Up from 4th on the grid, Mairesse (#40) battles Graham Hill (#10) and Dan Gurney (#4) for the lead into the first turn at Monte Carlo in 1962. Photo: Ed McDonough Collections
He was the kind of fighter Enzo Ferrari adored. Another of those Tazio Nuvolari types, who wouldn’t rest until he had wrung the absolute maximum out of a car or crashed it in the process—and he often did. Before he was shoe-horned into Maranello in 1960 with the help of Jacques Swaters, Ferrari’s representative in Belgium, he had laid to rest the crumpled ruins of a Porsche 1500, a Peugeot 203, a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and three Ferrari berlinettas.
But this hyper-determined, energetic hustler with his burning intensity won. An observer of Willy’s demonic determination was Peter Revson. He once craned his neck into Mairesse’s car during a 24 Hours of Spa and saw Willy’s face contorted with unrequited commitment. Afterwards, the young American famously said it was almost like looking at the devil.
