PERRY McCARTHY SOMEHOW made it all the way to Formula 1 despite starting out at 21 years old with no previous experience of competing in either karts or cars. Permanently short of money, and with no family support, he relied on his talent, an abundance of charm, and sheer unremitting determination.
He had to prove his talent and he did, winning the Dunlop Formula Ford championship in ’83, impressing in Formula 3 in ’86, and moving up to F3000 in ’88. Successful seasons in GTP and sports cars in America preceded, and followed, his brief foray into Formula 1 in 1992 with a car that was, at best, capable of scraping onto the back of the grid. For Perry, however, it was an ambition achieved even if he never actually raced the recalcitrant and unreliable machine known as the Andrea Moda.
He’d worked on oil rigs, served in shops, and lived on the edge, surviving long enough to tell the story at countless dinners and grand occasions. As Damon Hill observed, “No matter how many times he gets knocked down, he just gets back up again and has another go.” In a wide-ranging chat with Motor Sport, Perry looks back on the good times and, of course, the many setbacks that punctuated his career from the early days of manual graft to his arrival in the Formula 1 paddock in Brazil.
Motor Sport: You have spoken many times about the frustrations, challenges and sacrifices on the way to Formula 1 – but what about the good times, the performances that gave you the biggest buzz?
PM: “You know, for me, it was never about the best times, it was always about the next step, what’s the next move towards Formula 1. I took it for granted that I’d win a race, or get pole position. I expected that of myself.
“My best results
