The final part of our look at Champ Car drivers who raced in Formula 1 includes one of the most incredible stories of survival in any sport – never mind just motor racing.

Alessandro Zanardi had two separate stints in F1 and Champ Car. But when he returned to the latter he almost lost his life in a sickening crash that severed both his legs.

Also in the final instalment is the career of 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

Toranosuke Takagi

‘Tora’ Takagi drove in F1 for Tyrrell and Arrows in 1998 and 1999 respectively but never troubled the points-scorers. In 2000 he won the Formula Nippon championship before joining Champ Car for two years with Walker Racing, scoring a pair of fourth place finishes. After that he defected to the rival Indy Car series.

Mike Thackwell

Officially the youngest driver ever to start a race, although anorak types may dispute that point: He qualified for the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix aged 19 years, five months and 29 days. But he was eliminated in a crash at the start and didn’t take the re-start…

Thackwell was highly rated and had talent but not luck. He languished in Formula Two looking for another F1 drive, getting two starts in 1984 for RAM and Tyrrell. The same year he also made his only two appearances in Champ Car. Reluctantly he moved on to the new F3000 championship, where he would have been champion in 1985 but for bad luck. He left motor racing entirely in 1988.

Jacques Villeneuve

A young Villeneuve arriced in CART in 1994 and took his first win late in the year at Road America. The next season he stormed to the title, taking the Indy 500 on the way.

Bernie Ecclestone, desperately searching for a new F1 superstar, hurriedly arranged for Villeneuve to join Williams in 1996. He set pole position in his first race, very nearly won it and chased team mate Damon Hill for the title until the last race. The following year he clinched the title after a controversial clash with Michael Schumacher in the final round.

But as Williams lost star designer Adrian Newey and Renault engine for 1998 the team slumped in form and Villeneuve embarked on an ambitious project to set up a new team, BAR, with manager Craig Pollock. After five barren years Villeneuve was squeezed out and after a brief stint at Renault joined Sauber for 2005. BMW took over the team for 2006 and he was booted out halfway through the season to make way for Robert Kubica.

Read more about Jacques Villeneuve: Jacques Villeneuve biography

Jacques Villeneuve Snr

Gilles Villeneuve’s brother (uncle of Jacques) failed to qualify twice for Arrows in 1981 and once for RAM in 1983. In between the two he made his debut in Champ Cars and he returned in 1985, winning at Road America. He did another season in 1986 but then left, only to return for two final races in 1992, two years before his nephew arrived in the category.

Desire Wilson

The only woman to win an F1-class race, Desire Wilson triumphed in an AFX Aurora British F1 race at Brands Hatch in 1980. She made a single attempt to qualify for an F1 world championship race in 1980 but failed. After that she raced in Champ Car in 1983, 1984 and 1986, but finished only three times out of 14 appearances.

Justin Wilson

It was often said that Justin Wilson’s tall frame was the reason why he struggled to get an F1 drive despite having dominated F3000 in 2001, beating Mark Webber and Tomas Enge who scored 39 points each to Wilson’s 71.

Paul Stoddart stuck him in a Minardi in 2003 and Wilson was noted for his astonishing starts – he gained 11 places in the first lap at Malaysia that year. He got a drive at Jaguar for five races but was kicked out at the end of the year when Red Bull came knocking with $20m to buy a seat for Christian Klien.

He switched to Champ Cars in 2004 and the following year he won twice for the young RuSport outfit. He took up the mantle of the leading challenger to Sebastien Bourdais and won twice more over the next two years. Having taken Bourdais’ seat at the team this year he was title favourite before Champ Car collapsed and merged with Indy Car.

Alex Yoong

Very uncompetitive Malaysian driver who was briefly rested by Minardi in 2002 after he failed to qualify three times. Did four races for Dale Coyne the following year (did they have a monopoly on ex-Minardi drivers or something?)

Alessandro Zanardi

The last story in this series is without question the most incredible.

