When in 1985 an Italian sweater firm bought a complete Formula 1 team, new ground was broken, a hint of the eagerness to disrupt the status quo that would characterise the clothing firm across everything from eyecatching product to provocative advertising to highly coloured sponsorship. And it’s clear from those interviewed in this authoritative work by Damien Smith, a former editor of Motor Sport, that this lateral approach carried over into the racing – Smith calls them “rebels of Formula 1”.
Not that this was Benetton’s first plunge into F1. That came with Tyrrell in 1983 after a couple of people had sparked the idea in Luciano Benetton, including new head of communications Davide Paolini who says, “I obliged the Tyrrell mechanics to wear pink shirts to attract photographers.”
But the future wasn’t
