Chris Bristow

Chris Bristow

Born	2 December 1937(1937-12-02)
Died	19 June 1960(1960-06-19) (aged 22)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1959 - 1960
Teams	non-works Cooper
Races	4
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1959 British Grand Prix
Last race	1960 Belgian Grand Prix

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)

Yr	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	WDC	Points
1959	British Racing Partnership	Cooper T51 (F2)	Borgward Straight-4	MON	500	NED	FRA	GBR 10	GER	POR	ITA	USA		NC	0
1960	Yeoman Credit Racing Team	Cooper T51	Climax Straight-4	ARG	MON Ret	500	NED Ret	BEL Ret	FRA	GBR	POR	ITA	USA	NC	0

References

1. ^ ^{a b} 2 Rookie Drivers Die In Grand Prix, New York Times, June 20, 1960, Page 40.

Preceded by Harry Schell

Formula One fatal accidents June 19, 1960

Succeeded by Alan Stacey

Persondata
Name	Bristow, Chris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 December 1937
Place of birth
Date of death	19 June 1960
Place of death