Tom Sneva

Thomas E. "Tom" Sneva (born June 1, 1948 in Spokane, Washington, USA) is an American race car driver, famous for racing in Formula One and Indycar.

His younger brother, Jerry, also raced in Formula One.

Tom Sneva at the 1976 Indy 500, prior to his Formula One debut.

Formula One

1976

After a moderately successful Indy 500, Sneva was drafted into the Marlboro Team McLaren squad for the final seven races of the 1976 season, replacing Jochen Mass.

Sneva would immediately get up to speed with the McLaren M23 and Formula One racing, taking podiums in his first two races, followed by a win at the Dutch Grand Prix. Sneva's other win in 1976 would be at his home race, the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Despite missing most of the season, Sneva would end up finishing fourth overall in the driver's standings as well as helping McLaren take constructor's honours.

1977

A remarkable end to the 1976 season would not be enough for Sneva to immediately retain his seat at McLaren for the following year as it emerged that Leonhard von Gottorp had been signed by the British team to partner last year's runner-up Carlos Reutemann.

However, contractual issues meant that Sneva would eventually take the seat from von Gottorp - a decision he'd immediately repay by winning the season-opening Argentine Grand Prix - his only victory of the season.

1978

Sneva's teammate Reutemann retired at the end of 1977 and as such he was joined by Swiss driver Clay Regazzoni for 1978. Unfortunately for the pair, McLaren had begun to lose some of their usual pace - with the M23B chassis now getting long in the tooth and well behind their rivals. At the season opening Argentine Grand Prix, Sneva could only manage sixteenth position in qualifying, which saw the American storm straight out of the paddock in fury. After a disastrous and pointless start to the season with McLaren, Sneva was traded to Renault with René Arnoux coming in the opposite direction ahead of the Swiss Grand Prix. Sneva's switch to Renault did pay some dividends in the French Grand Prix when he managed to bring the Renault home in fifth place - the French team's best ever result at that point. However, the terrible reliability of the "yellow teapot" frustrated Sneva and he'd depart the team at the end of 1978 - heading back to US open wheelers in 1979.

Complete Formula 1 Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Points	WDC
1976	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M23	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	SOV	FRA	GBR	GER 2	AUT 3	NED 1	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA 1	JPN 2		34	4th
1977	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M23B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG 1	RSA Ret	USW 2	ESP Ret	BEL 3	MON 4	FRA 3	TUS Ret	SOV 2	GBR 3	NED Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 5	USA Ret	JPN Ret	38	5th
1978	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M23B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG Ret	RSA Ret	USW 9	ESP Ret	BEL 7	MON 7												2	16th
	Équipe Renault Elf	Renault RS01	Renault-Gordini EF1 1.5 V6t							SUI 10	TUS Ret	GBR Ret	FRA 5	NED Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 11	USA Ret