Great Read

The finish of Le Mans is always a great occasion, but this one is special. The little green and orange Mazda has humiliated the mighty Sauber-Mercedes and Jaguar teams, not…

There’s a glimmer of recognition in his eyes as he walks towards me. We first met in 1978 when he came to England with his Formula 3 team, fresh from…

Ten years ago I wrote a not terribly good book. And while I cannot claim responsibility for its somewhat cheesy Dream Cars title, the content was all mine. My brief…

At his first attempt, Jacques Villeneuve has already enjoyed a more successful Grand Prix year than his legendary father, Gilles, ever did notwithstanding the four-and-a-bit years Villeneuve Snr spent dazzling…

In May, Luigi "Gigi" Villoresi will be 88 years of age, and after a remarkable career he is now the last of the great pre-war Italian racing drivers. His esteemed…

Sitting in the Galleria Ferrari at Maranello, the 126CK is certainly not the most elegant racing car to have emerged from the Gestione Sportive. Yet this in no way debars it from staking…

January 1982. Tears at Number 10, newsreaders scrabbling for a map of north-west Africa and travel agents panicking to get News of the World scribes on the first plane to…

At 8.46 on the morning of January 4 1967 Donald Campbell took what became the last great gamble of his life on Coniston Water. Only moments after speeding down the…

We sat at the start of the opening special stage. The pace notes were on my knee and, behind our heads, the engine burbled away through its twinchoke Dellortos. We…

Death fully defines a man. Potential for things not yet done no longer exists." Someone said this in a book about jazz great Eric Dolphy, but it applies universally to…

There are numerous cars greater than the sum of all their parts. There are few, though, infinitely greater. And this is one of them. From its Unipart-sourced pressure cap to…

Chapman the designer; Chapman the race team manager; Chapman the business entrepreneur; we are used to these pictures of the charismatic Lotus supremo. But way back at the beginning, he…

Niki Lauda is a legend. There is no other word for it. This is the man who cheated death, was given the last rites and went on to win a…

One of IndyCar racing’s greatest stars of the 1970s and ’80s was Johnny Rutherford, who made his name in the early ’60s on dirt tracks and won the Indianapolis 500…

The one that got away Jacques Laffite: 1983 Monaco Grand Prix "There are a few frustrating races I remember from the Ligier days, especially in 1979 and '80 when we had…

He smiles in a manner that appears more resigned than amused. It’s clear that Ian Ashley has heard the same question in various guises all his professional life. “Ah, the…

It was inevitable that the Monza paddock should be a tense place over the weekend of the 2001 Italian Grand Prix. Everyone arrived there on the Thursday, reeling still from the atrocities of…