Working Within Benetton During the 1990s, by Ibrar Malik

"Berger was the thickest driver I have worked with, Alesi was a close second," ...those are the forthright views of a former Benetton mechanic who is ready to let rip!

The ex-Benetton mechanic has kindly contributed towards the upcoming book, but cannot be named because he still works in F1. However his anonymity means he can be brutally honest. 

Benetton started 1996 with high hopes having just been crowned drivers and constructors' champions. Despite losing Michael Schumacher, the Enstone team was gaining a hugely gifted racer in Jean Alesi. Its other incoming driver, Gerhard Berger, was F1's elder statesman having partnered the likes of Ayrton Senna at McLaren. If Benetton could harness Alesi's talent or Berger's experience surely more success lay on the horizon. However, things didn't quite pan out like that...

Ayrton Senna - His Final Hours, by Ibrar Malik

Here is the latest guest blog posts by Ibrar Malik, about his forthcoming book 1994 – The Untold Story of a Tragic and Controversial F1 Season. This book will aim to offer much additional insight into this turbulent season and much else besides. You can find much more detail on this on his website at: www.1994f1.com.

Twenty-four years ago today Formula One lost one of its greatest ever drivers. Ayrton Senna's passing was felt across the globe, especially Brazil, which declared three days of official mourning. He had been the world's most famous racing driver and his death was broadcast live on television in front of millions. The grief felt was on par with the deaths of Princess Diana or JFK, and he is still sorely missed among F1 fans even 24 years on. The loss of Roland Ratzenberger a day earlier had been profoundly shocking, however, Senna's passing was another order of magnitude. It turned a shocking situation into the biggest crisis F1 had faced in recent times.

Ayrton Senna was a unique champion and is still adored by F1 fans today.

Senna was a complex, charismatic yet contradictory character who evoked strong emotions within others - qualities which were evident during the final hours of his tragically short life. The death of Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying for the 1994 San Marino GP, the first death at a race meeting in 12 years, deeply affected Senna. Indeed, the Brazilian commandeered an official FIA car to visit the accident himself as he wanted to understand what lessons could be learnt for the safety of others. It was something the triple world champion would be chastised for before the race.

Looking back: the Austrian Grand Prix of 1986

Now 30 years on we presumably can expect a few retro features. There is a consensus that the 1986 F1 season is an all-time classic, and it brings many familiar things to mind to even the fan who was not around at the time to witness it.

This includes not least its extraordinary finale, encapsulated by the oft-repeated footage of Nigel Mansell's exploding Goodyear - the vast shower of sparks and all - on Adelaide's Brabham Straight which helped Alain Prost to a long shot drivers' championship. A title that, still three decades on, is arguably the last claimed not in the best car. Whatever, it was an achievement about as extraordinary for The Professor as the finale that delivered it.

The McLaren team, seen here at Brands Hatch,
was one of the major players in 1986
"McLaren pit 1986 Britain" by Phil - mclaren in
brands hatch pits. Licensed under CC BY 2.0
via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McLaren_pit_1986_
Britain.jpg#/media/File:McLaren_pit_1986_Britain.jpg

It's also viewed more broadly as a golden age: rip-snorting turbos and a stellar cast of drivers to tame them. Mansell and Prost we've mentioned, but you can add to it Nelson Piquet and a young Ayrton Senna. It also was a season with a strict in-race fuel limit and many resultant economy runs - some comical last gasps of races too as various cars ran dry - but best not spoil the moment.

One could argue also that competitiveness or variation at the front beyond these names weren't the season's strongest boasts either. That year many spoke of a 'Gang of Five' with Prost's McLaren team mate Keke Rosberg variously added to the quartet mentioned, though perhaps 'Gang of Four' would have been more fitting as Rosberg was the least regular presence among them at the sharp end by a way. Almost never would anyone else beyond this five get a look-in. Yet in among the 1986 rounds was an extraordinary outlying weekend on this front. That in Austria.

