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Nina Rindt was a prominent fashion model through the 1960s. She is seen here timekeeping for her husband, Jochen Rindt, ...
11/11/2025

Nina Rindt was a prominent fashion model through the 1960s. She is seen here timekeeping for her husband, Jochen Rindt, in the pits at the 1969 British GP, Silverstone. He would qualify on pole in his Lotus 49B.

The second image shows Nina at the 1970 Italian GP, Monza. Tragically, Jochen Rindt would die moments later while driving his Lotus 72 in practice. That season he would become F1's only posthumous World Champion.

The third image shows Jochen at the 1970 British GP, Brands Hatch.

All three images are published in The Road Rat Edition 21: 'A Love Letter to Formula 1'.

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‘From a driver’s perspective, you need to bring natural talent. Otherwise, clearly you wouldn’t even get into Formula 1....
10/11/2025

‘From a driver’s perspective, you need to bring natural talent. Otherwise, clearly you wouldn’t even get into Formula 1. But there are a lot of people with the talent to drive fast. After that it becomes about how much you work for it; how you expand that talent, add experience, learn how a car works.’

Extract from ’s forward for Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’.

Photography in order: Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images (image 1), Yves Debraine/Getty Images (image 2), Paul-Henri Cahier/Getty Images (image 3), Rainer Schlegelmilch/Getty Images (image 4).

Buy your copy of Edition 21 today, which can be purchased here: https://theroadrat.com/collections/buy-magazines.

'What is a good French car?', Renault Group Chief Design Officer Laurens van den Acker asked The Road Rat on the launch ...
07/11/2025

'What is a good French car?', Renault Group Chief Design Officer Laurens van den Acker asked The Road Rat on the launch day for the production-ready new Twingo, pictured here. 'A good French car', he suggested, 'is a French car that when you see it parked on the side of the road, even if it's dusty, even if it's dented, it makes you want to drop everything and drive to France. Somebody who buys a French car loves France. Which is not necessarily the case if you buy a German car.'

The retro-styled Twingo E-Tech certainly makes us want to pack right away for a city break in Paris, Lyon or Lille. It is a (relatively) featherweight, compact and entirely charming echo of Patrick Le Quément’s icon of the early ’90s, offered from launch in a colour palette – outside and in – as vivid as the original's.

So which shade would you have yours in – 'Absolute Red', 'Absolute Green' or 'Mango Yellow'? And would you have this over a new-era Renault 4 or 5?

Photography:

The Ferrari 643 combined a beautiful carbon-fibre monocoque with a naturally-aspirated 3499cc V12 – which generated 735h...
05/11/2025

The Ferrari 643 combined a beautiful carbon-fibre monocoque with a naturally-aspirated 3499cc V12 – which generated 735hp at 13,800rpm – and an innovative seven-speed semi-automatic gearbox.

Chassis 130 (pictured) was campaigned by Alain Prost in the 1991 season with limited success. He drove it in four Grands Prix, after the Japanese GP describing it as ‘like driving a horrible truck’. He was fired before the next race, the season finale in Australia.

Photographer captured these breathtaking images for Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’, as part of our four-part photo story on highlights of Richard Mille's immense collection of over 100 F1 cars, in partnership with .

See the full, high-resolution images in Edition 21, which can be purchased here: https://theroadrat.com/collections/buy-magazines.

At its debut in the 1970 season, the 72 represented a pioneering step for Lotus, with radiators mounted in sidepods, in-...
04/11/2025

At its debut in the 1970 season, the 72 represented a pioneering step for Lotus, with radiators mounted in sidepods, in-board brakes, and front and rear wings that generated downforce. The engine was a 2993cc Ford-Cosworth DFV V8.

Handling issues took time to iron out and chassis R4 was campaigned without success by the privateer Rob Walker Racing Team, with Graham Hill as driver. It is now in Gold Leaf Team Lotus livery as a tribute to Jochen Rindt, who won four Grands Prix and a posthumous 1970 World Championship in chassis R2 (pictured).

