We often talk of our readers’ Q&A guests having been there and done that. But it’s hard to imagine any of them can have been there and done that – at the highest levels and across multiple disciplines – quite like Trevor Foster has.
From over half a century in motorsport as mechanic, engineer and manager, he’s spent much of it near or at the top of single-seater racing. Foster had many seasons at the Formula 1 pinnacle with a number of teams, but he’s likely best known for several years at Jordan that included being the race engineer of a certain Michael Schumacher when the young German astonished with his stunning Spa debut, and being managing director as Jordan knocked on the door of ultimate World championship success.
Foster’s also had long spells in junior single-seaters – including with own team Pegasus Motorsport – aiding young drivers on their way, such as the prodigious Roger Williamson and Johnny Herbert.
More recently Foster applied his skills in sportscar racing at Zytek and then United Autosports’ LMP2 programme, where in the latter it won Le Mans, the World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series in the same 2020 year.
And Foster is still very much active, as in the past couple of years he’s formed – or should that be reformed? – Pegasus Classic Engineering, his own historic racing outfit, where a Lola T70 and Chevron B16, among others, take pride of place.
We’re grateful that the still-busy Foster gave his time to answer readers’ questions and to delve into his treasure trove of memories. And we started at the very beginning.
Question: How did you first get into motor racing?
Derek Fleming
Via email
Trevor Foster:“I was actually into motorcycle racing first when we were at school. We lived about 10 or 12 miles from Mallory Park, which had regular motorcycle racing. And before we could ride motorbikes or drive a car, so when we were 13 or 14, [we were] cycling over, myself and a group of friends, to watch Mike Hailwood etc, etc when he came two or three times at major meetings a year at Mallory Park.
“And we just happened to then say let’s go and watch some car racing one weekend and so we did the same, and I got hooked into it that way. And then I started to work as an apprentice in a small garage called Langrop Engineering and they used to race Minis at the time.
But in those days club racing, it was club racing that people did at workshop, worked on normal cars during the day and then did the race car in the evening and at weekends. That’s how I started.
“And that really gave me the bug to continue on that road for a year or two and then fortunately Bob Gerard, who was based in Leicester, who ran a privateer Formula 2 team at the time, one of the few people around that were doing that sort of thing, and again I applied for a position, they were advertising and fortunately they offered me a position and that was really the first time I’ve been into, you could say, proper racing with a semi-professional team because by then budget-wise it had become too expensive for a privateer.
“So we did the last couple of races in the [1971] Formula 2 championship with Brian Hart driving the car and then it finished at the end of that year. And then ’72 they dropped back to Formula Atlantic, which was old Formula 2 cars, and mainly raced in the UK with Bob Gerard and I did that for a year. And that put me on to the ladder for the year after when Roger Williamson had just moved up to Formula 2 and again a Leicestershire lad and [there was] a position [at his Tom Wheatcroft-run team] and I applied for that, well they actually spoke to me, which was very kind. And that was really
