People

Maurice Hamilton

There are many remarkable stories in the Formula 1 press corps but Maurice Hamilton has one of the strangest. Born in Northern Ireland, his interest in motor racing was sparked in his childhood by his father's love of the sport. From the early 1950s Maurice was taken to events at the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, one of the big international events of the day.

But in 1955 there was a serious accident at Dundrod and the track was denied a license. In order to see the top drivers in action the Hamiltons had to take the ferry across the Irish Sea to England where between 1959 and 1962 they were regular spectators at the British GP at Aintree, in the suburbs of Liverpool.

Maurice left school in the mid 1960s and qualified as a surveyor but he continued to visit races whenever he could. In 1970 he decided he had had enough and packed his bags, heading for England with the aim of becoming a team manager in Formula 1. It was a brave move, as he knew no-one in the sport.

Not surprisingly, it was not easy. He worked in pubs and then became a car salesman. He would later sell houses, office equipment and even plastic pipes. He was able to make a living but the dream did not go away and in 1973 he got the money together to travel to the Monaco Grand Prix. He had decided to try journalism and his first published article was a story about the adventures of a spectator at Monaco. It was published in a magazine called Competition Car.

For the next four years Hamilton struggled to become established as a journalist, exploiting his vague contacts with Competition Car and often using fake accreditation for an invented magazine called "Cart and Track (Ireland)".

Gradually he became a recognized face in the paddock and in 1977 he was offered work by fellow journalist Eoin Young - who was too busy to do everything wanted of him. Maurice became an established reporter. In 1979 he had the good fortune to land two major jobs within a couple of weeks: the editor of the Autocourse annual and the motor racing correspondent of The Guardian newspaper in London.

Today Hamilton has moved on from both of those jobs but he now writes articles for magazines and newspapers all over the world, does regular commentary work for BBC Radio 5 at Grands Prix and writes at least one book a year about Formula 1 racing.