Pick your classic grand prix - race one

Any race where Jean Alesi had the bit between his teeth is always good to watch, his fiery temperement produced some great drives (remember a waterlogged Australian GP when he stayed out on slicks anyone?)

1990 US Grandprix please.

Iv never seen any of them....quite early ones..all before i was born (just)

So i shall leave it up to some of the more experianced members :)

Any GP that had a reason to shout outloud

My vote goes to 1978 because I've never seen it and decent footage of the 70s is hard to come by.

Fantastic feature Andrew. I'm glad it's back for 2010.

I choose the 1990 United States Grand Prix. What a brilliant race that was.

My vote would be the 1982 South African GP as I agree it really is a 'classic' race. Some people will choose the 1990 US Grand Prix which did have the great battle with Alesi and Senna but the race as a whole was not fantastic, as I recall, and the Phoenix circuit was quite dull.

I'd love to see the 1990 US GP, for Alesi's superb drive, but I will have to choose the 1978 Aregentine GP. The glimpse at the drives of the 70's intrigues me, and I've never seen it! So 1978 please!

Spa Francorchamps 1998.

The pile up of 13 of the 22 cars at the start, re-starting the race in low visibility, Schumacher flying into the back of Coulthard and storming into the Mclaren garage claiming Coulthard tried to kill him, 8 cars finishing (two being 5 laps behind) and Damon Hill claiming a memorable victory in a Jordan 1-2 and Jordans first ever victory.

Classic!!!

Hi Andrew! Glad to see this back

Saw this on twitter and was hoping you would do classic season openers before I got here; and what a nice surprise it is!

Tough choices, Kinda want to pick 1990 cause I love that era though 1978 would be a good choice as we hardly got any seventies racing last year :(

So 1978 it is!

I would love to see either the US grand Prix of 1990 or The 1982 Grand Prix of South Africa. But, for me it has to be the 1978 Argentine Grand Prix, not only because of some decent 70s footage to watch, but also for the added excitment of watching a great race for the first time in 2010.

#9

Oh dear, 9 posts into the new season and already we have someone who clearly hasn't read the script...

I promised myself I wouldn't complain this year so i'll zip up!!!

Why is Bahrain on the list? It was the third race of the season last year?

All great choices, for me South Africa 1982 please.

#12

Unfortunately being too young to remember most of those 5 races, i decided to come up with one i do!

PROBLEM?

Andrew, Can you confirm that we will be getting the Classic Grand Prix and the forums on the freeview redbutton?

78 Argentina please,
I've not seen enough of Andretti, Peterson, Villeneuve etc in action, and last year I loved seeing those old Grand Prix shows from way back.

i think its going to be unlikely we get all this on freeview now we have lost one of the channels..

id be surprised if we got practice on freeview every week

My vote is for Argentina 1978.

Although I am curious, if this wins the vote, how much footage of the race will we actually see? Because if I remember correctly, the race was only briefly covered on Sportsnight.

1993 Donington Park. Watching the master at work is still one of my fondest F1 memories.

#12 I don't think your age is the issue, more that you haven't read the article as it states "we cannot offer longer edits for races that were originally broadcast on ITV - i.e. from the years 1997 to 2008"
I think you'll find that 1998 falls within this period.

1978 please, hard to find footage of those days on Youtube!

1978 Argentina, it will be good to see Lotus of the past, like a welcome back. (Allthough I would love to see Kylami course again too).

1990 US Grand Prix please!!!

and why are people voting for races that are not on the list???!!! lol

great to see this blog back for another year, i followed it religiously last year but never made comments. this years season is the most eagerly awaited in my life, combining my much loved mclaren with 2 british drivers, there is absolutely no question where my loyalties lie, unlike last year where i was torn towards the end of the season when lewis suddenly got quick. with regards to this weeks race, it has to be a mclaren victory for me so the 1990 usa grand prix. its one ive never seen but i never get tired of seeing ayrton win, he was the best ever and in my opinion he would have beaten schumacher through the 90's consistantly

Hi Andrew, great to see this back although will be harder this year finding more races from the archives I'm sure and I hope you don't get as much abuse from members for this, that and the other like last year :p

As for the season openers, Button's win in Bahrain wasn't really spectacular for me, in fact the qualifying session and seeing Toyota nick the first non-Brawn pole of the year was arguably the most exciting part of that race, but even then they hardly had any fuel in the tank.

I'll go for the 1982 South African GP as it's one that if the description's anything to go by, sounds like a particularly good grand prix.