Even compared with the later round in Mexico where alone that year one of the usual suspects didn't win, even compared with that finale in Adelaide, this was the weekend of the season that really turned the order onto its head. Though you wouldn't necessarily know it from the result, which in its victor at least looked slightly ordinary. Perhaps that's therefore led to it being forgotten. And a winner whom you'd have got long odds on at the weekend's outset was denied, cruelly, as well as by an unlikely (perhaps absurd) source. Someone would have to remember to purchase a new car battery

Tyre wars - such a good idea?

"Did tyres play an important part today?" asked a typically self-important Mark Thatcher - working for American television for some reason - of the victor of the 1981 Las Vegas Grand Prix just finished. That victor was Alan Jones, who couldn't believe his luck that Thatcher seemingly was unaware of the trap he had just laid before himself. "Oh, absolutely" replied Jones. "You see, they keep the wheels from touching the ground".

Alan Jones - knew the value of tyres
"Alan Jones 1980" by NL-HaNA, ANEFO
 / neg. stroken, 1945-1989, 2.24.01.05, item
number 930-9867 - http://www.gahetna.nl/
collectie/afbeeldingen/fotocollectie/zoeken/
weergave/detail/q/id/ace68340-d0b4
-102d-bcf8-003048976d84. Licensed
under CC BY-SA 3.0 nl via Wikimedia
Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Alan_Jones_1980.jpg#/
media/File:Alan_Jones_1980.jpg

Yet even Jones when not being facetious appreciated the real importance of tyres in F1. "Goodyear are letting us down" he said of his rubber to journalist Nigel Roebuck at the Austrian Grand Prix earlier that same season, "we need some proper qualifiers. If it was up to me, I'd go back to Michelin tomorrow". And when it was pointed out that such things often are preceded with 'don't quote me' or similar, Jones was resolute. "Write it" he said. "It might get someone angry - and then something might get done about it".

Yet for all that we scarcely seem to stop talking tyres in modern F1, specific talk as Jones' is now a relic of the past. Now we are in the age of the single tyre supplier supplying its product to any and all competitors. Many ages of F1 past have had but a sole supplier too but nowadays is different, as only one is allowed. Brought in as a cost control device from 2007 onwards tyre suppliers periodically tender to be the sport's solitary chosen one. While you or I might go to visit National Tyres and Autocare or Tyre Shopper to chose their road tyres, F1 teams do not have a say on their rubber.

A decision on the latest contract, for 2017-2019, is expected soon with the incumbent Pirelli and Michelin the two companies that have pitched. It's now in effect an arbitrary Bernie Ecclestone decision as the FIA has approved both tenderers and simply he now does the deal that he chooses. And even though reportedly teams have been putting pressure on to ditch the controversial Italian supplier, as well as that no one's got rich by second guessing BCE, the smart money remains on Pirelli hanging around. Bernie wants to continue to use the rubber as a means of spicing up the show via deliberate degradation it is thought; Michelin is more cool on the idea. So that presumably is that. His rather earnest defence of Pirelli in Monza seemed to rather cement the idea.

Twenty years on - personal recollections of Ayrton Senna and Imola 1994

Some things you can't explain. Some things just are.

I watched my first ever F1 race on TV when not yet seven years old, in the British Grand Prix of 1986. And while to this day I cannot rationalise it somehow during that hour and a half the bug bit. From that point on I was an obsessive.

My recollection of the spell of childhood that followed that day was of rather standing apart from my school friends. For them it was soap operas (Neighbours, quickly buttressed by Home and Away), pop stars (Kylie and Jason, natch), football and, increasingly, computer games that took up much of their existences. While I wasn't too bad on the latter two subjects, all-in this wasn't for me.

Credit: Norio Kioke / CC

For me Formula One was the thing. My world would stop when a live race was on television, the highlights programmes would be recorded and watched repeatedly, copies of Autosport would be pored over.

I often would incite glazed expressions among friends when I asked them if they'd watched a race over a weekend. Sometimes I would impress them but more likely would take the glazed expressions yet further with my ability to recite the entirety of an F1 grid - drivers, cars and engines, the whole season's calendar, to doodle circuit layouts, as well as quote sundry other details.

But even with this as far as I was concerned there may as well have been only one guy out there - and his name was Ayrton Senna. Throughout much of my fervent following of the sport right up until the 1st of May 1994 - now almost exactly twenty years ago - I had eyes only for he.

