Tony Brooks

British racing driver widely regarded as one of the greatest never to win a World Championship, who finished runner-up in 1959 with Ferrari and won six Grands Prix in a six-year career.

Born Charles Anthony Standish Brooks on 25 February 1932 in Dukinfield, Cheshire, Tony Brooks trained as a dentist before rising to prominence in the non-championship 1955 Syracuse Grand Prix, where a call-up from British manufacturer Connaught resulted in a shock victory, the first international Grand Prix win for a British car in more than 30 years. Brooks joined Vanwall in 1957 and 1958, winning Grands Prix and finishing third in the 1958 World Championship, before moving to Ferrari for 1959. That season he came agonisingly close to the title, winning the French and German Grands Prix and finishing runner-up in the championship to Jack Brabham. Fellow driver Stirling Moss, his teammate at Vanwall, later called Brooks 'the most underrated great driver of them all', comparing his effortless style to Jim Clark's. Brooks was renowned for his exceptional pace on fast, dangerous circuits, particularly the 14-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife, where his speed was reportedly a factor in the fatal 1958 crash of Ferrari teammate Peter Collins, who was attempting to keep pace with him. Despite his obvious talent, Brooks lacked the fierce personal ambition that drove contemporaries such as Moss, and never fully committed himself to chasing the championship at all costs. Brooks retired from Formula 1 in 1961 with six Grand Prix victories and ten podiums from just 38 starts, an exceptional strike rate. He died on 3 May 2022 at age 90, the last surviving Grand Prix winner from the 1950s.

Effortless, smooth driving style particularly suited to fast, dangerous circuits

Praised by contemporaries including Stirling Moss as one of the most naturally gifted drivers of the 1950s