On this week #37: Colin McRae
On 15 September 2007, shortly after Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa had secured a Ferrari front row lockout of the grid in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, news reached the Spa-Francorchamps paddock that the 1995 World Rally Champion, Colin McRae had been killed in a helicopter crash. It is a measure of the Scotsman's fame that, even in the occasionally self-obsessed world of Formula 1, this news cast a dark cloud over the rest of the weekend.
McRae might have had “only” one world championship title to his name, but he was and arguably still is, one of the best known names in the sport of rallying. He was hugely popular with the fans, primarily because of his aggressive and spectacular driving style, summed up in his own personal motto: “if in doubt, flat out.” His uncompromising attitude to danger meant he often did not lift off the throttle when others were more cautious and while this contributed to his success, it could be argued that it lost him two more WRC titles. He is most closely linked with the Prodrive-run Subaru Impreza and its famous “L 555 BAT” number plate in which it seemed he was always sideways, always on the limit, always fearless.
Colin Steele McRae was born on 5 August 1968 in Lanark, Scotland. A motorsport career was inevitable, as his father Jimmy was a five-time British Rally Champion and one of his uncles also rallied. The family ran a heating and plumbing business which Colin joined after school, honing his mechanical skills maintaining the company's vans. He started competing on two wheels in trials, before becoming Scottish schoolboy motocross champion at the age of 13. Three years later he switched to four wheels, trying his hand at autotests in a Mini Cooper. He first took part in a rally in Scotland in 1985 and despite crashing at one point, he made it to the finish and won his class. The following year he took part in the Scottish Rally Championship with his father's co-driver Ian Grindrod alongside to curb his over enthusiastic nature, with not much success. Colin quickly made a name for himself, more for his speed and exciting “Finnish” driving style than for his results.
Over the next few years, he gained more experience, even venturing abroad to compete in Sweden and New Zealand, still as an amateur, eventually turning professional in 1991. That was when he was signed to Prodrive by its boss, David Richards, himself a former world-class rally co-driver. Success was immediate as Colin won the British Rally Championship that year and again in 1992, enough to convince Richards to promote the youngster to a fulltime seat with the Subaru factory team in the World Rally Championship. As a child, Colin's hero was Ari Vatanen and now, in 1993, he found himself driving in the same team, along with two other Finnish legends, Hannu Mikkola and Markku Alen. His first win on the world stage came in New Zealand, while the following year he repeated his victory in the land of the Long White Cloud, as well as winning Rally GB. In 1995, a carbon copy of those two wins, along with two second place finishes and a third, saw him take the Drivers' title after a thrilling duel with team-mate Carlos Sainz, in the final round of the season. McRae became the youngest ever champion at the age of 27, a record that stood until a 22 year old Kalle Rovanpera took the title in 2022.
Three more wins in 1996 and even five in '97 were only good enough for second place in the championship, while helping Subaru to its third consecutive manufacturers' title. A further three victories in 1998 placed him third and at the end of the year it was time for a change of scene, but not before he put his name to a computer game: McRae's do-or-die attitude behind the wheel earned him the nickname “McCrash” and he was hugely popular with fans, but what really brought him to the attention of a wider audience was the rally video game “Colin McRae Rally,” today regarded as a pioneer of racing games when it first appeared in 1998. It was a great commercial success, still available today under the name “DiRT.”
The reason McRae is most associated with Subaru is that he took 16 of his total 25 WRC wins at the wheel of the blue cars, the remaining nine victories, coming with the factory Ford team run by M-Sport, between 1999 and 2002. At first, the Blue Oval cars were blighted with unreliability, which gradually showed signs of improvement, the highlight being three wins and the runner-up spot in the championship in 2001. In 2003 he switched to Citroen, but the relationship with the French team only lasted one season, even though his results contributed to Citroen winning the Manufacturers' championship. He didn't know it yet, but effectively his rallying career had fizzled out, with just a few one-off appearances with Skoda leading up to what would be his final WRC event in Turkey in 2006.
The Scotsman hooked up with Prodrive once more, partnering Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell in a Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello, finishing third in the GTS class in the 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours, adapting quickly to the new discipline. Earlier that same year he also tried his hand at the Dakar Rally with Nissan, taking two stage wins and in 2005, he was quickest on two of the first three stages before crashing out of the event. Colin was always up for trying his hand at anything that had a steering wheel and apart from Le Mans, there were appearances in the British Touring Car Championship in 1992 and the Porsche Supercup in 2006. He even slipped into the cockpit of a Jordan Formula 1 car at Silverstone in 1996, in a promotional event that saw former F1 driver and television commentator Martin Brundle get behind the wheel of the Scotsman's Subaru rally car. Naturally, McRae was quick, quick enough to post a time that would have put him on the grid for that year's British Grand Prix, despite getting two wheels on the grass at Woodcote corner!
In 2007, McRae had talks with former boss David Richards about a return to Subaru for 2008 and a test had even been arranged, but he was killed before it could happen. On that fateful Saturday, McRae was piloting his private helicopter when he crashed just a couple of kilometres from the family home. Adding to the tragedy, Colin's five year old son Johnny and two friends of the family were also killed in the accident, which the coroner put down to pilot error. Among those who attended the funeral were fellow Scottish racing drivers, Sir Jackie Stewart and Dario Franchitti. David Coulthard wore a McRae tribute helmet for that year's Japanese Grand Prix and Valentino Rossi, to whom McRae had given lessons in how to drive a rally car, dedicated his 2007 Portuguese MotoGP win to him. Between his first WRC victory in Sweden in 1987 and his last, on the Safari in 2002, he took 25 wins, with 42 podium finishes and 460 special stage wins, but just that one world title in 1995.