Zanardi was a promising F3000 driver who got his F1 break with Jordan in 1991 in the fallout after the Michael Schumacher debacle. He showed promise in practice at Adelaide but didn’t keep his place in the team for the following year and made a single appearance for Minardi in 1992.

Switching to Lotus for a full-time seat in 1993, his season ended when he had a huge crash at Eau Rouge at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. He returned to the team halfway through 1994, but the outfit folded at the end of the year.

He made his way to Champ Car for 1996 and won three times in his first season for Chip Ganassi. One of those wins, at Laguna Seca, became an instant part of CART history as he lunged past Bryan Herta at the infamous Corkscrew bend to steal the win on the final lap. He claimed the next two championships and won 12 more times.

After that he was snapped up by Williams who hoped to repeat the success they had enjoyed with Villeneuve. But the F1 cars Zanardi returned to in 1999 were very differnet machines – narrow-tracked with grooved tyres. He completely failed to adjust to them and terminated his two-year contract after just one season.

In 2001 he was back in Champ Cars at the team run by his former engineer Mo Nunn. The season began slowly but at the Lausitzring oval in Germany Zanardi was running at the front once more. But with a few laps remaining Zanardi spun on his way out of the pitlane and rolled onto the track in the path of traffic. He was struck by Alex Tagliani and the impact snapped the car in two.

Despite enormous blood loss and the severing of both his legs, Zanardi’s life was saved by the quick attention of CART’s medical crew.

Just as incredibly he has since returned to racing and has spent several years competing in the World Touring Car Championship using a BMW 3-Series fitted with special hand controls. Appropriately it was back in Germany, at Oschersleben, where he won once again, somehow keeping a train of cars behind him in the closing laps.

BMW also gave him the chance to test their F1 car. And he also returned to the scene of the accident that almost killed him, to complete the final 13 laps of his fateful last Champ Car race (pictured above).

Read more about Alessandro Zanardi: Alessandro Zanardi biography

What ridiculous sponsorship deals will they sign? Which drivers, thought retired, will pop-up for a cameo? At what point will they draw the line and shut the doors to avoid having to run Ricardo Rosset?

Lotus in 1994 arguably crossed the line in accepting anyone with a large enough wallet when Phillippe Adams popped up in the car for the Belgian and Portuguese Grands Prix. To say he was uncompetitive is beyond charitable.

F3 winner

Unlike last week’s Lapped Legend, Adams had shown some talent. In British Formula Three, during arguably its most competitive era, he was second in the 1992 championship. However this was his fourth year in F3 and third in the British series.

Onwards and well, sideways, to British Formula 3000 in 1993 saw Adams claim the title on appeal from a field of driving talent matched only by your average supermarket car park.

1994 initially saw Adams scale down his racing, moving into the Belgian Procar series where he was very competitive. However after the investment in his career to date this hardly represented a logical next step in the move into F1.

Lotus in trouble

Meanwhile, by mid-1994 the once great Lotus team were in a similar mess. In Johnny Herbert they had a quick and committed driver, but the team’s pay cheque, Pedro Lamy, was out for the season following a massive Silverstone testing shunt.

Suddenly the hunt was on for a number two who could pay the bills – not an easy task when the 1994 Lotus had the straight line speed of Andy Fordham and the cornering ability of a zimmer frame.

By the time the Belgian GP came around Lotus were getting desperate, the promised engine revisions from Mugen still hadn’t materialised, and the team was scraping from race to race. In stepped Philippe Adams and his father’s wallet and influence.

Star at Spa

I was in the paddock at Spa in 1994 and can remember the whole affair in detail.

Adams was quoted $1m for the Belgian GP weekend and duly donned the Lotus overalls, which he didn’t remove once all weekend, prancing through the paddock like a Mugen-endorsed peacock.

Now, as anyone who has attempted to get close to an F1 driver on race weekend will tell you, the drivers are scarcer than a dodo in the wild or a supermodel in my bedroom.

Not so Adams, who was so desperate to be asked for his autograph, that he went on lengthy escapes into the public tribunes on the exit of La Source, in his overalls, in the hope of recognition. Sadly the programme was quite nice that year so nobody wanted it graffitti-ed.

