Chris Bristow

CHRIS BRISTOW d1960. British F1 driver who started just four Formula One World Championship races in 1959-60 in a non works Cooper, scoring no championship points. He was killed aged just 22 during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in warm, dry, sunny conditions. He crashed his Yeoman Credit Racing Cooper T51 at the Burnenville corner on lap twenty while fighting to stay in front of the Ferrari of Willy Mairesse. Both he and fellow competitor Alan Stacey died in close proximity and within a few minutes of one another at Burnenville ; the same extended fast (120mph) right hand bend at which Stirling Moss had been severely injured the previous day. There was a four-foot embankment there with barbed wire in the meadow about ten feet back from the road. Chris Bristow's Cooper hit the bank and rolled over ; he was hurled into the barbed wire and killed instantly. He had already become famous for his unruly driving style. A friend of his said after the accident ; "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 ......."