Chris Humberstone
Chris Humberstone, former head of Spice Racing Cars and creator of the outrageous Allard WSC car, has died. Connected at different times with the Beatrice and Eurobrun F1 teams and the Brun-Judd GpC project, he also led the development of the latest London taxi and was working on a limousine to replace the defunct Daimler. Though he was forced to sell Spice in 1995, the firm...
There was a development in Formula One that came between the Brabham and this Beatrice-Lola that was more significant still than the turbocharger sitting bolted to its 1.5-litre Hart engine. Carbon-fibre. Stiff enough to make a conventional aluminium monocoque look like it had all the structural integrity of creme caramel, it came with the happy side-effect that drivers — with a couple of notable...
Driven to race far from home
Phil Hill’s passing near the end of the summer got me thinking about the great era of motor racing that his career straddled, and the large role played in the sport in those days by American drivers, cars and teams. Through the 1950s and ’60s, Phil was a true pioneer of American road racing. Before earning a seat with Ferrari’s factory sports car team, he set the...
6th - 126C3
Ferrari's early turbo cars were all about their engines. But Harvey Postlethwaite then designed a chassis able to rein in 1000bhp. Patrick Tambay talks to Adam Cooper
Although it contested only seven Grands Prix in the second half of 1983, and scored just two wins, the 126C3 can claim to be one of the fastest Ferraris ever. Between them Patrick Tambay and René Arnoux took nine of the...
It is part of motor racing folklore that Australian World Champion Alan Jones had little time for FIA stewards, or “those men in blazers” as he called them. I was therefore intrigued to hear his views on the manner in which Sebastian Vettel departed the grid at Suzuka in October. So I phoned him in Darwin where he was visiting the Argyll gold mine (more of that later) and AJ was kind enough to...
Why, two decades after he quit the sport as champion, is Jackie Stewart returning with his own team?
He may, as one Ford executive suggests, be the customer from hell, but when it comes to being an ambassador, Jackie Stewart is surely heaven sent.
Which is why the manufacturer's relationship with Stewart has spanned 31 years. And why it will sink an estimated 100 million pounds into his new...
The Senna Saga
Invariably the winter months, when there in no Formula One racing, are enlivened by some inconsequential drama whipped up into a fury by the weekly comics and the media in general This winter was no exception and I was interested to follow the saga of Ayrton Senna da Silva and his terms with Team Lotus. It ran for a full three months and everyone had his say, except oddly enough,...
Sir,
I should like to offer my congratulations on your excellent recent articles on Ronnie Peterson and Gunnar Nilsson, as well as those on Hesketh and Beatrice. I had the privilege of meeting Messrs Peterson and Nilsson during my years as a pit marshal at Silverstone in the Seventies. Reading your article brought back memories of a better era in Formula One. May I hope that there will be more of...
Adrian Newey has been Formula One's dominant designer for the past decade. But his career stretches right back to 1980. Adam Cooper talks to him about those crucial formative years.
Adrian Newey has achieved remarkable success during the past decade with Williams and McLaren. Indeed, it would not be wrong to say that in recent times the world championship has essentially been a battle between...
Although its products won the CART and Japanese F3000 titles last season, 1991 wasn't a wholly successful year for Lola. Undeterred, the Huntingdon constructor is preparing a spectacular assault on motor racing's four major disciplines in 1993
Winter 1991 cannot have been too comfortable a time for Lola, the specialist volume racing car constructor founded by Eric Broadley in 1958. It was forced...