Ayrton Senna's Lotus years, by Ibrar Malik

As we mark the upcoming 26th anniversary of Ayrton Senna's passing, most will undoubtedly dwell upon the more celebrated cornerstones of his extraordinary career. His obliteration of the opposition during qualifying at Monaco '88, or the race at Donington Park '93. His compelling personality which shone through during interviews. Or what might have been with Williams had he not tragically met his untimely death at the '94 San Marino Grand Prix. This blog aims to be slightly different, by briefly looking at Senna's formative years at Lotus.

Coming into 1985, the Norfolk-based team had not won a race since the sudden death of its charismatic founder, Colin Chapman, in December 1982. Lotus had endured a turbulent '83 season. But it bounced back superbly to become a regular frontrunner again during '84, enjoying its most successful season since 1978. The newly-released book, Team Lotus: Beyond the Colin Chapman Era, details precisely how the team achieved this. But by the end of '84, it seemed a key ingredient to elevate Lotus back to the winner's circle was missing. Enter, Ayrton Senna – Lotus's new signing for 1985. 

Senna was widely touted as a future world champion following his stellar performances within the unfancied Toleman during 1984

New Motor Sport Magazine article: Nelson Piquet - the underrated three-time F1 champion

By Zocchi Massimiliano - Own work, CC0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/
index.php?curid=15885577

Nelson Piquet is a three-time Formula 1 world champion. Yet you would hardly know it. Or you wouldn't if you use as your sole guide the usual debates about F1 greats, at any stretch.

So why is this? The expressed consensus view is that Piquet impressed and won his first two titles at Brabham where all was laid out for him. Then he moved to Williams alongside Nigel Mansell and was 'found out'. But, as is often the case, the consensus view doesn't tell the whole story.

In my latest for Motor Sport Magazine, and with the help of Piquet's long-time Brabham team manager Herbie Blash, I seek to unravel the mystery.

You can have a read here: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/nelson-piquet-the-underrated-three-time-f1-champion

Retro on Nigel Mansell's best drives for Motor Sport Magazine

There are some drivers that it is almost impossible to be indifferent about. And Nigel Mansell is quintessential.

By Jerry Lewis-Evans - https://www.flickr.com/photos/
figsbury/9350241055/in/album-72157634767569482/,
CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/
w/index.php?curid=43891659

But whatever you make of him, almost no driver can drama have followed so closely and persistently as him. And this of course manifested in some of the most thrilling and aggressive drives ever seen.

So to mark Nigel Mansell's birthday the other day, for Motor Sport, with help from Jake Williams-Smith, I looked at eight of the best drives from Mansell's ever-dramatic career.

You can check out the selection here: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/history/f1/nigel-mansells-best-drives

I also for Motor Sport recently marked Fernando Alonso's birthday by looking back at his astonishing win in the 2012 European Grand Prix at Valencia. You can check that out here: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/history/f1/fernando-alonsos-greatest-drive-2012-european-grand-prix

1989 Hungarian Grand Prix review for Motor Sport Magazine

My latest classic Formula 1 race retro review for Motor Sport Magazine is here, and it's for the forthcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.

By Stuart Seeger from College Station, Texas, USA -
Explaining, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.
org/w/index.php?curid=5495613

The Hungaroring round hasn't always been everyone's cup of tea since landing as an F1 venue in 1986. But over time it's developed a knack of being the scene of great drivers putting in great drivers.

And few can have been greater than that of 30 years ago in 1989, when Nigel Mansell for Ferrari defied all odds to come through for victory.

Even for one whom drama followed as habitually as Our Nige, this one has good claim to be his most stunning drive of all.

You can read the tale via this link: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/history/f1/senna-realised-i-was-only-driver-he-couldnt-intimidate-mansells-majestic-1989-hungarian

The Evolution Of Silverstone, by Leasing Options

Now that the future of Silverstone as a Formula 1 track has been assured, it’s a perfect time to look back at how the track has changed since 1948.

Leasing Options has created an animation to show all of the many changes that Silverstone has undergone since racing began on the track, explained what the key changes were and listed our top five Silverstone Formula 1 moments.

The evolution of the Silverstone track

Key dates in Silverstone’s history
1948 - The First Grand Prix
The first grand prix at Silverstone took place in 1948, but the course was somewhat different and more terrifying than it is today.