While Adams was striving for recognition there were some issues with his payment. His father’s companies were reported to be in financial difficulty, so much so, that other sponsors on Adams’ Lotus asked for their logos to be removed, lest they be implicated.

Thanks to some changeable weather in qualifying Adams scraped onto the grid in 26th place (out-qualified by Christian Fittipaldi who set his time on a soaked track), but didn’t actually take his place on the grid, instead preferring the 27th place slot behind Jean-Marc Gounon’s Simtek.

For the following 16 laps Adams duly followed the Simtek around, even waiting at La Source for Gounon to recover from a spin. However on lap 16 Adams got the exposure he wanted by parking his car in the gravel directly in front of the TV cameras.

Last lap

Alex Zanardi was given the nod for the Italian GP, but by the time Portugal rolled around (quite literally in Damon Hill’s case) Adams was back in the Lotus, qualifying 25th a mere two seconds adrift of Johnny Herbert.

In the race Adams finished 16th and last, four laps adrift. Although contracted for the European GP at Jerez, Lotus could stand the embarrassment no longer, reinstated Zanardi, and with that Adams was out of F1.

Subsequently Adams moved full time into Procar and Sportscar racing where he has competed with some success.

Read about more lapped legends

But no driver that won the F3000 or GP2 championship has then won the F1 title.

In this four part series we take a look at the 22 champions – and what became of their F1 careers.

Erik Comas
1990 F3000 champion with 51 points (2nd Eric van de Poele, 31)

Having missed out on the title so narrowly in 1989, Comas made amends in 1990 in a year that boasted such talents as Damon Hill and Eddie Irvine.

He entered F1 with Ligier in 1991, but scored no points. With the same team in 1992 he suffered a huge crash at Spa-Francorchamps. That was followed by two unfruitful years at Larrousse after which he quit F1 for sports and touring car racing.

Christian Fittipaldi
1991 F3000 champion with 47 points (2nd Alessandro Zanardi, 42)

Emerson Fittipaldi’s nephew’s F1 career is best remembered for his somersault on the final lap of the 1993 Italian Grand Prix.

He entered F1 in 1992 with Minardi, scoring a point in the Japanese Grand Prix. He scored another five in 1993 before switching to Footwork. After that he moved to Champ Cars in America where he stayed until 2002, scoring two wins. He still races in the Le Mans series.

Luca Badoer
1992 F3000 champion with 46 points (2nd Andrea Montermini, 34)

Badoer’s F1 debut came with the hopeless BMS Scuderia Italia Lola team in 1993. They gave up before the end of the season. After a year as a Minardi test driver he was promoted to their race driver in 1995.

The next year was spent with another back of the grid team, Forti, which expired halfway through the season.

After a year of GT racing he became a test driver for Ferrari and in 1999 raced for Minardi again. He was not given the chance to replace Michael Schumacher when the German injured his leg – that opportunity instead went to Mika Salo.

Badoer famously broke down in tears after his Minardi failed him while he was running fourth in the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.

He never did score a point and when his F1 race career finished at the end of that year he had become the driver to have started the most races without scoring a point (49) a record he still holds.

He has remained a dedicated servant of Ferrari, however, testing both their road and race cars and playing an integral part in the success of the F1 team.

Olivier Panis
1993 F3000 champion with 32 points (2nd Pedro Lamy, 31)

Panis was a Ligier man for years, even after the team turned into Prost in 1997. Before that he gave the team its first win, an opportunistic gem at a wet Monte-Carlo in 1996.

Many said he was never the same after his leg-breaking crash at Montreal in 1997. He certainly never troubled the leaders again or in two years at BAR (2001-2) and Toyota (2003-4).

Jean-Christophe Boullion
1994 F3000 champion with 34 points (2nd Franck Lagorce, 32)

With three races to go in the 1994 championship Boullion was fifth with nine points, 19 behind Franck Lagorce. But he won the last three races and snatched the title.

