MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 15

EDDIE IRVINE
GRANDS PRIX - 148
WINS - 4
BEST GRID POSITION - 4th three times
POINTS SCORED - 191
--- F1 CAREER ---
1993 - Jordan Hart - 20th - 1pt
1994 - Jordan Hart - 16th - 6pts
1995 - Jordan Peugeot - 12th - 10pts
1996 - Ferrari - 10th - 11pts
1997 - Ferrari - 7th - 24pts
1998 - Ferrari - 4th - 47pts
1999 - Ferrari - 2nd - 74
2000 - Jaguar - 13th - 4pts
2001 - Jaguar - 12th - 6pts
2002 - Jaguar - 9th - 8pts

Here now is the first of the Irish drivers on my list, and one that came oh so close to securing a world title of his own while driving for the most famous team in the sport, Eddie Irvine from Newtownards in Northern Ireland certainly had an eventful time in Formula 1 right from his very first couple of races.

After being influenced by his family to begin racing, he began in British Formula Ford where he spent 3 years slugging it out in the midfield in uncompetitive machinery, he did though manage to get on the podium on a few occasions and his persistence and patience paid off in 1987 when he signed for the works Van Diemen squad, he did'nt disappoint in winning his first major title that season winning a staggering 19 races in the process. From then the next logical step up was Formula 3 with West Surrey Racing (one of the leading teams at the time) for 1988, but with an uncompetitive engine he was unable to challenge for the major honours, he finished with 8 podiums and 5th place in the championship. But he would make his first major impression in that years Macau F3 Grand Prix, he qualified on pole position and won the qualifying race before unluckily losing the Grand Prix itself to Enrico Bertaggia.

This enabled Irvine to make the step up to Formula 3000 with Pacific who were making their debut in the category for 1989, it was a quiet year, one podium finish in Italy enough to earn Irvine 9th in the championship. He would make the step up to the front running Jordan team for 1990 alongside future F1 star Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Emanuelle Naspetti, but despite his presence at a leading squad, he struggled and despite taking his first F3000 win in Germany and finishing 3rd in the championship, he was a country mile behind the eventual champion Erik Comas. Somewhat disillusioned, Irvine went off to race in the Japanese F3000 championship (Formula Nippon) for 3 years with decent levels of success, after that 3rd year in Japan in 1993, Irvine was to suddenly get the break in F1 he craved.

Eddie Jordan's team that he had raced for in F3000 in 1990 had made the step up to Formula 1 in 1991 and were struggling with a succession of ageing drivers partnering young starlet Rubens Barrichello, based on his performances in Japan, Jordan decided to hire Irvine in place of Thierry Boutsen (who had announced his retirement) for the final 2 races and he grasped the opportunity with both hands qualifying an astonishign 8th place for his debut race, the Japanese Grand Prix, and during that race, he woul certainly leave his mark, most notably on Ayrton Senna. Irvine was running 6th when Senna came up to lap him, Irvine obliged but then Senna was having trouble trying to lap Damon Hill who Irvine was battling for 5th place at the time, so coming into the Casio chicane, Irvine cheekily re-passed Senna to unlap himself before then taking Hill fro 5th spot, a move that enraged the Brazilian. Irvine went on to score a brilliant 6th place, later on, Senna would pay Irvine a visit in the Jordan motorhome and punched him in the face for his actions. But that race alone had made Eddie Jordan's mind up, he immediately signed up Irvine for 1994.

Irvine though was to display an early flaw in his armour in the first grand prix of that year in Brazil. While making his way through the ranks, he had a reputation for reckless driving, and this was shown devastatingly during that race in Brazil, while Jos Verstappen was attempting to pass Irvine for position, they came across to lap Eric Bernard and were also coming across a slowing Martin Brundle, Irvine looked like he was oblivious as th where Verstappen was and attempted to lap Bernard, Verstappen who was alongside Irvine was forced onto the grass, lost control of his Benetton and suffered a sickening looking accident taking out all 4 cars. Thankfully all 4 drivers were unharmed but Irvine was punished with a 3 race ban, during which he was replaced by Andrea De Cesaris. When Irvine returned though, he looked a more mature driver and scored a 6th place in Spain on his return, he went on to score 6 points throughout the season, enough for 16th place in the championship, his best result being an excellent 4th place in Jerez.