What if... Williams in the 1994 title showdown had changed Hill's suspension in three minutes?

Let's talk about something that never happened. What historians call a 'counterfactual'. Or, to put it more into layman's terms, a 'what if?'.

You'll recall some of the fun that we had in the second part of qualifying in Sepang last weekend. Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso on their out-laps came into contact, which among other things snapped an arm on of the F14 T's front suspension. Just about all assumed that would be the last we'd see of Nando that day, but it reckoned without the Ferrari mechanics who managed to replace the arm within three minutes, and before we knew it the Spaniard was back out circulating. Eventually it resulted in a fourth place grid slot for him.

But afterwards the events got me thinking. To Adelaide in 1994. Most of us are familiar with what happened then. It was the final race of the season; a championship showdown, with Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill but one point apart. On the Sunday the two disappeared off together in a race of one, only for them after 35 laps of 81 to - one way or another - make contact with each other. Schumi ended up in the barrier while Hill continued. But not for long as he returned to the pits at the end of that lap to retire, as a bent suspension arm meant that he couldn't continue.

Could Damon Hill's zero have converted into a one in 1994?
Credit: Morio / CC

But what if... Williams had been able to change the suspension arm in three minutes just as Ferrari did last Sunday? Would Damon have had a chance at the title? Under the scoring system of the time he needed fifth place or better to clinch it. (Before I go any further, I want to be clear that there is no implied criticism of Williams here; no two cars are the same and presumably the ability to change these things quickly has increased over the last twenty years, so it seems probable that it would in reality have taken much longer than three minutes to change the suspension arm that day. Please treat this only as a bit of fun!)

You might say at this point surely Damon wouldn't have had a chance - three minutes is an impressive turnaround time in itself but in a race it would cost you two laps. But don't forget that the gaps on pace between the cars in 1994 was much wider than now, indeed the advantage of Schumi and Hill over the rest that day was massive; a lap before the collision the third-placed man and eventual winner Nigel Mansell was some 56.5 seconds adrift. Remember they were still short of half-distance too.

Further thoughts on the Japanese Grand Prix

Webber's parting gift
Let's end this round of Further Thoughts... back where we started it, with Mark Webber.

The F1 community doesn't agree on many things, but one matter on which there is something close to consensus (or as close to consensus as you'll likely find herein) is that they'd like Webber to win a race before he bids F1 farewell at the year's end. It would be a fitting finish for the popular, hard-charging Australian, especially as he hasn't yet topped the podium this campaign. Even Christian Horner got in on the act after the Suzuka race: 'Mark got pretty close (to a win) today, it would be great to see Mark win a race before the end of the year as well.'

Many hope that Webber gets a win
before the end of the year
Photo: Octane Photography

Some have gone further to speculate that the Red Bull team might indeed engineer this outcome, given four races remain and the two championships effectively are bought and paid for. Perhaps even, a few say, it would be a form of pay back for Malaysia and all that. But whatever is the case, while I too hope sincerely that Webber can squeeze another win out of his F1 career, I hope just as sincerely that it is not one conspicuously handed to him. Webber is a proud man, and such a 'gesture' - however well-intended - would be the final insult.

I'm put in mind of a couple of instances of such from years past. In one, Ayrton Senna on the day that he clinched title number three in Suzuka in 1991 when leading comfortably on the last lap came almost to a stop on the run to the flag out of the final chicane, to allow his team mate Gerhard Berger to win. Seemingly it was a 'thank you' for Berger's support, and indeed the Austrian hadn't won a race for McLaren at that point. But however benignly it was meant, for Berger it wasn't a great deal like winning anything.

Retro F1: 1996 Monaco Grand Prix

Hello you. The first Retro F1 in a while took place yesterday. And we had a great race to watch, the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. It's a race that has lived long in the memory due to its drama and surprise result.

For those who don't know, Retro F1 is watching a classic F1 race in full on YouTube and chatting on Twitter with like-minded F1 people as we go using the #RetroF1 hashtag. All are welcome! The highlights of yesterday's Twitter chat are below.

