Amazing tales from the British Grand Prix #297
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Concept
Formula One World Championship
Formula One is a top-level car racing series where drivers compete in fast, single-seat cars. The races are called Grands Prix, and they take place on special tracks around the world.
Car
Delage
Delage was a French car brand that made luxury cars and raced them in competitions. They were known for their speed and quality during the early 1900s.
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 is a type of car racing that features fast, high-tech cars competing in races called Grands Prix. It's considered the top level of motorsport.
Concept
British Grand Prix
The British Grand Prix is a famous car race that has been taking place since 1950. It's one of the oldest and most important races in Formula 1, which is a top-level car racing series.
Concept
Brooklands
Brooklands is a historic racetrack in England where some of the first car races were held. It was the first track built specifically for racing cars.
Concept
Silverstone
Silverstone is a famous racetrack in England where the British Grand Prix is currently held. It's known for its fast turns and exciting races.
Brand
Mercedes
Mercedes is a famous car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars and race cars. They are known for their high-quality vehicles.
Brand
Auto Union
Auto Union was a German car company famous for making race cars in the 1930s. It eventually became part of Audi.
Concept
Burt Rosemeyer
Burt Rosemeyer was a famous race car driver from Germany in the 1930s. He drove for Auto Union and was known for being very fast.
Concept
Rudy Caracciola
Rudy Caracciola was a famous race car driver from Germany in the 1930s. He is known for winning many important races.
Concept
Tazio Nuvolari
Tazio Nuvolari was a famous race car driver from Italy in the 1930s. He is known for winning many important races and is considered one of the best drivers ever.
Concept
mid-engine
Mid-engine means the car's engine is placed in the middle, between the front and back wheels. This helps the car handle better and makes it more stable.
Concept
front-engine
Front-engine means the car's engine is located at the front, near the front wheels. This is a common design for many cars.
Concept
Aintree
Aintree is a racetrack near Liverpool that used to host the British Grand Prix. It's also famous for horse racing and still holds some racing events.
Term
Fangio
Fangio was a famous race car driver from Argentina who won many championships in the 1950s. He's considered one of the best drivers ever.
Term
Sterling
Sterling is likely referring to Stirling Moss, a famous British race car driver from the 1950s. He was very talented and won many races but never a World Championship.
Concept
Brown's Hatch
Brown's Hatch is a race track in England where many car races are held. It's known for being exciting and has hosted famous races in the past.
Concept
Indy circuit
The Indy circuit is a famous racetrack in Indianapolis, known for the Indy 500 race. It has a special shape that allows for different types of racing.
Concept
Maggot's Beckett's complex
Maggot's Beckett's is a series of tricky turns on the Silverstone racetrack. It's famous because it requires a lot of skill to navigate quickly, making it exciting for both drivers and fans.
Concept
Ferrari
Ferrari is a famous car company from Italy that makes fast and expensive sports cars. They are well-known for their success in car racing, especially in Formula 1.
Brand
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo is a car brand from Italy that makes sporty and stylish cars. They have a long history in racing.
Part
supercharged engine
A supercharged engine is a type of engine that gets extra power by pushing more air into it. This helps the car go faster.
Term
naturally aspirated engine
A naturally aspirated engine is one that gets air into it without any help from turbochargers or superchargers. It uses just the air around it.
Concept
Belgian Grand Prix
The Belgian Grand Prix is a famous car race that takes place in Belgium. It's part of the Formula One series, where the fastest cars and drivers compete on a special track.
Term
V12 engine
A V12 engine has twelve cylinders arranged in a V shape, which helps it run smoothly and produce a lot of power. It's often used in fast and expensive cars.
Company
Aurelio Lampredi
Aurelio Lampredi was a car engineer who designed powerful engines for Ferrari, helping them win races.
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Welcome back to the Intercooler podcast, everybody. The car podcast powered by
car finance specialist JBR Capital. This is episode 297. This week, Andrew, we are
marking the 100th anniversary of the British Grand Prix. We're a few months early because it was
on the 7th of August 1926 that the first British Grand Prix was held. Do you think everybody's
going, if they've gone completely mad, everybody knows the first British Grand Prix was held at
1950 at Silverstone? Possibly. But it wasn't. That was the first round of what has become known as
the Formula One World Championship, which was the British Grand Prix. But there had been British
Grand Prixs. In fact, there had been four British Grand Prixs before that in the two immediately
preceding years, and then two in the 1920s, which is what provided us with the hook for doing this.
Do you remember who won the first? Well, I looked it up yesterday.
I'm going to allow you to pronounce the name. Robert Sinashal. Driving with
Louis Wagner, who was also a Frenchman. So a Frenchman won the first British Grand Prix
in a French car. They were in a delage. Exactly. But Henry Seagrave got the fastest lap,
hurrah. Well done. Malcolm Campbell came second. Did he? Two land speed record breakers. Wow. One
fastest lap, one came second. So yes, it was held at Brooklands on a shortened circuit, not the full
one with all the insane banking, some of the insane banking. Okay, so it wasn't the, I didn't know that.
It has also another claim to fame, that race, among all British Grand Prix, and it's not that it was
the first. Don't know. How many people do you think finished it? Four. I've already named all the
finishers. Right, okay. Okay, so the entry was 13. Yeah. Of whom nine started and three finished.
Wow. So you can finish on the podium and lose. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Yes. So indeed,
I don't know who came third. I think it was another Frenchman. But anyway, whoever came third,
came third, got a goal on the podium and also came last. Yeah, apart from the non-finishers. But
yeah. Yes. And so all the finished, yes. And that is, that's, that's possibly a unique achievement
in all of Grand Prix history. Yeah. So I read that the, that first British Grand Prix was properly
called the Grand Prix of the Royal Automobile Club. Yeah. But it's the British Grand Prix.