The F1 British Grand Prix: The most memorable moments from Silverstone

It's almost that time of the year again for the most exciting race in British motorsport, as Formula 1 turns its attentions to the United Kingdom and more specifically, Silverstone. The world-famous and historical track will once again play host to the British Grand Prix on July 14, whereby Lewis Hamilton will be looking for his sixth win on home soil.

By Carlina Xavier from London, England -
It's time for a comeback, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7196609

The Stevenage-born driver is arguably one of the finest to represent Britain in F1, and he has often been the focal point of Silverstone's finest moments. 2019's race will be the 55th time that Silverstone has held the British Grand Prix so ahead of the spectacle, let's take a look at some of the most memorable moments from Silverstone.

Hamilton's first win at Silverstone – 2008
There's no better place to start than remembering Lewis Hamilton's first-ever win at Silverstone in 2008, which was the same year he won his first drivers' championship as well. The 23-year-old had endured a difficult qualifying which meant he started in fourth position, but the latter stages of the main race demonstrated what Hamilton was all about. He took a commanding lead early on but the maturity in his driving in such bad conditions was a joy to behold, and he duly crossed the line to a rip-roaring applause from the home faithful. Think he'll do it again this year? British Grand Prix Betting is available right now for the latest and best prices.

Mansell’s 1994 Comeback, by Ibrar Malik

Nigel Mansell won the 1992 F1 world championship comfortably before announcing his shocking switch to American Indycar racing for the following year. He had become fed up with protracted contract renewal negotiations so departed his beloved Williams and F1 on sour terms. Given these circumstances, it makes Mansell's return to both for 1994 all the more remarkable.

Mansell (pictured in 1994) won the Indy Car title during his rookie year in 1993. It was an astonishing achievement. 

The upcoming book provides more detail, but essentially Nigel's return to F1 in 1994 was a direct result of Senna's tragic accident. Because F1 was left without any world champions on the grid and Schumacher was dominating races, Bernie Ecclestone needed to bring some positive news to a sport in crisis. F1's commercial supremo, therefore, engineered Mansell's return believing it would give Schumacher a worthy rival whilst also increasing television ratings.

British GP Report - Red ratification?

The British Grand Prix was about coming to a realisation. Martin Brundle called it in Friday practice - that in 2018 we have to get used to the idea that Ferrari will be quick everywhere. And if this one was the red car's ultimate test then it passed it triumphantly.

Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel passed their toughest
test with flying colours
Photo: Octane Photography

In every sense - literal and metaphorical - Silverstone is Ferrari's away fixture. Not only as one of a small minority of teams not to have a base a short drive away, it also is a track that we thought could have been designed for its chief rival Mercedes. Results say this too with the silver team winning the previous five here - most dominantly - and Lewis Hamilton in Nigel Mansell-esque style being particularly happy at home, taking the last four.

Yet this time Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari won, and deservedly. On that basis they can win anywhere. Maybe it's the car to beat this year.

Granted there were some adventures in getting there, but the bottom line is that Ferrari - armed with a new floor which seemed to electrify the red cars and straightline speed that rival Daniel Ricciardo described as '"insane" - looked at least as fast as Mercedes throughout on the latter's happiest of hunting grounds. Only Hamilton pulling a rabbit out of the hat - again Mansell-esque on his home ground - denied Ferrari pole. Otherwise the Scuderia was never denied.

Silverstone Preview - Challenging your inner Nige

Every year at around this time I experience conflict. I'm not one driven by patriotism, particularly not in F1. But even I cannot deny that there is something about the British Grand Prix.

Even to the non-patriotic, there is
something about Silverstone
Photo: Octane Photogrpahy

It can't even be said that its hardy host Silverstone has universal appeal. It's not glamourous, nor picture postcard. Instead rather exposed and windswept.

Yet still few refute that the Northamptonshire circuit bows to almost none in being part of the F1 furniture. And this is for a number of reasons.

Chiefly it is F1's home gig. Seven of F1's ten teams are based (or in Haas's case has a base) in Britain, and six of these are within a few miles of the Silverstone track. As are a myriad of companies that supply them in the F1 equivalent of silicon valley.

The venue also is among F1's most ubiquitous. It was at Silverstone that it all started in 1950, and despite sometimes extensive changes it retains much of its character - flowing, rapid and with many long and mighty turns.