Here’s the Retro F1 YouTube link: Now clicking play :)

It’s in several parts, it's a playlist so it should automatically move onto the next part when one ends.

The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix was a dramatic and memorable one
Credit: Steve Gregory / CC

Not much of a backstory to this race. This is race 6 of the 1996 season, Damon Hill in the Williams has won 5 out of 6 races so far, and leads the table by a country mile. Indycar champion Jacques Villeneuve, arriving in F1 to be Hill’s team mate, is next up, winning the other race.

Retro F1: 1991 Belgian Grand Prix

With a full four weeks now until our next F1 race I thought it would be jolly nice to hold the latest Retro F1.

And given that the next race on the F1 calendar is at the magisterial Spa-Francorchamps, I decided to make this Retro F1 a Spa race. We therefore watched the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix. It was a great topsy-turvey affair, and stars no less than Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell, as well as one Michael Schumacher making his F1 debut in the beautiful Jordan 191.

Retro F1 is when we watch a classic F1 race in full online, and chat about it on Twitter as we go, using the #RetroF1 hashtag. All are welcome!

The link to the race on YouTube is here, and can also be watched below.



Highlights of the Twitter chat follow:

Hey y’all, welcome to the latest instalment of Retro F1. Watching 1991 Belgian GP at magnificent Spa, starring such titans as Senna, Prost, Mansell, and one Michael Schumacher making his F1 debut. I would love to hear your thoughts as we go. Remember to use the #RetroF1 hashtag!

Now holding aloft the 5 minute board for Retro F1.
@F1isP1 Just left the pits on my formation lap...
Quality, just about to form on the grid :)

Right-o, clicking play now.

Click ‘Skip Ad’ :)

Some scene setting: the year is 1991 and Ayrton Senna has been on top of the pile all year. He won the opening four rounds of the season. But since then he has faced a strong challenge from the Williams FW14 (designed by one A. Newey), especially in hands of Nigel Mansell. 'Our Nige' got within 8 points of Senna by mid-season, but in the last round at Hungary Senna struck back by winning (with Mansell 2nd).

Looking back: 1997 - an underrated classic

A F1 season in which grids and races were tight and we'd enter weekends with no idea who would be on top; it could have literally been anyone from more than half of the grid. It was also a season with a close championship battle. And one in which tyres would often fall apart quickly and would have to be nursed through a race stint.

No, it's not now. It's fifteen years ago: the year of 1997.

When classic seasons in F1 history are discussed I often think that 1997 is curiously rarely-mentioned. It was an underrated classic. While much of F1 in the 1990s was characterised by only a small number of likely winners at any given moment, and often one team dominating, 1997 represented something of a renaissance. Perhaps part of the season's not getting the credit it deserves owes something to its being poorly served by statistics. For all of its competitiveness, it can only claim to six different winners (from four teams) in 17 races. But with cards falling the other way it could easily have boasted anything up to double those numbers.

Jacques Villeneuve,
some years later
Credit: Rick Dikeman / CC

In this year Williams Renault was the dominant force, but the Schumacher-Ferrari double act, joined this year for the first time by Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne, was getting into its stride and more than capable of making a thorough pest of itself. Then there was McLaren who, with Mercedes engines, was finally emerging from its post-Senna/post-Honda trough and was an increasingly consistent front runner as the year went on. Benetton and Jordan were both credible contenders for wins on occasion.

And further was the variable brought in by the Bridgestone tyres. For the first time since 1991 Goodyear had opposition in supplying F1 teams, and it could be argued that for the first time since 1984 (when Michelin left the sport) Goodyear had a serious threat to its pedestal position. If anything the Bridgestone was the superior tyre, certainly the more durable. And in this its debut season it could only count midfield runners at best among its customers: Prost (née Ligier, just bought by Alain), Stewart (also in its debut season) and the like; but the Bridgestones could, on occasion, bring these guys right to the sharp end. Heck, even Arrows nearly won a race on them. And Goodyear in response sometimes got its sums wrong, the resultant gumball rubber meant that 'blistering' and subsequent pace variation returned to the F1 parlance with a vengeance.

