• December 26 down the years

Aero ace Newey born

1958
Arguable the best Aerodynamicist F1 has ever seen, Adrian Newey was born on Boxing Day. He cut his Formula One teeth under Harvey Postlethwaite at Fittipaldi F1 and enjoyed a brief and successful stint designing for the Indycar and CART championships. Back in F1 he won constructors championships for Williams and McLaren and has vastly improved the Red Bull team from also-rans to race winners. Weekends off are a bit of a busman's holiday for Newey - he likes nothing better than to slip behind the wheel of one of his vintage or classic race cars. He has also competed in more modern machinery in endurance races - including the Le Mans 24 hours.

1992
Jan Flinterman died in the Netherlands, he was 73. He entered just one grand prix - the 1952 Netherlands Grand Prix - but drove two cars. He started the race, at Zandvoort, in a Maserati A6GCM but retired when his differential failed after six laps. He took over the similar car driven by Chico Landi bringing it home ninth - all be it seven laps down.

1936
Trevor Taylor was born in Sheffield; he competed in 27 grand prix between 1959 and 1966. His best finish was second in the 1962 Netherlands Grand Prix. He suffered heavily in the 1987 stock market crash and was forced to sell a collection of his F1 trophies and mementoes.

1935
Moises Solana was born in Mexico City - he competed in eight grand prix between 1963 and 1968 all in the USA or Mexico. He is the only driver ever to compete in F1 in a car bearing the number 13. He was killed in 1969 when he lost control of his McLaren during a hillclimb and hit a bridge.

1935
Bill Brack was born in Toronto, Canada. The competed in the Canadian Grand Prix in 1968, 1969 and 1972 - he failed to finish any of the races. He retired to run a Chrysler dealership in Toronto.

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