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The quiet power behind Britain's best F1 team

The story of Bruce McLaren's rise from near-crippling childhood illness to founding a race-winning Formula 1 team 'on the other side of the world' is so unlikely as to be almost unimaginable. Yet it's true, explains DAMIEN SMITH. All of it...

"To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one's ability; life is measured in terms of achievement, not in years alone."

These words are Bruce McLaren's, relayed eloquently through his trusted friend and secretary Eoin Young. The context was a philosophical reflection following the death of a McLaren racer, Timmy Mayer, whose Cooper hit a tree at the fearsome Longford road course in Tasmania.

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