Great Read

For most of 2009, a quarter of the drivers on the Grand Prix grids were from Germany. And, thanks to the long reign of Michael Schumacher, that country is statistically…

It takes time for certain cars to assume their place in history. Cars that achieve firsts are easy to recognise and remember, for their importance is clear to see from…

In 1985, Michele Alboreto's star was on the rise. The first Italian to drive for Ferrari for over a decade, he was on the podium eight times in the first…

When the flag waved to start the 1953 Indianapolis 500 it was already an infernally hot and humid day with the temperature in the mid-30s centigrade. At the time part…

The bodywork's glinting contours provide the answer to my four million-dollar question. The query had seemed valid: although undeniably beautiful, this car was essentially a flawed racing machine that only…

First, a few basic facts. During the 1988 season, the McLaren MP4/4 won all bar one Grands Prix, a fact which makes the team proud to this day. It is…

These Lunch With.... pieces start out as long and often colourful one-to-one conversations, over a pleasant meal. But they end up in black and white, as printed words. So I…

It was a remarkable opening lap of a remarkable circuit. Rhodesia's Gary Hocking had been drawn at six, his MV Agusta team-mate Mike Hailwood at three and his good friend,…

Team personnel rubbed their hands together to ward off the frosty chill as they left their hotels for the short run to the Hockenheimring, the circuit close to Mannheim in…

Some weekends you can come back from a Grand Prix with a notebook relatively clean. There will be a lap chart in there, of course, together with notes and quotes,…

Think for one minute about the hardest thing you have ever done in your life. Remember if you can the sleepless nights, the mental anguish that came from your own…

"I’d like to talk about Alan [he uses the English pronunciation] Prost,” says John Watson after some thinking time. He’s like that, always has been: he’s a thoughtful man. “There…

'He truly never met a race car that he didn't like. All US racing was clamped in an AJ Foyt stranglehold' It was a great racing civilisation that America had…

Blip, blip, buzz — pause — clunk, sputter, sputter. This Lotus 'queerbox' is in perfect condition. But it's still a sod. Next lap, into the first corner, there's a confident…

Those last 10 laps were exhausting. I was checking the rev counter, listening anxiously to the engine’s note, changing gear with exaggerated care, braking a little earlier and giving the…

IN 1948 at Bremgarten a 12 year-old Swiss boy watched, entranced, as a Frenchman wove his magic driving a Gordini. The boy's name was Joseph Siffert, the Frenchman's Raymond Sommer.…

If ever you were a Lotus fan Goodwood brought it all back. In the paddock, for example, were a pair of Lotus 25s, both ex-Clark, and at the Brooks auction…