It's the British Grand Prix. So the British Grand Prix is the oldest F1 Grand Prix.
Yes, because it was the first in 1950. Yeah. Yeah. And one of only two GPs to have been held
every year since 1950, along with. Italian. Yeah, the Italian Grand Prix. The British Grand Prix
has been held at Brooklands, Donnington Park, Aintree, Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Has it
been held at Donnington Park? I don't think it has. But it wasn't a championship round.
What year was the British Grand Prix held at Donnington Park?
Right. 37 and 38. Was it called the British Grand Prix then? I believe it was. Yeah. When you look
it up, it's, yeah, British Grand Prix, 1937 and 38, but non-championship rounds. But we will come back
to that. Okay. Can I just talk about 1927 for a moment? Yeah, of course you can. Okay. That was
one by Robert Benoit in another delage. He was the man who became an SOE agent during World War
II and sadly ended up being executed by the special operations executive, ended up being
executed by the Nazi. Your course will be able to tell me the name of the man who retired as
Thomas Special on lap eight. Incorrect. Bummer Scott. I just thought I'd get that in though because
I just wanted to do that too. Okay, good. Okay, so William Barkley Scott. Yeah. He's a big lad.
Okay, so at school he was known as Bummer when he was playing rugby because he was always
bombing through the other side because he was a hefty chap and Bummer became Bummer. Okay,
so he was known as Bummer. Yeah, he was known as Bummer. Okay. So there you go. That is my
fun fact for the 1927 British Grand Prix. Don't say we never teach you anything on this podcast.
Ah, well, well done Bummer. Yes. Okay, so Brooklyn's. So after Brooklyn's, it was
Donnington Park. Now, whether or not they were strictly speaking British Grand Prix,
I don't know. The nice thing about this though was that those races at Donnington Park in
37 and 38, they were arranged by the Derby and District Motor Club. Yeah. So just a, you know,
little regional motor club staging this race. But all the big noises came over. Mercedes and
Auto Union came over. Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, the best drivers in the world. Yeah. You know,
Rudy Caracciola, Burt Rosemeyer, all that lot. So Burt Rosemeyer won in 37. Yes. And Tazio Nuvolari
won in 38. And at Donnington, they're very, they're very proud aren't they that the Auto
Unions and the Mercedes race there. And there are those wonderful photographs of them going over
the hump. Absolutely a midair. And you can tell one's mid-engine and one's front-engine because
they fly in a completely different way. Yeah. So those were important races at Donnington Park then.
Yeah. But as I've said, they were not championship rounds because there was a championship for
manufacturers back then. Yeah. And there was also a European championship, which is the closest
thing you got to Formula 1 in the 1930s. Yeah. Which was one, well once the, so in the early
30s as well from there, and then once the Germans came in, 34, 5, 34 to 39, they won everything.
I think Mercedes won everything apart from 1936 when Auto Union won. But there was no
driver's championship. So as we know, the driver's championship was introduced for 1950. And that's
when that tag, that epithet Formula 1 came in, wasn't it? It wasn't Formula 1 before 1950.
But before that, so okay, so the point about this episode is to just mark the 100th anniversary in
2026 of the British Grand Prix. Yes. And trot through some of the history, look at some of the
circuits that has held the British Grand Prix, and perhaps choose some of our favourites from,
I would say, well, any era you like, but I'm going to concentrate on the more recent era.
Yeah. Well, for me, the ones that I've chosen,
yeah, some are absolutely my favourite. Some are just really interesting races.
Yeah. Okay. So from 1948, the British Grand Prix was held at a former RAF airfield
on the Northamptonshire Oxfordshire board. I thought it was just in Northamptonshire.
The only circuit I know that kind of spans two counties. Was it Buckinghamshire? I think it's
Buckinghamshire. Okay. Northamptonshire. Anyway, it was an airfield. Yeah. Yeah. Called Silverstone.
Correct. And so it was first held in 1948. And it wasn't until 1950, as we know,
that the first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix was held at this little old airfield, Silverstone,
won by Giuseppe Farina in an Alfa Romeo. Terrible race. Was it? Yeah. Basically,
there are three Alfa Romeo's in it, and they drone round and round and round,
and came first, second and third. And the car that came fourth was two laps down on the slowest one.
Not much of a contest. Absolutely. So that's how, so from the beginning, Formula 1 was a
procession. Well, I mean, that is actually the point. We all sort of get sort of, you know,
misty-eyed about these things. But Formula 1's being processions is not a new thing.
You know, it goes back to literally the dawn of Formula 1.
Yeah. So they were... But of course, it was a new rules era, wasn't it? And so, you know,
it's exactly what we're facing next year. Alfa Romeo just turned up with a massively
better car than anybody else. And I suspect some will turn up with a massively better car
than anybody else next year, and it'll take them five years to figure out how to keep up with it.
Yeah, this year. Yeah. Oh, this year even, yes. Yeah. And so, between 1955 and 1962,
the British Grand Prix alternated each year between Silverstone and Aintree.
Correct. I just wanted to hear you talk a little bit about Aintree, because,
I mean, that's the horse racing track near Liverpool. Yeah, and still is. And the
Perimeter Road was the Grand Prix circuit. So you still go and drive it. In fact,
I think they still have sprints on it. Do they? Yeah. It wasn't a great circuit.
