Retired British Formula 1 driver, Tony Brooks has died aged 90. The highly respected veteran of 38 grands prix retired from racing back in 1961.
Brooks, the British ‘racing dentist’ who was Formula 1’s last surviving grand prix winner from the 1950s and finished second in the 1959 world championship, has died aged 90.
“I was saddened to hear the news that Tony Brooks has died,” said Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali in a statement. “He was part of a special group of drivers who were pioneers and pushed the boundaries at a time of great risk.”
The BBC said the news was announced by Brooks’ daughter Giulia.
Charles Anthony Standish Brooks, known as Tony, won six grands prix during one of the sport’s deadliest eras, making his championship debut with BRM in 1956 and retiring in 1961 at the age of 29. Brooks also drove for Vanwall, Ferrari and Cooper.
“Brooks was a tremendous driver, the greatest — if he’ll forgive me saying this — ‘unknown’ racing driver there’s ever been,” late compatriot Stirling Moss told writer Nigel Roebuck in the 1986 book ‘Grand Prix Greats’.
“He was far better than several people who won the world championship,” Moss added.
From dentistry to Formula 1
The Briton, a keen amateur racer, was a 23-year-old dentistry student at Manchester University preparing for his finals when he won the 1955 non-championship Syracuse Grand Prix in Sicily.
“I was swotting when they (Connaught) rang me, a few days before the race,” he recalled. “I had never so much as sat in a Formula One car before but rather absent-mindedly said yes and put the phone down.”
He missed the first day of practice, learned the track on a hired scooter and beat the factory Maseratis of established F1 drivers Luigi Musso and Luigi Villoresi.
Brooks won the 1957 British Grand Prix for Vanwall, in a car shared with Moss, and triumphed for Ferrari in France and Germany in 1959, the year he finished second overall to Australian Jack Brabham. He was also twice a runner-up in Monaco.
Only Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio, Italian Alberto Ascari and Moss won more races than him in the 1950s.
“For six or seven years I went motor racing and thoroughly enjoyed it,” Brook said. “But I never had the dedication of, say, Stirling. It was never going to be my life. Just a part of it.” (Reporting by Alan Baldwin)
We pay homage to Tony Brooks, a fantastic driver who contributed to our legacy.
Our thoughts are with his beloved ones 
#essereFerrari
#F1 pic.twitter.com/ynCyE0XlFd
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) May 4, 2022
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