Chris Bristow

Chris Bristow (2 December 1937, Lambeth, London – 19 June 1960, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium), was a British Formula One driver from England.

Bristow was the son of a garage owner from London. He was unmarried. Bristow was called the wild man of British club racing, as he had spun out or had collisions on almost every race track he had raced on.^[1] He started four Formula One World Championship races and scored no championship points.

He was killed during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, following an accident at the Burnenville corner. It was lap twenty and Bristow was fighting to stay in front of the Ferrari of Willy Mairesse. Bristow was driving a Cooper owned by the Yeoman Credit team. Yeoman Credit was an automobile financing company that entered racing for publicity purposes. Spa was the world's fastest road circuit and was 8 and 3/4 miles in length in 1960. The weather was warm and sunny and a crowd of 100,000 witnessed the race.

Bristow and Alan Stacey died in close proximity and within a few minutes of one another. They both failed to properly negotiate Burnenville, the same extended fast right hand bend in which Stirling Moss was severely injured the previous day. Moss suffered broken legs, three broken ribs, and a broken nose. Cars regularly sped through the Burnenville corner at 120 miles per hour. There was an embankment there four feet high and barbed wire in the meadow about ten feet back from the road. The Cooper of Bristow impacted the bank and rolled over; he was hurled into the barbed wire, which beheaded him.

A friend of Bristow's said after the wreck, We all knew this was going to happen. It does no good to say now, but Chris simply did not have the experience to drive that way in Grand Prix racing.^[1]

The winner of the annual McLaren Autosport BRDC Award for promising young British drivers is also presented with the Chris Bristow trophy.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

References