Inside Line: Alan Henry a true legend of F1 journalism

The world of Formula 1 was saddened by the passing of the well liked and respected journalist Alan Henry this past weekend - a true legend of Formula 1 journalism.

Alan covered 650 Grands Prix between 1973 and 2009 and one notable exception was the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring where Niki Lauda had his fiery accident...

Alan was always great company, with a encyclopedic wealth of knowledge and information, not only for the cars and teams, but also the behind the scenes gossip. For many years when the French Grand Prix was at Magny Cours, the highlight of the weekend was a traditional McLaren F1 journalists dinner at wonderful French restaurant.

It was strictly F1 passes left at the door and nothing from that evening could be quoted afterwards, as we were regaled with hilarious tales from the

creme de la creme of the British journalists including Alan, Nigel Roebuck and Maurice Hamilton. In fact a contributing factor to the no repeating of what happened that evening was probably due to the copious amount of red wine consumed.

For those interested in the history of F1 and the characters behind it, a thoroughly recommended read is Alan’s autobiography “The last train from Yokkaichi” which was produced as an e-book and is available on Kindle through Amazon here>>>

I think Alan is best summed up in a tribute by his great friend Maurice Hamilton: “Underscoring all of this was a warm, kind and caring personality that endeared him to everyone. Alan Henry did not have a single enemy; a attribute that says everything about the rare ability in a ruthless business to perform an objective reporting role supported by the fact that this criticisms always had substance."

"That respect and affection became concern in recent years when illness took hold, followed by an outpouring of heartfelt tributes from the F1 community and readers when the news broke that Alan had passed away at the age of 68."