Chequered Past

On 21 April 1985, Ayrton Senna arrived at a rain-soaked Estoril circuit for only his second race with Lotus and delivered what many consider the finest wet-weather drive in Formula One history. Keke Rosberg was in the barriers. Alain Prost would aquaplane off at three hundred kilometres an hour. Senna won by over a minute, lapping the entire field except Michele Alboreto. Denis Jenkinson, standing...

April the twentieth has quietly accumulated more Formula 1 history than almost any other date on the calendar. In this episode we trace the thread — from Phil Hill, born on this date in 1927 and still the only American-born Formula 1 World Champion, to Stuart Lewis-Evans, the forgotten Vanwall driver born three years later who helped his team win the first Constructors' Championship and then...

On 19 April 1970, Jackie Stewart won the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in a March 701 — giving March Engineering their first-ever World Championship victory in only their second race. The team had been founded seven months earlier by four men: a barrister, a racing driver, a production manager, and a designer. Their announcement had shaken the paddock. Whether their ambition could be matched by sub...

On 18 April 1971, Jackie Stewart won the Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuïc Park, Barcelona — in a car designed at a kitchen table and built in a fifty-pound wooden shed in Surrey. It was Tyrrell Racing's first Grand Prix victory as a constructor, and the race most widely credited as the first F1 championship event run on slick tyres. A lso: it's Jochen Rindt's birthday — the only man e...

On 17th April 1994, Formula One travelled to TI Circuit Aida — a hundred-million-dollar racing circuit carved from a mountainside in rural Okayama, accessible almost entirely by coach, built by a golf-course billionaire with a vision and a very large cheque book. The race that followed has been buried under the weight of what came next. But it deserves its own moment. A world champion knocked out...

Sir Frank Williams founded his first Formula One team funded by a grocery van and sheer will. He conducted team business from a phone box when he couldn't pay the bills. He lost his close friend on a racetrack in 1970, and kept going. He lost his first team to a wealthy investor in 1976, and started again — in an empty carpet warehouse in Didcot — with an engineer he'd convinced to back...

Every date on the calendar has its stories. But April the fifteenth has something rarer — a pattern. In 2001, at Ferrari's home circuit, a brother stepped out of the most famous shadow in Formula 1 and wrote a line in the record books that has never been repeated.  In 2007, a twenty-two-year-old rookie finished second in Bahrain and quietly announced that the sport had a new era coming.  In 2...

The 14th of April is just another date on the calendar. Unless you love motorsport — in which case it's one of the most remarkable dates in Formula One history. In this episode we tell the stories of four races, all run on the same date across nine decades. In 1929, a mysterious British driver called W. Williams guided a privately-entered Bugatti through the streets of Monte Carlo to win the...

On April 13, Formula One delivered races shaped by precision, power, and split-second decisions. At Jerez in 1986, Ayrton Senna held off Nigel Mansell by just 0.014 seconds — one of the closest finishes in Formula One history — after a dramatic late charge built on tyre strategy and recovery through the field. We also mark the birth of Max Mosley, a central and often divisive figure in Formula One...

On April 12th, Formula One history takes us to Buenos Aires in 1981, where Nelson Piquet delivered a controlled performance from pole, building an early lead that was never challenged. Behind him, Carlos Reutemann marked his birthday with a home podium that kept him at the head of the championship, despite never truly shaping the race. We explore that race in detail, before stepping back through R...

On April 11, Formula One history offers four races shaped not just by speed — but by how key moments unfolded. At Donington Park in 1993, Ayrton Senna transformed the race on the opening lap, moving from fourth on the grid to the lead before the lap was complete. What followed was a Grand Prix defined by changing conditions, pit stop decisions, and maintaining control across multiple phases. At In...

On this day in Formula One history, we explore how races can be shaped — and decided — in very different ways. At Sepang in 2011, tyre degradation and strategy dictated everything. As the new Pirelli compounds forced teams into multiple pit stops, Sebastian Vettel controlled the race from the front, while battles behind — including the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso — showed...

April 9th delivers two very different kinds of Formula One races. In 1995, Formula One returned to Argentina for the first time in over a decade — and chaos followed immediately. A first-corner pile-up forced a red flag, the early leader was eliminated by mechanical failure, and the race unfolded through a mix of recovery drives and contrasting strategies. In the end, Damon Hill navigated it all t...

