Liam Lawson’s rise to securing a seat in Red Bull’s Formula One team brought back memories of the triumphs of former New Zealand racing aces Denny Hulme, Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren. Not so well-known is fellow Kiwi Mike Thackwell’s story – the man who walked away from the glitz
From Monaco to caravan life: Why Kiwi Formula One star Mike Thackwell quit the limelight
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Also remaining might be some of his wavy locks, which - combined with his handsome looks - made him a sporting heart throb in Europe in the early 1980s.
But one thing missing from Mike Thackwell’s coastal home are lasting reminders of his life in the fast lane; an existence that once saw the New Zealander signed for a trio of Formula One teams over a four-year period.
Given how Thackwell has turned his back on his racing days, it’s more likely remnants of his more recent careers – such as being a helicopter pilot on North Sea oil rigs, or mining for gold with his dad in Australia – might be found.
It’s also unlikely that on Sunday night NZ time he’ll tune into watch on fellow Kiwi Liam Lawson line up for the crack Red Bull team in his second Formula One grand prix of 2025.
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He sensationally walked away from the glitz, glamour and high-end stakes of the elite motorsport scene in 1988; and hasn’t ventured back to the life he lived and - for a time - loved.
According to family, one of the rare involvements Thackwell had with motorsport post-retirement was donning a pair of racing overalls to appear in an annual classic car event in the UK.
Prominent Kiwi motorsport figure Bob McMurray has seen plenty of car drivers misfire in their careers during his life in the sport, which includes almost 30 years working with the McLaren Formula One team.
His time at McLaren saw him work with some of the great names of Formula One including Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda, James Hunt and Lewis Hamilton.
He’s also watched a conveyer belt of highly-rated Kiwis such as David Oxton and Brett Riley try to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon in flying the New Zealand flag in Formula One.
But never in his long association with the sport has he seen a Kiwi come close to how Thackwell – who was a teenager when he signed with Formula One team Tyrrell in 1980 - slammed the handbrake on his racing career.
“He walked away, that’s what he did . . . he walked away,” McMurray told the Herald.
“There are probably lots of them [ex-drivers who have done similar things] ... but probably none that really relate to New Zealand.”
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McMurray – who definitely will be tuning in to see how Lawson goes at the Shanghai International Circuit this weekend – said he understood Thackwell was a teacher now, “and doing all sorts of things in England, somewhere around Brighton”.
An eventful season opener 😅
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 16, 2025
Max fought hard and kicked off the season with a strong P2 🙌
While tough weather conditions cut Liam’s race short. But, there is plenty to build on, onto the next! 💪#F1 || #AusGP pic.twitter.com/5gtTFFpf6x
McMurray said he wasn’t close to Thackwell.
But he remembers him as “very promising”, especially when he was racing at Formula Two level; at the stage the feeder class into the top level of the glitz and glamour of grand prix racing.
“His story . . . was a very short story in Formula One,” he said.
But it is one that has not been forgotten in Europe – the spiritual home of Formula One racing – where his talents and the stunning nature of his retirement are still debated by fans on motorsport forums and referenced by leading motorsport writers.
‘One of the great lost talents in motor racing’
Thackwell’s biography on the F1 Forgotten Drivers website doesn’t mince any words on the Kiwi’s abilities.
“Described as ‘a teenage sensation’ and a ‘maverick’, Mike Thackwell is widely felt to have been one of the great lost talents in motor racing,” it states.
The rundown also includes that “after leaving F1 and motorsport, he worked as a special needs teacher, a helicopter pilot, a steeplejack and miner”.
A biography on the Historic Racing website claims Thackwell’s rise as a teen was “meteoric”.
In 1988, his final year of racing in the F3000 class, he showed “what talent was being wasted” by not having more chances at Formula One, it said.
His career had earlier stalled after several crashes and Formula One opportunities being snaffled by younger and more cashed-up drivers from Europe.
“Disillusioned, he then walked away from the sport before the age of 30.”
Described as ‘a teenage sensation’ and a ‘maverick’, Mike Thackwell is widely felt to have been one of the great lost talents in motor racing.
The Motor Sport magazine has described him as “something of a cult hero”.
He is also fondly remembered at Team Penske; the world-famous American team synonymous with dominating both the IndyCar and Nascar racing.
Thackwell’s stint racing for the team in 1984 was remembered and honoured again as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations in 2016.
The fan forum run by Autosport – one of the world’s most-loved motorsport magazines and websites – also features numerous threads debating his talent, why his career ended so suddenly, reporting possible sightings of him in the UK, and speculating on what he could be up to today.
Others annually post happy birthday messages on March 30 to Thackwell on motorsport forums.
Family members have posted corrections to claims about what he is doing now.
In 2007, they said, he was running a secondhand skateboard and surf shop.
And in 2020, in one of only two in-depth interviews given since walking away from motorsport, he told Goodwood Road and Racing that life revolved around caring for his disabled son, surfing, and enjoying darts competitions in his local pub.
Thackwell was the sixth-youngest driver to ever start a Formula One race.
He would have been the youngest if not for a bizarre sequence of events at the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix.
Aged 19 years and 182 days old, he was very much the junior of one of three drivers to line up for Tyrrell at the grand prix.