That year he was also a test driver for Williams largely at the behest of engine supplier Renault. He replaced Karl Wendlinger at Sauber from the Monaco Grand Prix in 1995 and scored three points, but was dropped for the last two rounds when Wendlinger returned.

Bouillon remained a test driver for Williams, then Tyrrell in 1998. He now races sports cars and has been champion in the LMP1 category of the Le Mans Series for the past two years.

Vincenzo Sospiri
1995 F3000 champion with 42 points (2nd Ricardo Rosset, 29)

Many of these drivers could claim to be hard done by. But 1995 champion Sospiri deserved more than one DNQ in the appallingly slow Lola of 1997 (where he was team mates with Rosset) before being forgotten by Formula 1. He was also briefly a test driver for Benetton.

Photo: GP2 Media Service / Alastair Sately

Related links

• Read more about GP2 at Maximum Motorsport

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

Lotus’ began developing the idea before his death in the winter of 1982. Ten years later an active suspension car run by a different team finally carried a driver to the world championship.

After that, it was not long before the system was banned.

1981-88: Aborted

Active suspension has its roots in the row over ground effects and skirts in 1981 – and the controversial banning of the Lotus 88.

The teams were searching for means of running skirts down the sides of the cars to generate massive downforce as air passed underneath the car. An essential part of this was ensuring an even ride height – though that had particular value even for non-ground effect cars.

It also had road car applications, and to begin with Lotus developed an early active suspension system on an Esprit Turbo.

These early attempts at active suspension were more ‘reactive’ – using hydraulics to alter the car’s attitude in response to bumps in the road or particular inputs from the driver rather than actually preparing the car in advance for each specific change in the track. The first two iterations of the system (the second driven by Nigel Mansell occasionally in 1983) did not even use springs.

In the mid-1980s it proved extremely difficult to harness the potential of the system because the team lacked the capacity to adequately process the reams of data it produced. This was during the pioneering days of in-car electronics – much of which was concentrated on managing the efficiency of the thirsty turbo engines.

By 1987 Lotus had progressed far enough with the system to consider running it for a whole season. Ayrton Senna was tasked with assessing the active-ride 99T and gave it the thumbs-up.

The system presented the team with two significant drawbacks: First, it added 10-12kg to the car’s weight. Second, it drew power from the car’s engine to run the hydraulic pump.

These shortcomings, combined with other deficiencies in the chassis, meant the Lotus-Honda was far less competitive than the Williams that used the same engines. Mansell and Nelson Piquet in Williamses won the British Grand Prix by over a lap from Senna and team mate Satoru Nakajima.

The active system did pay Lotus back though – at the bumpy Detroit street circuit Senna gave the system its first Grand Prix win, which he followed up with a second at another street circuit, Monte-Carlo.

Williams, however, were developing a system of their own which was more limited in the scale of its ambitions than Lotus’s. It consumed less power (about 5bhp) and Piquet gave an active Williams its first win at Monza – after Senna had gone off.

The following year Lotus ditched the system but Williams persevered – having lost Honda power the team needed a competitive advantage. But active suspension wasn’t it and Mansell grew increasingly frustrated with the technology.

It culminated in the team performing a rush job to convert his car from active to conventional suspension on the eve of the British Grand Prix – before Mansell went out to score an excellent second place, equalling the team’s best result of the year. Active suspension was buried, for now.

1991-2: Refined

Such was the ferocious pace of computer technology development that by 1991 Williams were once again flirting with the technology. In the intervening period Mansell had gone to and returned from Ferrari, and his misgivings about the system persisted.

Late in the season the team produced a ‘B’ version of its FW14 chassis featuring refined and genuinely active – rather than reactive – suspension. Now the car’s attitude could be pre-programmed to anticipate changes in elevation and bumps. (Previously Lotus had conjured up the imaginative idea of using lasers or radar to ‘read’ the track ahead.)

Williams brought the FW14B to the final round of 1991 at Adelaide, but the foul weather prevented them from assessing its capabilities.

