Bob Gerard

Bob Gerard was an English racing driver who took part in the F1R series from 1950-1954 and then again from 1956-1958, including winning the title in no fewer than 4 of his 8 seasons!

In 1950 Gerard was just hitting his stride as a racing driver, when he joined the Enrico Plate (Maserati) team mid-season - but made one of the most astonishing debuts in F1R history, with Pole and the Race Victory (only being denied a hat-trick by Taruffi setting the Fastest Lap!). He soon made up for missing out on that Fastest Lap by securing the next 3 in a row, along with his 1st hat-trick at the season ending Italian Grand Prix! That was enough to propel him up to 3rd in the overall standings, which is quite an achievement considering he missed the opening 2 rounds of the series entirely!

He soon made up for this in 1951 though, as his first full season and a move to the exciting Alfa Romeo team brought him a title that was never in doubt. He scored 5 wins out of 7, which - considering 2 of the 7 scores were dropped that season - is an almost perfect season that resulted in a winning margin of some 23 points over 2nd placed Grignard. Indeed such was his domination that he was the only driver to have to drop a score that season!

However, Alfa Romeo's brief F1R existence meant that Gerard and his team-mates were out of a racing seat, though it did not take long for Ferrari to snap him up and put him alongside their other star drivers Pietsch, Whitehead and Cabantous (also brought over from the defunct Alfa Romeo outfit). That was a tough season for Gerard and resulted in his lowest career Championship finish of 4th, thanks mostly to the fact that both Pietsch and Whitehead (who finished the season 1st and 2nd) had driven the Ferrari the season before and therefore knew how it handled. Gerard was in the Championship picture up until the end though and did at least defeat fellow Alfa Romeo convert Cabantous by some distance.

1953 though saw a return to winning ways for the understated Englishman, as he took on Pietsch and Whitehead (and the exciting new prospect of Salvadori) in equal Ferrari machinery and won half of all the races that season, only finishing outside of the podium places once to pip Whitehead to the title in a final race showdown!

Gerard never enjoyed the dynamics of the Ferrari outfit, which were incredibly centralised around the will of Enzo Ferrari - and that precipitated a move to another exciting new project, as Mercedes joined the F1R grid. Joined by fellow ex-Ferrari driver Whitehead, he moved to a team with relative newcomers Volonterio and Kling, where the Mercedes drivers vied for top position in the standings with more autonomy over their own decisions. Indeed, for most of the season it looked to be a straight fight between Gerard and Volonterio for the title fight - but a disasterous final race saw all four Mercedes drivers miss out on the points and allowed Herrmann in the Maserati to sneak in and steal what could easily have been Gerard's 3rd Championship away!

As such, Gerard took a break in 1955 to focus on running the family business, before Maserati - frustrated at the lack of consistency from their World Champion Hans Herrmann - came knocking to ask him to return to them. To go full circle in his career back to where it began and win a title for a 3rd Italian F1R outfit (after Alfa Romeo and Ferrari) proved too great a temptation and so in 1956 he rejoined the grid where he reminded the whole F1R paddock of his talents to not just win, but to score a hat-trick in all bar 2 races that season!

A comfortable title in 1956 was followed by a less convincing opening to 1957 - though he finished the season in incredible style, to take 4 hat-tricks in a row and wrestle the title away from the Ferrari's and Vanwall's competing with him. He was never intending to race in 1958, though was ultimately persuaded to by Maserati Team Principal John Ibbotson (with whom he had a very close relationship throughout his time in F1R). That season the Ferrari was the class of the field, as the Maserati suffered from a lack of innovation, and though he could compete with the Ferrari's over a single lap (taking more Pole Positions in 1958 than any other driver) over a race distance it was a challenge and he was ultimately defeated by von Trips claiming the final two race victories of the season.

At the time of retiring (and for a good few years afterwards), Gerard held the records for Most Race Entries, Most Starts, Most Wins, Most Consecutive Wins, Fewest Races before a 1st Win and Most Wins at the Same GP (4 times at the German GP, along with being the only driver to win a single GP 3 times or more, which he achieved at the Swiss, Belgian, French, British and Italian rounds. Indeed the only country he raced in where he didn't win a Grand Prix was Morocco, where he only raced once - in his final GP). He also held the records for Most Hat-Tricks (12 - 4x more than any other driver), Most Points, Most Races Finished in the Points, Most Consecutive Point Scores, Most Fastest Laps, Most Consecutive Fastest Laps, Most Fastest Laps at the Same GP, Most Poles, Most Consecutive Poles, Most Poles at the Same GP, Most Podiums, Most % Podiums and Most Consecutive Podium finishes.

All in all a staggering set of achievements for a driver who went on to look after his family business after retirement, with an utterly stellar career behind him.