Ready? It wasn't a particularly... You never hear... You never heard, because they're all gone now,
sadly, you never heard drivers of the, you know, 50s and 60s waxing lyrical about Aintree.
Just didn't happen. The only thing, I think, that was very interesting that happened at Aintree
was Moswini there in 1955. Yeah. Because A, that was Sterling's first win. B, it was the first time
a British driver had won a British Grand Prix. Okay. And there's... That's a big deal.
Yeah, that's a big deal. Absolutely a big deal. And also, there has, ever since that race,
there has been this great debate about whether Fangio let Sterling win. Yeah. Because Sterling
was absolutely on Fangio's tail. And then, literally, as they... I can't remember, but it was
somewhere on the last lap, me, even in the last corner, Sterling sort of nipped down the inside
and won by a tenth of a second or something. And Sterling, who, as you know, I was quite good
jumps with, he said he never knew whether Fangio let him pass. And Fangio was altogether too much
of a gentleman ever to say so. Fangio always insisted that Sterling won the race fair and square.
Yeah. Sterling never knew. So there you go. That is the only... I mean, some people may be
just going, well, hang on, what about Fred in 1958 or whatever. But as far as I'm aware,
that's the only really interesting entry race there was.
Okay. And then the last... So after 1962, between 1963 and 1986, the British Grand Prix switched
from alternating between Silverstone and Aintree to alternating between Silverstone and Brown's
Hatch. Correct. And the thought, the prospect of any Formula One car driving around the Brown's
Hatch Grand Prix circuit, never just a single car on a qualifying lap, never mind a race.
I saw it as a kid. It must have been epic. I watched Grand Prix. In fact, I watched a British
Grand Prix and I watched a race of champions, which was, you know, it was non championship,
but everybody turned up. It was great. Well, the great thing about Brown's Hatch is it's
such a great spectator circuit. Yeah. Okay. You can't see the big loop out of the back
going up towards Hawthorne's and out there. But, you know, if you know where, if you get a good seat,
there are places there that you can see the entire Indy circuit. So all the way through Paddock and
up to Druids and down through Graham Hill and through Sertes, back through Clearways and back
down the Starstrade. I don't know. I don't know another place you can go and watch because it's
built in a natural amphitheater. It is a brilliant spectator circuit is now, was then.
Yeah. Yeah. I would love to see a Formula One car drive around that. That was my first ever
sprint race. And only the second ever race that I've participated in was on the Brown's
Hatch GP circuit. Yeah, my second race. We've discussed this on this podcast before.
But it's just, it's such a great track. And these days it gets used so rarely because there are
lots of houses out the back and there are noise issues. But the prospects of a Formula One race
around that is tantalising. So the British Grand Prix has been held, it's just Silverstone annually
since 1987. And there is a contract in place until at least 2034. Yeah, which is good. There you go.
And Silverstone is one of the best tracks out there for a modern Formula One car, isn't it?
From a driver's point of view. Yeah, the drivers love that. Massively experienced
modern Formula One car driver that I am. I can, I can judge these things. But no,
clearly, you just have to listen to what they say. They love it. They love it. And F1, you can see
that F1 cars really come to life on that track through the fast corners and the flowing sequences
like Maggot's Beckett's. Overtaking isn't the easiest, but you can do it. Weather is very often a
factor, as we, as we know. Great facilities at Silverstone these days and huge grandstands.
I, um, I watched a recent British Grand Prix and I'll come back to it later from the grandstand
at Beckett's. Yeah. So you're, it's a huge grandstand. You're undercover. So if it's raining, you're fine.
You can see so much. So you see them. You can see the whole way through.
Maggot's Beckett's. Yeah. And then going, can you see as far as Stowe?
I don't think you can quite see Stowe, but you see them going down the straight towards Stowe.
But because the track is almost, you know, a figure of eight that doesn't quite cross over,
you've got the loop, which is just beyond the, the Maggot's Beckett sequence.
So you see that really low speed sequence as well.
You feel that you can see a third of the track. It's probably a bit less,
but you get this impression that you're looking at a lot of the circuit.
And that is all through modern improvement. Because when I was, you know, a kid,
Silverstone was not a great spectator circuit. Because when you couldn't really get out there,
and if you could, you get any, it was, you know, it was a very simple
layout. You know, it was like sort of five corners, because it's very flat.
There's not, no, no elevation. There's no elevation at all. And, you know, you just,
you tend to watch off one corner, but now because of the way they redesigned the circuit,
particularly the Maggot's Beckett's complex and also that loop you're talking about,
where the two different ends of the circuit almost sort of kiss in the middle.
As you say, if you get the right seat, it's a great place to watch a race.
Yeah. I loved it. I loved it. So before we do some of the best British GPs,
was there anything else that you wanted to cover?
I just want to talk about some of the races.
Go on then.
Well, okay. So I've got a lot. So I'll be reasonably quick about it. It's a really
significant race. It's 1951.
Okay.
Massively significant race.
Ah, I know. Go on.
Yeah. Ferrari arrives on the scene.
Alfa Romeo has been utterly dominant, not just post-war, pre-war too,
in what they call what you're racing, which is one and a half liter supercharged,
which becomes the new Formula One rules.
And they turn up and apart from the Indianapolis 500,
which was technically part of the championship or wasn't really,
Alfa Romeo won every single race in 1950. No other manufacturer to this day has ever done that.
And Alfa Romeo were essentially regarded to be unbeatable, apart from Ferrari.
And what for Alfa Romeo had, they had this unbelievably powerful one and a half liter
straight eight supercharged engine.