But in the off-season they found the car was so astonishingly fast they wouldn’t need to run the FW15 at the beginning of the season. As it turned out, the FW15 wasn’t even needed until the next year.

At the first round of the 1992 season Mansell took pole position from Senna, in a conventionally-suspended McLaren, by 0.741s. The Englishman won the race by 24s from team mate Riccardo Patrese, who was in turn a further 10s ahead of Senna. It set the pattern for the season.

At the bumpy Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico Mansell’s qualifying advantage over the next non-Williams was 0.946s. At Interlagos the gap was 2.199s. At Catalunya, 1.005s – Williams were on a different plane.

In front of his home crowd at Silverstone Mansell really wound it up and was on pole by 1.919s – from Patrese! Senna was 2.741s adrift and everyone else was at least three seconds slower.

The season was a Williams rout, and rival teams complained that the cost of researching and developing their own active suspension systems would be huge.

1993: Banned

For 1993 it was clear that active suspension was essential and almost every team had their own version of the technology. Williams, who had an all-new driver line-up of Alain Prost and Damon Hill, continued to dominate. Only the inspired Senna seriously disrupted Prostis success.

But the FIA were concerned by the rising cornering speeds and began to pressure the teams into accepting a ban on active suspension for 1994. To underline their seriousness at the Canadian Grand Prix they issued what would become a notorious statement.

Stewards bulletin number three, issued by Charlie Whiting, held that all cars with active suspension were in breach of the current regulations – never mind the future ones. He insisted that the hydraulic rams that formed part of the system were ‘moveable aerodynamic devices’, which had long been banned.

It caused uproar among the teams and media. There were fears the French Grand Prix would have to be cancelled while the teams built new passive cars from scratch, and Williams loudly complained that it could call their 1992 titles into question.

But President Max Mosley’s concerns about the safety of the systems was illustrated dramatically by a number of accidents.

At Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix Alessandro Zanardi was heading into the ultra-fast Eau Rouge section when a leak in his Lotus’s hydraulic system caused the bottom of the car to hit the track. The car went straight on into the barriers at enormous speed.

The paddock gravely feared that the worst fate had befallen the Italian – his team even had his car transported out of the country in case he died and a criminal investigation began. Astonishingly, he survived – but the terrifying consequences of active suspension failure were clear for all to see.

The system was banned for 1994. Although technology purists may lament its passing, it’s questionable whether the mechanics who actually worked on the systems cared for it all that much.

Former Benetton mechanic Steve Matchett makes several references in his books to his dislike of working with hydraulics that threatened to fire hot oil at you at a pressure of 2,500psi if a mechanic disconnected the wrong component at the wrong time.

Related links

• Banned! Lotus-Cosworth 88 & 88B
• Banned! archive

He collaborated on this fascinating autobiographical work with Doug Nye in 1987. Its structure is a simple chronological ‘guide’ to every car he ever raced, interspersed with occasional chapters of driving technique.

It’s an unusual approach that has produced a uniquely interesting book.

Here is an example of a book that simply wouldn’t work if its subject were a modern Grand Prix driver. The book spans 15 years and 87 different racing cars encompassing Formula One, Formula Three, sports cars, touring cars and more.

In a similar 15 year period, what has a driver such as Michael Schumacher raced? At a rough guess, 15 Formula One cars, plus maybe the odd kart and whatever they gave him to drive at the Race of Champions a few years back.

It’s such a pity that the rigid strictures imposed upon Formula One drivers by their teams prohibit them from driving anything but their F1 cars.

For how are we to know that F1 drivers truly are the best in the world if they only compete against the same drivers in the same cars every weekend? Let them dip their toes into rallying, or the Le Mans 24 Hours, or the Indianapolis 500.

How refreshing it is to see a driver like Juan Pablo Montoya with the perspective to realise that their is a world beyond Formula One (even if it is NASCAR) and go off and give it a shot.

But I digress: Fifty years ago things were different and one can only measure the magnitude of Stirling Moss’s achievements by recognising that he did a damn sight more than race F1 cars.

