow laptop has revolutionised the words, one will just have to pick engineer, in the English definition Scarab F1 at Monaco, to working work environment and brought the right ones. of the word, was a person trained and skilled in the design, construction and use of engines or machines, or in any of various branches of engineering. If one runs a car, one can also throw in some unmentioned items such as child psychologist (useful for handling drivers), spin doctor (good for manufacturing excuses for lack of car’s performance) and, of course, adopting the Swan Posture – better explained as looking calm, serene and regal, despite the little feet paddling away like mad to sort out the problem without alarming the drivers – a very susceptible genus – team or team owners. Whatever happens, one must look and sound in control. The fact that one can shelter behind tech-speak helps enormously, as nobody will contest phrases Phil ‘Rem’ Remington worked on the Scarab Formula 1 car, and is still building parts for race cars today, aged 91 from June 2012 • www.racecar-engineering.com REV22N6_Divila column-mpac.indd 5 30/04/2012 13:36 STRAIGHT TALK – RICARDO DIVILA Let battle commence An engineer’s eye view of the Le Mans experience onday morning with Le Also sundry earnest meetings enabling crew to finish early and steering / cooling / tyre has a Mans hangover brings with team managers and drivers get the rest needed for the very problem spotted by driver or seen forward all the clichés (‘we want you to go fast, but long weekend, as warm-up starts on telemetry, or the vision of car Mfor a column title… don’t fall off, don’t hit the kerbs on the Saturday at 9am.