Tony Brooks b.1932

THE LAST SURVIVING Formula 1 winner of the 1950s and one of the greatest talents to drive in the shadow of Sir Stirling Moss, Brooks never shied away from that fact, once telling

Octane’s editor: ‘I was honoured to be “number two” to the greatest there has ever been.’ Quite. However, Brooks’ modesty and natural charm belied a fierce competitor with huge talent.

Born in Cheshire, he followed in his father’s footsteps by training as a dentist. He started racing in his mother’s Healey Silverstone in the early 1950s and his rise was meteoric, notably becoming the first Brit to pilot a British car to a post-war International victory when he triumphed on his F1 debut in a Connaught in the non-championship Syracuse race. Two years later, he famously shared the Vanwall with Moss at Aintree to chalk up an even more notable British record – an F1 win for a British car and driver on home soil.

Renowned for his smooth style and preternatural ability to bring cars home, his secret, as he told Vantage magazine in 2019, was always to ‘drive to the maximum of my ability, never beyond’. He retired in 1961 and though his was not the longest F1 career – like most he had a parallel career in sports cars, including a 1957 win at Spa in the Aston DBR1 – he won six of the 39 GPs that he started. Driving for Ferrari in 1959, he finished second in the World Championship, ahead of Moss and bested only by Jack Brabham. As a mark of his quality, Brooks’ team-mate at Ferrari that year was Phil Hill, yet he beat the American 1961 World Champion everywhere except Zandvoort.

Two barren years with Yeoman and BRM followed and then he packed it in: ‘I was driving as well as ever, but common sense prevailed at the end of 1961 and, with a young family [he was married for more than 60 years to Pina], I decided to retire and focus on my retail motor business, never to return to motor racing.’

Brooks’ autobiography Poetry in Motion is a proper, selfpenned book from one of the most underrated drivers there has ever been, a man who eschewed pizzazz and flew under many radars as a result. It is a must in every motor racing library.