But the regs allowed you to do a four and a half liter naturally aspirated engine.
And there was a Belgian Grand Prix in 1950 in which a driver, great hero of Michael,
Raymond Somair in a knackered old Talbot, gave the Alfa mayors the fright of their lives.
Because when they had to keep, the Alphas were doing like one and a half miles to the gala,
not joking.
And so they kept on coming in.
Around a long lap like Spa back then, they're using gallons of fuel.
Yeah. And they're coming in for fuel all the time.
About one and a half MTG.
I'm not joking.
That's not me sort of giving it a bit of interest.
I mean, they had sort of 300 liter tanks.
That's when they went up, they really went up.
Anyway, this bloke, Somair, scared the shit out of the Alfa Romeo team at Spa in 1950.
Because he had a big old Lazy V12 in his car.
It was a private entry.
It was an old car.
It was coming nowhere.
And he led it.
And then they, and then the Alfa Romeo team realized that not only was he leading it,
they'd have to come in again and he wouldn't.
Sadly, his car broke.
So we never found out what happened.
But he could have done it in a knack of, and this got Ferrari thinking.
Ferrari was on the record saying that it was Somair who made him think this way.
And he thought, well, if I actually got someone to design a brand new Grand Prix car
with a brand new four and a half liter engine, then just maybe.
We may not go quite as fast, but we'll stay out there a little bit longer.
And that is how Fronland Gonzales won the British Grand Prix in 1945.
Aurelio Lampredi drove that designed this beautiful four and a half liter V12 engine.
And actually the car was really fast anyway.
And it just used less fuel, job done.
And, you know, Alfa Romeo after the end of that season, never won another race.
They never won another Formula One race.
That's some fall off, isn't it?
Okay, cars with Alfa Romeo engines did, but Alfa Romeo never did.
And Ferrari has turned into the most successful Formula One team of all time.
That's amazing, isn't it?
So there you go.
That was an important one.
Go on, keep going.
Okay, 69.
Stuart and Rint had the most unbelievable ding dong.
I mean, they it was wet and they just they just left.
This is at Silverstone.
They left the field for dead.
They made everybody else look like complete bungling amateurs.
And sadly, Rint had a problem and so didn't come anywhere in the end.
I don't know whether he retired or just had fell down in the order.
But by the time Jackie Stewart won the race, he'd lapped the field.
Yeah, lapped the entire field to win.
That is amazing.
Yeah.
What were they in?
Stewart was in the Matra forward.
And Rint would have been a Lotus 49.
So both using DFV power, the Matra having a band of the V12.
And just, you know, the two best drivers.
Oh, they're in no coincidence that Stewart won the champions that year
and Rint won it posthumously the following year.
They were just the two best drivers absolutely on top of their game
in conditions that suited themselves and their cars to perfection.
And you get what you get.
Yeah.
73, not a great race, but significant because of a certain Jay Shecter, a squire,
who was then a very young Formula One driver who, coming through Woodcutt,
which back then was a massive corner, like 150, 60 mile an hour corner,
bind it and parked across the circuit and calls day,
hang on, I need to look this up.
It's an 11 car pile up.
Oh my God.
Which I think is the biggest.
It must be other than that.
When was that one at Spa?
Yeah, late 90s was it?
Yeah, something like that.
Other than that, you're certainly up until that time
that must have been the biggest pile up that there's ever been in Formula One.
Ended the career of Andrea de Adamich.
You got very bad leg injuries in that event.
And yeah, and you can go and see it.
It's on YouTube.
I mean, it's an enormous accident.
So I thought I would mention that.
And then where are we going after that?
Oh, Hunt in 76.
Ah, his championship year.
His championship year.
Very controversial because he clashes with Regazzoni in the Ferrari
at Paddock Hill Bend.
Great pictures of Hunt's McLaren sort of in the air.
And there's a big crash and so the red flag, the race.
And Hunt's car is still kind of working,
but the wheels are pointing in different directions
and it's all over the place.
But he gets it back to the pits,
but only does it by going down a, it's a sort of link road.
Instead of going all the way around the big circuit.
Well, that's quite naughty.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
Interesting.
So, you know, so he went up through Druids and he came down
and you know where you go down that little straight towards Sirties.
There's a road you can just turn right and get you back into the pit lane.
So rather than going out all the way through the Grand Prix.
But okay, but in his mind, the race had been red flagged.
So they weren't racing.
Okay.
Anyway, the authorities didn't see it like this.
And so they disqualified him on the spot at which stage the crowd went mad.
They started throwing bottles.
Wow.
Chanting, we want Hunt, we want Hunt.
Civil disobedience.
And they were getting properly sweaty.
The authorities were getting really, really very concerned
that there was going to be a major incident on their hands.
So they stuck him back in the race.
And obviously this massive disturbance while they were figuring out what to do
gave the McLaren team time to repair Hunt's car.
I think the argument is if they'd stuck him in the spare car,
he wouldn't have had a leg to stand on.
But because he continued the race in the car that he started it,
and although he went through the race had effectively been,
anyway, the longer the shorter it was Hunt went and won the race
at which stage everybody kicked off.
And the stewards threw out all the appeals,
but then Ferrari appealed it to the FIA.
And the FIA decided that he should be disqualified after all.
This being long after the race and therefore no chance of crowds getting antsy about it.
So he was denied.
I don't know what you think of it.
I'm a huge Hunt fan and I think that
you know, the car was still moving.
It was still drivable at the time the race was red flagged.
The argument was that he didn't complete the lap.
