Around and about, July 1989

Obituary: Maurice Philippe

Motor Sport is saddened to have to report the death on June 5 of Maurice Philippe, one of the more retiring men in international motorsport but a designer at the forefront of racing technology who retained the respect of his peers for many years.

His part in the design of the remarkable Lotus 49s and 72s, besides countless other Colin Chapman projects including the 43, the 56 Indy turbine car, the four-wheeldrive 63 and the 64, was a tribute to the knowledge he had gained as a draughtsman at de Havilland’s in the early Fifties.

After standing in Chapman’s shadow for a number of years, Philippe branched out in 1971, accepting the job of designing a new car for the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Indycar team which won the following year’s USAC National Championship, before returning to Grand Prix racing three years later. He soon left the American team for the less structured life of a freelance, but Ken Tyrrell lured him back into the mainstream, utilising his talents to come up with a replacement for the radical six-wheeled P34. Thus started a relationship which endured for ten years.

Recently, Philippe had re-acquainted himself with Indycar racing through the March-Alfa Romeo project which is only now coming near to fruition.

A quiet, unassuming individual, his pensive, bearded face will be greatly missed from the pit-lanes of the world.

San Marino reinstatements

Thiery Boutsen’s Williams-Renault and Alex Caffi’s Dallara-Cosworth may yet be reinstated to fourth and seventh places respectivelyin the San Marino GP.

A meeting in San Marino provisionally upheld the teams’ appeal against disqualification for changing punctured tyres in the pits prior to the re-start enforced by the accident to Berger’s Ferrari. However FISA has refused to ratify the decision, insisting the decision be made by the Italian Sporting authority.

The case for the defence is that both cars were directed into the pit-lane by a FISA Steward, on grounds of safety. Two weeks later, in Monaco, FISA clarified the regulations to allow tyres to be be changed on the grid prior to a re-start, although the pits remain closed in such a situation.

Boutsen’s World Championship points were the first for Renault’s V10 engine, and knock Derek Warwick’s Arrows and Jonathon Palmer’s Tyrrell down to fifth and sixth places.