Hamilton, hope and making history: Willy T Ribbs’ pioneering F1 path

Always outspoken, always entertaining, Willy T Ribbs has never pulled punches. On the eve of the Miami Grand Prix the groundbreaking, black American driver is typically effusive in his admiration for Lewis Hamilton, who he believes has fundamentally changed Formula One. “I knew before I met him he was the second coming,” he says. “You won’t see another driver who will achieve as much as Lewis Hamilton in 200 years.”

Ribbs is bold and confident, the 67-year-old speaking with authority and wit, a smile never far from his lips having earned his place in racing’s history the hard way. Ribbs was the first black driver to test an F1 car, doing so for Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham team in 1986 at Estoril and the first African-American to qualify and then race at the Indy 500 in 1991.

Over a long career he overcame racism that ran the gamut from what he describes as “opposition, barriers and denial based on one thing: the colour of my skin” right up to death threats, but faced it down with a fearless swagger. “It could demoralise a lot of people, I wasn’t that way,” he says. “I love fighting. It builds character and I was going to fight until I couldn’t breathe any more.”

This weekend in Miami, F1 is celebrating its new-found success in the US. There are two races in the country this year for the first time since 1984, next year with Las Vegas added to Miami and Texas there will be three. Ribbs is pleased that the sport he has loved since he was in diapers is once more on the up in the USA but maintains that Hamilton’s integral part in that should be recognised.

“When I used to talk with Muhammad Ali, he said to me that all people congregate to champions no matter what colour you are and Lewis is in that Muhammad Ali league,” he