On April 8th, we revisit three very different races — each decided at a different moment. In 1979 at Long Beach, Gilles Villeneuve delivered a complete performance, leading every lap from pole to secure his first Formula One victory. But while the win was controlled from the start, the race behind unfolded over time — shaped by incidents, strategy, and a queue that had to be broken. In 2007 in Mal...

Some Formula 1 races are decided by outright speed. Others are shaped by what happens when that speed falters. On April 7th, we revisit three Grands Prix where the outcome wasn’t defined at the start — but by how drivers responded as the race unfolded. At Kyalami in 1984, Niki Lauda climbed from eighth on the grid, capitalising on early lead changes and the retirement of the dominant Brabhams to t...

April 6 marks two landmark moments in Formula One history. In 2003, the Brazilian Grand Prix became the 700th World Championship race —a chaotic, rain-soaked event at Interlagos that saw multiple crashes, a red flag, and a winner only confirmed days later when Giancarlo Fisichella was awarded victory for Jordan. Eleven years later, the 900th race delivered a very different story. The 2014 Bahrain...

On this day in Formula One history, the 1992 Brazilian Grand Prix made one thing unmistakably clear — the balance of power had shifted. Nigel Mansell and Williams arrived at Interlagos already unbeaten in 1992, but what followed was more than just another victory. A tense early duel with Riccardo Patrese gave way to total control after the pit stops, while behind them the race unravelled — a packe...

On this day in Formula One history, we revisit a race where opportunity met experience — and was taken with precision. At the 1982 United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach, early control gave way to attrition and disruption. From the chaos, Niki Lauda emerged to take victory — his first since returning to the sport, and his first win since 1978 — in a race where timing and control proved decisi...

April 3rd brings two races that quietly reshaped Formula One. In 1977, the streets of Long Beach hosted the first victory for the Lotus 78 — a car built around a radical aerodynamic concept that would soon redefine how Formula One machines generated downforce. Mario Andretti’s late pass on Jody Scheckter, after a deflating tyre cost the Wolf driver the lead, marked more than just a race win — it s...

On this day in Formula One history, victory wasn’t always decided by speed alone. In 1978, the streets of Long Beach turned the United States Grand Prix West into a race of survival, where Carlos Reutemann kept his Ferrari out of trouble while rivals fell away around him. In 2006, Melbourne delivered a race of constant disruption, with safety cars, retirements, and shifting conditions — but throug...

On this day in Formula One history, we revisit a race where nothing quite followed the expected script. The 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix began with Michael Schumacher on a six-race winning streak — but Interlagos had other ideas. From a pre-race setback for Rubens Barrichello, to a stunning overtake by Juan Pablo Montoya, and a dramatic shift in fortunes as rain and strategy came into play, this was...

On March 31, Formula One delivered races defined not just by victory — but by what might have been. In 2019, Charles Leclerc looked set for a breakthrough win in Bahrain, dominating in only his second race for Ferrari before cruel mechanical failure denied him a moment that felt inevitable. Seventeen years earlier in Brazil, Ferrari still found a way to win — as Michael Schumacher overcame early c...

On March 30th, Formula One history offers a powerful reminder of how quickly the competitive order can shift — and how breakthrough performances can signal the arrival of new contenders. In 1974, a sombre weekend at Kyalami gave way to a measured and decisive drive from Carlos Reutemann, securing his first World Championship Grand Prix victory as reliability and judgement proved decisive in a fier...

On this day in 1981, the Brazilian Grand Prix delivered one of Formula One’s most defining moments of defiance, as Carlos Reutemann ignored team orders to deny reigning World Champion Alan Jones victory — a decision that would fracture Williams and shape the title fight. In this episode of Chequered Past , we revisit that controversial race in Rio, set against a damp track, early chaos, and a domi...

On this day in Formula One history, 28 March has delivered races where hesitation was punished — and bravery was rewarded. In 1993, Ayrton Senna produced one of the defining drives of his career at Interlagos, mastering changing conditions to defeat the dominant Williams team in front of his home crowd. It was a victory built not on outright pace, but on instinct, timing, and fearless commitment....