Retro F1: the 1993 European Grand Prix

The latest Retro F1 was held yesterday, watching the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park.

For those who don't know, Retro F1 is watching a classic F1 race in full on YouTube and chatting on Twitter as we go. And this race has very much gone down as an all-time classic.

The YouTube footage that we watched is below (or you can click here):

The Twitter chat, using the #RetroF1 hastag, can be read here, and in this post I have edited highlights of the chat below.

Righty-ho, I'm clicking play on the link now :) 1993 European GP in full coming right up!

@Parnelli98 Grid forming yet for #RetroF1? 
Grid is forming right now!
@mario_eb I'm already here waiting for #RetroF1 :) 
@hellasf1 Let's have a nice wet race! 
@ElenaF1 So, we will have a wet GP. I like the idea!!

And it’s the legendary Murray Walker and James Hunt partnership providing the commentary.
@SartoMutiny Excitable starter = nutter. #talklikejameshunt 

It's Easter Sunday 1993, and the British weather is living up to its usual Easter Sunday form, it's been raining on and off.
@SartoMutiny When all this was happening, I was in Blairgowrie. I think it was raining there too.

Retro F1: the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix

The latest Retro F1 was held today, on the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix. For those who don't know, Retro F1 is watching a classic F1 race in full on YouTube and chatting on Twitter as we go.

The YouTube footage that we watched is below (or you can click here):

It was a race that featured Senna, Prost, Mansell and others, as well as the 1980s F1 turbocharged monsters. It has gone down in history as one of the sport's greatest races. So it was worth a watch!

The Twitter chat, using the #RetroF1 hastag, can be read here, and in this post I have edited highlights of the chat below.

Howdy partners. I'm clicking play now, the whole 1986 Spanish GP awaits.

Murray Walker and James Hunt commentating. Quality, I'm ten years old again.

@Parnelli98 Good afternoon (good morning for me!) Let's race!
Good morning to you! Glad you could join us.
@Parnelli98 Should be fun!

This was the first Spanish Grand Prix in five years, since Gilles Villeneuve’s famous 1981 win at Jarama, and the first ever at the Jerez circuit. Like Jarama, Jerez always struggled to pull a crowd for its F1 races, and eventually lost its place on the calendar to Barcelona in 1991.

Retro F1: the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix

Today I tried something new. YouTube features some full length F1 races from the past, which, given my interest in reliving F1 history, I've taken an interest in watching. Today I watched one of these classic F1 races in full and posted Twitter updates on it as live (under the hashtag #retrof1).

The race was the 1995 Canadian GP. If you want to watch along with the full race the link is here. And the #retrof1 twitter timeline can be viewed here.

An edited timeline of my tweets is below. This may become a regular feature with other races available in full online. Though if it turns out that I achieve little beyond annoying people by clogging up their Twitter feeds then I'll abandon the idea.

Anyways, off we go.



The unmistakable tones of Bob Varsha kick us off. It's ESPN's coverage, and it's been raining in Canada.

Now Derek Daly is talking technical - sporting an impressive tie and mullet :)

Oh my god, James Allen was ESPN's pit reporter in 1995. Didn't realise he had experience when picked up by ITV in 1997 to perform the same role for the UK coverage.

@MKaipio So funny to see @DerekDaly500 and @Jamesallenonf1 there!
Nice to think they're still going strong in F1 16 years later!

In defence of Alain Prost

I, like most people who've seen it, consider the recent Senna film to be a triumph, for a number of reasons. But I do have one major criticism of the film: it is immensely harsh in its treatment of Ayrton Senna's chief rival, Alain Prost.

Credit: Mark McArdle

Prost is very much presented as the story's villain, with ex-ESPN commentator John Bisignano describing him as a driver who drove for safe points rather than wins, and used 'politics' to prevail in the sport.

I can understand why this is to an extent. The makers felt that the film had to have a coherent Hollywood-style narrative, complete with a protagonist and antagonist. But the problem is that their presentation Prost is rather jaundiced, and at the negative end of the possible interpretations of him as a man and driver.

