F1

It is 21 years, I realise with some amazement, since I began covering Grand Prix racing for Autosport, and in that time I have come to know a good many…

The inaugural Mexican Grand Prix of 1962 should have been a celebration. The country's racing prodigy, Ricardo Rodriguez, was to perform in front of his adoring countrymen. These people, who'd…

For today's Formula 1 drivers, the glare of the media spotlight is relentless. TV cameras haunt every corner of the paddock, there are daily press conferences throughout a Grand Prix…

Ayrton Senna was the most committed man I ever met. The sheer depth of his approach to his profession was something few ordinary people could truly understand. We speak of…

A large Greek called Demis Roussos topped the charts. Water was rationed as Britain sweated in the hottest summer on record. Björn Borg beat Ilie Nastase to take the first…

The name of Lotus, absent since 1994, returns to Formula 1 this year, and if that name is all it shares with its legendary forbear still I think it something…

Many of you, I'm certain, will remember him, head tilted slightly forwards, in the cockpit of that elegant gold pin-striped jet black JPS Lotus 72. Rear tyres chirping audibly as…

Adrian Newey has achieved remarkable success during the past decade with Williams and McLaren. Indeed, it would not be wrong to say that in recent times the world championship has…

When compiling a list of famous Belgians, I think instantly of Georges Prosper Remi, better known as Hergé, whose Tintin stories have long been favourites of mine. Then there’s Eddy…

Interlagos, first round of the 1976 championship, the dying moments of final qualifying. There's a face-to-face row going on in the McLaren pit. Team boss Teddy Mayer and his new…

Whilst the idea of a journalist carrying out a serious evaluation of a present-day grand prix car is as unlikely as it is presumptuous, it's not every day that the…

In 1981, the year before his death, Colin Chapman's Lotus colleagues witnessed something incredible: the most creative racing car designer of the time fell out of love with motorsport. Convinced…

A hot, dusty afternoon in southern Spain. It’s September 28 1990, Friday qualifying at Jerez. With eight minutes left, Jean Alesi’s Tyrrell has just produced a ripple of interest in…

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…

For sheer driving satisfaction there are three races I'll always remember above the rest. The first was in 1988 at Delmar, California, in an IMSA Jaguar, when I was nerfed…

What has a gestation period of 50 years? Cyril Kieft's grand prix car. Conceived in 1953, part-built in '54, abandoned by '55, the incomplete car was forgotten by the racing…

A couple of years ago Roberto Moreno was asked to be the subject of a Worst Car I Ever Drove for Motor Sport. He refused. The reason? He wasn't sure…