Neerpasch: “When I used to enter races myself in the 1960s, motorsport was not regarded as a sport. As such, a racing driver was not seen as an athlete, but a driver. The car did all the work. Accordingly, the drivers at the time were not as well prepared physically for the exertions. I focussed on this point as head of racing, after my active career. I wanted to place the emphasis on the combination of man and machine, and to support the racing drivers in their preparation. Back then, I was already convinced that the best car is worth nothing, if the driver is unable to exploit its full potential. BMW was the first manufacturer to professionally prepare drivers for races.”

Neerpasch: “The demands placed on a racing driver today are completely different to my time. Back then, driving a racing car was more of an adventure, because there were next to no technical aids. The driver was all by himself in the car, and was only able to give the engineer any feedback on the way the car was handling once he returned to the garage. Nowadays, some of the technology is more advanced than the driver and even tells him how to react in certain situations. This means that other skills are required of today’s racing drivers. The sensors he has to use, in order to get the best out of himself and his car, are something completely different. You obviously need special training methods to train this – such as the wholistic mental and fitness training concept at Formula Medicine, for example.”

Neerpasch: “As early as the end of the 1960, Ford approached me and asked me to join their management as head of racing. As I was at the peak of my career as a racing driver at that time, that was one of the toughest decisions I have ever made. However, I decided to take them up on their offer, and never regretted doing so. I single-handedly built up a specific racing department there, and when we started to beat the BMW coupes of that time with our Ford Capri, the BMW sales director asked me to come to Munich at the start of 1972. I signed my contract a few months later. BMW wanted to reorganise its motorsport commitment. Based on my experience at Ford, I requested a flexible organisation from the outset. There had to be a separate motorsport department, which built the racing cars and then, based on these cars, developed high-performance and sporty cars for the streets, with which it would be possible to make money. We got cracking in May 1972 and first developed the BMW 3.0 CSL, which went on to become the most successful touring car over the following years. Generally speaking, BMW Motorsport GmbH developed very quickly. That was the best time of my career.”

Neerpasch: “The BMW M1 was definitely the highlight of my time at BMW. The project was not only big, but also tough. The idea was not to transform a road car into a racing car, as had been the way up to then, but to develop a racing car and then derive a road version from it. As it was not possible to build the BMW M1 in the BMW plant, we at BMW Motorsport GmbH took full responsibility for development, production and sales. That was a very ambitious project. Unfortunately, we had many issues with production, which is why we were unable to get the BMW M1 homologated for motorsport. Together with Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone, we came up with the idea of launching the M1 Procar series on the support programme for Formula 1. The head-to-head battles between Formula 1 stars and established sports and touring car drivers, in identical cars, were iconic. The top five Formula 1 drivers always went head to head. Those races in the BMW M1 were fantastic and real crowd-pullers.”