F1 Insiders Est. 2012
The first Singapore Grand Prix was to be the first night race in Formula One history around a tight street circuit with plenty of barriers and walls to collect errant drivers. So who could be surprised by a crash causing a safety car? Nelson Piquet’s Renault duly obliged on lap 14, and in amazingly fortuitous … Read more
The race in 1971 would be the last race at Monza before chicanes were introduced to cut the speed of the track. In a frantic race of slipstreaming and constant lead changes, Peter Gethin would emerge to take his only Grand Prix Victory. Chris Amon started on pole position in his Matra, with Jacky Ickx … Read more
In the 1988, McLaren dominated F1, courtesy of a transition in rule changes that McLaren and Honda exploited to the full. Between them Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost had won all of the opening 11 races, and there seemed to be no reason to expect they wouldn’t complete a clean sweep by the end of … Read more
In the 1995 season Williams had the best car in the field, the FW17 proving the troubles the team had encountered in 1994 with the FW16 following the banning of active suspension were well and truly behind them. The only problem for Williams was that in Michael Schumacher Benetton clearly had the best driver in … Read more
Rain on Saturday and Sunday mixed the order up at Monza in 2008, with the main championship protagonists struggling, giving a lively mixed up race which saw plenty of wheel to wheel action, and a new star emerge for Formula One. But this weekend see’s the Tifosi willing their top driver Sebastian Vettel on for … Read more
The 1992 Belgian Grand Prix was a a gripping race driven in slippery conditions. Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher took centre stage against the seemingly invincible Williams FW14B piloted by Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese. Mansell, fresh from being crowned champion at the previous race in Budapest, looked hungry for more race wins. After qualifying, … Read more
Arriving in Zolder for the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix, Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) and Patrick Depailler (Ligier) shared the championship lead on 20 points, with the second Ligier of Jacques Laffite and the Lotus of Carlos Reutemann next up on 18 points, and the second Ferrari of Jody Scheckter 5th with 16 points. In qualifying the … Read more
McLaren and Ferrari were the dominant forces in 2008, and occupied the front two rows for the race at Spa, with Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) on pole from Felipe Massa (Ferrari), with Heikkei Kovalainen (McLaren) third and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) fourth. As so often at Spa, the weather intervened to liven up the proceedings. The track … Read more
For 1962, Jim Clark was running the all new Lotus 25, at the time a revolutionary car due to its monocoque chassis, making it lighter and nimbler than the rest of the field. As so often the case when introducing ground-breaking technology, while the potential was apparent, frustrating mechanical issues had prevented the car achieving … Read more
While every previous edition of the Hungarian Grand Prix was staged in hot and dry conditions, 2006 was cold and wet. Conditions were very slippy, with Pedro de la Rossa managing to spin and recover his McLaren on the warm up lap. Championship protagonists Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) had both been handed … Read more
