Some thought wild willy had the potential to be a great driver.Louis Stanley in his 1962 Grand Prix annual rated him 8th in the world, and a potentially great driver. He had been noted as a potential talent by the Mercedes team in 1955 and given a semi works 300SL for the Le Mans 1956, the last entry of the original Mercedes team. In 1961 Chapman almost offered him a ride at Rheims. Mairesse ferocious drive in the 1962 Belgian drive was admired by the Ferrari team as he had shown much more passion than P.Hill. Trevor Taylor said Mairesse was driving quite cleanly before their coming together in a huge accident. Subsequently Mairesse claimed his attitude changed and he was not the same driver, just a pilot trying to do a professional drive. Nevertheless his 4th place in Italy in 1962 followed a ferocious duel with Bruce McLaren, Willy conceding a podium only after rotating the 156 on the last lap and Mairesse was certainly impassioned before the 1963 Belgian Gp at Spa were he qualified 3rd and Jim Clark succeded in out psyching him as the starting flag went down. As a sports car driver Mairesse was quite successful as a partner for John Surtees and Willy won two Targas, his final good result a third at Le Man in 1967. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.56.100.98 (talk) 03:13, 16 May 2015 (UTC)Reply
