Great Read

Away from the pressures of grand prix racing, drivers are well used to the one that got away, some of them to landing the big catch. Fishing, intriguingly, is a…

He was the Grand Prix driver straight from the Hollywood A-list. An offspring of one of modern America's icon dynasties, this handsome, debonair sophisticate would kiss goodbye to any one…

Most of the drivers who've related the tale of their 'Worst Racing Car' can now look back on the experience with a smile. It may have been awful at the…

I first met James back in 1971 when I joined the March team for my first season of international Formula Two racing. In those days I was living in London,…

Jan Opperman sprint car rebel, flower child and holy roller Christian minister with magic roaring out of his ears — was a trendsetter. This was in the 1970s. Emulating their…

John Miles beckons me over with a crook of a gloved index finger. He points to a smear of blue paint on the inside of the monocoque. "See that? This…

No mistakes this time Long Beach, California, April 8th EACH YEAR the running of the United States Grand Prix (West) through the streets of the town of Long Beach in…

Only four Indianapolis 500 rookies in 100 years have started from pole: Teo Fabi in 1983 is one. Prematurely balding and softly spoken, his puppy-ish face often apparently bemused, occasionally…

Alan Brinton was a good old-school journalist. He was 1950s Fleet Street personified. He addressed everyone as “old boy” or “my dear”, could actually touch-type but, cast adrift by the…

In order to appropriately mythologise Jackie Stewart, he really should be dead, the better to fulfil the time-served, cruelly macho parapsychology of his chosen sport. Not suburban-dead, felled by atherosclerosis…

Today’s media like to give our heroes convenient labels. Stirling Moss is “the greatest driver never to win the World Championship” – a glib line which says nothing about The…

Jan Magnussen is under few illusions about his Formula 1 career. "I let myself down," he says, "and that always hurts. I planned to be world champion and it didn't…

Argentinian Grand Prix, Buenos Aires, 1979 I've always considered Argentina in 1979 to be my first real Grand Prix victory. I'd won in Sweden in 1977, but only because of…

United States GP (East), Watkins Glen, October 5th 1980 From start to finish, the 1980 season was an unbelievable one for me. It was an amazing year because I won…

Emerson Fittipaldi's language dates him, reminding you of a time in motor-racing more violent and dangerous, yet also gentler, less hard-nosed. 'Dice', for example, is a favourite word of his,…

Between this year's Australian and Malaysian grands prix, Mrs C and I used up a free week with our first visit to New Zealand. On our travels around the wonderful…

No racing driver has ever survived such a big accident. And it’s unlikely that a grand prix car will ever again be allowed to run flat out into an earth…