1993. Fabrizio Bocca, an Italian on the offshore throne

Welcome to the special section “BAM 35 Years.” We are presenting “cult” articles from the Motor Boats archive, starting in 1990. A journey through time among stories unobtainable today, even in the great sea of the internet! A dive into the world of epic moments in motor boating. Here is one of the stories we were most passionate about.

Finally, Mouth!

From Motor Boats 1993, no. 1, February, pp. 42-44.

After eight years, an Italian returns to the throne of the circuit’s top formula. The feat succeeded Fabrizio Bocca, who was stronger than any adversity in Singapore.

Fabrizio Bocca has won the Formula 1 world championship. It had been eight years since an Italian driver had won the most prestigious laurel in inshore powerboating. Not since 1984, the year of Renato Molinari ‘s last triumph, who at the end of that season, immediately after winning his 18th rainbow helmet (an unparalleled record), announced his retirement from circuit racing. For eight long years Italy motorboating, the world’s leading power in terms of the number of titles won, waited in vain for an heir to the great Molinari. Bocca ‘s victory now comes liberatingly. A victory, let’s face it, quite unexpected and for that very reason all the more welcome. A victory, moreover, as propitious as ever, because it brings a breath of enthusiasm to an environment that was in danger of asphyxiation by declining interest. An unexpected success, and certainly not out of technical conviction. It was the cold language of numbers that left little hope. On the eve of the last round, in faraway Singapore, the standings spoke like this: first was Britain’s Steve Kerton with 22points, second was his compatriot John Hill with 21 points, and third was our Bocca, who had 19 points, while Cappellini was woefully stuck at 15. The points up for grabs, as you know, are: 9 to the first-place finisher, 6 to the second, 4 to the third, and then scaled down to the sixth with 1 point. There was really nothing to rejoice about. If one then thought about how it had come to this situation, after Bocca had been leading the standings from the first to the last race, after Guido Cappellini had thrown to the wind with one lap to go, again in that last damned race in Milan, a victory worth half a world title, at this point pessimism was de rigueur. Fabrizio Bocca , however, did not despair. After all, if Cappellini dared to say, “you never know…,” why should Bocca not have hoped. Recklessness is an inevitable characteristic of every pilot. It must be said, however, that Bocca prepared scrupulously for the last round of the championship. In the meantime, he brought three engines with him, remembering what had happened two years earlier, precisely in Singapore, when, finding himself in the lead together with Jonathan Jones, he could not practically defend his supremacy because in practice he broke one after the other the only two engines he had. It had been a borderline case, but this time Fabrizio did not want to risk it. He even took the first-choice engine with him on the plane. So much foresight, however, did not seem to be rewarded by the first technical findings on the race field. In fact, the engine did not run at all. It seemed to have suffered from the air travel. Things were looking bad. Bocca was in danger of not making the minimum time for qualifying for the race. The Casale driver did not lose his cool (great gift!) and decided to have the entire electrical system changed. Decision as apt as ever. He qualified, however, only with the eighth time. Ahead of him were the two Brits, Cappellini and the rediscovered Bill Seebold. The presence of the American champion, already a great opponent of Molinari’s, further complicated the situation, because Bocca to cultivate any hope of final success had to win, and an extra opponent of Seebold ‘s caliber was just not wanted. The American champion had not run any of the races in the ’92 World Cup. What had he come to Singapore to do? Business. He was to sell his racing catamarans to a Thai billionaire who had decided to form a Formula 1 team for the next championship. Seebold had thus not come to Singapore on vacation, but to prove the worthiness of his boats.

One more obstacle for Bocca, and what an obstacle! The race began in the worst way. At the start Bocca got tangled up, and at the first turn he had to turn wide so as not to risk anything in the first frantic stages of the race. He could not afford to touch or be touched by any opponent. And here Bocca showed all his intelligence as a pilot. Unlike many of his colleagues, the newly crowned world champion always manages to reason in his cockpit; he never gets caught up in competitive cravings and thus always manages to get the most out of his performance. Bocca ‘s run in Singapore should be offered as an example in driver’s training schools, if they are ever made. At the end of the first lap, the Casalese driver passed in 15th position, but he did not flinch. He waited for the group to lengthen and then began his comeback. Leading the race was Seebold, followed by Duggan and Cappellini. Kerton, the leader of the standings, was seventh. Bocca caught up and passed him on lap 15. By mid-race, he was also catching up and passing the eternal John Hill. The three-time world champion is truly a phenomenon of longevity. On the threshold of sixty years (you read that right, just 60 years) he still manages to be competitive. Mythical. Shortly thereafter Bocca overtook Cappellini, who sportingly did not stand in his way. Don’t think this is completely natural. Among Formula 1 drivers, being of the same nationality does not automatically imply teamwork, quite the contrary. Just ask the British. Now Bocca is beginning to glimpse the light of the iris. He also outruns Duggan and Seebold. He is unstoppable. Then the race director steps in to add a little more suspense to this already quite painful world championship. The red flag waves: a sign that the race has been stopped due to an accident. We are on lap 32. Two more laps and, with the completion of two-thirds of the race, the race stoppage would have been, by regulation, final. But there were two laps to go and the start had to be restarted. The puzzling fact was that no crashed boat could be seen on the race course and no racer was in the water in distress. Mystery. A re-start is always an unknown, and then there is the psychological backlash to overcome. Bocca, this time in pole position, sees Seebold start off like a cannonball; he can only keep up with him, and so he does. At this point he gets a hand from that Lady Luck who seemed to have forgotten about him. The six second-place points are enough for Bocca to overtake both Kerton and Hill in the standings. Both finish in the standings within one point of Fabrizio Bocca, who thus becomes world champion. Finally.

by Riccardo Magrini

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