FEBRUARY 1, 1999

A hint of things to come?

WHEN the Sauber F1 team launched its C18 at the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basle it clearly felt that none of the F1 journalists would be sufficiently educated in modern art to point out that Tinguely made his name by creating machine-like devices which self-destructed.

WHEN the Sauber F1 team launched its C18 at the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basle it clearly felt that none of the F1 journalists would be sufficiently educated in modern art to point out that Tinguely made his name by creating machine-like devices which self-destructed.

In 1960 Tinguely demonstrated his first large self-destructive sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It failed to destroy itself successfully and had to be finished off by members of the New York Fire Department after setting itself on fire.

Tinguely's later works were more effective thanks largely to the use of explosives. This unique artistic talent is a strangeÊthingÊforÊa Formula 1 team to wish to associate itself with, but then Sauber's launches have always been rather bizarre affairs.