Silverstone Qualifying: Exercises in futility

Some things seem inevitable. Not only in having an insurmountable advantage, but also that over and above everything somehow will go for you. We got both this time, and it felt like something we'd seen plenty before. Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the British Grand Prix, as he always was going to.

Lewis Hamilton once again dominated in Britain
Photo: Octane Photography

The Silverstone circuit could be designed for the Mercedes, and it showed. But even of the Merc pair Lewis seems to have inherited Nigel Mansell's traits for his home round. Ensuring his adoring public is not disappointed by being on another level of all others. That for the rest it will be an exercise in futility for first place.

And Lewis got some luck he hardly needed, with not only the similarly-equipped Valtteri Bottas but also an expected close (a relative term) challenger Daniel Ricciardo getting five-place grid drops in advance for changing their gearbox, thus making the pole fight for them properly futile.

It looked in advance too that the British summer weather might be Lewis's only impediment, as rain was supposed to arrive for the end of quali. As it was it arrived for the start, as drizzled gathered minutes before the get-go. Yet it proved the most minor of irritants, particularly as it didn't hang around long.

British GP Betting Preview - Channelling your inner Nige

Perhaps you need to start listening to me. A disturbing number of calls in last week's Austrian Grand Prix betting preview came in: the Valtteri Bottas pole, the pole winning margin, Daniel Ricciardo to get on the podium, as well as Romain Grosjean and Lance Stroll to get points.

Lewis Hamilton has a very strong record at his home round
Photo: Octane Photography

And now we have the British round. As outlined in my event preview there are reasons to think Mercedes will be on top - both to do with recent form and with the Silverstone track specifically. While of the Merc pair there are plenty of reasons to expect Lewis Hamilton to dominate.

He appears to have inherited Nigel Mansell's old knack of finding additional resolve for his home race. And, oh yeah, he's won the last three British Grands Prix. Therefore the evens available for Lewis to win again looks rather like a steal.

His odds for pole are a little more swingeing, but might given everything still be worth backing at 11/17. The other Merc of Bottas at 7/2 to get pole appears a good outside bet.

New Grand Prix Times article: Thirty years on - Prost's finest drive? And not the one you think

Photo: Octane Photography

It's human nature that we remember a finale. But much more often forgotten is how we got there. It can be at least as important.

And so it was 30 years ago. We all remember the magnificent championship showdown in Adelaide; Nigel Mansell's exploding tyre which opened the way for Alain Prost's unlikely but towering achievement to win the title.

But, again, we might have forgotten how we got there. Not least the round before, like this weekend in Mexico, in which Prost's drive was even greater arguably. Certainly it was more pure Prost.

In my latest Grand Prix Times article I look back at that Mexican weekend and Prost's extraordinary effort. You can read it here: http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/id/13143

Silverstone Qualifying - Channelling your inner Nige

We all know about Lewis Hamilton and his Ayrton Senna inspiration. He mentions it often, and even if you had up until now managed to miss it he'd noted it yet again already this weekend, by reciting that infamous "if you don't go for a gap…" line (though don't get me started on that one).

Lewis Hamilton dominated in front of his adoring public
Photo: Octane Photography

Nothing wrong with taking a Senna inspiration of course, it's Lewis's right. But whatever is the case I've long felt Lewis in fact has stronger parallels with others among the sport's revered names of the past. In this brew there's a distinct dash of the later-years Gilles Villeneuve, mixed in with rather a lot of Nigel Mansell.

Now, the parallels may not initially at least seem obvious between the cloth-cap wearing every-man 'Our Nige' and the outlandish and Holywood A-list mingling Lewis. But there are in fact plenty. Uncannily so.

Aggressive racers, astonishingly brave, something of the showman, possessed also though an emotional streak, sometimes manifested in the occasional sulk, and possessed also of a probably related tendency to divide opinion, but with a heart-on-sleeve nature that never seems contrived. And an almost unwavering - again uncanny - ability to attract drama somehow. You could be talking about either of them just as easily.

Silverstone Preview - F1's home gig

Every year at around about this time I experience a creeping sense of conflict. I'm not one driven by patriotism, indeed I'm often downright suspicious of it. And this applies especially to F1, wherein nationalities have never mattered a jot to me. But even I cannot deny that there is something special about the British Grand Prix.

