By the time John Miles began driving Formula 1 cars for Gold Leaf Team Lotus, the engineer-turned-racer had already proven his talent by winning several sports car racing championships. Never considered a star by Lotus founder Colin Chapman, Miles was often saddled with under-developed racing cars and paid meager wages to pilot them, yet he’d later return to the company as an engineer long after his driving days were done. On April 8, Miles died at age 74, following complications from a reportedly minor stroke.
Miles began racing sports cars in 1963, taking a series championship behind the wheel of a Diva GT in his first full season of competition. By 1966, he’d moved on to racing Lotus Elans, funded by sponsor John Willment, and captured the Autosport Championship in a most dramatic fashion, winning 15 of the season’s 17 races. He then moved on to racing a Lotus 47 (better known as the Europa), before opting for open-wheel Formula 3 cars like the Lotus 41.
When Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe developed the Lotus 63 4WD for the 1969 season, neither Graham Hill nor Jochen Rindt proved willing to develop the ill-handling racecar, referring to it as a “deathtrap.” As the team’s development driver, the task turned to Miles, who did what he could to tame the car before making his initial F1 start at the 1969 French Grand Prix. A failed fuel pump ended his day early, and at the car’s next outing, the British Grand Prix, Hill drove the Lotus 63 to a 10th-place finish, his personal best in the chassis.
Miles would make three more starts in the 63 AWD, each ending in a Did Not Finish (DNF). In between Miles’ attempts to score points in the car, Mario Andretti drove the 63 4WD in Germany and the U.S. Grand Prix, with both of his attempts also ending in DNFs. By the end of the season, Chapman begrudgingly accepted that the Lotus 63 wasn’t the great leap forward he’d expected it to be. Still, at a “salary” reported to be £300 (then $720) per race, Miles was likely the lowest-paid driver on the starting grid, especially considering that Chapman refused to pay for his travel to races.
A violent crash at the 1969 U.S. Grand Prix prompted Gold Leaf Team Lotus star Hill to leave the team for the 1970 season, passing the vacant seat to Miles and making Rindt the team’s number 1. Miles was consistently slower than Rindt, and his fifth-place finish at the season-opening South African Grand Prix would prove to be the highlight of his season. Miles failed to qualify for his next two races, something that didn’t sit well with team boss Chapman, and at the British Grand Pix – race seven of a 13-event championship season – Emerson Fittipaldi joined the team as a third driver. For Miles, the writing was clearly on the wall.
Miles failed to finish in Britain (engine failure), Germany (engine failure), and Austria (brake failure), while Rindt posted wins in two of the three events. Even Fittipaldi delivered better results, finishing eighth in Britain, fourth in Germany, and 15th in Austria. At the next race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, things came to a head when Chapman demanded that Miles drive the under-developed Lotus 72 in an untested configuration – without wings – to take advantage of the track’s long straights. Miles refused, to which Chapman reportedly countered, “You’ll do as I say.”
The following morning, Rindt was killed when the Lotus 72 he was driving (also without wings) suffered a brake shaft failure. The team withdrew from the event (as well as the following Canadian Grand Prix), and Miles quit his role as the team’s number two driver, replaced by Reine Wisell for the remainder of the season.
Miles went to BRM as a test driver for the 1971 F1 season, racing only in two non-championship events, He returned to sports car racing that year as well, winning the British Sports Car Championship behind the wheel of a Chevron B19.
Miles worked for a while building engines, then turned to writing road tests for Britain’s Autocarmagazine. Later, he’d return to Lotus to assist with its F1 chassis development in the early 1990s, before leaving to work on road cars for Aston Martin. Passionate about jazz music, Miles founded Miles Music with Peter Watts in 1985, and the label later won accolades for artist Peter King’s Tamburello CD, reportedly inspired by the death of Brazilian F1 star Ayrton Senna.
text credit: © 2018 Kurt Ernst via Hemmings
photo credit: © 2018 Pinehurst
