Nigel Roebuck's legends: Alfonso de Portago
The other day I listened again to an interview, recorded in early 1957, with the Marquis Alfonso de Portago. Originally put out on a Riverside LP, it was reissued on…
Twenty-five years have passed since the death of Gilles Villeneuve, the most beloved racing driver of his generation, and many words have lately been devoted to a man without whom,…
"In a time when motor racing was conducted with integrity and passion, one unique character graced the stage of Formula One. His name was Ken Tyrrell." The narrator's opening words…
As I drive, each July, from Frankfurt airport to Hockenheim, it is my invariable practice to pull off into the rest area by the Langen-Morfelden crossing on the autobahn towards Darmstadt. At…
On 17 July 1937, during practice for the German GP, Bernd Rosemeyer fought his wayward Auto Union round the Nürburgring in 9min 46.2sec, a time that staggered the pitlane. By…
Riccardo Patrese is one of those racing drivers who ages well, I thought again when I saw him in Monaco a few weeks ago. Greying a little, and strolling around…
Time was when I used to go to the Daytona 500 every year. For one thing, the Florida weather in February made a stimulating change from the white skies and…
Appropriately, it is November 29 as I write, and – just as in 1975 – there is a thick crust of frost on the windscreen of my car. That evening,…
When people ask me which I think is the most impressive vantage point on any circuit I have visited, my answer unfailingly surprises them. Eau Rouge at Spa? Suzuka's 130R?…
A 'retro' interview this month. Recently I came across a tape, recorded in November 1981 with Frank Williams, and on a whim slotted it into the machine and began to…
When I was a kid, someone gave me an EP – remember them? – of the BRM V16 on full noise. I once told Stirling Moss about it. "I'm surprised,"…
"Back in 1964, I was doing a tyre test at Trenton, New Jersey, and there's this young guy there, driving a roadster for Clint Brawner. I got a little careless,…
Down the years there have been exceptions to the rule, of course, but by and large the running of two bona fide number one drivers in a single team is…
Through the 1959 season John Cooper's little company in Surbiton was still the only one building, and racing, rear-engined grand prix cars. Colin Chapman was running his ‘mini-Vanwall', the Lotus…
Probably there is no one in motor racing with whom I enjoy talking more than Sir Stirling Moss. His memory is not what it was before, as he puts it,…
It seems to me that John Cooper's place in motor racing has always been underrated. There is an abiding reverence for Colin Chapman, and rightly so, but Cooper put the…
When Nico Rosberg took the fastest lap in his first grand prix, in Bahrain, it was pointed out to him that he was only the fourth driver in history to…