Rob Walker

Rob Walker 1969

Stirling Moss in the Walker Team's Lotus in 1961 at the Nürburgring

Robert Ramsey Campbell "Rob" Walker (born August 14, 1917 , † April 29, 2002 ) was a Scottish Formula 1 racing team owner. His private team , Rob Walker Racing Team , was one of the most successful and well-known in Formula 1 history.

Career

Rob Walker came from a wealthy Scottish family who owned the Johnnie Walker whiskey company . In the 1930s he tried himself as a racing driver and achieved eighth place in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1939. After the Second World War , in which he served as a British aircraft pilot, he first founded a private sports car team with Delage - and Delahaye vehicles. At first he was a racing driver himself, later he hired Tony Rolt , Peter Walker and Eric Thompson, among others . Later top pilots such as Peter Collins and Stirling Moss were also able to prove their class in Rob Walker vehicles.

From the Formula 1 season in 1956 , Walker's team was represented in Formula 1, and from 1957 with vehicles from Cooper . In 1958 his private team achieved the first victories, Stirling Moss in Argentina and Maurice Trintignant in Monaco ; In 1959 Moss celebrated another victory in Portugal . In January 1959, Walker met the recently retired Formula 1 world champion Mike Hawthorn on an English country road . A spontaneous race ensued, in the course of which Hawthorn was fatally injured.

From 1960 to 1962 , Walker competed with Lotus vehicles, and Stirling Moss brought him four more victories ( Monaco and USA 1960, Monaco and Germany 1961). From 1964 , the Walker-private team started on Brabham : Jochen Rindt had his first Formula 1 bets on this team, and Joakim Bonnier and Jo Siffert were among Walkers main drivers in the 1960s.

In the 1970s, Walker tried it with vehicles from Lotus and McLaren , but the financially better equipped factory team was inferior to the privateer; even drivers like Graham Hill , John Surtees and Mike Hailwood , whom Walker had under contract, couldn't change that.

In 1975 the Walker team was disbanded and Rob Walker became a motorsport journalist until he retired in the mid-1990s. Rob Walker died in 2002 at the age of 84.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1939	Count Heyden	Delahaye 135CS	Ian Connell	Rank 8

Web links

• Rob Walker at Racing Sports Cars (English)
• Rob Walker. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on May 15, 2020 (English).