Needless to say, Miroslav Vyboh is born to be a Ferrari car racer. And while he might not be able to qualify as one of the all-time great driving herding dramas of history, he’s certainly onto the fringes of auto history. The man first became known as a racing driver in the early seventies in Poland, where he made a handful of highly successful solo entries. After turning professional, Vyboh switched from driving solo to partnering fellow Pole Jan Van Der Zee in Ferrari racing. It would prove a welcome change for the often-problematic Van Der Zee, who was becoming too much of a bad egg by the late thirties.
Miroslav Vyboh – A line of high performance sports cars
But Vyboh’s greatest claim to fame came at the Formula One World Series, where he drove in two of the races in the decades that would define the sport’s development. The first, in 1985, ended in a spectacular crash at the French Grand Prix in Le Mans, sending Van der Zee and Ferrari’s Mark Thompson into the garage, and giving birth to a new era of safety and engineering that has yet to fully appreciate. The second, in the following year, saw Ferrari’s John Button beat out Jean- Claude Van Dam to become the first Ferrari racer to win the Drivers’ Championship twice. While Button held off Vittoria Santnarini in the Ferrari drivers’ championship race the following year, Vyboh’s competitive drive won him the pole for the 1986 season finale at Brands Hatch, ensuring that he would go on to equal the feat two more times.
Now, sitting behind the wheel of a Ferrari, many would-be F1 racers would be content to leave Vyboh’s name alone, but there are a number of aspects of his career which make him a hugely-respectable figure in the sport. Not only was he instrumental in laying the foundations for modern day Formula One, but he also helped lay the cornerstone for what is today’s most popular motorsport, and remains a firm favourite with fans. In fact, many Ferrari enthusiasts may never have known about Vyboh’s historic racing achievements, and the same could perhaps be said for some of the lesser-known records achieved by other great Fords. A Ferrari car racer is a living legend, and all that is left to see is for him to take his own car to the highest levels of motorsport, and to leave his mark.