PedroRodríguez

Origins

Pedro Rodríguez de la Vega was born on 18 January 1940 in Mexico City, the elder son of Don Pedro Rodríguez, a wealthy industrialist and former motorcycle racer who indulged his sons with the finest racing equipment money could buy. With his younger brother Ricardo, Pedro grew up at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (later named in their honour) racing 175cc motorcycles by age ten. By fifteen he was a Mexican national motorcycle champion. By eighteen he was driving a Ferrari at Le Mans. The brothers were the prodigies of Latin American motorsport, signed by Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team and groomed for European single-seaters.

Rise

The family tragedy came on 1 November 1962 at the Mexican Grand Prix non-championship event, when 20-year-old Ricardo was killed in a Lotus 24 crash at the Peraltada corner. Pedro retreated, then returned grieving but determined. He raced sportscars for Ferrari, NART and later Ford, winning the 1968 Le Mans 24 Hours with Lucien Bianchi in a JW-Gulf Ford GT40 in conditions so wet that drivers could barely see the track. His Formula One career grew slowly: a podium at the 1965 United States GP in a Lotus, a famous victory at the 1967 South African Grand Prix in a Cooper-Maserati after Jim Clark's engine failed, then a stable seat with BRM from 1968.

Championship Years

The BRM years were when Pedro became a folk hero. Driving the underpowered, unreliable P139 and later the brutal P153 V12, he extracted more from the cars than they had any right to give. He won the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in conditions so terrifying that he averaged over 240 km/h on the eight-mile circuit, the last winner of an F1 race at the original Spa before its closure for safety. With Porsche he became one half of the most fearsome sportscar partnership of the era — Pedro Rodríguez and Jo Siffert in the Porsche 917 — winning Daytona, Monza, Spa, the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch, the Österreichring 1000 km. At the 1970 BOAC at Brands Hatch he overtook the entire field on a single lap in monsoon rain, a drive Brian Redman called 'inhuman'.

Style and Legend

Pedro drove with reckless brilliance, in conditions that broke other men. He wore a deerstalker hat to and from the grid — a copy of Sir Jackie Stewart's, except Pedro wore his with absolute seriousness — and his slight frame, sad eyes and quiet manner concealed one of the bravest drivers of the era. Rain was his weapon. Spa, Brands, the Nürburgring 1000 km — the worse the conditions, the more dangerous he became. His sportscar wins for Porsche in 1970 and 1971 made the 917 era what it was.

Beyond Racing

On 11 July 1971, between F1 commitments, Pedro accepted a guest drive in a Herbert Müller Ferrari 512M at the Norisring Interserie race in Nürnberg. On lap 12, while leading, the Ferrari's right-front tyre deflated approaching the Schöller-S chicane. The car speared into the unprotected concrete wall and burst into flames. Pedro was pulled out alive but died of his injuries that evening. He was 31. His body was flown home to Mexico City and lay in state at the Autódromo that bears his and Ricardo's names. The Hermanos Rodríguez circuit hosts the Mexican Grand Prix to this day, and Pedro remains, with Ricardo Rodríguez and Sergio Pérez, one of the three pillars of Mexican Formula One history — the brave one, the wet-weather king, the man who tamed the Porsche 917.