Peter Collins on working with Colin Chapman, Driving Greats | Beyond The Grid | Official F1 Podcast

This week’s guest may not be a household name, but for 20 years he was at the epicentre of Formula 1. Between the late 70s to early 90s, Peter Collins worked for Lotus under Colin Chapman, then Williams under Sir Frank, then Benetton alongside Flavio Briatore, before returning to run Lotus. In various managerial roles during that period he worked with some great drivers too: Keke Rosberg, Nigel Mansell, Gerhard Berger, Mika Hakkinen and Johnny Herbert. And the great news for us is that Peter has great anecdotes about all of them! So settle in for fabulous insight into a golden era of the sport - including the time he dispatched Hakkinen to do the school run…
3:56 - The artistry of a stunning pole position lap
08:01 - Racing with Mario Andretti at Lotus in 1979
12:38 - Building the ‘fantastic’ twin chassis Lotus with Colin Chapman
17:19 - The genius of Colin Chapman, and the passion of Frank Williams
23:58 - Working with the ‘demanding’ Keke Rosberg at Williams
27:27 - Leaving Williams and a rift with Frank
36:46 - Joining Benetton and working with Flavio Briatore
44:09 - Why Peter championed Johnny Herbert after his 1988 accident
48:26 - Racing and living with Mika Hakkinen, and breaking him out of jail…
56:45 - Falling out and reconciling with Colin Chapman
1:03:23 - Peter’s current project - seeking future stars
1:07:35 - Tom reads your messages about Charles Leclerc’s Beyond The Grid interview
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[@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044]

Fantastic podcast. I think I like hearing from these team managers, engineers, etc. more than most of the drivers.

[@zac1758]

Would love if you could get Ron Dennis on the podcast as he has worked with everyone there is to and is quite a controversial figure

[@sambagogo777]

Fascinating guy to listen to. A real shame that the interviewer instantly shut down talk of anything that wasn't, in his words, "positive" and routinely failed to further pursue discussing some of the potentially very interesting remarks Peter Collins had made.

[@SmoothBaracuda]

You're on the F1 channel listening to an F1 employee interview someone who worked in F1. Clearly it's got an F1 agenda from Tom's side.

[@king_zapp]

I was very much interested in hearing more about Flavio's "business ethics"

[@ClassicFormulaOne1]

I would love a far more deeply 2nd interview about Peter Collin's Lotus years 1991-1994.

[@_Ben4810]

I've only ever read a single interview Peter Collins did where he actually talked about his Team Lotus ownership years. He granted the interview to a Japanese motorsport journalist/magazine because he said he was forever grateful to the loyalty of the Japanese corporate sponsors & Lotus fans during the difficult times of the team, unlike the British motorsport press with whom he was VERY bitter about their words & treatment of Team Lotus in those final years. & there was definitely no mention of how a relatively small racing team could end up with the absolutely massive final debt they accumulated after 5 years under Collins' control...it was huge...!

[@X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X]

Thank you for interviewing him!

[@markom7960]

Kimi Räikkönen is the latest Ferrari world champion, as well as the latest winner of the Lotus team.

[@Herschel0627]

That was Renault, not the original "Team Lotus" from 1958.

[@flaziola]

To us Irish (a different) Peter Collins was the lead commentator for Irish broadcaster RTÉ's Formula 1 coverage from 1995 to 2004.

[@fabianrocha9924]

There was also a Driver named Peter Collins who raced in F1 during the 50s He won 3 races(Spa and France in 1956 and Silverstone in 1959) but sadly died in an accident in 1958 during the German Grand Prix sadly

[@hindenpeter2.04]

I'd of been 12..Remember Irvine's let down in 99 and Montoya on the scene. Also Eddie appears in jizzlaine maxwell's black book which wasn't a massive surprize😯

[@MrCatalysis101]

Fabulous interview. I just wish that F1 would ditch the corny adverts.

[@ciaronsmith4995]

The great talent-spotter himself!

[@JajaRojas]

Must be overwhelming! Glad Formula 1 are covering this!

