Meet one of the GREATEST F1 drivers you may have never heard of

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Meet one of the GREATEST F1 drivers you may have never heard of

Not all of Formula 1's legends were title winners

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Sunday 26 January 2025 17:57

The list of Formula 1 legends rolls off easily whether you have been watching the sport for decades or in the more Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen era.

Along with those two current stars, you can read off Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost among many others before you get back to the start with Juan Manuel Fangio - all multi-world champions and F1 heroes to many.

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Sometimes though there are names that get lost over time as new generations of supporters come along, one of those is David Purley.

Purley had the talent to establish himself as an F1 driver, but he is never remembered much for his results as he only ever finished four races. Among those he is officially classed as 'DNF' is the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort which was just his second ever race start.

What the British driver did that day was something that was greater than just being an F1 racer, it marked him out as a remarkable human being in an era when driving an F1 car was a life threatening experience to unthinkable levels compared to today, that has thankfully seen drivers' safety reach greater levels since, even if the full dangers are unlikely to ever disappear.

David Purley's bravery took place at a longer version of the present day Zandvoort

How Purley tried to save Roger Williamson

On lap eight of the race Roger Williamson crashed, pitching him upside down near a barrier with his car on fire. The race continued with just a yellow flag to cover events.

Purley though, having seen the crash and realising the seriousness of the situation, parked his car, leapt out and ran across the track sprinting to the incident to try and overturn Williamson's car and pull him to safety.

Sadly track marshals very nearby did not have fire overalls on and whether due to the heat, or acting in shock, could only watch Purley's desperate one-man attempt to save Williamson's life.

Purley wrestled a fire extinguisher from a marshal to try and put the flame out but it proved no use. No other driver stopped, thinking it was just Purley attending to his own car. Race control believed the same thing, thus the race continued.

F1's safety features have developed rapidly since the 1970s

The Dutch spectators also tried to help but had the same problem as the marshals in trying to get beyond the intense heat of the fire without proper overalls.

Tragically, Purley could not put out the fire, nor overturn the car and his total visible devastation that his actions could not save the life of Williamson before he was reluctantly led away by a marshal were all caught on camera. It's a very difficult piece of footage to watch.

It took the fire engine eight minutes to get to the scene, navigating race traffic, but by the time it got to Williamson - the British driver had already died of asphyxiation.

Purley's extraordinary bravery on that day led to him being awarded the George Medal by the United Kingdom. He later died in 1985 in a plane crash having previously taken up aerobatics.

On what would have been his 80th birthday on Sunday, it's a timely reminder that we should never forget Purley's act of astonishing bravery at Zandvoort that as a human alone puts him up among Formula 1 greats.

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