Roy Salvadori

 ( 1922 Births ) 

Between 1954 and 1956, Salvadori drove a Maserati 250F in Formula One for Syd Greene's Gilby Engineering team, taking a numerous good results in predominantly non-championship F1 races, with one entry for Officine Alfieri Maserati in the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix where he did not start and the car was driven by Sergio Mantovani. It was in the 1956 RAC British Grand Prix at Silverstone when only a similarly 250F mounted Moss shaded him and a possible victory was lost to a fuel line problem, marked him out as a potential top-level driver. However, he remained particularly active in domestic motor sport and in sports cars for Aston Martin.

Following his Championship debut in 1952, Salvadori would experience retirement after retirement. Out of the ten races contested between 1953 and 1956, he would retire early in every single one of them. But this all changed in 1957, when he signed with Cooper achieving only one fifth place at RAC British Grand Prix. However, 1958 (as teammate to Jack Brabham) was his most successful season, finishing fourth in the World Drivers' Championship for Cooper, behind Mike Hawthorn, Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks. Over the course of the season, he would earn two podium finishes, including a second place in the German Grand Prix. However he was not retained by Cooper for 1959 (when Brabham would win the first of his titles) but drove a privately entered Cooper, as well as the works Aston Martin, in which he achieved two sixth-place finishes. The Aston Martin was a traditional front engined car, which was soon outclassed by the Cooper rear engined concept. He did, however, win the London Trophy at Crystal Palace with a Formula Two Cooper. The Aston Martin team continued into 1960 but again without success and Salvadori also continued with the privately entered Cooper.

For 1961, Salvadori moved to Reg Parnell's Yeoman Credit Racing team as partner to John Surtees, competing in five Grands Prix and achieving three sixth-place finishes with the team's 1.5-litre Cooper T53-Coventry-Climax. The Cooper now had strong competition in the form of Colin Chapman's Team Lotus cars, but Salvadori was catching Innes Ireland for the lead in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen when the engine failed. He continued with Parnell for 1962, now under the Bowmaker Racing Team name with the Lola Mk4-Climax, but eight attempts yielded seven retirements and one failure to start (as John Surtees took the car). 1962 was Salvadori's last season in Formula One. The season had begun with a nasty accident in a Cooper during qualifying for the Warwick Farm '100' in Australia, which left him with a temporary facial paralysis.