MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 13

TONY BROOKS
GRANDS PRIX - 39
WINS - 6
POLE POSITIONS - 3
POINTS SCORED - 75
--- F1 CAREER ---
1956 - BRM - 0pts
1957 - Vanwall - 5th - 11pts
1958 - Vanwall - 3rd - 24pts
1959 - Ferrari - 2nd - 27pts
1960 - Yeoman Credit Climax - 11th - 7pts
1961 - BRM - 10th - 6pts

One of Britains finest and most accomplished Grand Prix drivers of the era, Tony Brooks from Cheshire, was one of a great handful of the early seeds of what would become a British domination of the sport in the 1960's, Brooks was one of the early components of that future success, unfortunately for him, he retired from the sport just as his career was about to take off.

At the age of 24 he signed up to BRM on a part time bsis for the 1956 season after some promising showings in the lower classes, and was due to make his debut at that years Monaco grand prix, unfortunately for him, he had to pull out before the start of qualifying after suffering engine problems. He would make his debut in the only other race he was entered for that year, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, he managed to haul his bulky and heavy BRM into an impressive 9th on the grid out of 28 starters, he ran well too until suffering an accident shortly before the half way mark, the great Juan Manuel Fangio would go on to win the race which still holds the record of the longest world championship grand prix ever run at 101 laps taking just under 3 hours to complete.

The promise was there and for 1957, Brooks got the chance to join the ambitious Vanwall project run by Tony Vandervell, he would be joined by Stirling Moss and Stuart Lewis-Evans creating the first serious championship effort by an all British outfit, and Brooks began to shine, gaining a podium finish in his first drive in the car with a 2nd place at Monaco (in officially his 3rd race), and he would go on to claim victory in the very next race he entered, the British Grand Prix, a win he shared with Stirling Moss after Moss suffered engine trouble, it was the first ever world championship win for a British car, and with it occuring at the British grand prix with 2 British drivers at the wheel, it made the victory all the more sweeter. Brooks ended up finishing 5th in the championship on 11 points, Moss went on to finish as runner up to Fangio while Lewis-Evans's consistency helped him finish a respectable 12th, all in all a good first full season for Brooks and Vanwall.

Then came 1958 and with the reigning champion Fangio retiring and Maserati in financial trouble, Vanwall sensed that this was a great opportunity to properly fight for a world title and focused their efforts on their lead driver Stirling Moss, and with the bigger efforts by Vanwall producing a much improved car, Brooks benefited greatly, in a championship dominated by British drivers (who ended up filling the top 5 in the championship) Brooks managed to take 3 excellent wins in Belgium, Italy and most of all, he became one of the great few to have won a grand prix on the famous 14 mile Nurburgring Nordschlife track, his efforts along with Moss and Lewis-Evans (who was tragically killed at the final race that year in Morocco) helped Vanwall win the first ever constructors championship although Moss missed out on the drivers crown by a single point from Ferrari's Mike Hawthorn, ironically Moss would have been champion if he had'nt got a result re-instated for Hawthorn after accusations of cheating.

But soon after 1958, Brooks was without a drive, Vanwall would be scaling back their efforts due to the failing health of Mr Vandervell, he did though bag a drive with the most famous name in the business, Ferrari alongside the American pairing of Dan Gurney and Phil Hill, Brooks managed to put together his own title challenge against the Australian Jack Brabham in a rear-engined Cooper (a revolutionary concept at the time) and former team-mate Stirling Moss also in a Cooper but racing for a privateer team. 2 victories at Monsanto Park in Portugal and the infamous AVUS track in Germany meant victory at Sebring in the USA with Brabham 5th or lower would give him the title, unfortunately, the Cooper team had the best cars of the weekend by far and loced out the top 2 in the race with Bruce McClaren winning ahead of his team-mate Maurice Trintignant, Brooks prevented a Cooper clean sweep of the podium by finishing ahead of Brabham who took the title.

After being dropped by Ferrari, Brooks got himself a drive with a privateer squad called Yeoman Credit Racing (later to become Lola) who were making their debut in the sport after aquiring 2 of the prevous years title winning Cooper T51's, his team-mates would be fellow Briton Henry Taylor and the promising Belgian Olivier Gendebien, this would be the first time that Brooks would'nt be driving for a factory team. Despite that, the team proved to be very competitive, Gendebien managed to finish a great 2nd in France while Brooks was consistent bringing in three top 5 finishes, enough to bring an 11th place finish in the championship.

A return to a factory team followed in 1961, and for Brooks it was a return to where it started for him, BRM. But now, the team were producing competitive machinery, however as part of a 2 car team with Graham Hill, BRM had a poor season and were focusing their efforts towards 1962 when they would abandon their V16 concept and go for the V8 engine, Brooks just managed to squeeze into the top 10 if the championship with 6 points, after this Brooks retired from the sport although some say at the wrong time as in the very next season, BRM and their new V8 engine would dominate in the hands of Graham Hill who took 4 wins to take the crown.