Former F1 driver and Le Mans champion Roy Salvadori dies at age 90

Roy Salvadori at a Le Mans test session in 1964.. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

The 1959 Le Mans winner and former Grand Prix driver Roy Salvadori died on Sunday at the age of 90. His death comes just a few weeks after that of Carroll Shelby, with whom he shared the winning Aston Martin in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959.

A moment of silence was held prior to the start of the second session of prerace testing at Le Mans on Sunday afternoon.

A longtime friend of Bernie Ecclestone, Salvadori started 47 Formula One races in a career that spanned from 1952 to 1962, with a best finish of second in the 1958 German Grand Prix.

His failure to win a points-scoring race meant that he was to a large extent overshadowed by the likes of Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn. But he could challenge all of them on his day and was considered one of the best British drivers of the era.

Born in the United Kingsom to Italian parents in 1922, Salvadori started racing immediately after World War II. He made his Formula One debut at Silverstone in 1952 in a private Ferrari, in which he finished eighth.

He drove in five Grands Prix for the works Connaught team the following year but failed to finish a race. Between 1954 and 1956, he had occasional Formula One starts in Sid Greene's Gilby Engineering Maserati 250F, but he fared rather better on home soil, winning several nonchampionship F1 races against strong opposition.

His form did not go unnoticed, and in 1957, he had chances with three British works teams. He failed to qualify a works BRM in Monaco, and then had a one-off outing for Vanwall in France. Joining Cooper, he scored his first points with fifth in the British Grand Prix at Aintree.

In 1958, he was a Cooper regular, alongside Jack Brabham, as the rear-engine cars began to make their mark. He was fourth at Zandvoort, third at Silverstone, second at the Nürburgring, and fifth at Monza--accumulating enough points to finish fourth in the World Championship.

In 1959, he drove mainly for Aston Martin, taking a pair of sixth-places in the uncompetitive and outdated rear-engine car. Meanwhile, his Le Mans win with Shelby was proof that he was one of the best sports-car racers of his day. He mixed the Aston program with other F1 outings in a private Cooper, a schedule that continued into 1960. That year he was also third at Le Mans for Aston, sharing with Jim Clark.

In 1961, he drove a Cooper for Reg Parnell's Yeoman Credit team, alongside John Surtees, and earned a couple of sixth-places. He very nearly won the U.S. Grand Prix before the engine failed as he caught leader Innes Ireland.

In 1962, he drove a Lola for the renamed Bowmaker team, again as teammate to Surtees, and suffered badly with unreliability. At the age of 40 he retired from F1. He continued in sports and touring cars and was closely involved in the birth of the Ford GT40 program. He retired from racing in 1965, running his final race in a GT40 at Goodwood.

For a couple of years he shared his experience as team manager and test driver for the Cooper F1 team, where he worked with the likes of Bruce McLaren, Jochen Rindt and Pedro Rodriguez, along with a young mechanic called Ron Dennis.

After a disagreement, he left the team before the start of the 1968 season. For a while he ran a garage business before spending some four decades in retirement with his wife, Susan, living for many years in an apartment above the start/finish straight in Monaco. In recent times he had reportedly been dealing with Alzheimer's disease.