Despite everything, few would claim that there isn't 
something special about the British Grand Prix
Photo: Octane Photography

It can't even be said that the appeal of its hardy host of Silverstone is immediately and universally apparent. In contrast to many 'prestige' F1 circuits which seem to fit quintessentially into their surroundings, Silverstone even all these decades on retains a feel of being rather imposed on a barren, windswept wartime airfield plain. It lacks the postcard scenery and undulations of Spa, the intensity of Monza and certainly the glamour of Monaco. The late Christopher Hilton once noted, possibly harshly, that "people get emotional at Silverstone but not emotional about Silverstone. Even when they're trying to save it, they're doing it because they want the British Grand Prix to survive, not because emotion dictates Silverstone."

Yet still few refute that the Northamptonshire circuit sits right alongside those events mentioned in being part of F1 furniture; some will perhaps even claim that it deserves to be prioritised ahead. And this is for a number of reasons.

Why the mystery of F1's greatest ever hasn't been answered - not even by science

So, that's that settled then. The sport's biggest and most ubiquitous bone of contention. Done. That one of who is the best driver ever, over and above the equipment they had access to. That one we thought near unsolvable given everything. All by a team of academics from the Universities of Sheffield and Bristol, and using statistical analysis.

According to the statistical study,
Juan Manuel Fangio's 
F1's best of all time
By Unknown - Museo Juan Manuel
 Fangio, reimpreso en "La fotografía
en la historia argentina", Tomo I,
Clarín, ISBN 950-782-643-2,
Public Domain, https://commons.
wikimedia.org/w/index.php?
curid=3934090

And when its news release announcing this was published just over a week ago it caused quite the stir. All seemed rather monumental indeed. Underlining the view even the (not necessarily always science-loving) Daily Mail proclaimed in its headline that what we had revealed before us was "the best Formula One driver of all time according to SCIENCE". Yes it actually capitalised the word. It was as if we were getting something irrefutable.

The first few on the study's all-time driver ranking - Juan Manuel Fangio top, followed by Alain Prost, Fernando Alonso, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart - are hardly hideous. Michael Schumacher appeared low in ninth but when he was considered from before his first retirement in 2006 only he shot up to third, which again looked fair enough (as an aside, a curiosity about the reporting of this study is that there is more than one list floating about, in addition to the pre/post Schumi lists the one presented in the academic paper has Alonso sixth rather than his widely-reported placing of third, and it's not explained by the Schumi shift apparently as the Daily Mail article at least shows Alonso fourth when Schumi from 2006 and before only is considered).

But then it gets patchy. Stirling Moss is but 35th in the ranking (some 12 places behind Marc Surer) while the likes of Niki Lauda, Nigel Mansell, Alberto Ascari, Jochen Rindt and Gilles Villeneuve are simply nowhere to be seen in the top 50. It all gets, um, a little more interesting too as Christian Fittipaldi is in the elevated position of 12th best driver ever while the luminary that is Louis Rosier is placed 19th. And unless this pair were against just about all assessments in fact secret F1 geniuses never given their break in a good car - in addition to the drivers listed above being actually vastly over-rated, again contrary most assessments - it would seem the study has some shortcomings.

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

Magnussen's fate shows F1's unwritten rules

The life of most sports-people is one lived on fast forward. For them even in a successful career allowed to reach its full fruition the time elapsed between being a promising prospect and a past-it usually is less than the rest of us spend even as a school kid. It can be quite the disconcerting existence.

Kevin Magnussen has had to sit out this year, and
he's out of McLaren altogether for next
Photo: Octane Photography

But even within this for Kevin Magnussen the gap between rise and apparent fall has been breakneck. Rewind back only 18 months or so to the 2014 season-opener in Melbourne, and the Dane's freshman F1 race freshly as Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion. It looked like he had seized immediate next big thing status with a fast and flawless debut run to what became second place eventually. I for one thought too that there was a touch of Mika Hakkinen about the apparently imperturbable and monosyllabic blond Scandinavian out of the car and his ability to make a McLaren sing while in it.

But not long afterwards and almost without an intervening period he was thought by a few as a busted flush. Speed still was there, though not consistently and he struggled to eke out life from the modern brand of Pirellis like his team mate Jenson Button could. A creeping tendency as the season progressed to overdo it when he had other cars around lost him friends. Come the campaign's end and having totalled well under half of Button's points total, as well as being behind him on the qualifying match-up, he was the one moved aside to make way for the returning Fernando Alonso. Now a year of limbo on it has just been confirmed that he is out of McLaren altogether.