[@janshen1222]

Of course colin chapman,the man who is the goat of being fair to his drivers

[@SachiGortchi]

SUPERB MAN & CAREER ! ! !

[@sevesellors2831]

Great podcast most interesting, keep them coming!

[@juneof]

I was looking for some Lotus informations since a long time! Please I need more about '90/'94 times

[@boson2916]

F1 should show more programs on the early stage of the F1 championship in the post war period. The racers in those day were real tough guys.

[@HanSoloxcs]

Thought that was Stannis Baratheon for a second

[@andrewsher9360]

Speaking about Mansell at Lotus, the team boss at the time,peter warr, disliked mansell for his inability to keep up with elio de angelis and never thought of mansell becoming a grand prix winner

[@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044]

Elio de Angelis is wildly underrated. Covered Mansell and kept up with Senna in 1985 as teammates at Lotus.

[@jusarusakko294]

If PC would not play with Häkkinen after -92...Mika would be at least 4 time world champion with Frank.

[@LurcherVonPapsmear]

A great talk with Peter! Can you do a podcast with Nigel Stepney next?

[@gdogg3710]

I hate to break this to you, but Nigel Stepney died in 2014…

[@R2debo_]

❤️‍🔥

[@diegoalt6062]

@Alan ALI 12 ok?

[@user-vs7cw2rg7r]

Great interview but the ad reads are really intrusive. Shame, it spoils the flow.

[@splendidyeti7790]

At first i thought the guy at the thumbnail was elon musk

[@4517onlyglory]

Should ask him about Ronnie Peterson

[@kevinflores4045]

What about phil Collins from genesis?

[@y1521t21b5]

49:30 "Didn't _Mika_ live with you for a while? Couldn't you shove him out the door and send him for a run or something?" 😂😂 1:05:30 "In Hamilton, I see a lot of disruption." Though _Collins_ doesn't get to elaborate, I'm glad to hear someone finally point this out. I would go as far as to say HAM's seeking to influence company policy is one of the key reasons _Merc_ are losing their way and haemorrhaging key staff.

[@CroftVan]

Could you explain how Hamilton is influencing the organisation.

[@fabianrocha9924]

Is he related to the other Peter Collins? The Racing Driver?

[@jemal.dilbirin]

😍❤❤👍🙏

[@piotrkobielus6156]

F1

[@bhaskaranthenkurissi870]

Dear Tom, the podcast off late has been a bit uninspiring. The podcast revolves around tbe same theme. We want to hear from the guest. There was a lot more that you could have asked rather than about others. I listen to both this and f1 nation. At the rare at which it is going and the effort you take to defend Lewis, you are going to lose a lot of listeners.

[@rafaelambrosini7562]

F1 gave someone a heart in the previous video. The next step is to pin someone. :D

[@aBetterMove]

Ei've wut

[@scottmeredith3359]

Normally couldn't wait to listen, but your defense of Lewis is so unbelievably biased and infuriating I'm not sure I want to. Hope it's worth it Tom.

[@8-bitsteve500]

Agreed, had to stop at that point.

[@CroftVan]

No one complains when Martin Brundle blatantly sides with Max Verstappen.

[@8-bitsteve500]

@@CroftVan You're joking right? lol

[@CroftVan]

@@8-bitsteve500 Monza 2021, Max parks his car on Lewis's car. Crofty says that its Max's mistake, but Brundle shuts him down by saying that Lewis was wrong.

[@8-bitsteve500]

@@CroftVan Show me a commentator that in the heat of the moment has never made an error? Croft makes 30 errors a race and no one bothers about it. hah

[@whiskapedia4254]

p2

[@Shivam-tz6uj]

P69

[@7sq]

Bin that clfck track bs music !!!

[@rasmus8408]

P3

[@antonymaussen4072]

The advertising pitches are so so so bad, absolute cringe fest. I'd rather there be an external video advert break than hear the smarmy cheese of nonsense products Tom clearly doesn't actually have any affiliation to.

[@shivps3883]

P3