Photographer shot these spectacular images for Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’, as part of our four-part photo story on highlights of Richard Mille's incredible collection of over 100 F1 cars, in partnership with .

See the full, high-resolution images in Edition 21, which can be purchased here: https://theroadrat.com/collections/buy-magazines.

For the 1976 Formula 1 season, Tyrrell’s Project 34 debuted a radical concept: four front wheels. These helped reduce fr...
31/10/2025

For the 1976 Formula 1 season, Tyrrell’s Project 34 debuted a radical concept: four front wheels. These helped reduce front-end lift, and increased grip and braking force. Power was from a 2993cc Ford-Cosworth DFV V8. Success initially followed, with chassis P34/3 driven to a win at the Swedish GP by Jody Scheckter.

Chassis P34/6 is from the ’77 season, driven by Ronnie Peterson in six Grands Prix. For that season, development of the 10-inch front tyres by Goodyear lagged behind, chassis P34/6’s best result being fifth place at the Austrian GP.

Photographer captured these incredible images for Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’, as part of our four-part photo story on highlights of Richard Mille's mindblowing collection of over 100 F1 cars, in partnership with .

See the full, high-resolution images in Edition 21, which can be purchased here: https://theroadrat.com/collections/buy-magazines.

"I didn’t go back to the Monaco Grand Prix for years, but in 2016 an affable Australian asked if I would come aboard a y...
29/10/2025

"I didn’t go back to the Monaco Grand Prix for years, but in 2016 an affable Australian asked if I would come aboard a yacht he’d hired for race weekend to give a talk to his guests about my time working on the Top Gear TV show. In return, I could spend the rest of the weekend hanging out on a massive boat with a bar. It seemed a fair exchange. These Australians were self-made success stories on a supercar driving tour of Europe which climaxed with Monaco race weekend. They loved drinking and chatting almost as much as they loved Daniel Ricciardo, whom they referred to exclusively as ‘Dan’. I liked them a lot.

"Soon after my half-arsed presentation about Top Gear, my phone rang. By absurd coincidence, it was Jeremy Clarkson. Spookier still, he was in Monaco. I’m bored’, he said, ‘if you’re not doing much I’ll come and find you’. Next thing, he was marching up the gangplank of HMS Aussie looking extremely sunburnt. Also, he’d forgotten to put on any shoes. The Australians were startled, and then delighted. They’d just heard a talk about a TV show and now the star of that TV show was on their boat."

An extract from the story ‘The Weird Weekends’ by – as featured in The Road Rat Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’.

Images in order: Getty Images/Pascal Rondeau (image one), Getty Images/Yves Debraine (image two), Martin Parr/Magnum Photos (image three).

Read the full story in Edition 21, which can be purchased here: https://theroadrat.com/collections/buy-magazines. You can also subscribe to the Road Rat, which gives you a discount of 20% across four editions, and guaranteed copies of the upcoming Edition 22, 23 and 24.

‘Demand for F1 cars may be accelerating but the market is tricky to navigate and cars are notoriously difficult to value...
28/10/2025

‘Demand for F1 cars may be accelerating but the market is tricky to navigate and cars are notoriously difficult to value. Buyers have precise and exacting criteria for what they want and how much they are prepared to pay, and their motivation is highly personal.’

Zak Brown sets out his buying criteria for a collectable Formula One car: “The car has to have won a race in period. The world’s greatest car, of my favourite team, driven by my favourite driver, is of no interest if it has second places only. If it has had a win, the questions are: how important is the driver? Did that car win the championship? Did I like the team? Did I like the series? Did I like the livery? Did I like the design of the car? All the stuff I grew up with and remember so clearly from the first F1 race I went to in Long Beach in 1981. That’s why I ended up buying Alan Jones’ 1980 Williams; he won that 1981 race with a car that looked identical.”

