Kieran Roberts Art

Bruce McLaren in his Cooper T51 chases the Ferrari 246 of Oliver Gendebien during the 1959 French Grand Prix at Reims. Held in sweltering heat, drivers were punished by the summer sun, as well as large stones flicked up from cars ahead as the track began breaking up. McLaren wrote about the ordeal - "The first few laps were murder. It was impossible to keep clear of the battering hail of stones and pebbles. Halfway through the race I tucked in behind Gendebien's Ferrari, the heat was almost unbearable - my knuckles were being burnt by the hot blast coming over the windscreen. I tried licking them. The heat of the vicious Ferrari exhausts added to my discomfort. I could hardly breathe, and was trying to scoop air into the cockpit. Jack (Brabham) had punched his windscreen out in an effort to increase ventilation, and Phil Hill was almost standing in the Ferrari seat on the straight. The mixture of sweat and blood in my goggles was like pink champagne. I raised them, and the mess sluiced down my face. I found later my goggles were almost completely shattered by 35 direct hits from flying stones."