Things were looking up for 1995, the ever improving Barrichello stayed as Irvine's teammate, Jordan had signed a new engine deal with Peugeot and the new car was going well in pre-season testing, with the new package, Irvine and the Jordan team had a solid year, the main highlight being his first podium finish (a 3rd place in Canada) helping Irvine to a career best 10 points, enough for 12th place. But for 1996, Irvine had caught the attention of Ferrari who had just signed Michael Schumacher from Benetton in a mega-money deal and with both Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger moving on, Ferrari decided to hire Irvine as defacto number 2 driver in a long term deal.

Irvine finally saw this as a chance to establish imself with a front running team and a possible future championship challenge, and the relationship got off to a great start with a debut podium finish in Australia. The rest of the season though was a struggle as Ferrari seemed to direct all their efforts towards Schumacher, Irvine ended up with 11 points compared to Schumacher's 59 as a result. For 1997 though, Irvine would have is best year to date thanks to a new more competitive car able to run at the front on a more consistent basis, and this showed in his results. Five podium finishes including a new career best 2nd place in Argentina gave Irvine a total of 24 points. But after the Argentine race because of a mix-up and with Irvine racing under a Republic Of Ireland license, the Irish flag was flown instead of the Union Jack. From that point, Irvine requested that the neutral Shamrock flag be flown if he were to make the podium as a response to his family recieving threatening phone calls.

1998 would be even better, the Ferrari along with McLaren would be the class of the field and Irvine would take advantage, in France he held off Mika Hakkinen to give Ferrari their first 1-2 finish in nearly 8 years, a performance that was repeated in Italy, overall Irvine scored three 2nd places and five 3rd places en route to 47 points and 4th overall, but that first win still eluded him. That would come in 1999, a season where he would have his best (and only) chance of title glory. A fortuitous run gave him his first win in Australia and from then on he showed great consistency thoughout the year. Michael Schumacher's season ending accident in Britain helped Irvine greatly as the team's efforts were now focused on him, a point shown when Mika Salo (who replaced Schumacher during his recuparation) voluntarialy let Irvine through to win in Germany after which irvine gave Salo the winners trophy as a thank you because Salo had dominated the race up to that point.

Austria brought about arguably Irvine's greatest drive in a Grand Prix car, McLaren had dominated the weekend being a second quicker than anybody else in qualifying, but Irvine then produced a drive of great courage, and coupled with an excellent pit strategy to beat McLaren's David Coulthard and take an important win. But despite victory in Malaysia and going into the final round in Japan leading the championship with 70 points to Hakkinen's 66, Irvine would lose out by just 2 points, mostly down to poor pit work (most notably at the Nurburgring where the naiveity of mechanics to have just 3 new tyres ready cost Irvine a points finish) with Ferrari signing up Rubens Barrichello to replace Irvine for the 2000 season, Irvine made the move to Jaguar.

His 3 years at Jaguar were instantly forgettable, despite Ford money and the nostalgic feel of the team, Irvine would suffer as would his teammates in those 3 years Johnny Herbert, Luciano Burti and Pedro de la Rosa with underpowered engines and poor chassis' Irvine in those 3 years would score a total of just 18 points. During this time though, he did score 2 podium finishes, his last being at Monza in 2002, his final season in F1.

Since F1, Irvine has lived a celebrity lifestyle making money through property development and starring in a number of reality TV shows including Soccer Aid and a Sky One motor racing challenge which he starred in alongside David Coulthard.

MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 16

MARTIN BRUNDLE
GRANDS PRIX - 165
BEST FINISH - 2nd twice
BEST GRID POSITION - 3rd (France 1993)
POINTS SCORED - 98
--- F1 CAREER ---
1984 - Tyrrell Ford - Disqualified from season
1985 - Tyrrell Renault - 0pts
1986 - Tyrrell Renault - 11th - 8pts
1987 - Zakspeed - 18th - 2pts
1988 - Williams Judd - 0pts*
1989 - Brabham Judd - 20th - 4pts
1991 - Brabham Yamaha - 15th - 2pts
1992 - Benetton Ford - 6th - 38pts
1993 - Ligier Renault - 7th - 13pts
1994 - McLaren Peugeot - 7th - 16 points
1995 - Ligier Mugen Honda - 13th - 7pts
1996 - Jordan Peugeot - 11th - 8pts

Chris Amon, Stefan Johansson, Derek Warwick, the list can go on of what are considered to be the best drivers never to win a Grand Prix, you can also add to that list Martin Brundle from Kings Lynn in Norfolk. He may be more famous today in his role as a commentator for British TV coverage of F1 races but back in his day, he was a decent driver in his own right, unluckily for him though, he spent most of his years driving for mainly mid-grid teams. But outside F1 he made a big name for himself in Sportscars and has a Le Mans 24 hour win to his name.

A young Brundle first hit the headlines famously in 1983 while in British Formula 3, he was the man who ran Ayrton Senna close in a season that went down in folklore, he ran the future triple world champion extremely close but ultimately lost out. There would be a silver lining to his achievements though that season, the performances of both drivers got them noticed by some of Formula 1's elite and they were given tests for several teams. In the end, Senna decided to make a "low key" entry with Toleman while Brundle would partner Stefan Bellof at Tyrrell for 1984.

Brundle made a name for himself in his very first grand prix in Brazil where he would (At the time) join an elite group of drivers that scored points in their debut race, he achieved this with a 5th place. Brundle would continue tim impress in the nimble little Tyrrell alongside Bellof, the young German earned a great 3rd place in a very rainy Monaco while Brundle went one better scoring a brilliant 2nd spot in Detroit, his season though was brought to an abrupt end just one week after that 2nd place finish as he broke both his ankles in a nasty crash in practice at Dallas. Further woe came in the form of an FIA ruling expunging his and the Tyrrell squad's records for the entire season due to a fuel tank irregularity.

Due to the 1984 expulsion, the Tyrrell squad lost all travel benefits and most of their sponsors jumped ship, as a result, development on the 1985 car froze and as a result, Brundle and Bellof suffered badly, scoring just 7 points between them (Brundle scored zero) and the team were also affected greatly by Bellof's tragic death during a sportscar race in Belgium. For 1986, Brundle would be joined at Tyrrell by young Frenchman Philippe Streiff who impressed at Ligier the previous season, the new car was a welcome arrival and Brundle used it to great effect, scoring his first "official" points finish in the opening round at Brazil, he went on to score a highly respectable 8 points with his best result being a 4th in the season finale at Adelaide, Australia.

For 1987, Brundle joined the ambitious Zakspeed project who had built their own turbocharged engine, but joining Zakspeed would prove to be the one bad decision of Brundle's career, joined by the young German F3000 star Christian Danner, Brundle struggled to even get the hopeless car with its underpowered turbo to qualify in the top 20, reliability was also a problem as Brundle only managed to finish 3 races, but Brundle was a better racer than a qualifier and in the races he managed to finish, he finished well, the high point being his 2 points for 5th place at San Marino, this would prove to be the only points finish in Zakspeed's F1 history.

Disillusioned with racing for Zakspeed, he quit F1 to go sportscar racing in 1988 in which he would win his one major championship honour, the World Sportscar Championship of 1988 driving one of the famous Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9's, he did though guest drive for Williams in 1988 when Nigel Mansell was struck down with chicken pox, he didnt disappoint either finishing a respectable 7th in Belgium. This paved the way for a full time return to F1 for 1989 with Brabham as teammate to Stefano Modena, he may have scored onyl 4 points and finished down in 20th place in the championship, but it was nothign to be disgraced about, especially as in the first part of the season, due to Brabham missing the 1988 season and a colossal 39 car entry list, he was forced to pre-qualify for races.

