Taken from Motor Sport, March 2010

We all remember our first grand prix. You can watch it for years on the television but until you actually go and watch a gridful of Formula 1 cars come past, feel your insides churn and your ears itch, you will only have seen it. You will never have experienced it.

Mine was at Brands Hatch on a sunny summer’s day in 1978. I don’t believe in love at first sight, but in the case of the Lotus 79 I am prepared to make an exception. I can remember looking at Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson streaking away from the rest of the field in their now usual 1-2 formation and my 12-year-old mind knew exactly why. Everything else on the grid that day, the Ferraris, McLarens, Renaults, Brabhams and Tyrrells, looked obsolete.