Tony Brooks
LAST OF THE ‘50s GREATS
With the dangers of top-level racing in the mid-20th century, this underrated British driver worked to a survival plan. And yet, as Mark Hughes says, he was often the finest on the grid
Tony Brooks’s debut solo F1 win came at Spa in 1958, although he had a stroke of fortune: his gearbox tightened on the finish line. Right: sharing driving with Stirling Moss at the British GP 1957
THE KLEMANTASKI COLLECTION
Tony Brooks, who died on May 3, aged 90, was one of the truly great F1 drivers. From his debut win in the 1955 nonchampionship Syracuse Grand Prix for Connaught and through his years with Vanwall (1957-58) and Ferrari (’59), he was a giant of a driver.
On his day he could reduce everyone else to bit-parts, even the great Stirling Moss, his team-mate at Vanwall.