I have always thought Prost curiously under sold as a driver generally (and this is coming from someone who spent most of his childhood hero-worshiping Ayrton Senna). This was the case long before the Senna film was even thought of - indeed some commented thus during his career as well as after it. I also always say that if I could buy shares in former F1 drivers I would buy shares in Alain Prost. I feel that his stock will surely only rise: there has to be a point where his driving genius receives the wider appreciation it deserves from history.

Looking back: F1 wizards' first visit to Oz

As you're no doubt aware by now the Bahrain Grand Prix has been postponed, possibly to be shoehorned back into the calendar later this year. The season's opening round will instead take place in Australia on 27 March, around the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. Seems something much more appropriate about that.

The Australian race is one of the most eagerly anticipated rounds of the season, such is the atmosphere and local enthusiasm it always engenders (it's a pity therefore that it currently seems to be under threat). F1 was nevertheless fairly slow to discover the potential of an Australian race, with the first visit there as late as 1985. What's more, anticipation of the initial visit was accompanied by considerable scepticism from the F1 circus. But on arrival this gave way rapidly to huge enchantment, probably of an even greater intensity than the Melbourne round currently enjoys.

When the first Australian Grand Prix, to be held around a street circuit in Adelaide, was placed as the final round on the 1985 calendar misgivings were widespread. F1's recent record at the time on newfangled street tracks was far from good: the Dallas round of the previous year wherein the track had fallen apart over the weekend, and there were several other organisational difficulties, was fresh in the memory, as were similar problems at Detroit and Las Vegas. Indeed, the record of such rounds even going ahead was somewhat patchy, such as the Flushing Meadows street race in New York which had been on the calendar for three years in a row and had yet to become a reality (and it still hasn't).

How do you solve a problem like Felipe?

An intriguing development of the past few days is the thickening plot surrounding Felipe Massa and his relationship with Ferrari.

It all kicked off, publically at least, in the build up to the Japanese race when Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo said: 'I have waited for Felipe with great perseverance in the last four races. I want a strong Massa who will shave points off the rivals...Those who race for Ferrari don't race for themselves, but for the Ferrari team colours. One who wants to race for himself will have to face the team'.

Curious stuff. Particularly given that, on the track at least, Felipe hadn't done an awful lot wrong in those four races. He scored a 3rd and two 4th places (in two of those races indeed taking points off championship rivals) and also came in 8th in Singapore after a mechanical failure in qualifying, absolutely not his fault, consigned him to start at the back. The inference could be taken that Massa's off track relationship with his team, particularity in regard to his his willingness to assist team mate Fernando Alonso's title bid, has become severely strained. We can also infer, going by di Montezemolo's stated chronology, that the problems are traced back to Hockenheim in July, the scene of 'team order gate' of course, wherein Felipe was required to cede a likely win to Alonso.

Looking back: F1's first visit to Suzuka

Next weekend the F1 circus visits Suzuka for this season's Japanese Grand Prix - a track that all true fans of F1 eagerly anticipate seeing the cars on.

Such is the classic and challenging nature of Suzuka's fast sweeps, and its lack of modern sterility, it's easy to assume that the likes of Moss, Clark and Lauda pounded round the circuit in years past. In fact, the track was only used as a World Championship venue for the first time in 1987.

Indeed, the date of the track's opening stretches even further back - to 1962 (no gleaming new Tilke facility being brought onto the calendar here). It was designed by John Hugenholtz, who also gave Zandvoort to the world (he designed Jarama, Nivelles and Zolder as well - but for the sake of the point I'll ignore those!). But despite the staging of a couple of 'Japanese GPs' in its early years, Suzuka remained criminally undiscovered by much of international motor racing for the first quarter century of its existence.

The history of bringing an F1 race to Japan was equally haphazard. The track at Fuji, who were always more proactive than Suzuka in bringing international motorsport to Japan, held the first two F1 World Championship events in the country in 1976 and 1977. The first visit has gone down in folklore as the scene of James Hunt and Niki Lauda's championship showdown, held initially in monsoon conditions that resulted in Lauda quitting a couple of laps in on safety (or sanity) grounds. This left Hunt to dramatically claim the crown by taking third, having to pass cars frantically in the late laps, after a pit stop to replace a blown tyre.