And Hunt's argument was you didn't need to complete the lap
because the race wasn't on anymore because it had been red flagged.
That to me sounds to me like a fair play to make.
So you're right.
He was the disqualification was upheld.
It was.
It's so interesting because the 76th season is so discussed.
And we know there was that film about that season rush.
But I did not know that Hunt had won that race and was disqualified.
And that's why it was so close between Hunt and Lauda towards the end of the season.
Absolutely.
Gosh.
Yes.
I mean, and Lauda went into that last race in Fuji.
Yeah.
As odds on favorite to win it because he was he was ahead on points.
And it was only because Lauda decided to retire from that race
because he thought the weather was insane.
Yeah.
That Hunt won the championship at all.
Had Hunt won the British Grand Prix.
Oh, well, we're not going to get disappearing down the water for it.
1977.
Yeah.
A debut of Gilles Villeneuve in a McLaren.
Was it?
Yeah.
They ran a third car.
Wow.
James Hunt brought Gilles Villeneuve.
He was so impressed with the lad.
Oh, did he see him in North America?
Yeah, would have done.
Yeah.
Then he brought him in and they stuck him for third McLaren on the ground.
He qualified ninth.
And there's this story.
I think it's true that in practice and qualifying, he kept on spinning this car.
And somebody and people were sort of like, oh, he's he's a busted flush.
He's getting overexcited.
And then somebody else realized he'd never spun it the same place twice.
And he was just pushing it and pushing it.
And then once it had gone too far, okay, if I want to do that.
It was also significant because
it was first raced by a turbocharged car.
A Renault?
Funnily enough.
Yeah.
Jean-Pierre Jebuy in the RSA one, I think it was.
Yeah, yeah.
So I thought I'd mention that.
Yes.
87.
Oh, I was going to do 87.
Go, you do 87.
Go on.
I've been talking far too long.
Nigel Mansell, our nige.
Our nige.
Chasing down teammate Nelson Piquet.
Right.
So they were title rivals that year.
And teammates.
Mansell crashed in qualifying, I believe.
And so we'd line up sixth, but Piquet was on pole.
And so it's advantage Piquet, obviously.
Now, you might know the background here a little bit more.
I think it was unusual that season or during that era
to stop for replacement tyres, new tyres, mid-race.
Yeah, but Mansell's tyres were completely shot.
Yeah.
So he had no choice.
He didn't even think they'd get to the end of the race.
It wasn't just because he thought he'd have a performance advantage
significantly enough to make up for the time it took him to stop.
He didn't actually think his tyres were going to get there.
His hands were tied.
Okay, so he has to pit.
Piquet never does.
Correct.
And so after that pit stop, midway through the race,
Mansell is 29 seconds behind with 29 laps to go.
So the task there is quite clear.
Be faster than Piquet by a second a lap.
Then your teammate in the same car.
Yeah.
And Mansell repeatedly broke the lap record during that stint.
Well, it's got more difficult for him because at the start of that stint,
I don't know whether he was looking after his tyres,
but he didn't eat into Piquet at the start of that stint or anything like.
In fact, I think that Piquet broke the lap record himself.
Or did the fastest lap of the race.
I think Piquet did the fastest lap of the race after Mansell had got his new tyres.
Okay.
And so it was only after, he can only have been better than him,
or maybe he had hit traffic or whatever.
But it was a second a lap when he came out of the pits.
By the time he actually started the charge, it was worse even than that.
Was it?
Yeah.
So Mansell goes on a charge and it's one of those legendary,
not even racist, but stints in Formula One.
And he gets right behind his teammate down the long straight towards the fast right-hander at Stowe.
Mansell sells him the dummy.
He faints to go left around the outside.
Piquet goes to cover it, leaves the door wide open down the outside and down through Mansell goes.
Apparently Mansell later collapsed through exhaustion after the race.
He did have previous in that regard, don't he?
But that's considered one of the great drives in that one.
Was that the crowd invasion?
I don't know if it was that year, but this is, I mean, Mansell mania's in full swing then, isn't it?
Yeah.
So Mansell had also won the British Grand Prix the year before.
He won it four times in total.
Yeah, you forget that, don't you?
Yeah.
And actually, just while we're on that,
Jim Clark and Alan Prost each won the British Grand Prix five times.
How many times has Lewis won it?
Nine.
Nine.
That's a record for any driver at a given Grand Prix.
At a single venue.
So I'll come back to that.
Oh yeah, it is a single venue because they're all silver stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
Senna only won it once.
Gosh, Graham Hill won it.
Oh, I didn't make a note of that a couple of times.
Nance.
Really?
Yeah, that's why I'm 94s on this.
Okay.
Because Damon won it.
Oh, okay.
He achieved something his dad never did.
He won his own Grand Prix.
Do you want to do that one?
Or have you just done it?
I think I've just done it, haven't I?
All right, fine.
Hang on, I'm just thinking about notes.
Yeah, no, that's it.
But I will do...
Okay, very brief mention of 91.
Because I can just imagine...
I just want to imagine what it would be like
if somebody tried this today.
Senna finishes the race and has so that he runs out of fuel
on the slowing down lap.
So Mansel stops and gives him a lift.
Yeah.
Can you imagine?
Hell to pay.
I mean...
I mean, where's the harm in it?
Where's the harm in it?
Senna decides to do that.
He's not endangering anybody else.
It's entirely at his risk.
He just sits on the side pod of the car,
hangs onto the air box, and round they go.
I suppose you could say that it sets a bad example
for particularly younger kids, younger racers watching.
Fair play.
Yeah, you could do that.
