Very much the quiet and understated hero of British motorsport during one of its most dangerous and deadliest eras, Tony Brooks, who has died aged 90, was the first British racing driver to win a Grand Prix in a British car for 32 years and the very last of those Formula One winners who competed during the 1950s.
Fascinated by speed and fired by an underlying and hugely competitive nature, Brooks not only helped break the Italian domination of the sport but in tandem with fellow driver Stirling Moss, helped usher in a homegrown revival in Formula One racing. Had the clutch on his Ferrari not failed when on the grid prior to the start of the 1959 Italian Grand Prix, many believe that he would have been crowned world champion.
