Roebuck on Formula 1's tragic family
The fiercely talented Rodriguez brothers looked set for great things, writes NIGEL ROEBUCK, but luck wasn't on their side...
Back in the day the world championship season invariably ended at Watkins Glen in October, but there was a time when there were also non-championship F1 races, and in November 1962 most teams gathered in Mexico City for the country's inaugural Gran Premio.
Ferrari, though, did not enter, and for the organisers this was potentially disastrous: for one thing, its absence detracted from event; more fundamentally, Ricardo Rodriguez de la Vega, already a national hero in Mexico at the age of 20, was a Ferrari driver.
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