No, but it's an iconic moment in Formula One.
Just get over yourselves.
Isn't it?
I mean, just...
Yeah, I agree.
Well, what would they have done?
Excluding from the...
I mean, that wouldn't have been a slap on the wrist,
wouldn't it?
That would have been a proper penalty
if somebody had tried that today.
I would have thought so.
Yeah, anyway.
Have you got one to do before 1998?
Yeah, I wanted to do 95 only because
I think it is the most extraordinary story.
It's the Rackahin heritage, but Johnny Herbert won it.
And if you'd said to his doctors in 1988,
after a 3,000 crash at Brown's hatch,
that he'd ever even drive a Formula One car,
let alone win races in it,
they would have just laughed their socks off.
They would have said,
this bloke is going to struggle ever to walk again.
He's not going to be able to have the strength
and the articulation and the everything else
that you need to compete at the highest possible level.
So what damage did he do to his legs?
Well, I don't want to go into the details.
I'm not aware of the details, but his feet,
he smashed them to pieces.
He still has trouble with his ankles and his knees,
I think, doesn't he?
Well, certainly with his ankles.
Yeah, to this day.
And I'm sure you always will.
I mean, it was the most awful accidents.
I mean, the car finished and his feet
are sticking out the bottom of the tub.
I'm sure he said that years later,
there was still grass coming out of the wounds.
I mean, it was just awful.
Blimey.
I saw those reference about him finding
a strange bladed grass appearing from somewhere down there.
Anyway, just on Johnny Herbert, actually,
you talked to the likes of Tiffany Dell
and I don't know, maybe Damon Hill,
and they talk about Johnny being the talent
back in the day when, you know,
certainly before the accident.
Some of those guys will talk about Senna-like talent.
And he did go on.
How many races did he win?
Three.
Three, yeah.
And did he not win two British Grand Prix,
or did I dream that?
I don't know, actually.
No, no, no, no, no.
Let's put that up.
Okay, so when's your next one?
1998.
Oh, yes.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Such a bizarre race.
Bizarre into the race.
Well, it's a, it's a,
you just never happened before,
never happened, and I don't think it can happen now.
It can't happen again.
The rules have changed.
Yeah.
So this is a very, very wet race, 1998.
Schumacher has to serve a 10-second stop-go penalty.
He's leading the race.
I think he, under a safety car,
he overtook a back marker or something.
So fair enough, it's a 10-second stop-go penalty.
It's probably a 30-second time loss.
To come into the pits, stop, get out of the pits,
and back onto the circuit.
That would have dropped him behind Miga Hakinen,
who was 22 seconds behind.
But Schumacher waited until the very, very last lap.
He still hasn't served the penalty.
Last lap, he comes round, enters the pits,
crosses the start-finish line in the pits.
Because the race track, the pit lane is part of the race track.
That is the crucial point,
and therefore the start-finish line,
which is part of the race track,
extends through the pit wall and over the pit lane.
Yeah.
So he drives over the start-finish line, finishes the race,
pulls into his pit box, serves his 10-second penalty,
so he comes into the pits during the race,
but gets to his pit box after it.
Well, after his race, because the race is still running.
Yeah.
And so the result is upheld.
I mean, obviously McLaren, Miga Hakinen's team, protest.
But the thing is, it's not just about
what should be the correct outcome.
It's what do the rules say as they are written?
How can we interpret these rules?
And there was no mechanism for the officials
to invalidate the result,
because the regulations did not stipulate
that you had to finish the race,
that you had to serve the penalty before finishing the race,
nor that you couldn't finish a race in the pit lane.
Yeah.
So...
But what they did stipulate
was that penalties have to be issued
within 25 laps of the infringement,
and it was issued on a handwritten bit of paper,
31 laps afterwards.
Oh. Wow.
Yeah. So, you know, I think on that score,
okay, so I think two things.
Firstly, he should never have been allowed
to win the race like that.
But he absolutely won the race.
Yeah.
Because there was nothing in the rules to stop him doing it.
And apart from anything else, the...
And there was also some debate about
whether it was a stop go,
or whether it was a 10-second penalty.
So a stop go, you've got to go through the pits.
10 seconds, you can add on to your time at the end.
So under the rules, as they were written at the time,
there's no question he won the race.
There's also no question in my mind
that he should not have won the race.
It was...
Was it very, very shrewd from Ferrari and Michael Schumacher,
or did they have nothing to lose
and they just thought they'd give it a go and see what happened?
I think both.
Yeah.
I think both.
You know, don't forget that they were served that penalty very, very late.
And, you know, these days, you have to do it
within a certain number of laps of the penalty being notified, don't you?
I can't remember.
You do, yeah.
I mean, this could never happen again.
But this was a pure loophole win.
A complete loophole win.
Finding a loophole in the regulations and getting away with it.
I think they thought we've got nothing to lose
because maximum downside is we're not coming anywhere in this race,
which is what would happen if they'd served it anyway.
Because by the time he'd got in,
sat still for 10 seconds and got back out again,
I mean, forget it.
So they were in a position where they had nothing to lose
and actually they thought they could probably argue it.
And they were right.
Yeah.
I think in commentary, Murray Walker says,
I've never seen anything like it or something along those lines,
which probably summarizes it quite neatly, doesn't it?
Go on then.
99, Schumacher breaking his leg at Silverstone.
Yeah.
Break failure going into stow.
What's the approach there in a Formula One car?
Close to 200.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, and it's only because it's a circuit
which requires quite a lot of downforce.
There's just not a lot more than that.
And he goes, total break failure and he just goes straight on.
