Herbie Blash

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Herbie Blash (2008)

Michael "Herbie" Blash (born September 30, 1948 ) is a British motorsport official and until 2016 was the FIA's Deputy Race Director at Formula 1 races . Blash began his professional career as a mechanic in various automobile racing teams; later he also took on management tasks, which he carried out until 1988. From the end of 1995 Blash was Deputy Race Director of the FIA ​​at Formula 1 races.

Career

At the age of 17, Blash started working as a mechanic for the RRC Walker Racing Team. He worked alongside Jo Siffert and Jo Bonnier , who already had experience in Formula 1. In 1968, Blash became Graham Hill's mechanic at Lotus before working with Jochen Rindt a year later . After Rindt's death, who had an accident in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix , Blash began to take on management tasks at Lotus. In 2010, Blash declared: "(The Lotus founder) Colin Chapman was God for us". Blash always demanded commitment from his employees to the point of giving up themselves. He said, "I started working at Lotus on a Monday morning and didn't see my apartment until Wednesday afternoon."

After a strike at Lotus, he and other employees left the racing team. Blash initially switched to Frank Williams Racing Cars , an underfunded private racing team.

In 1973 he became team manager at Brabham with Bernie Ecclestone and Gordon Murray . He held this position until 1988. Nelson Piquet's two world titles in 1981 and 1983 fell during his time at Brabham . When the racing team was sold to the Zurich foreign exchange broker Joachim Lühti (see reference) in autumn 1989 , Blash temporarily went to FOCA . After Lühti was arrested for economic crimes, the Japanese Middlebridge Group bought the team, and Blash returned to the newly formed team as sporting director. His role helped him secure an exclusive engine deal with Yamaha in 1991 . The connection lasted only a year, however, as Brabham was in serious economic difficulties at the time. In mid-1992 Blash moved to Yamaha, where he held the position of sporting director. During this time he looked after the Yamaha customers Jordan ( 1992 ) and Tyrrell (from 1993 ). At the same time he worked for Activa , a subsidiary of Yamaha, which was based in the old Brabham factory in Chessington , and is engaged in research and development for the racing industry.

From 1996 to 2016 Blash was Deputy Race Director of the FIA for Formula 1 races.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Spiegel 30/1989
  2. ↑ Herbie Blash to step down as Deputy F1 Race Director. July 5, 2016, accessed November 8, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Blash, Herbie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blash, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British motorsport official
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1948