The Champions

Today, Britain is such a dominant force in Formula 1 that the majority of F1 teams have their bases here, including four of the top five manufacturers in the 2017 Constructors’ Championship. So it’s hard to remember that there was a time when Britain made no impact in motor-sport at all. The man who finally dragged Britain to the forefront of the sport in the 1950s is known only to motor-racing cognoscenti, and the team he created was a significant force in racing for just three seasons. He was Tony Vandervell, his cars were called Vanwalls, and with drivers like Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss they beat Maserati and Ferrari – the dominant teams at the time.

Vandervell was a wealthy industrialist who’d promoted his engine bearing business through the sponsorship and support of other teams since the end of the 1940s. But dissatisfied with their approach, in 1954 he decided to go it alone. Results were disappointing at first, but hiring Lotus founder Colin Chapman and world-leading aerodynamicist Frank Costin in 1956 helped Vandervell develop the car he needed; signing Moss and Brooks for 1957 gave him the drivers. Even so, the start of the 1957 season was patchy: Vanwall missed the opening round in Argentina and Moss and Brooks were both unable to compete in the French Grand Prix, the former with a sinus infection, the latter because he’d had an enormous accident at Le Mans, which ended up with him on a grass bank with an Aston Martin on top of him.

It’s inconceivable today that Brooks would have been allowed anywhere near the British Grand Prix, held at Aintree in July. He’d been in hospital and then bed-ridden at home since his accident less than a month earlier. He’d lost a stone in weight and was still covered in contusions, one of which he described as “a hole in my thigh as big as a tennis ball”. But this was the British Grand Prix and he was damned if he was going to miss it. Even so, Brooks was under no illusions about his strength lasting the full 90 laps around the track, located inside Aintree Racecourse. But in the 1950s, drivers could swap vehicles mid-race, so his plan was to drive as far and fast as he could, then make his car available to either Moss or their third driver, Stuart Lewis-Evans, if it was needed. 

In qualifying, Moss captured pole position, with what was left of Brooks a barely believable third. At the start, after a brief tussle with Jean Behra’s Maserati, Moss took the lead and proceeded to sail off into the distance. Brooks held third for a while but by 20 laps his strength was failing and he started to slip down the order. By this point, however, Moss’s dream afternoon was rapidly turning into a nightmare, as the Vanwall’s engine started to stutter. He came into the pits and promptly swapped seats with the exhausted Brooks – the fittest man taking over the car in the best working order.

Nonetheless, by the time he rejoined he was down in ninth place, over a minute behind the leaders and with all hope of catching Behra and the lead apparently lost. But one of the defining characteristics of Moss’s career was an inability to know when he was beaten, so he set about demolishing the field. By half distance he was fourth, and he passed Lewis-Evans for third with 20 laps remaining. And then, proving that fortune really does favour the brave, Behra’s clutch exploded and Mike Hawthorn in second place ran over the debris, both cars retiring on the spot, leaving Moss to cruise to victory – shared with Brooks.

This was not only the first win in a World Championship Grand Prix by a British car crewed by British drivers, for Vanwall it marked a turning point. Moss would win two of the remaining three races that year and, in 1958, Vanwall would claim six out of ten F1 championship races, winning the inaugural Constructors’ Championship. But the team paid a terrible price for its triumph: in the last round in Casablanca, Lewis-Evans’ engine seized, causing the car to crash and catch fire. He succumbed to his injuries six days later. For Vandervell, whose health was already failing, it was too much, and he announced his withdrawal from racing.

But by then other British manufacturers – Cooper and Lotus in particular, were rising fast. In just three short years, Britain had taken a grip on the top level of racing that today remains as strong as ever. The 60th anniversary of this race was celebrated at Goodwood Revival, September 8-10