There's nothing he could have done about it.
Breaks a leg.
It's out for most of the season.
Comes back and then by which stage Eddie Irvine is,
I mean, he's not in the pound seats,
but he's a very strong title contender.
And Schumacher does nothing to help him.
Yeah.
And Mika is, is Julie Crown champion in Michael's large absence.
So that's a very ruthless Schumacher way of doing things,
isn't it really?
Yeah, but I also think that,
I think that Irvine had perhaps not covered himself
in the huge amounts of glory when,
I mean, he did always say that Michael was the better driver.
But I think there was one race where Michael could have
really, really helped Irvine by completely compromising
his own race and chose not to.
O3.
You got O3 down?
No.
The sadness about O3, it was won by Reubens in the Ferrari.
Oh, okay.
I think it was possibly his greatest race.
He was absolutely masterly in that race,
put it on pole, just dominated.
And we all remember who his teammate was.
But all anybody who remembers is some lunatic wandering around
with a flag in the middle of the,
and this was a bloke, I read his name down,
somewhere, Neil Moran, Horan.
Yeah.
Wearing a kilt, holding a sign saying,
read the Bible, the Bible is always right.
I mean, we laugh because nothing happened, but can you imagine?
It could have been a catastrophe.
It could have been, it could have been,
well, I mean, they, and it happened before,
if you think of Tom Price at Kailami in 1977,
when the track marshall crossed the track in front of him
with a fire extinguisher.
It could have been one of those moments.
It could have been absurd.
And okay, the idiot who's come on the track dies,
but he could easily have killed the driver,
as the bloke on the track did kill Tom Price.
And even if he didn't, the trauma of that event
is not something that would have ever have left him.
And there were drivers having to swerve out of the way
of this lunatic.
He got two months in jail for that.
Two months.
I think so.
Hang on, I wrote that down too.
Yeah, two months.
That's pathetic.
Didn't some climate protesters
try and do something similar recently, a few years ago?
Did the Just Stop Oil mob try and...
They did.
I think they did.
God.
You're going to do 2008.
I know you want to.
Okay, so I mean, there's a few Lewis Hamilton ones
that I want to cover off because, as I said,
he's won the race nine times,
which is a record for any driver at a single Grand Prix.
It's extraordinary.
It's amazing, isn't it, that he's done that at his home Grand Prix.
Yeah.
If you think of all the Grand Prix,
all the places you could have done,
how many circuits that he's raced at nine or more times?
Basically all of them.
Yeah. That's why sport is great, isn't it?
Because these things just happen.
It just shows that there is, it doesn't show,
but it suggests very strongly
that even in a world that's competitive of that,
where the difference between
pole position and 10th position
could be two tenths of a second,
there appears to be some kind of home advantage.
And maybe because it's the circuit that Lewis
grew up on and knew incredibly,
I can't believe that given the number of laps
that everybody else he was out there with
would have done themselves to another year,
that somehow he can,
he knows it even better than them.
Because there comes a stage,
there must come a stage when you just know it.
It might just be a fortuitous thing
that the profile of the circuit suits his driving style.
That does happen in F1.
There are some tracks where some drivers just naturally go well
and others where they struggle.
And if you think about where Lewis is supreme,
his confidence, his ability to control a car on the limit,
Silverstone is all really quick corners and combinations.
And it's a circuit like Silverstone.
It's why the drivers love it,
because the best drivers tend to do best there.
And that's what...
It's a driver's circuit, isn't it?
And so in 2008, his first victory at the British Grand Prix,
wet race, heavy rain, he wins by 68 seconds.
Laps all but two cars.
One of the great rain drives.
He later explained that he felt he was the only one
who maintained tire temperature.
And that's the reason he was able to win by more than a minute.
And his title rival that year, Felipe Massa,
just had a terrible time.
I think he spanned five times or something.
So that was a really, really striking,
really memorable performance.
I remember watching it, it was amazing.
Let me just do two other Hamilton ones.
2020, he won with that puncture on the last lap.
Do you know, funnily enough,
it was slightly in research of this,
but it was also because I was just doing displacement activities.
I watched the YouTube video of that last lap.
And who's closing on him?
Is it Max?
Is it Max? I think it is.
Max gains about 45 seconds on that last lap,
and Lewis only wins it by about three.
Yeah, and he's getting a countdown all the time.
Yeah, all the time.
But it does show, doesn't it?
You can't just build a 20-30 second cushion and then settle in,
because you never know.
You never know what's going to happen.
Do you think he was fortuitous in so far as should he not...
Is there an argument for saying he should not have been driving
a car competitively?
Which he was.
He was driving as fast as he possibly could on three wheels
with the car in that condition.
Maybe.
I don't know what the cause of the puncture.
Was it just wear, or was it running over a curb,
or was there some debris?
I don't know, but the car was basically on three.
I mean, he was driving as fast as he could.
I'm not in any way suggesting the result was wrong.
I couldn't be happier that he won it,
and I think he should have done.
I'm just thinking about the sort of the modern way
that people look at it.
And I wonder whether a bunch of stewards in another country
might have looked at it and gone,
well, that car is not in a fit condition to be raced.
That wheel could come off.
There could be a huge amount of tire that just breaks,
breaks loose, and hits someone else.
And it would have been a fine example
if they had disqualified him of F1 shooting itself
in the foot, wouldn't it?
Can you imagine what the crowd would have done?
Exactly.
And we're talking about it five years later.
That'll be 60s later.
That'll be discussed for decades.
It's a great Formula One story.
And if they had disqualified him,
it would have been such a pity.