The most compelling chapters of the book are those where he relates his experiences on the Mille Miglia, the 1,000 mile road race in Italy which he famously won in 1955 in a Mercedes-Benz SLR.

There are some fine photographs, an excellent colour section, and one picture I found especially endearing of his mother reading fan mail to him during his convalescence following his career-ending crash at Goodwood.

That, of course, had not been a world championship race; nor was the race in which Jim Clark died. The early heroes of F1 raced in multiple events because, for simple financial reasons, they had to – and they did so in spite of the dangers. That is the difference.

F1Fanatic rating

Guild Publishing
1988

Related links

• F1 books
• “Stirling Moss: The Authorised Biography” (Robert Edwards, 2005)
• “To Hell and Back” (Niki Lauda with Herbert Volker, 1985)
• “Alex Zanardi: My Story” (Alex Zanardi with Gianluca Gasparini, 2004)

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

I thought an interesting book to compare that with would be Niki Lauda’s 1986 book “To Hell and Back” – the self-penned story of another driver whose career was defined by a life-threatening accident.

Niki Lauda’s intense, uncompromising personality leaps from every page of this book. Right from the start he is direct to the point of abrupt, but also disarmingly honest and even funny when the mood takes him.

What this book benefits from most is its sense of immediacy. First published 21 years ago, he must have begun writing it more or less as he his final season’s racing was drawing to a close in 1985.

Though he did have the advantage of having written an early book, “For The Record”.

Lauda is a fighter – he begins the book fighting the wealthy Lauda family’s patriach and he ends it seething at McLaren boss Ron Dennis (in decidedly more uncompromising terms than Jo Ramirez in his autobiography).

This is, after all, the man who screwed a multi-million dollar deal out of Bernie Ecclestone – and then turned it down. To say nothing of his scraps with Enzo Ferrari.

But of course he is also a fighter in quite a different way – from which he still bears the scars across his face.

The chapter covering his N�rburgring accident and recovery are grisly and gripping – and filled with disdain for the sensationalist coverage it was given by German newspaper Bild.

The later chapters slip out of the standard autobiography chronology and Lauda covers various topics of interest including technological development in F1. He also reproduces an interview with co-author Herbert Volker in which Lauda describes his unorthodox and committed work regime, “The Lauda System.”

“To Hell and Back” is a more intensely personal work than Zanardi’s autobiography; that it is not to say it is better, just different and quite unmistakeably the work of Niki Lauda. A fascinating, if brief read.

F1Fanatic rating

Century Hutchinson
1986
009164240X

Related links

• F1 books
• Who’s Who: Niki Lauda
• “Alex Zanardi: My Story” (Alex Zanardi with Gianluca Gasparini, 2004)

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

I doubt it very much – he apparently has little interest in Formula One beyond the time at which he was active in it. It’s a shame – doubly so given how poor most of the biographies of him are.

But if there’s one contemporary driver who arguably has an even more interesting story to tell than Schumacher, it’s Alex Zanardi (‘Allessandro’ as he was known in his early F1 days).

Double CART champion Zanardi had two unsuccessful stints in Formula One, and his return to CART in 2001 saw him lose both legs in a terrible accident just days after 9/11.

It’s quite an understatement to say he had a lot of material to work with when penning his autobiography.

In the preface, Zanardi explains how he had the normal reservations about writing an autobiography – that it would be “self-indulgent” and so on.

The finished book is anything but self-indulgent, because Zanardi spends half the time talking about his friends, family and colleagues. That it isn’t self-absorbed is one of the book’s great strengths – even if some of the anecdotes about his Italian mates feels a bit Dawson’s Creek at times.

Of most interest to F1 fans will be his path to and arrival in the top echelon of motor racing. Not surprisingly, he has a few things to say about Schumacher along the way (and not just Zanardi’s involvement in the machinations that saw Schumacher move from Jordan to Benetton in 1991).

Zanardi is unflinchingly honest about his own performances and tells it straight when he feels he got things wrong.