Did Hungary show that Mercedes was wrong to snub Alonso?

In his summing up of the recent Hungarian Grand Prix the BBC's Andrew Benson wrote: "A friend who works in F1 remarked recently how lucky Hamilton was to have as his team-mate in the dominant team Rosberg - rather than Fernando Alonso.

Did Hungary show the down side
of Mercedes snubbing Alonso?
Photo: Octane Photography

"After a weekend like this, when Rosberg's limitations were exposed while Alonso, in the midst of McLaren-Honda's dire season, finally had a chance to show his class and hauled his car to an excellent fifth place, you can see what he meant."

Quite. Indeed neither Merc pilot had a good day in Hungary. Both compromised their races with contact with other cars, while in Lewis Hamilton's case you can add that he had a trip through the gravel on lap one and in Nico Rosberg's odd conservatism on his tyre choices. And if we are to pick up Benson's friend's counterfactual and run with it, whatever you think of Alonso it's hard to imagine he'd have replicated Lewis's impetuousness on lap one apparently seeking to get back places lost at the start pronto. It seems unlikely also that even with Hamilton chasing him down mid-race he'd have forgotten as Nico appeared to that he still had two Ferraris to beat up ahead, and that he was on a converse strategy and the race would therefore come back to him. He may have made the team's choice for him in putting him onto softs for the final sprint. He's done that sort of thing before after all.

The previous of the penultimate round

What is it, in years in which the drivers' title race goes to the wire, with penultimate rounds?

The thought occurred to me before the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix just passed - that distinguished by Nico Rosberg abruptly reminding the hordes of doubters that he's not surrendering in the world championship battle - that it all seemed a bit familiar. That next-to-last rounds have a knack of this. Confounding expectations; shifting momentum almost onto its head.

If Nico Rosberg's win in Brazil seemed a bit familiar, you had
some good reasons for thinking so
Photo: Octane Photography

And I was fairly relieved to discover subsequently that I wasn't imagining things, as after a think I was able to come up with a fairly extensive previous for this sort of thing. If it seemed familiar, that's because it was.

The penultimate round from history that the Interlagos race really put me in mind of was that from 20 years ago, that one held in Japan in Suzuka. And in teeming rain. Then Damon Hill played the Nico Rosberg role, coming into the race still with a mathematical title chance but as far as plenty were concerned as something of an interloper. The other guy - in this case one Michael Schumacher - was the one by consensus cruising to the honours, and then as now the closeness on points at this late stage from many perspectives owed to peculiarity. Subtract unreliability and conspiracies regarding collisions and trips down escape roads and add instead Schumi being disqualified from two races and banned from two more. Each of which Hill took maximum points from.

Twenty years on - Damon's greatest day

Damon Hill. Just where does he fit?

By this I mean in the sport's historical pecking order. We know he's a world champion - indeed were it not for what was most likely a professional foul he'd have two - but such is F1's odd way that only is helpful to a certain point. Indeed it for a few becomes almost an implement with which to beat him; I've heard even the dubious title of 'The worst ever F1 champion' attributed to him on occasion.

Damon Hill
"Damon Hill juillet 1995" by Alonso
at French Wikipedia - Transferred from
fr.wikipedia to Commons.Self-photographed.
Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia
 Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Damon_Hill_juillet_1995.jpg#
mediaviewer/File:Damon_Hill_juillet_1995.jpg

But generally I've often felt that he is sold a little short. True, he wasn't an artist; more an artisan. One who achieved success more via perspiration than inspiration. And part of the conundrum expressed may be explained by that the sport's historiography for some reason isn't one that readily rewards that sort (similar could be said about Damon's father Graham).

Perhaps too his personal story didn't help: one who pretty much directly got into the best F1 car there is, and at an advanced age and without much glowing from the junior formulae on his CV all may have led some to conclude that success rather landed on his lap. Perhaps also in an absurd way Damon's understated and dignified persona, that couldn't have been further from the precious and haughty archetype superstar of the modern age, didn't help either.

Yet whatever you think of Damon his statistical achievements - a world championship and 22 race wins - are not the sort of thing you just fall backwards into. And while it nevertheless would be stretching things to call him a great he was one capable on occasion of producing truly exceptional performances. He genuinely can point to a few races which, without hyperbole, deserve ranking among the best of anyone from the sport's pantheon.