Brundle decided to go Sportscar racing again in 1990 again for the Jaguar squad and it would be in this year where he would win his biggest prize, the Le Mans 24 Hour race, he won the famous race along with John Nielsen and Price Cobb in a glorious race where British cars dominated. Brundle thanks to that win was again high in demand, but decided to return to F1 with Brabham for 1991, he struggled with a poor car and only mustered 2 points, his 5th place in Japan would turn out to be the famous team's last ever points finish.

His efforts didnt go unoticed and on the back of his sportscar achievements, Brundle finally was given the chance at a frontrunning team he had craved in 1992 when he signed for Benetton as team-mate to Michael Schumacher for his first full season. By far his best season in F1, Brundle put in some excellent performances, despite never qualifying ahead of Schumacher, he out-raced him on a number of occasions and 2 races in particular. In Canada, he overtook Schumacher and left him for dead and then proceeded to reel in Gerhard Berger and with the pace he was doing, he would have overtaken him and won, but his transmission failed with 24 laps left to run. And also in Belgium Brundle was on the right strategy in order to win and was running strongly when he ran off the track with Schumacher following, Brundle was due to pit that lap but Schumacher did so instead ordering the team to pit him instead of Brundle for fresh tyres because when Brundle went off the road, Schumacher noticed blistering on his team-mates tyres. Overall it was a great season with a best finish of 2nd place in Italy, 5 podium finishes and a final score of 38 points good enough for 6th place in the championship.

But for team manager Flavio Briatore, it was oddly not good enough for him, he unceremoniusly dumped Brundle in favour of Riccardo Patrese for 1993. But thanks to his stong showing in the Benetton, Brundle was a man in demand, and he ended up signing for Ligier along with his good friend Mark Blundell, together they gained 3 podium finishes between them and scored a total of 23 points with Brundle contributing 13 of them in a good seaason. For large parts of pre-season before 1994, Brundle was out in the cold without a drive, despite being in the frame for Ayrton Senna's vacant seat at McLaren, Ron Dennis was trying to convince Alain Prost to postpone his retirement, when that was unsuccessful, Brundle was battling Philippe Alliot for the race seat, and when Alliot's recent performances for the Larrousse team were taken into account, Bundle was signed. And he didnt let McLaren down, 16 points including a brilliant 2nd place at Monaco and 3rd in Australia kept up his role as Mr Reliable.

With McLaren signing Mark Blundell for 1995, Brundle went back to Ligier as part of a drive sharing deal with Aguri Suzuki (a sweetner to secure a Mugen Honda engine deal) a deal which drew huge criticism from journalists and fans alike, so Brundle only competed in 11 of the 17 races, still though when called upon he didnt disappoint, a podium finish in Belgium part of a total of 7 points, good enough to earn 13th place in the championship. For 1996, his F1 swansong, he joined the eccentric Eddie Jordan's team partnering the young Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and in his very first race for the team, he suffered an accident which would have killed him if it were 5 years previously. He survived though and took advantage of what was a good Jordan chassis, he was a regular in the points with his best finish of the year being a 4th in Hungary. In Japan, he finished his final grand prix where he started, in 5th place. Overall he ended up with 8 points good enough for 11th place.

Despite being offered a race seat at Sauber alongside Johnny Herbert for 1997, Brundle decided agaisnt it, announced his retirement from F1 and pursued a career in the media where he still works today, he became Murray Walker's co-commentator for ITV but the lure of the race track was still too much in some cases, so he decided to have another crack at winning the Le Mans 24 Hours and despite 3 years racing with heavily funded efforts at Nissan, Toyota and Bentley, he hung up his helmet for good in 2001. Now he is a highly repsected commentator and journalist as well as being David Coulthard's manager.

MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 17

JENSON BUTTON
GRANDS PRIX - 155
WINS - 1
POLE POSITIONS - 3
POINTS SCORED - 232
--- F1 CAREER ---
2000 - Williams BMW - 8th - 12pts
2001 - Benetton Renault - 17th - 2pts
2002 - Renault - 7th - 14pts
2003 - BAR Honda - 9th - 17pts
2004 - BAR Honda - 3rd - 85pts
2005 - BAR Honda - 9th - 37pts
2006 - Honda - 6th - 56pts
2007 - Honda - 15th - 6pts
2008 - Honda - 18th - 3pts

So often in recent years, people seem to look at him and think "why oh why is he driving for that team?" They say that because they know that Jenson Button from Frome in Somerset is a top notch driver who given the right machinery has the potential and the talent to make it really big in the sport, unfortunately his unyielding loyalty to his team at Honda who have over the years given him cars not worthy of his talents have been a stumbling block.

Jenson is the son of John Button, himself a successful rallycross driver and he would be a big help as little Jenson made his way through the ranks frighteningly quickly. After a stint in karting, he made his debut in Formula Ford in 1998 at the age of just 18, in that first season, he won the title with ease in a tiny Haywood Racing prepared Mygale, his efforts also helped Jenson to win the highly prestigious McLaren Autosport Prize which is an award judged by some of the country's most important motor racing big-wigs and also the odd former F1 driver too, he beat future Champ Car star Justin Wilson and future A1GP race winner Robbie Kerr to the prize in December 1998. As part of his prize, Button got his first taste of Formula 1 machinery, a test in one of McLaren's world title winning Grand Prix cars.

For 1999, Button made the logical step up to British Formula 3 with the Promatecme squad and in his rookie season, he performed wonders, in 16 races, he took 2 pole positions and 3 race wins on his way to 3rd spot in the championship behind Luciano Burti and the eventual champion Marc Hynes, he also went on to finish a magnificent 2nd at the main showcase for grand prix stars of the future The Macau Grand Prix behind future IndyCar driver Darren Manning. Now the logical step to take at the time after this was Formula 3000 (the forerunner to todays GP2 series) but it would take an unusual twist.

After the F3 season, Button used up his Autosport prize, that test in the McLaren, he also had a test in one of Alain Prost's cars and set some great laps. But then came an incredible opportunity, after the dismissal of Alex Zanardi from his team, Frank Williams was looking for a driver to come in to replace the Italian in his 2nd car alongside Ralf Schumacher. And Williams had been looking at Jenson's progression with great intrest, so much so that he offered him a place in a "shootout" between him and the teams test driver and Formula 3000 star Bruno Junqueira. Junqueira set the pace at first then Button went out and did a faster lap time, Junqueira went faster again to try and show the young gun a thing or 2, but then Button went faster still. Frank's decision was made, Button was signed on the spot by Williams for the 2000 season.

When the news broke, it caused great excitement amongst British racing fans who were still coming to terms with the retirement of Damon Hill as they thought they had a new hero to cheer. And in his debut season, he certainly didnt disappoint, he was regularly on the pace with Ralf Schumacher and at times he outqualified him, but the crowning moment of his debut season was a stunning qualifying performance on the notorious Spa-Francorchamps track where he qualified a brilliant 3rd. He finished 8th in the championship on 12 points, but a number of rookie mistakes plus the imminent arrival of Juan Pablo Montoya meant Button was hounded out of Williams.

He found himself a drive at Benetton for 2001 after the sacking of Alex Wurz, but he was victim of joing the once great team at a bad time, they had just been bought out by Renault and the 2001 season was dismissed by the new owners as a "development" year, Button endured a miserable season where he only scored 2 points. 2002 was better though, with the team renamed Renault, a brand new car and a new teammate in Jarno Trulli, he shone in a season dominated by Ferrari. Despite scoring an impressive 14 points though, he wasnt favoured by the team manager Flavio Briatore who wanted to put the young F3000 star Fernando Alonso in the seat alongside Trulli. Button as a result just like at Williams was hounded out, but he would find salvation elsewhere.

