Eight years ago, John Surtees, an incomparable champion, left us

Dean of world champions F1, John Surtees passed away on Friday 10 March 2017, at the age of 83, the victim of respiratory failure for which he had been hospitalised in February. The only rider to have won titles at the highest level in both motorcycling and car racing, he will remain – probably for eternity – a unique champion of his kind. The son of a garage owner, who was also a sidecar rider, John Surtees was quickly immersed in the atmosphere of mechanics, his apprenticeship with the motorcycle manufacturer Vincent giving him a solid foundation in this field.

After seven motorcycle world championship titles, he no longer had anything to prove at this level and logically thought of automobiles, testing a prototype Aston Martin DBR1, then a Vanwall F1, with mixed fortunes. "The first racing car I saw was the one I sat in," he joked. It was alongside his last season of motorcycling that Surtees made his debut on four wheels in March 1960. Ken Tyrrell gave him a Cooper Formula Junior at Goodwood, where he competed with Jim Clark before settling for 2nd place. Colin Chapman, whose young Lotus brand was booming, had smelled a good deal and immediately offered Surtees an F1, who made his debut outside the championship at Silverstone, before competing in the Monaco Grand Prix. Although his participations remained episodic, the Rookie learned