You earned more than that with Leyton House?
Absolutely. Up until 1991, then things became a bit more critical.
We’re going back to the time we met, when I was with Larrousse in the next door garage in the pit lane to you with Leyton House. How did you get that drive?
It was my first full season, after a couple of races with Tyrrell in ’85 and then with AGS in ’86. The AGS was the previous year’s Renault with the chassis cut to become a sort of copy of the flat Brabham. They just cut the chassis! I remember in ’86 I was racing for the AGS team here in Monza and on the Tuesday morning I came to the circuit gate at the Vedano entrance and this guy Gabiati who was running the gate told me I had to pay 2000 lire to get in! I said, “Come on I am Ivan Capelli, I am here to make my seat because I’m going to race.” “2000 lire” was all he would say. I kept telling him I raced in Formula 3, I raced in Formula 3000. But I had to pay the 2000 lire to come into the park and do my seat fitting.
Maybe you could charge the current drivers a lot more to come in and pay for the Monza GP that way?
Seriously, I think all the drivers are actually very supportive of Monza. Everyone is, but the problem is translating that support into hard cash. I don’t know why, but all the support disappears at that point when you ask for money!
Back to Formula 1, how did you do your deal with the very colourful Akira Akagi, the boss of Leyton House?
I did it in the paddock in Imola in 1986, when I was introduced to him by Mr. Yasukawa, who went on to be the boss of Bridgestone in Formula 1. At the time he was following the junior categories. Akagi asked me to drive for him in Japan in Formula 2. I asked to bring my manager Cesare Gariboldi with me and said I needed money first to finish my season in Europe, and said I would come to Japan if I could take 40% of the prize money. We shook on the deal. I flew to Japan economy class and that’s when we realised that Mr Akagi was a very wealthy man with various teams and plenty of property in Tokyo. I was racing for him in F2 with a 6 cylinder Toyota and I was racing against Satoru Nakajima who was the Honda guy.
I was on pole and finished second in the race behind Satoru in my first race. After that first weekend, we had a great party as it was Leyton House’s best result to date. On the Monday, I went to Mr. Akagi’s office and he gave me an envelope, saying it was my 40% and I asked Cesare my manager if I should open it and count the money. He said no, that it would be impolite, but I opened it anyway and when I counted the money, there was 70% of the prize and I took the extra, but from then on we settled on the 40%. Everyone was very obsequious as is the Japanese way with Mr. Akagi, but I just treated him like a friend.
He enjoyed that kind of relationship and come the end of the year, we were in the airport and he offered me $200,000 to race in Japan for him. But I said no. Cesare looked at me as though I was crazy – “take the money, take the money,” he said. But I insisted I was ready to race in Formula 1. Finally, Akagi asked how much it would cost to run a full on Leyton House car in Formula 1. It was the critical moment and I turned to Cesare and told him it was his turn to talk, as I didn’t know what to say. Cesare thought about the costs, looked at Akagi and said “$4million”. Akagi looked at me and asked if I was really ready for F1, so we shook hands and said “We are in Formula 1.” Cesare immediately flew to England and literally knocked on Robin Herd’s (boss of March) door. The deal was done and March was back in F1.
Akagi-san was a colourful character. I seem to remember some good parties…
Yes, but he also did some nice things. I remember one year in Spa, it was very cold on the Saturday, nearly snowing and I noticed that he was in the old style motorhome we had in those days, brewing two huge pots of tea. He had loads of plastic glasses and, on his own, he set off for the La Source hairpin to give hot tea to the marshals because it was so cold!
The other person we have to mention is a young Adrian Newey…
Yes, in 1988, we had a spectacular car. After the first lap of winter testing in Silverstone I understood the car was brilliant and that was on the old Silverstone layout with the real corners. I knew we were going to fly that year.
And you did, taking 2 podiums, even though you were running the normally aspirated V8s against the more powerful turbocharged engines.
Yes, we were fighting against the turbo engines. We finished second in Estoril and in Japan, I was fighting against Ayrton and Alain (McLaren) until my car had an electrical problem and stopped and at that point, I was in the lead from Prost for one lap, the only time a normally aspirated car led the turbos. I was fighting Prost and Senna in the drizzly conditions, which meant they had problems using the turbo power until my car just stopped.
Was that one of the highlights of your driving career?
Yes, definitely. The second thing that is still in my heart is the Estoril race also in ’88, when I was fighting Ayrton for second place. It took me two goes to pass him and he had to let me through, partly because he thought I might be able to go and fight Alain who was leading and cause him some problems.
We’re in Monza, in Italy, which leads us to you driving for Ferrari, which wasn’t a good time for you.
No, at first Ferrari was a dream come true, because for an Italian to become a Ferrari driver is just magic. But after a few months it became a nightmare, the 92A car was a disaster, the front suspension wasn’t working, the aero didn’t work, the engine was unreliable and we lacked straight line speed. We were fighting everything on that car. The car was designed for a transverse gearbox, but in the whole Ferrari factory, there were only two working gearboxes! Jean (Alesi) had a transverse box but for the first seven races of the year, I raced with a longitudinal gearbox, so with a rear end from the 91 car, which was much slower. It meant we needed two different teams to run the cars and the management was saying that Capelli was slower than Alesi. Of course! I had a different car!
But I have to say, that being a Ferrari driver, even for just one year, completely changed my life in a good way. When you have been a Ferrari driver, you are a Ferrari driver for life. And that is why Bernie gives more money to Ferrari, because it is an iconic name and a legend. And when you are part of that legend, all around the world, the public knows who are the two Ferrari drivers, even if they forget the names of all the others.
Well, I think most people prefer to remember you in that lovely green Leyton House…
2016 F1 driver line-ups so far
F1 drivers' girlfriends gallery
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
