Racing History

There was a lot to think about. But Bruce Leslie McLaren — boss / designer / engineer / tester / racer — preferred it that way. Three years of his…

This odd-looking motorcycle that Barry Sheene is sitting on is a monocoque Seeley-Suzuki TR500. Sheene had been testing the bike pre-season in ’73 alongside Seeley’s official rider Pat Mahoney –…

Divina Galica never meant to be a racing driver. On the contrary, skiing was her first sporting enthusiasm, and in many ways it remains her greatest sporting love. Born in…

Every year yields a champion, many campaigns feature a spectacular title battle, but few produce legends of heroic failure. Fernando Alonso’s near-miss for Ferrari in 2012 stands as one of…

Just imagine that a Formula 1 team was fined nearly £50m by the FIA and disqualified from the constructors’ championship, as a result of its chief designer having been caught…

It all began so smoothly. Ron Dennis invited Formula 1 reporters to the McLaren executive dining room where, over a pleasant lunch, he outlined how access to Lewis Hamilton would…

The 1997 Formula 1 World Championship was a memorable contest that saw Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher fight for the title all the way to the final race, and only…

There was neither an epic world championship fight, with Alain Prost taking his fourth and final title at a canter, nor a deluge of classic races, but some great seasons…

“And look at that!” exclaimed Murray Walker. Eighteen laps from home, we’ll never forget how Nigel Mansell’s world title hopes disintegrated along with his left-rear Goodyear. It happened just after…

In terms of Formula 1’s mass appeal, this was its genesis. A human story that catapulted the sport from minority interest to a global phenomenon. It had every bit as…

Few knew: ‘Uncle Ken’, firm of handshake and belief, kept a mean secret; and, with views to his past, present and, wisely, future, Jackie Stewart had let a couple of…

I’d been in the world 14 years and one month when, on January 4, 1967, I watched Donald Campbell’s fatal Bluebird somersault on Coniston Water, on our black and white…

What’s blue-and-white and red all under? John Surtees’ Ferrari 158 wore North America’s racing colours at a topsy-turvy Mexico City decider, its welfare ostensibly catered for by influential US importer…

Faulty steps and tragic dark shadows cast the still-young world championship in a peculiar and troubled light, especially from this distance of 66 years. This was also a season that…

John Watson 22nd, 1983 United States GP West It’s a record John Watson hopes will stand for ever – and it will unless more than the current 10 teams join…

Twenty six years ago, on May 28, 1972, a driver with a degree in mechanical engineering from Brown University won the Indianapolis 500. His name was Mark Donohue. It was…

I first met Derek Bennett in 1965 when he brought over the original Chevron Clubmans car to Northern Ireland,  raced it at Kirkistown, then took it down to Dunboyne. As…