Tony Brooks

I took this photograph on practice day for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1957.

On the left is Tony Brooks who shared the winning drive in the Grand Prix with Stirling Moss in a Vanwall. Tony Brooks, who was barely fit enough to take part in the race having injured himself in a crash at Le Mans only 4 weeks previously, took third place on the grid with team mate Stirling Moss in pole position. Moss led the race from the start with Behra's Maserati 250F second and Brooks third, but Moss's car suffered a misfire and Brooks was called into the pits to swap cars with Moss. Stirling Moss went on to win the race, due in no small part to the clutch on Behra's car exploding when he looked certain to win, and Mike Hawthorn, then in second place, suffered a puncture when he ran over bits of the debris. Tony Brooks in Moss's car eventually suffered an engine failure and he didn't finish the race.

The person to whom Tony Brooks is talking in this photograph is Alf Francis, who was mechanic to Stirling Moss in the early 1950s, and in 1957 was with Rob Walker's team whose Cooper Climax T43 was driven in this race by Jack Brabham. Tony Brooks also drove for Rob Walker in some F2 races and non-championship F1 races that season.