An extract from John Arlidge’s story on the collectibility of Formula One cars, along with talking to McLaren CEO Zak Brown, in Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula One’.

Read the full story in Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’. Order yours now before we sell out. Order yours here https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-21

Pictured, the top five most valuable F1 cars sold at public auction:

1954 Mercedes W196R Streamliner, raced by Juan Manuel Fangio and Sir Stirling Moss. Sold in 2025 by RM Sotheby’s, Stuttgart, for €51.2 million - Image from Mercedes-Benz AG

1954 Mercedes W196R, raced by Juan Manuel Fangio. Sold in 2013 by Bonhams, Goodwood for £19.6 million - Image from Bonhams

2013 Mercedes W04, raced by Lewis Hamilton. Sold in 2023 by RM Sotheby’s, Las Vegas for £15.1 million - Image from Alex Penfold/RM Sotheby’s

2001 Ferrari F2001, raced by Michael Schumacher. Sold in 2025 by RM Sotheby’s, Monaco for €16 million - Image from RM Sotheby’s

2003 Ferrari F2003, raced by Michael Schumacher. Sold in 2022 by RM Sotheby’s, Geneva for $14.8 million - Image from Stan Papior/RM Sotheby’s

Professor Gordon Murray CBE holds his copy of The Road Edition 21: ‘A Love Letter to Formula 1’, at HQ. Murray’s influe...
24/10/2025

Professor Gordon Murray CBE holds his copy of The Road Edition 21: ‘A Love Letter to Formula 1’, at HQ. Murray’s influence as a visionary designer is felt throughout this very special edition of the magazine, including (pictured) in the radical forms of the Brabham BT46, 48, 49 and 52B.

Order your copy of Edition 21 or subscribe here: https://theroadrat.com/, while stocks last.

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A flashback to last weekend’s Villa La Massa Excellence concours for modern classics, near Florence. The Coppa d’Oro wen...
23/10/2025

A flashback to last weekend’s Villa La Massa Excellence concours for modern classics, near Florence. The Coppa d’Oro went to this 1987 Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole - in white over white, with gold highlights to its interior. The judges’ criteria focused on celebration of a supercar that was a true disruptor in its era 🕶️🇮🇹

21/10/2025

Our 2025 Bell HP77 helmet, from the cover of Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’, now animated in video.

We joined forces with design studio to create our very own Formula 1 helmet, with inspiration drawing from the Marlboro liveried McLaren’s throughout the 1970s and 1990s.
Adorned in an eye-catching colour scheme of white, red and orange, as well as The Road Rat’s very own Ratino sitting top and centre of the helmet. You may have also noticed the number 75 on the side, which of course pays tribute to the 75th anniversary of Formula 1.

The question is though, who would you like to see proudly wearing it? Name drop your driver of choice in the comments.

Lastly, if you haven’t got a copy of Edition 21, ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’, orders yours now before we sell out. Order yours here https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-21

Digital studio INK on designing the helmet graphics for the cover of The Road Rat magazine's Edition 21: 'A Love Letter ...
20/10/2025

Digital studio INK on designing the helmet graphics for the cover of The Road Rat magazine's Edition 21: 'A Love Letter to Formula 1':

"F1 has always balanced heritage and innovation – a sport that looks to the future while never forgetting its past.

"The challenge was to capture racing heritage and technical innovation in a single design. The question we kept asking ourselves on this creative journey was how to make a tribute without slipping into pastiche.

"The evolutions we worked through (see the gallery here) arose from both classic and contemporary helmet designs, considering nods to the unmistakable aesthetic worn by Nelson Piquet and McLaren’s 'Rocket Red' – layering in the vivid fluoro tones that defined an era in Adobe Photoshop.

"As the concept evolved into 3D in Adobe Substance Painter, we refined every surface and texture – down to the smallest scratch and subtle imperfection. The result is a bold, bespoke tribute that honours Formula 1’s past while looking toward its future."

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