Martini Racing F1 Street Demo, Madrid

Thursday 1st January 1970

The streets of Madrid were transformed into an F1 haven last weekend by world famous Italian brand, Martini. Set to coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix, Martini Racing certainly bought glamour and plenty of horsepower to the heart of the Spanish capital on Sunday afternoon.

Count Manfredo Rossi di Montelera, son to the late Count Gregorio Rossi (founder of Martini Racing in 1968), was invited by Martini to run both his Brabham BT42 and BT45 in the street event: The BT42 last saw Rossi win the FIA Masters F1 Championship in 2014. Martini Racing also had F1 test driver and Williams simulator driver, Gary Paffett run both a Willams FW33 and a Mercedes C63 S.

With the support of Kendle Adams, Manfredos two historic F1 cars were brought out of storage and transported to the Spanish capital for the Martini Racing event.

Despite the thousands of football fans celebrating into the early hours of Sunday morning in the City, streets were soon cleared and the setup team wasted no time in transforming Paseo del Prado into an F1 street circuit.

As afternoon struck, passers-by couldn’t help but stop and listen to the sound of the unrestricted 3ltr Cosworth DFV and flat 12 Alfa Romeo engines being warmed up.

Manfredo Rossi impressed the crowd in what was his first ever-street performance in both the Brabham BT45 and BT42. The historic F1 driver appeared to be enjoying himself judging by the amount of tyre smoke that was seen coming from the end of the track. Gary Paffett took to the Williams FW33 out for a series of speed runs, donuts and street performances. Paffett also drove the Mercedes C63 S in a series of hot laps for VIP guests throughout the day; one of these guests being the European President of Bacardi, Paolo Perego.