But there's an argument, certainly.
Last one then, 2024.
I was there.
So it was his first win in Formula One
since the end of 2021.
And as we know, he'd had two and a half
really challenging seasons after Abu Dhabi 2021,
all the controversy there.
But the Mercedes is competitive at Silverstone.
There's some weather.
And he wins the race.
I mean, McLaren did fumble the strategy with Norris.
But Lewis wins the race.
And it was just great to be there.
A, it was his first win in two and a half years.
And B, the atmosphere.
Every time he came through, huge roar.
And then when he won the race, the place just went nuts.
And it was just so, it felt like a very, very special moment.
Was he not also the first person to win a race
after his 300th start?
There's probably some stat like that.
I think that's probably right.
Because so many drivers have done 300 races,
but none had won a race after their 300th start.
And I think that was the race where Lewis did it.
Very, very special day that was.
Were there any more that you wanted to discuss?
2010?
Oh, blimey.
OK, Red Bull gives Vettel Danny Ricks.
Oh, it's on Mark Webbers.
So they've got a whizzy front wing.
And they give it, they take it off Webbers car.
And they give it to Seb.
And then he goes and wins the race anyway.
Yeah, Webber goes and wins, yeah.
Webber goes and wins.
And that's not bad for a number two driver.
Classic bit of team radio.
Yeah.
And that was straight to Christian Horner, wasn't it?
I think Horner comes on the blow and says,
well done, Mark.
And Webber just goes, not bad for a number two driver.
So there have been some, not just some great British
Grand Prix over the years, but there have been some
really significant British Grand Prix over the year.
Where would you have it if it couldn't be at Silverstone?
What circuit would you spend in the UK,
would you spend the money on?
So you've got to keep the circuit layout.
But you've got to make it safe.
Brands GP.
Yeah.
Over Donington.
I think so.
Oh, it's marginal.
It's one of those two, isn't it?
It is.
It has to be one of those two.
Yeah.
It's not Cadwell Park.
A lot of Cadwell Park though, I do.
It's probably not fit for a modern Formula One race.
Let's just do one more British Grand Prix
that we haven't discussed yet.
The 2026 British Grand Prix.
Oh my goodness.
New regulations this season.
Literally impossible to say who will win, as it always is.
But we can make a prediction, can't we?
My sense, and it's a very loose sense,
and somebody might go back and look at the stats
and show me how raw I am,
is that when you get what everybody perceives to be
this most enormous change,
and people are talking about this being
the biggest shake-up of rules in the history
of Formula One or whatever.
I think that things will be, excuse me,
things will be different,
but I don't think they'll be quite as different
as people think, and I still think I would be
very surprised if anybody other than
McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari are up the front.
I agree.
So I think it'll be one of them.
I think if I had to guess,
and this is just pointless speculation,
because I genuinely haven't got a clue
any more than anybody else does,
but I've had to back anybody.
They talk about this being a powertrain era,
don't they, that we're going to come up with a powertrain,
largely because they did it before
and they dominated Formula One for years,
as a result, in the modern era.
I would back Mercedes.
So which Mercedes team would you bet
to make best use of that?
Probably McLaren.
Which McLaren driver would you bet
to win a British Grand Prix?
Yeah.
Probably Landau.
Okay, is that your...
I'm going to Landau.
But it is only because I want Landau to win.
Okay, I'll go George Russell in the Mercedes.
Okay, fair enough.
It must be galling for Mercedes to be watching McLaren.
You're sending them however many power units each year.
Yes.
And they've built a better car,
and they go and win all these championships.
And it is quite rare for that to happen.
Yeah.
I mean, it does happen elsewhere.
And what if the Williams comes really good?
And you know, Williams came fifth this year.
Yeah.
Which I...
Last year, sorry.
Which I think from their point of view
is knocking it out the park over the road
and into the next postcode.
It's fantastic.
Compared to what their expectations was,
because James Vowles always said,
well, we're not really thinking about 25
because everything's going against 26.
And they still managed to get themselves
from almost back of the grid to halfway up it.
What if the Williams is really good?
Oh, I love that.
James Vowles, he's destined for the top.
He's, you know, unless he wants to be loyal to Williams
for a long time,
he's going to get pinched by someone
from the top teams.
But it might, you know,
Williams might become a top team.
Might well do.
And the way McLaren was four years ago.
I know.
They are the top team now.
You know, stranger things with Garagista,
British race teams have happened and can happen again.
Bring it on.
That's why it's exciting, isn't it?
Because we just don't know.
All right, let's wrap that one up there.
British Grand Prix, 100 years.
Very, very special.
Thanks everyone for listening.
Thanks for watching.
Can we, can we dedicate this episode
to the memory of bummer Scott?
Good old bummer.
Good old bummer.
What a lad.
Thanks for watching everyone.
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About this episode
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the British Grand Prix, this episode dives into the rich history of the event, tracing its origins back to 1926. The hosts discuss notable races, legendary drivers, and memorable moments, including the unique challenges of various circuits like Silverstone, Aintree, and Brands Hatch. With anecdotes about famous races and drivers, including Lewis Hamilton's remarkable performances, the episode offers a nostalgic look at the evolution of the British Grand Prix and its significance in Formula 1 history.
Original notes
Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel mark 100 years of the British Grand Prix. They explain the history of the race from its earliest iteration at Brooklands, through the Formula 1 era and to the present day, recalling the most dramatic moments from across the ages.
What were the most exciting British GPs? Which five circuits have hosted it? What were the most controversial moments? Which drivers have dominated the race?
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Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel
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