What was the F1 news on your birthday?

March 6, 2009 at 8:00 am by Keith Collantine

Autosport November 5th, 1981 (click to enlarge)

Yesterday F1 Fanatic celebrated its fourth brithday.

By sheer coincidence a couple of days ago I came across the issue of Autosport that was printed on my own birthday: November 5th, 1981 (see picture).

This got me thinking – can we find out what the big F1 news was on the day (or week) of all our birthdays?

So, post your birth date in the comments below and I’ll do my best to rummage through the stacks of Autosports, Motorsports and other motor racing magazines I have piled up to find out what was going on in the F1 world on that day…

An Autosport cover without F1 on it would be unthinkable these days – but on November 5th, 1981 the lead story was the Ivory Coast rally.

But the Formula Ford Festival is mentioned at the bottom of the cover – it was won by Tommy Byrne, a rival of Ayrton Senna. Byrne went on to have a brief F1 career and you can read more of his story in the excellent book “Crashed and Byrned” which came out last year.

Autosport November 5th, 1981, page two (click to enlarge)

There was big news in the F1 world that week though. Carlos Reutemann, who had lost the 1981 world championship to Nelson Piquet in the last round of the season at Las Vegas, announced he was leaving F1. This left Williams with no drivers at all, as Alan Jones had already announced his retirement. Opposite page two was a story about Keke Rosberg leaving the tail-end team Fittipaldi.

Reutemann started the 1982 season with Williams but left abruptly, leaving them with Rosberg, who went on to win the title. On the same page is a story about John Watson turning down a drive with the team for 1982 – Watson remained at Mclaren and fought Rosberg for the title until the final round.

In other F1 news that day, Riccardo Patrese was finally cleared of wrongdoing in the accident that had claimed Ronnie Peterson’s life at Monza in 1978. Race starter Gianni Restelli was also foung not guilty by a court in Milan.

What was the F1 news on your birthday?

Post your birth date below and we’ll see if F1 Fanatic readers can find out what the F1 news was on the day you were born.

Read more: F1 Fanatic is four!

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773 comments on What was the F1 news on your birthday?

Maican Ionut (@ionutf1fanatic) said on 17th April 2012, 16:35

18th November 1993

Mallesh Magdum (@malleshmagdum) said on 18th April 2012, 16:12

May24th 1991….

Tommo N7 (@tommothfc) said on 18th April 2012, 21:34

Mine is tomorrow, 19th April. 18th Birthday this year :)

muz (@murray1964) said on 19th April 2012, 8:34

28th April 1964, I startred following F1 when Niki Lauda won his first F1 championship. The fist ever poster I remember having on my was was of him in a Ferrari.

vickyy (@vickyy) said on 30th April 2012, 9:37

4th May 1985 ..4 days :)

krtekf1 (@krtekf1) said on 30th April 2012, 14:28

28th April 1989. I started watching F1 at age of 6, became a huge fan of MS (after GP in Jerez 1997 almost changed my mind), ferrari-fan until 2009, after 2010 fan of Mercedes GP.

Daniel Dumlao (@n0ir) said on 10th May 2012, 2:14

May 5, 1992. So… It’s off to Spain this time of year right?

sushant008 (@sushant008) said on 10th May 2012, 5:42

11 May 1990!

UnitedKingdomRacing (@unitedkingdomracing) said on 14th May 2012, 16:24

26 July. The day a KERS powered car first won a race in F1.

Rui Pinto (@senninha25) said on 17th May 2012, 2:40

20th May 1993.

sid90 (@sid90) said on 19th May 2012, 2:49

30th November 1990, thanks Keith!

Lin1876 (@lin1876) said on 20th May 2012, 0:59

15th August 1994

Silverkeg (@silverkeg) said on 22nd May 2012, 7:49

29th May 1993 =D

Carlo Grlj (@hawkey) said on 24th May 2012, 8:16

14 December 1995 … find something for me aswell :)

Tim C (@asasuka) said on 3rd June 2012, 7:29

Sept 3rd 1986