Piers Courage: Nigel Roebuck's Legends
Fitness is all-consuming in Formula One, I know, but still there is something depressing about the uniformity of drivers' tastes today. Favourite drink: mineral water; favourite food: pasta. An exception…
As a devotee of Messrs Cook & Moore, I recently learned with horror that most episodes of Not Only… But Also are lost for ever. Back then the BBC would…
A couple of days before the Revival Meeting at Goodwood, BMW held a splendid lunch in honour of Gerhard Berger, who — for the moment — has left the world of Formula…
In a book shop the other day, I noticed by chance a volume on the life and, for want of a better word, works of Mark Thatcher (no, please, stay…
In recent years there's been a spate of new circuits in world championship use, and I mean tracks not merely new to Formula One, but tracks new, period, built in…
Not many people have known Formula 1 from the inside better than John Hogan. For countless years he was 'the man from Philip Morris', the man responsible for Marlboro's involvement…
Late in the afternoon of November 22 1963, I was stopped by a policeman and reprimanded for riding my bike at dusk without lights. I carried on to school, chastened,…
As I write, two races in the 2006 F1 season remain, and Michael Schumacher, on the brink of retirement, is fighting for his eighth World Championship. As ever with Schumacher…
Places mean cars, don't they? Hear the word `Maranello' and you think of something red with yellow shields on its flanks. Similarly, 'Weissach' is synonymous with Porsche, and when I…
One of the reasons I no longer stay in Monaco for the GP is that these days I find the place intensely claustrophobic. So many beautiful buildings have been swept…
With some astonishment, I realised the other day that 40 years have gone since Jim Clark and Colin Chapman began a revolution at Indianapolis, and that 35 years have passed…
At Goodwood, no one was more caught by the atmosphere than Dan Gurney. "Yesterday I played in Lord March's cricket match," he said. "I was on his team, and beginner's…
We will greatly miss the presence of Jean Alesi in the Formula One paddocks this year. Apart from being a 'real person' (increasingly an endangered species these days), he was…
“I always loved speed,” said Gilles Villeneuve. "My father used to drive very quickly he used to get stopped by the police quite often, I remember and, from being five…
One evening, several years ago, and over a degustivo or two, Jenks was reminiscing about the Mille Miglia. "I've often thought," he said, "what fun it would have been to…
Adelaide 1986 The result at Indianapolis meant that we were denied a three-way title showdown. That's a shame, because the last time this occurred, at Adelaide 17 years ago, when Nigel…
Through my 20-odd years as a Grand Prix journalist, I have been repeatedly surprised by the drivers' lack of childhood enthusiasm for motor racing. Most, indeed, seem almost to have…