F1's Dirty Politics: Bernie vs Balestre, FOCA vs FISA
It is early afternoon on Saturday November 1, 1980. A call is placed to the Brabham headquarters in Chessington, Surrey. The conversation goes something like this: “’Allo?” “Ah, hello. Could…
Karl Kling, who died recently, may never have been a great racing driver but he was certainly one who had his days. I interviewed him only once, appropriately close by…
Ambition is a funny thing. For some it burns so bright it sears a lasting scar on their personalities. Others look as if they don't have a scrap of it…
Back in June 1980 I interviewed Patrick Depailler at Brands Hatch. He was a lovely fellow, a man out of his time, I always felt, very much a throwback to…
If a racing driver has to die young, there is an almost gladiatorial rightness that he do so in his element on the track. Gunnar Nilsson was denied even that,…
This was one of those moments Spa seems to produce. It ranks with Mika Hakkinen's move on Michael Schumacher last year, or the first lap of the 1963 GP when…
When we speak of legendary partnerships in motor racing, perhaps the one that would spring first to most minds is that of Colin Chapman and Jim Clark: throughout his eight-year…
With his dark features and thick, curly, slightly receding hair, Gabriele Tarquini looked not unlike American comedian John Belushi during his time in Formula One. Sadly, the Italian's machinery often…
After leaving BRM at the end of the 1970 season, Jackie Oliver had joined Don Nichols’ Shadow racing organisation in the USA to race its Can-Am sports-racing cars. Jackie was…
Their laughter fills the place. Morning in the Goodwood pitlane. Keith Duckworth and Mike Costin are a couple of shop floor boys, trading gentle insults. Dick Scammell feels as easy…
Gerhard Berger chose Jean Alesi without hesitation. Very Berger, no messing about, things to do, people to see, a Grand Prix team to run. “Sure, I give you 15 minutes,…
As symbolic gestures go, it was hardly subtle. At the 1980 United States Grand Prix, reigning World Champion Jody Scheckter hauled himself out of his Ferrari, trod purposefully down its…
Gerard Ducarouge, exhausted by months of off-season toil and the heat of an Argentinian afternoon, was only vaguely aware of the two Lotus engineers looking at his car as the…
Ferrari team-mates they were, and always on the best of terms, professionally and personally. Forty years on, Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx came to London for Motor Sport’s inaugural Hall…
This is it, probably his last chance. Michael Schumacher has been staring at the rear wing of the McLaren for the first 37 laps of the Japanese Grand Prix. His…
The Lotus founder was famed for his drive to innovate; even his final racing car boasted one principle that would change the face of F1 By Andrew Frankel Even at…
The enormous crowd, estimated at between 55,000 and 60,000 people, which watched the racing at Goodwood on Easter Monday got excellent value for their ticket-money. Not only did 101 aeroplanes…