Christian Danner: “I am the only driver to have fired Adrian Newey!”

How did your interest in motorsport come about?

When I was 10 years old, I would go every Sunday morning to get my father's newspaper and my mother's magazine. One day, at the newsstand, I saw this publication called Sports car. It was the only motorsport magazine on the shelves and it appealed to me so much that I bought it. When I got home I explained to my mother that her magazine was out of print and that I had bought Sports car instead which was a translated version of the original French magazine. It was on this day in 1967 that my passion was born! I had no knowledge of the subject, no connections, I learned everything from newspapers over the following years.

How do you start a career when you're left to your own devices?

At that time, there was only one inexpensive championship in which it was possible to start: the Coupe Renault 5. Once I had my license, I explained to my father that I needed a car. We found a used R5 LS for 5 Deutsche Marks (000 euros). For my father, it was just a car. For me, it was a racing car. I used it to get around every day and to race on weekends in the German championship, then in the European championship when I became better. Soon, I was spotted by the owner of a team that raced BMW M2s. He told me that he would take me as high as the F1 and offered me a contract that I signed with the carefree attitude of my twenties… for a period of fifteen years! At the end of the season, this time it was the BMW factory that wanted to secure my services to ride in its “Junior Team”. Delighted, I said “OK” without thinking for a single second that I already had a contract.

A slightly delicate moment…

If anyone