Thierry Boutsen

(I found an article I wrote many years ago for 8w Magazine and thought I would post it here before I misplaced it again.)

You cannot, or maybe should not, go home again

A driver better suited to the endurance environment he entered into after a long and presumably satisfying GP career, Thierry Boutsen could be described as one of the eighties' steady campaigners par excellence. Never one to overcook it or set the world alight with a storming qualifying effort, the Belgian nonetheless pleased team bosses on race day by delivering consistently for over a decade, refining the art of bringing the car home safely.

His subdued outward appearance matched the lack of thrill in his driving style and was highlighted by his cool under pressure, perhaps best exemplified by Thierry holding up a train of cars - led by Ayrton Senna - on the twisty Hungaroring to score his finest victory.

It was on these occasions so typical of Boutsen that we understood why, as a kid with no racing background, this lanky Walloon wanted to become a racing driver instead of a bank manager. But as Emilio de Villota showed, even bank managers can have a twisted need for speed.

All the pieces were in place for the Belgian fans: the Belgian GP had returned to Spa for the first time since 1970, and an eager young local lad was set to race for the perpetually promising Arrows squad. Boutsen came to F1 with a reputation as a scrappy racer, who fought hard in Formulas Two and Three, scoring second place overall in each of those junior series. He represented, perhaps, a new Belgian racing hero, the first bright light since Jacky Ickx retired to sports cars after the 1979 season. Paralleling this was the return to Spa, and an attempt to move forward after the tragic death of Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder the previous year.
 
Regardless of the fact that his seat was secured due to a $500,000 cash injection, in Boutsen the Arrows team had found a driver to build around, after enduring a parade of has-beens and never-wills masquerading as F1 drivers. The ever changing drivers' line up at Arrows was matched only by their schizophrenic liveries, which changed from race to race as the team scrambled to find sponsorship.  Once arriving, Boutsen stayed with Arrows until the end of the 1986 season, a partnership which peaked with a fine second place at Monaco in 1985. Never a threat to win in those days, Boutsen employed a conservative and consistent style that would result in the occasional points-scoring drive.
 
And so, Boutsen's F1 debut came in 1983, on the same track he said goodbye on, at home at Spa. Replacing Chico Serra at Arrows, Thierry retired due to suspension failure after having qualified a respectable 18th. His first season truly got underway in Detroit, where Boutsen transformed a promising 10th in qualifying into a terrific 7th at the chequered flag. In a race in which more than half of the starters retired this would typify Boutsen's style, for Thierry averaged perhaps one retirement by driver error per season - at most.

Only when he moved to Benetton in 1987 did he begin to score more regularly, reaching the podium three times in 1988, leading the Benetton team to third overall in the constructors championship. 1988 was the classic Boutsen season, the Belgian outpaced on sheer speed by young new team mate Alessandro Nannini but consistently delivering on Sunday afternoons. His four podiums, finishing best of the rest to the all-conquering Senna-Prost steamroller, took him to third in the final driver standings, very much in the same conservative way Elio De Angelis had salvaged a march on the remaining opposition in the previous McLaren-dominated era.

Snapped up by Williams for 1989, Boutsen finally came good, winning in Canada and in Australia and helping the Williams crew to a distant second place. Despite another win in 1990 Boutsen was forced out of the Williams camp to make room for the prodigal Mansell, and Thierry's career began its decline. He took the number one seat at Ligier, in those days a guaranteed ticket for experienced campaigners to leave F1 in a slow and painful way, and for two years made do with unreliable and slow equipment. 

The chance to join the precocious Jordan team in 1993 looked okay but young Rubens Barrichello was in a reputation-killing mood that season while Thierry was nowhere to be seen in that first handful of Grands Prix.
Nevertheless, the idea arose to turn the 1993 Belgian GP into a symbolic event for the nation's best driver since Jacky Ickx.  Ten years on, the Spa race was just as much a non-event for Boutsen as his debut there, Thierry uncharacteristically retiring on lap 1 with a broken gearbox.
Those few races with the then backsliding Jordan team in 1993 closed out a longish career with certainly enough high points to make up for some of the lows.