Graham Hill the father of World Champion Damon was my boyhood hero. He epitomized how a race driver should act and look. The only man to win Indianapolis, Le Mans and the F1 World Championship. The 5-Time winner of Monte Carlo drove during what many consider the golden years of F1 against such legends as Clark, Brabham, Surtees, and Gurney.
Hill was killed in an aircraft accident in November 1975.


Later, his son, Damon admitted that the pressure of having such a successful and famous father was almost unbearable at times. In truth, the son never quite came out of his father's shadow.

Vittorio Jano's P3 dominated the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in 1925 after the local favorite, the Delage team, had retired all of their cars.
With the race now an Alfa-Romeo parade the fans began to make their displeasure known and Jano in response ordered his cars to pit.

While they were being refueled the cars were cleaned and buffed. During this pitstop he had a table placed in full view, whereupon he imperiously ate lunch, deaf to the howls of the spectators. The cars rejoined the race and won with ease.

Out of all of the billions of words written and spoken about Grand Prix, probably no one has ever heard or read:

"You know so-and-so? He reminds me of Niki Lauda."

Unimpressive in appearance even before his Nurburgring accident, Lauda nevertheless has a force of personality and Teutonic strength of will that in the '70s and '80s carried him to three Formula 1 championships spread over two careers, and success in the airline business. In the process he, more than any other Grand Prix driver, carved out his own personal niche in the history of sport.

Stirling Moss will always be known as the greatest driver never to have won the World Championship. This quintesential Englishman became almost the stereotype for the British stiff upper lip throughout his career. But if the measure of a man is more than just honors but the respect in which he was held by his peers then he was a champion many times over.
I will never forget his famous exploits during the 1955 Mille Miglia with Denis Jenkinson - absolutely breathtaking.

Alfred Neubauer struck an almost comic figure at Mercedes for decades. The former race car driver for Austro-Daimler, had his wife once tell him that he drove like "a night watchman.."
Whether this caused him, when he became a team manager for Mercedes, to exact any revenge on his drivers is unknown!

What is known is that this legendary figure was responsible for more innovations, along with some "crack-pot" ideas than any team manager in the history of the sport.

"He was an amazing character, who could have anybody snapping to attention if necessary, but would also show great thought and understanding, in relaxed moments he could have us all rolling about with laughter." - Stirling Moss

Tazio Nuvolari's legend is full of exploits of daring and almost unbelievable personal courage and will to win. He would continuously beat better equipped rivals and come back from numerous injuries only to compete in bandages.
In his entire career Tazio Nuvolari won almost two hundred major races and only came in second 17 times.

Ronnie Peterson or SuperSwede as he was called was a hopeless development driver. That being said his unworldly car control was a sight to behold. The image of Peterson coming through Woodcote absolutely on the limit with tires squealing and using just enough opposite lock and throttle to control his car has been described countless times. The people who paid witness knew that they were seeing something magical.








The middle driver in the trio of great Brazilian Champions Nelson Piquet built a reputation on guile and cunning often beating seemingly more spectacular drivers.
One of four championship winning drivers including Senna, Prost and Mansell who dominated Formula 1 in the 80's and early 90's.

The results amounted to three World Championships in 1981, 1983 and 1987 with 23 wins and a place in the Grand Prix Hall of Fame.
Piquet's final race was the Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide in 1991. He retired at the age of 39.








Alain Prost "The Professor" won 4 World Championships but because he could be so calculating people tended to overlook his outright speed.

When partnered with Niki Lauda his lap times left the Austrian in his exhaust.
Prost won more races than any other driver yet he was criticized for quitting a race because he thought the conditions were too dangerous.




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