Great Read
In a few months’ time comes the 25th anniversary of the death of Gilles Villeneuve. Tragedies of this kind are mercifully rare these days, but during my first year of…
Great Read
Twenty years ago this month, found myself a week before Christmas in a place to which ordinarily wild horses would not drag me. Sao Paulo I find about the least…
Great Read
Purity of line is the first thing that strikes you. Every time the Formula 1 rules shift, it takes only a matter of laps to accept a new look as…
Great Read
If it were possible to pinpoint where the old Formula 1 became the new, it might well have been on the deck of a yacht at Monaco in May 1971.…
Great Read
One thing about Colin Chapman and his staff at Ketteringham Hall, the Research and Development centre of Team Lotus, is that they do have a go and do not sit…
Great Read
At the end of the 1977 season Jochen Mass found himself edged out of McLaren, who replaced him with Patrick Tambay. After three and a bit seasons with the British…
The mantelpiece at his home in Monaco has been creaking, these past years, under the weight of invitations to appear at what the Germans call ‘old timer’ events all over…
"Thierry was a very smooth and stylish driver, a quiet man, not that forceful, and a very gentlemanly person who was always a pleasure to have in the team. "He…
1958 Formula 1 Argentine Grand Prix At first it looked as though the Italian teams had stolen a march on the British Grand Prix teams, by being ready for the…
There is precious little room in motor racing for ifs, buts and might-have-beens. As Keke Rosberg is fond of saying, if his aunt had a moustache and balls she’d be…
Teddy Mayer 1935-2009 Teddy Mayer passed away at home in Surrey at the end of January. Mayer, 73, was a stalwart of McLaren Cars through most of the company’s first…
"Stand back, they are all going off on a warm-up lap. Bonnier is very late starting; something wrong with a rear-wheel fixing; did his mechanic strip the studs?" "Here they…
Great Read
Big breath. I have to go there. The matter has to be raised. So best get it out of the way, no point pussyfooting around the edges. So I look…
Great Read
Having scaled the heights of back-to-back wins in both the drivers' and constructors' championships in 1959-60, Cooper found the terrain beyond steeply downhill. In 1961 it finished fourth in the…
Great Read
People – not the cars – are the essence of motor racing history. Unlike the chicken and the egg there's no doubting which comes first. The Maserati 250F was the first…
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…
