Anthony William Brise (28 March 1952 in Erith, Kent, 29 November 1975 in Arkley, London) was a British racing driver from England. He won two of the three British Formula Three Championships in 1973. He participated in 10 Formula One Grands Prix, and scored one championship point.

    Brise made his Grand Prix debut on April 27, 1975 for Williams but after one race switched to the team run by former world champion Graham Hill, where he showed great potential. Later in 1975 Hill, Brise and four other members of the team were killed when their plane, piloted by Hill, crashed at Arkley golf course, in thick fog.

    After Tony Brise had made his Grand Prix debut for Frank Williams and then been snapped up by Graham Hill to race for the Embassy Hill team, he was suddenly very hot property. Yet at the beginning of 1974, no one had been interested in securing the talents of the man who had just won the John Player F3 championship outright and, with Richard Robarts, was joint Lombard North Central champion. He lacked the necessary finance to secure a seat in the March team for a season of Formula 2 and, despite a second place in the F3 Monaco support race, was thus consigned to a season of racing in Formula Atlantic.

    Having come from a motor sport family - his father John was a 500 cc and stock car racer - it was natural that young Tony would involve himself in some way. He started racing karts from the age of 8, eventually becoming joint British karting champion in 1969. By now keen to try his hand at Formula Ford, but without the resources, Brise contented himself with karting until, late in 1970, the opportunity finally arose to drive an Elden - not the best of chassis but at least it was a start. He raced the car in 1971 before replacing it with a more competitive Merlyn to finish his first full season as runner-up in the BOC Formula Ford championship.

    Bernie Ecclestone had spotted Tony's talent and offered him a Brabham BT28 for 1972, but this car turned out to be uncompetitive and only when he switched to a GRD did his fortunes improve. Mike Warner of GRD was another who wasn't slow to see Brise's talent and he signed him for 1973 to replace poor Roger Williamson who was bound for F1 where he was destined to meet his terrible fate at Zandvoort. As described earlier Brise did the business, but only Teddy Savory was there to back him in 1974 with the Modus Atlantic drive.

    Of Brise the Grand Prix driver, sadly, we were to see precious little, but at each of the ten Grands Prix Tony contested, be it in practice or the race itself, his brilliance was evident. His loss in the plane crash that also claimed the life of Graham Hill and four members of the Hill team was a devastating blow for all followers of British motor racing, who felt they had lost a future World Champion.

(c) 'Who is Who' by Steve Small, 2000