A crash on the opening lap badly damaged the cars of teammates Jean-Pierre Jarier and Derek Daly, with the race being red-flagged, with a restart ordered.
Thackwell was ordered by team management to give up his car for one of his more senior Tyrrell colleagues, with the earlier start race not counting in Formula One records.
‘His record is not necessarily a huge one, is it’
While internationally Thackwell is remembered as one of the great lost talents of his era, 41 years on from his last race in a Formula One car, in New Zealand his name barely rates a mention.
In the aftermath of Lawson’s signing with Red Bull for the 2025 season, Thackwell’s time in the elite racing competition, and other top racing classes in Europe, was largely overlooked.
Instead, most of the attention went on the exploits of former world champion Hulme, title runner-up McLaren and Amon, the latter regarded as one of the best Formula One drivers never to win a grand prix.
McMurray, who stressed his following comments were not meant to be “disparaging”, said ultimately Thackwell hadn’t been able to capture the hearts and minds of Kiwi sports fans.
“Why would they remember him?” he said.
“Apart from junior Formula stuff, and then being one of New Zealand’s grand prix drivers, and then afterwards disappearing from the whole scene, I am not sure why people would remember him.
“Why would people necessarily remember John Nicholson for instance who was another one of our grand prix drivers.
“Mike Thackwell ... showed promise and that was about it. His record is not necessarily a huge one.”
McMurray says there were numerous Kiwi hopeful racing stars who headed to Europe with the dream of cracking into Formula One during the 1970s and 1980s.
While Thackwell raced at that level for a small amount of time, others such as Brett Riley and David Oxton weren’t so fortunate.
“For Kiwis to go over there, not only did you have to pay for your racing, you had to try and live as well ... which is expensive indeed,” McMurray said.
The nepotism and narcissism in motorsport is something so profound
While plenty has – and continues to be – written about Thackwell overseas by both journalists and fans, the man himself has largely kept his own counsel since walking away from the pit lane.
Just twice – reluctantly - has Thackwell spoken at length about his career, and walking away.
Once was in 2000 when a motorsport journalist tracked him down while working on a story about then 20-year-old English Formula One driver Jenson Button.
Then four years ago, he spoke to Goodwood Road and Racing; the website for the annual Goodwood motorsport festival of modern and historic racing vehicles.
Not owning a car, he travelled to meet journalist James Mills by train. He said it was one of two big trips he was undertaking; the other to Australia to see family.
At the time earning just $178 a week, the upcoming trip to Australia had taken him all year to save for.
Mills wrote: “Eventually, a figure approaches me. He’s petite, smaller than I’d imagined.
“A rucksack is slung over one shoulder and his other hand holds a pipe. His clothes look worn, friendship bracelets dangle from his wrists, a pendant hangs around his neck and his face has aged with the passage of time. He could be on his way to Glastonbury Festival.”
Thackwell told the journalist life for him was in a comfortable caravan on England’s southern coastline.
He cared for his disabled son, the reporter wrote, and “spends what little spare time he has surfing during daylight and playing darts with his local pub team in the evening”.
Long gone were his days of following motorsport or catching up with friends from the scene.
“I lost touch with most people in motor racing, because I live a different life, and it’s uncomfortable for me because I live such a different life,” he told Goodwood’s website.
In terms of the decision to walk away from the sport which he once loved – which included winning the European Formula Two championship and being runner-up of the International Formula 3000 championship - he was blunt.
I lost touch with most people in motor racing, because ... it’s uncomfortable for me because I live such a different life
The final laps took place in a sprint race for the Sauber team at the Norisring, Germany.
“I was running around and the brakes had gone and the seat was playing up, but it wasn’t that,” Thackwell told Goodwood.
“I went off in the lead in the Sauber and found myself thinking about whether I wanted to be doing this for the next 20 years while I was driving. I pulled into the pits and said, ‘That’s it’.”
Life for a time remained in Monaco – site of the most prestigious grand prix on the Formula One calendar – where he set up the International School of Monaco with his then wife.
The marriage didn’t last.
“Then came a variety of jobs,” Mills wrote. “Flying helicopters to the North Sea oil rigs, prospecting for gold in Australia with his father, before Thackwell gave away all his material possessions as he searched for a different way of life.”
Along with the surfboard shop and teaching, they were different worlds from that of a racing champion.
“The nepotism and narcissism in motorsport is something so profound,” he told Goodwood’s website.
“I don’t blame anyone or feel resentment or envy for anyone in that position, because that’s what happens to you. I’ve been privileged, and I didn’t do it on my own. I was good, and I was really good at times.
“But I wasn’t good enough to be that sort of driver because I just wasn’t. I wasn’t into what you had to be to be a top driver.”
Surfing was his sporting love, saying given his location he would don a trio of wetsuits as “it’s the only way to keep the cold out”.
Close family has also kept fans updated.
When his brother wrote online about Thackwell’s love for surfing, one fan responded: “Sounds like a hell of a lot more fun than discussing tyre vibration in untimed practice sessions with a bunch of engineers.
“I’m glad he’s found his place in life - sounds perfect to me. There aren’t enough free spirits in the world.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience.
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