That’s quite refreshing – and so is his attitude to the various characters he has had mixed relationships with. Whether they’re Chip Ganassi or Patrick Head, no-one is given either an outright trashing or reams of unstinting praise.

Anyone who’s read Dr Stephen Olvey’s Rapid Response will be familiar with the appalling details of Zanardi’s crash at the Lausitzring in 2001.

But in Zanardi’s book we see more of the agonising aftermath and long, painful rehabilitation. It’s by far the most powerful and moving part of the book.

Published in 2004, “My Story” concludes with his arrival in the European Touring Car Championship but, sadly, preceded his emotional first victory in the series in 2005.

Aside from this – and the fact that the chapter on his return to Formula One is disappointingly brief – I can’t fault this gripping and ultimately heart-warming read.

F1Fanatic rating

Haynes
2004
First published in Italy in 2003
184425108X

Related links

• F1 books

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

All news links external.

Priaulx is Schu-perb – British touring car ace Andy Priaulx won a second consecutive World Touring Car Championship at Macau last weekend – on top of winning the same series in 2004 when it was called the European Touring Car Championship. Priaulx drives for BMW and has tested their F1 car, but despite his sterling service for the Munich marque a switch to single-seaters now seemly highly unlikely. Murray Walker sang his praises in This is Guernsey.

Formula One test driver Vettel completes rite of passage in Macau – But it was British Formula Three champion Mike Conway who won the prestigious F3 race (see Autosport) with the highly-rated BMW tester Sebastian Vettel a lap down.

F1 to remain on free-to-air TV – Sports Business reports on FIA President Max Mosley scotching rumours that more F1 broadcasts could be moved to pay TV

Schumcher says he’ll never make F1 comeback – The Guardian with the first of no doubt many stories speculating on a possible return for Michael Schumacher.

Airfield victory for protestors – Elvington Airfield will only be permitted to allow the running of F1 cars on ten days per year due to a ruling from York council following a protest by local residents. According to GrandPrix.com the venue is mainly used for cross-checking results based on wind tunnel data.

Montoya’s Nextel Cup debut ends in great ball of fire – Juan Pablo Montoya did not get a winning start in his Talladega Nights-esque arrival in top flight NASCAR racing (source: Miami Herald) – but his presence will open up a predominantly southern American sport to the US Latino community according to the Washington Post.

Alex Zanardi Makes Heroic Return to F1 – Lastly, Alessandro Zanardi drove an F1 car for the first time since 1999 – and for the first time since losing his legs in his horrific crash during a CART race at the Lausitzring, Germany in 2001. He used modified hand controls incorporating an accelerator and brake to lap the Valencia track in Spain. (Source: ABC News)

Tags: f1 / formula one / grand prix / motor sport

Continuing our countdown of top Formula One videos, numbers 90-81 stretches from Emerson Fittipaldi’s first Grand Prix win right up to 2006 with the debut of Nico Rosberg (pictured). Plus another delicious Michael Schumacher controversy. Read on for the next part of our top 10.

Tags f1 / formula one / grand prix / motor sport / video / f1 video

90 – 1993 Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka – Ayrton Senna punches Eddie Irvine

It had been, by all accounts, an eventful debut for Eddie Irvine. Drafted into the Jordan-Hart at Suzuka, a track he new well, Irvine shone when the rain fell and briefly unlapped himself from leader Senna. Towards the end of the race, Irvine nerfed off Derek Warwick at the chicane to steal sixth place and a point in his first race. Senna, not too pleased with Irvine’s cheek, walloped him afterwards.

89 – 1975 Dutch Grand Prix, Zandvoort – James Hunt, and Hesketh, score their first win

The tiny Hesketh outfit were something of a joke in the Formula One paddock. Bankrolled by the largesse of Lord Hesketh, the one-car outfit ran a March chassis for James Hunt ‘The Shunt’, and came to Formula One because it was not much dearer than Formula Two, where they weren’t doing very well anyway. But a coming-of-age performance from Hunt at Zandvoort gave them their first – and only – win. It was a foretaste of what was to come next year, as Hunt fended off Niki Lauda’s Ferrari to the flag.

