Bob Anderson, Formula 1 Privateer
Remembering Bob Anderson, Grand Prix Maverick
Formula 1 of the sixties was a very different sport compared to now. Bob Anderson became a regular thorn in the side of works teams on the Grand Prix circuit.
They don’t make them like Bob Anderson anymore. For his entire Formula 1 career the determined Englishman struggled against adversity, travelling from race to race with a hopelessly outdated car. The fact that he never drove for a works team should not detract from his very real talent. He is now a largely forgotten figure in the sport’s history, but he is remembered fondly by knowledgeable fans as one of the last true mavericks in what was becoming an increasingly professional world.
Bob began his racing career on two wheels, with considerable success, but an accident led him to examine the possibilities of switching to four. After just a handful of Formula 1 races, including a victory in the non-championship Rome Grand Prix, Bob acquired a Brabham with which to contest the full 1964 season.
Bob Anderson’s greatest day came at the 1964 Austrian Grand Prix where he extracted the maximum from the Brabham to finish third. In total he scored just eight points in his career but, considering the machinery he had to work with, it is testament to his ability that he scored any at all.
For the next four years Bob would compete in the World Championship using his faithful Brabham. His operation was run on a very tight budget but Bob somehow managed to make it work. When the three-litre formula began in 1966 it looked like it could well be the end of the line for Anderson. Undaunted, he bought an ancient 2.8 litre Climax engine and fitted it to the ageing Brabham.
Bob’s final race was on home ground, the 1967 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. After qualifying 17th he was forced to retire the Brabham late in the race with engine trouble. The next race was the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport.
Prior to departing for the Canadian Grand Prix Bob elected to take the Brabham to Silverstone for some additional testing. Standing water caught him out on the approach to Woodcote corner and the car slithered off the track, striking an unattended marshal’s post. Alan Brodie, Bob’s mechanic, was one of the first on the scene. In the May 2002 issue of Motor Sport magazine he recalled the harrowing scene and inadequate medical facilities:
“He’d gone forward and his ribs had gone into his lungs… Eventually, we got into this rickety old Silverstone ambulance, it was an ex-army type thing, driven by a labourer off the farm…”
As it transpired the ambulance was equipped with neither a bell nor a siren. Even worse for poor Bob, it had no oxygen. With him conscious and in abject pain it took an age to reach the hospital in Northampton. Shortly after arriving, Bob Anderson was pronounced dead.
It is remarkable to consider that, within a very short time of taking up the sport, Bob Anderson was competing with the likes of Jim Clark and Graham Hill. With his tiny set-up it was far from a level playing field but Bob made up for some of the disadvantage with sheer courage and determination. He was a man who participated in racing for the right reasons, a deep-rooted love of the sport. He does not deserve to be forgotten.
