F1 track tests

In the end, it is just a car. You sit with a steering wheel in your hands. You change gear by shifting a lever fore and aft, working your way…

Okay, so the contract for 1994 may not be in the post, but when I got the chance to drive the championship-winning Williams I really wanted to make a good…

The tension’s almost unbearable as a chilling breeze sweeps down the old Silverstone pitlane. Will it, won’t it? Silence descends for a second, and the atmosphere ratchets up one more…

"Okay. But please ask the announcer to tell the crowd why I’m not waving.” Sir Stirling Moss – the original professional racing driver and at the age of 80 still…

David Coulthard cuts the ignition, wiggles the red leather steering wheel and folds his arms. "Well, if you'd just like to put me in the back of the truck I'll…

2017 Williams FW40 All the way through the 2017 season I’ve been going to races and hearing drivers talk about just how amazing this generation of cars is. The bigger…

When kitsch was cool, John Travolta was new and the only skirts in Formula 1 were mini, soft porn strutted and pouted its way onto the grand prix grid. On…

Blip, blip, buzz — pause — clunk, sputter, sputter. This Lotus 'queerbox' is in perfect condition. But it's still a sod. Next lap, into the first corner, there's a confident…

Georg Meier, BMW's newly crowned European 500cc bike champion, got the call from Auto Union in early November: come to the Nürburgring and test for us. Tall and handsome, he…

As his wheezy, knock-kneed steed cantered along Kyalami's main straight at almost 150mph — well, it was downhill! — the 'Cowangie Kid' had plenty of time to mull over his…

Porsche’s history as a Formula 1 constructor is as short and unspectacular as its time as a sports car manufacturer is long and illustrious. The records show Porsche entered the…

John Surtees was always destined to become a constructor. At least that's how it appeared from the outside. For he absolutely knew his own mind – how a team ought…

John Miles beckons me over with a crook of a gloved index finger. He points to a smear of blue paint on the inside of the monocoque. "See that? This…

It took time to squeeze him in, but Andrew Frankel revelled in the Honda RA300 at Motegi know that feeling you get when something quite wonderful isn't going to happen?…

Complacency: a strong word when aimed at brittle motor racing people.  But... "Why change it when we're winnin'?"  Sounds complacent, doesn't it?  Well, at the dawn of the 1960s John…

The last Formula One car I drove was a March 891. It was powered by a 3.5-litre V10 motor built by Ilmor, the people who build the Mercedes engine in…

Lancia-Ferrari D50 and Vanwall VW7: two icons from the end of F1's front-engined era. Simon Taylor gets a thrill and charts their history Side by side in the pitlane at…