Tony Brooks

Tony Brooks

Nation:	United Kingdom
Automobile world championship
First start:	1956 British Grand Prix
Last start:	1961 USA Grand Prix
Constructors
1956  BRM  · 1957–1958  Vanwall  · 1959  Ferrari  · 1960 Yeoman Credit Racing Team · 1961  BRM
statistics
World Cup balance:	Vice World Champion ( 1959 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 38 6th 3 3
World Cup points :	75
Podiums :	10
Leadership laps :	127 over 1206 km

Charles Anthony Stanford "Tony" Brooks (born February 25, 1932 in Dukinfield , Cheshire ) is a former English automobile racing driver and Formula 1 vice champion in 1959 . Brooks has been the oldest surviving Grand Prix winner since Stirling Moss passed away in April 2020.

Career

Beginnings: student of dentistry sneaks up "his" racing car

The son of a dentist did not initially look like a future active racing driver. He made a straightforward decision to study dentistry at the University of Manchester , so to speak, to follow in his father's footsteps.

Hardly any other driver got his first racing machine in a more unusual way than Tony Brooks. When his mother needed a new car, her son offered "unselfishly" to help her find it. Glad, as she hardly understood anything about the technology and he wanted to sell his motorcycle to raise the 1000 pounds , she accepted his offer. Tony said he already knew someone who had a “nice, little car” on hand. But when the new car was in front of the door, it turned out to be a little sports car monster Healey Silverstone with 104  hp , which made it clear to everyone for what purposes this car was to be used. More amused than resigned by his mischievousness, the parents gave their blessings on his first steps in motorsport .

Sports car racing

With great dedication, he took part in numerous club sports car races from 1952 onwards that took place all over the British Isles. After three years of pure amateur life with the above-mentioned car and a Frazer-Nash , he was known as a fast and reliable driver, so that his former team-mate John Riseley-Prichard , who stopped racing for the sake of his wealthy parents , gave him his own Formula 2 - Connaught Type A for the Crystal Palace race near London . Only three Formula 1 monoposto , which were driven by Mike Hawthorn , Harry Schell and Roy Salvadori , could beat fourth-placed Brooks in the defeated material.

The first Formula 1 victory

As a result, Aston Martin approached him to sign him as a works driver . Further good racing results led to the fact that he was offered a Formula 1 Connaught for the Gran Premio di Siracusa in Sicily , which although not part of the official World Championship competition of the year, was considered one of the most coveted trophies in the paddock .

Brooks himself described his acceptance of the offer as unreasonable in retrospect: “They were doing the Syracuse Grand Prix, they said, and would I like to drive one of the cars? Frankly, they couldn't find anyone else and they were scraping the bottom of the barrel. I had never so much as sat in a Formula 1 car before, but I rather absent-mindedly said yes, and put the phone down. "

At this point, of all times, the exam of the still hardworking student Tony was in the immediate vicinity, who reassured his parents by saying that he would continue to “scramble” into the textbooks on both the plane and the train. Ferrari decided not to participate in the factory that year, so that three factory-supported Maserati 250Fs , driven by Luigi Musso , Schell and Luigi Villoresi , were the actual favorites. The outdated Alta engine had been developed by the engineers to the limit of its performance, which had affected its reliability. For fear of losing both the entry fee and an engine, Brooks was refused extensive test drives. He should not have had more than 12 or 15 laps to get used to. When Brooks was able to overtake the Italian Musso after the eleventh lap, he drove safely towards the goal, but at the same time could only think of his exam. To the surprise of all experts, Brooks was able to win the race and thus achieved the first race victory of a British racing driver in a domestic vehicle within the highest motor sport class on the European continent.

BRM

When he returned home, he passed the exam with flying colors - but he was never supposed to practice the profession he had learned. His heart was now connected to racing. So signed for the 1956 Formula 1 season with BRM in order to celebrate his actual debut in the premier class at the race in Silverstone . But this time luck wasn't on his side at all. One gear got stuck in the transmission at high speed. At high speed the car raced into the boundary and threw its driver out. Although he suffered a complicated maxilla fracture, he was still literally lucky in misfortune.

Vanwall

At the end of the season, he moved to Vanwall , while he continued to successfully contested sports car races for Aston Martin. In the course of the Formula 1 season in 1957 , the final breakthrough came for the mad dentist. In Monaco he came second and at the British Grand Prix in Aintree he shared the victory with Stirling Moss , as he had passed his car on to Moss to enable him to achieve important points after his failure. But actually he had been beaten below value this year. In an accident at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , he suffered severe abrasions, which kept him handicapped. Brooks considered himself lucky not to have broken a single bone, but only complained about a fist-sized hole in his hip. Despite this handicap, he won the sports car races for Aston Martin at the Nürburgring and in Spa-Francorchamps .

For the 1958 Formula 1 season , Vanwall's green racers were definitely superior to the Ferrari in terms of speed, so Moss and Brooks were considered to be world championship contenders. Tony won the Grand Prix of Belgium , Germany and Italy , but in the course of the season there was always only "top or flop" with the defect-prone Vanwall. The two teammates took the points from each other more involuntarily, while Mike Hawthorn scored reliably and became world champion with a single win for Maranello . Vanwall won the team competition, which was rated for the first time this year, but resigned as a team from motorsport for lack of motivation, as the owner Tony Vanderwell no longer wanted to take the risk due to his poor health.