BAR took a punt on Button and signed him for 2003 to partner the 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, here would start a relationship between him and the team that sticks to this day. In a very open season, he consistently outclassed his more illustrious teammate and amassed his best points total so far of 17 points. He also had the honour of leading a race for the first time too this season.

There was a lot of promise for 2004, the new car had performed well in testing, new teammate Takuma Sato provided a great challenge for Button and Honda had given the team (reportedly) the most powerful engine on the grid, this was exploited to devastating effect. Button would score points in all but 3 races, finished on the podium TEN times and took his very first pole position in San Marino, he ended the season 3rd in the championship on 85 points and helped the BAR team to 2nd in the constructors on 119 points, the only downside being that they were still miles off Ferrari who had won 15 of the 18 races and scored a massive 262 points. Hopes were high for 2005 but they were shot to pieces after the San Marino GP, a fuel tank infringement on the car was discovered and the team subsequently were banned for 2 races which included Monaco, he recovered well though in the 2nd half of the season to claim 2 podiums and score 37 points, during the season he settled a bitter legal row between himself and Frank Williams who claimed to have an option on his services for 2006, settled to a huge personal cost to Button paying out his contract to the tune of £30million of his own money to stay with BAR. As a reward for his committment, he signed a new long term deal with Honda (who had bought out the BAR squad) worth a reported £20million a season.

For 2006, he would get for the first time, a top drawer teammate in Rubens Barrichello, and together they repaid their loyalty to the team by delivering some great results, most spectacularly for Button, his first (and so far only) win at Hungary. This was made more spectacular by the fact he had started that race from way down in 14th place after suffering a 10 place grid penalty for an engine change. The changeable weather conditions helped a lot too. Overall the win aside, it was a very strong season for Button scoring 56 points meaning a welcome return to the top 6 in the championship.

2007 would start in difficult fashion, a karting accident left Button with hairline rib fractures which limited his testing of the new car now running without sponsorship (instead replaced with the now infamous map of the world.) It would also be a very difficult season for Button for his image in the British media, with Lewis Hamilton bursting onto the scene, Button would be cast further and further into the shadows. The car he was given for 2007 didnt help boost his popularity, it was a right stinker of a car in which he scored a measly 6 points. Things didnt get much better in 2008 as for the first time, he would be outscored by Barrichello by 11 points to Button's 3. The car was an improvement, but it was still poor. Barrichello's cause was helped greatly with a fantastic and popular podium finish at Silverstone. It was a dreadful season by Button's standards despite qualifying extremely well on more than one occasion.

But now Button could be hounded out of Formula 1 altogether, Honda made the shock announcement in December 2008 that they were pulling out of the sport and would shut down the team if a new buyer could'nt be found, if that were the case, Jenson Button would int he space of 2 years go from the darling of British Motorsport to the top of the Grand Prix scrapheap.

MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 18

PETER COLLINS
GRANDS PRIX - 35
WINS - 3
BEST QUALIFYING - 2nd twice
POINTS SCORED - 47
--- F1 CAREER ---
1952 - HWM Alta - 0pts
1953 - HWM Alta - 0pts
1954 - Vanwall - 0pts
1955 - Maserati - 0pts
1956 - Ferrari - 3rd - 25pts
1957 - Ferrari - 9th - 8pts
1958 - Ferrari - 5th - 14pts


This man is seen by nearly everyone as the ultimate gentleman driver, the man who gave up his own chance of a world title to help a fellow teammate and rival achieve the same goal. But Peter Collins in his own right by that time had already established himself as one of the top Grand Prix drivers of the great era that was the 1950's.

