John Walton (Formula One)

He died at the age of 47 on 9 July 2004 at St Thomas’ Hospital in London of a heart attack.

The Minardi team choose not to run their cars in Saturday's early practice session for the 2004 British Grand Prix following Walton's death. In the race, one car was classified 16th, with the other failing to finish.

Walton went on to join Prost Grand Prix in January 2000 as the team's Sporting Director, and then moved on to occupy the same position at Minardi in 2002 until his death in 2004.

Following the arrival of Flavio Briatore at Benetton in 1989, and the political turmoil that subsequently occurred at the team due to widespread restructuring, Walton joined the fledgling Jordan Grand Prix team in 1990 ahead of its debut season in Formula 1 in 1991, and stayed with the team until mid-1996, when he joined the Arrows F1 team. He spent 1999 out of Formula One.

Alongside Jordan, he was one of the founding staff of the Eddie Jordan Racing team, before moving to the Toleman Formula 1 team in the mid-1980s, where he worked alongside Ayrton Senna in 1984. Walton became the chief mechanic of the Benetton Formula team after the Italian team took Toleman's slot in 1986.

John Walton (8 April 1957 – 9 July 2004), was an Irish motorsport professional who worked in a number of leading roles across numerous Formula 1 teams in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.

Walton was born on 8 April 1957 in Dublin, Ireland. He began working in motorsport when he was 13 years old, and later went on to work with fellow Irishman Eddie Jordan in the Irish Formula Ford Championship, Formula Atlantic and British Formula 3 championships. The pair claimed the 1978 Irish Formula Atlantic title.