Vice world champion in a Ferrari

Brooks switched to Ferrari for the 1959 Formula 1 season , where he was held in high esteem. Again he won the French and German Grands Prix twice, but this year it was clear that the era of front engines was drawing to a close. They were literally slowed down by the rear-engine principle of the agile Cooper , which Jack Brabham led to the championship. Because of all things Brooks favorite track Spa-Francorchamps had been deleted from the calendar and the start in Aintree was prevented by a strike in Italy. Seen in this way, the runner-up world title was certainly a disappointment for Brooks, which he himself could get over, especially since he ranked ahead of Moss. He surprised the Italians when he left the team at the end of the season.

End of the career

In 1960 Tony signed with the Yeoman Credit Cooper team. He got into the points three times, but his heart was already more with his car repair shop and Fiat dealership, which he had built up in Weybridge near Brooklands in the meantime .

A return to BRM for 1961 was only a delay in saying goodbye: after unsatisfactory racing results, he finally announced his retirement from motorsport at the end of the year so that he could devote more time to his family and his business. In his own words, he would have better stopped racing as early as 1959 because he had already lost too many friends and acquaintances in the process.

Brooks was valued by the professionals for his good basic speed and his clean driving line, which was best when he could drive his own race unhindered. As an outspoken team player, he had no problem letting Moss pass him if he had succeeded in overtaking. In contrast to the other British pilots, the devout Catholic Brooks was probably the only Formula 1 driver who never missed a Sunday service before the race while the party animals Hawthorn and Peter Collins were still hungover. The always friendly Brooks, who after a successful professional career dedicated himself to restoring old automobiles, is still a frequent guest at historic motorsport events such as the Festival of Speed .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

Grand Prix victories

1957 British Grand Prix ( Aintree )  1958 Belgian Grand Prix ( Spa-Francorchamps )  1958 Grand Prix of Germany ( Nürburg )

1958 Italian Grand Prix ( Monza )  1959 French Grand Prix ( Reims )  1959 German Grand Prix ( Berlin )

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1956	Owen Racing Organization	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1957	Vandervell Products Ltd.	Vanwall VW5	Vanwall 2.5 L4	5	1	1	-	-	1	11	5.
1958	Vandervell Products Ltd.	Vanwall VW5	Vanwall 2.5 L4	9	3	-	-	1	-	24	3.
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246F1	Ferrari 2.4 V6	7th	2	1	1	2	1	27	2.
	Vandervell Products Ltd.	Vanwall VW59	Vanwall 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
1960	Yeoman Credit Racing Team	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	6th	-	-	-	-	-	7th	11.
	Vandervell Products Ltd.	Vanwall VW11	Vanwall 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
1961	Owen Racing Organization	BRM P47 / 58	Climax 1.5 L4	8th	-	-	1	-	1	6th	10.
total				38	6th	2	2	3	3	75

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1956
		DNS				DNF
1957
		2			1	9	DNF	7th
1958
		DNF	DNF		1	DNF	7th	1	DNF	1	DNF
1959
	2		DNF	1	DNF	1	9	DNF	3
1960
		4th		DNF	DNF	DNF	5	5		DNF
1961
	13	9	13	DNF	9	DNF	5	3

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1955	Aston Martin Ltd.	Aston Martin DB3	John Riseley-Prichard	failure	battery
1956	Aston Martin Ltd.	Aston Martin DBR1	Reginald Parnell	failure	Gearbox damage
1957	Aston Martin Ltd.	Aston Martin DB3S	Noël Cunningham-Reid	failure	accident
1958	David Brown Racing Department	Aston Martin DBR1 / 300	Maurice Trintignant	failure	Gearbox damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1956	David Brown & Sons Ltd.	Aston Martin DB3S	Reginald Parnell	failure	Engine failure
1958	David Brown	Aston Martin DBR1 / 300	Stirling Moss	failure	differential

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1954	Henry Ohara Moore	Frazer Nash Sebring	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
							DNF
1955	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DB3	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
						DNF	DNF
1956	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DB3	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
				DNF		5
1957	Aston Martin Maserati	Aston Martin DBR1 Aston Martin DB3 Maserati 450S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
						1	DNF		DNF
1958	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DBR1	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	1
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				DNF	3		3

literature

• Derick Allsop: The British Racing Hero. From Moss to Mansell. Magna Books, Leicester 1992, ISBN 1-85422-313-5 .
• Peter Grunert: The Formula 1 Lexicon. All cars - all drivers - all winners. ECON-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1997, ISBN 3-612-26353-6 .
• Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Erich Kahnt: 50 years of Formula 1. The winners. Heel, Königswinter 1999, ISBN 3-89365-615-4 .
• Peter Scherer: 50 Years of British Grand Prix Drivers. TFM, Kemberton 1999, ISBN 0-9530052-8-3 .
• Achim Schlang: The Formula 1 aces of our time. The drivers, the cars, the routes. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-613-01035-6 .

Web links

Commons : Tony Brooks  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• biography