88 – 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix, Bahrain – Nico Rosberg storms into F1

While Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher duelled for supremacy at the front of the pack, Nico Rosberg was making the kind of debut every aspiring F1 driver dreams of. Apart from the first corner, that is, where he lost his front wing. But in a spirited fightback he showed all the combative brilliance of his father Keke (champion in 1982), especially when he sliced past Scott Speed into turn one.

87 – 1998 French Grand Prix – Martin Brundle quizzes Michael Schumacher

In 1990 Jackie Stewart famously hauled Ayrton Senna over the coals in a televised interview over the Brazilian’s various racing indiscretions. Eight years later, Martin Brundle did much the same to his ex-team mate Michael Schumacher, over the Adelaide ’94, Jerez ’97 and Montreal ’98 incidents. (Don’t worry – we’ve got the Stewart interview coming up later too…)

Play video

86 – 1993 Champ Car round one, Surfers’ Paradise, Australia – Nigel Mansell’s debut win

Reigning Formula One champion Nigel Mansell made a perfect start to his Indy Car career, winning first time out at Surfer’s Paradise. He went on to win the title, becoming the only driver in history to hold both the Formula One and Indy Car championships simultaneously.

85 – 1993 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps – Alex Zanardi’s crash

The FIA had already decided to ban traction control for the 1994 season when this horrific crash befell Alessandro Zanardi. The computer-controlled suspension system on his Lotus failed on the approach to Spa-Francorchamps’ fearsomely quick Eau Rouge corner.

Zanardi survived, and despite a comeback attempt the following year he left for the Indy Car championship. He won that series twice before an abortive return to F1 in 1999. In 2001, having returned to American racing, he lost both his legs in an even worse crash than this one. Remarkably he is still racing and won a round of the World Touring Car Championship last year.

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84 – 2005 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Fancorchamps – lap with Jacques Villeneuve

Despite the numerous safety improvements made to Spa (note the changes to Eau Rouge since the previous video) and the fact that it was voted top in an FIA poll of the fans’ favourite circuits, it is off the calendar in 2006. Hopefully it will return, but in the meantime enjoy this lap with a driver unstinting in his praise for the circuit, despite his many crashes at Eau Rouge – Jacques Villeneuve.

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83 – 1970 United States Grand Prix, Watkins Glen – Emerson Fittipaldi’s first win

Lotus were drivers’ and constructors’ champions in 1970. But that did nothing to lessen the tragedy of Jochen Rindt’s death – the first ever posthumous champion. Four weeks later their new driver Emerson Fittipaldi claimed his first ever Grand Prix win, at only his fifth attempt, on the same day that Rindt’s lead in the championship became unassailable.

82 – 1998 British Grand Prix, Silverstone – Michael Schumacher wins in the pits

Atrociously wet weather plunged the British Grand Prix into chaos – you’d think the British, of all people, could cope with a few drops of rain. Having belatedly realise that Michael Schumacher had incurred a punishment for overtaking Alexander Wurz under yellow flags, Schumacher’s Ferrari team were notified of the decision too late. Nonetheless they took the penalty – on the final lap, after Schumacher had crossed the line in the pit lane. Thanks to the stewards’ mistake, the result stood.

81 – Australian non-championship Grand Prix, Sandown Park – Juan Manuel Fangio battles Jack Brabham

Five-times champion Juan Manuel Fangio made a memorable appearance at Sandown Park, flinging his Mercedes W196 around the circuit in battle with Jack Brabham.

He now races for BMW in the World Touring Car Championship (pictured signing autographs at the last round in Brands Hatch) and won his first race in that category last year, when he also won the Italian Touring Car Championship. BMW have not confirmed the rumours, and it is to be assumed that if he did drive their F1.06 it would have to be modified as his regular 320si is.

Related links

• F1Racing.net – Zanardi to test BMW F1 car (external)

Tags: f1 / formula one / grand prix / motor sport / allessandro zanardi / bmw