Collins began as nearly all young aspiring British driver did at the time when his parents bought him a small 500cc Cooper to compete in the British 500cc category (the category would later become Formula 3) competing in the same races ans anothe future great, Stirling Moss. Collins continued in the 500cc's until at the age of 22 he got his first big break in Formula 1 with the lowly british team HWM (Hersham/Walton Motors). At a time when it was Italian contructors that dominated, HWM were seen as Britain's leading lights before the likes of Cooper, BRM and Lotus came to prominence. With F2 machinery, Collins made his debut in the season opening Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten and amazingly he qualified an impressive 6th out of 22 entrants, a very impressive show of intent with an inferior car, the rest of the season was a disappointment as the HWM was shown up by the more faster and reliable Italian cars. No points for Collins and only a best finish of 6th in France (up until 1958, points were only awarded down to 5th.)

1953 was no different in terms of his fortunes, no points again and Collins was only able to enter 4 of the seasons races in HWM's new car for 1953. When the car was'nt suffering with mechanical gremlins, Collins did manage to finish races well up the field when he could. For 1954, Collins became part of the now famous British name Vanwall for their debut season, 1954 marked the return of F1 engine and chassis regulations and Vanwall (set up by Tony Vandervell, originally a backer of BRM) would build the first British Grand Prix car to conform to the new regulations and Collins was hired to drive it for the 3 races they were entered for, the best result being a 7th place in Monza. Collins left Vanwall for some speradic outings for Alfred Owen in his privately entered Maserati 250F, only entering in 2 races, but his race pace was impressive enough to earn a offer of a lifetime at the time, a call from the great man himself Enzo Ferrari to drive one of his cars in the 1956 season, finally Peter Collins had reached the big time. He was presented as a Ferrari driver in front of the Italian Media as part of a 4 car team along with Eugenio Castelotti, Luigi Musso and the legend Juan Manuel Fangio.

In the Ferrari, Collins was able to run at the buisness end of the field, fighting for race wins and championships, Collins would thrive being teammate to Fangio. Collins never qualified lower than 9th and finished 2nd in his first race with the new car (his 2nd race with Ferrari) in Monaco, after that came his first success, Victory at the infamous Spa-Francorchamps, at the time it was only the 5th win by a British driver at a world championship event. The 2nd win followed almost immediately in France and this put him into a world championship lead AHEAD of Fangio, he was still in the running coming into the final round at Monza where he would perform an action that would forever label Peter Collins as a true sportsman.

With 15 laps to go in the 50 lap race, Fangio suffered a steering column failure in his Ferrari and was forced to retire, this left Peter Collins fighting for the lead with Moss and Luigi Musso, when Moss (the leader) set the fastest lap, this would give him the bonus point he needed to take the world title if Collins pulled out (2nd would have been enough to give Collins the title). Then when Collins found out about this, he voluntarialy drove into the pits, giving up his 2nd place and persuaded the fallen Fangio to take over, he then completed the final 13 laps and because it was in effect a shared drive, Fangio and Collins shared the 6 points (3 each) and it gave Fangio the title by just 2 points (Fangio 30, Moss 28, Collins 25.) Thanks to this, Collins was hailed as a hero amongst the Italian fans and earned him the respect of Mr Ferrari. Also Fangio would be forever grateful to Collins.

He stayed with Ferrari for 1957 when he was joined by his good friend Mike Hawthorn, but the season was a disappointment as the car was outpaced by the Maserati (who now had Fangio at the helm) and also Vanwall, despite the new found uncompetitiveness, he did manage 2 podium finishes, one of which in the now famous German grand prix of 1957 when he was the victim of Fangio's masterclass. But hopes were high for 1958 when Ferrari would introduce their new car, the Dino 246. The season started slowly but picked up when Collins too 3rd at Monaco, Hawthorn won in France and then Collins took an emotional win at the British grand prix, both Hawthorn and Collins were in title contention going into the German grand prix against the Vanwall pairing of Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks.

Germany however would tragically be Collins's final race, while chasing Tony Brooks for the lead, Collins lost control, his car jumped a grassy bank, he was thrown out of the car (back in the 1950's, drivers raced without seatbelts) and smashed into a tree, he died later that afternoon in hospital due to massive head injuries.