He rose from cleaner to team manager at McLaren, walked out on Bernie Ecclestone and then found a way to fund a passion for fine cars
Writer: Simon Taylor | Photographer: James Mitchell
Spending a day or even an hour with Alastair Caldwell, listening to his fund of stories about Formula 1 from the inside 40 or more years ago, is an unforgettable experience. As a callow, penniless 24-year-old,...
Another chapter in the series for photographs taken by our readers. This month we visit Monza for the 1981 Italian GP, get excited by a grainy image from Aintree '55 and drop in on packed Sicilian roads for the Targa Florio
"The highlight of my 1972 overseas holiday was meant to be the Monaco Grand Prix on May 14," remembers David Pearson. "It turned out to be a very wet procession." Instead a...
Letter of the month
Jack the gentleman
I had the humbling experience of Jack Brabham’s no-nonsense approach to racing car preparation; it was a wake-up call at the time. In 1988 I was involved with Derek Bell Racing, running his son Justin in Vauxhall-Lotus. Via our Camel sponsorship we also took on David Brabham from Australian Formula Ford. Preparing two recently delivered cars, I was at our...
"To finish first, you must first finish" the saying goes and during the 1983 Formula One season most of the top drivers did their best to eliminate themselves from the races at one time or another. Some of their mistakes were pardonable, some were as a result of trying too hard, some were due to brain-fade and some were plain stupidity. World Champion Nelson Piquet was not perfect, stalling his...
A sense of perspective
The Ferrari conundrum
Farewell to a friend
Back in 1964 three British drivers – Jim Clark, Graham Hill, John Surtees – went to the final Grand Prix, in Mexico, to settle the world championship. In the end the title went to Surtees, after Clark’s Lotus had led all the way until its engine seized on the last lap, and Hill’s BRM had been delayed by a coming-together with...
Only two Gilbys were ever built, an 1,100 cc sports car and a 1½-litre F1 car. Both were well designed, attractive, and prepared to the highest standards, yet in terms of absolute success, they merit no more than a footnote in motor racing history. What the project represented, though, is much more important. They were among the very last cars to be built and raced by a privateer with the object...
The history of the Miller racing cars which contributed such an important part to the American racing scene has been fully covered in the book written by Mark Dee, which for some reason or other has not come the way of this reviewer. I have heard enough about Miller history, however, to believe that nothing else on the subject is called for. So it came as a surprise to find an article on various...
Continuing a trilogy that chronicles key moments in the sport’s technical evolution, we look back at a race featuring the very best from France, Britain, Italy and America
Writer Paul Fearnley
Post-war emotion was still raw in France and Mercedes was neither welcome nor invited. It wouldn’t have won in any case. Hyperinflation in Germany, when added to that denial of top-rank European competition...
To his credit, Jean Todt rarely shied away from facing the press when he was sporting director at Ferrari. A few hours after most Grands Prix, he would make himself available for questions, and in the era of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari domination that would often mean facing something contentious to talk about. How he would answer such questions would often be more instructive than anything he...
Behind the shock and awe of era-defining Silver Arrows domination, tension festered in the wake of the Führer’s decision to split state funding between Mercedes and the new Auto UnionWriter Doug Nye
Pre-war motor racing was well reported by the British weeklies The Motor and The Autocar, with Tom Moore and friends in Motor Sport having more time to get it right. Time reveals so much more – but...