@ #15 - mate, I'm too young for four of the five grand prix listed (admittedly I do watch many gp's before my lifespan and the latter of the four being one of them) but this is what this feature is for, people that haven't watched these GP's to have a watch of them and for those old enough to remember all five, reminisce in the one they enjoyed best. Just because you haven't seen most of them it doesn't mean you have to start messing with the votes ;)

Argentina 78 followed by South Africa 82 for me - love watching the older races!

Jerseyclaret (#9 and #15), this is to vote for your favourite season opener out of the choices you've been given, not your favourite random race. Great to have this feature back Andrew. South Africa 1982 for me please.

1982 South Africa please.
The Professor working his way through the field was always a great watch.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

South Africa please.

would like to see Monaco 1982 at some point during the season - astonishing finish to a wet race.

1978! just cos I want to see what the coverage was like, second choice would be 1990

1990 Phoenix please. I was only 5 at the time but I have read so much about it. Plus I love street circuits.

Andrew, fantastic to have this blog back - i followed it last year, but never contributed.

My vote would have to go to Phoenix '90, just to see Alesi with sparks flying through the streets.

One idea for races where there are limited highlights would be to have a themed choice, such as 'Top 5 Mansell drives' or 'Great Ferrari Races'

Thanks!

1990 phoenix please.

#31 - is likely to be one of the five races for the Monacon Grand Prix highlights section come the end of the Year ALTHOUGH I'm pretty sure this was the chosen race for full highlights last year although could be very well mistaken

My vote will go to the 1990 US Grand Prix. It was a brilliant drive by Jean and certainly put him on the map for the top teams. 1982 was also a great race but my vote will be 1990.

Argentine 1978 please :)

My vote goes to 1978.

1978 please

Goota be 1990, loved that alesi fight

South Africa please

1990 for me, Alesi and Senna are two of my all time favs since I started watching F1.
86 was my first season, still don't think i've come down from that lol

Looks like I opened a can of worms!

Good Point Andrew didn't realise Argentina doesn't have full highlights. Too late, made my choice!

USA 1990 for me because it seems a good battle. Glad F1 is back and your blog about classic f1 is back.

South Aftica 82 for me please! A great race to the start of the most incident packed season ever. Prost was at his best and put the rest to shame when he worked his way back up the field in his turbo Renault. Kyalami was also one of the best circuits too - I miss that long long straight.

For me it would be the 2001 Australian gp thanks

Thank You for doing this again...

1982 South Africa please it was a Classic, Well I don't remember it was two at the time! also USA 1990 Please. Got last years Bahrain GP highlights on DVD-R.

These are only for UK viewers, aren't they?

Andrew,
even though there are only reduced highlights it would have to be Argentina '78 and as a second choice SA in '82 would be good.

1993 - European Grand Prix at Donnington Park (only grand prix)

Whilst this Grand Prix was not full of incident, apart from the torrential rain and wet weather track, for me it became one of the most memorable races of recent times. Ayrton Senna, driving an underpowered McLaren with a Ford Engine made a total mockery of his rivals.

Running fifth at the start he pulled off an audacious overtaking maneuver at the Craner Curves on Karl Wendlinger then passed both Williams drivers to lead by the end of lap one. His performance was so dominant that Senna lapped everyone up to second placed

Phoenix 1990 was fun for about five laps. The rest was boring. I know, I was there. Kyalami would be quite a laugh and Brazil in 1985 was also entertaining but it sadly wasn't at Interlagos. No, the race to get my vote is Argentina 1978. Big slicks, proper drivers and sliding cars.....

Easy choice... Last years Melbourne grand prix was is my best. My reason is Lewis charge to 3rd position, barichelos madness of trying to force hes way thru. jensons domination, vettels stupidity on kubica and loads more! Oh yeh the sight of the ferraris abit behind! lol.. haha! whats not to like in that race!

I dont understand why people are voting for gps not on the list??? I didnt think Jensons win in Bahrain was a great spectacle, but would love to have seen a repeat of Australia 09, one of my favourite moments of the season. However, could I vote for Alesi/Senna 1990 please.

Dave

1990 US Grand Prix from Phoenix for me, please! If only for the memories I have of playing my first F1 game on the Super Nintendo and loving the Phoenix circuit! Plus Alesi-Senna is a battle I would love to see again!

Why can't people read what's put by Andrew in the main article? It's your favourite season opener you're voting for, out of the 5 options you're given. Not that hard to understand surely?

Mansell not giving an inch to Senna in the French gp. when his tyre blew

1990 US. Alesi is my all time favourite driver and the fact I was only 4 years old at the time means I have no idea what the race was like!

1978 Argentine Grand Prix for me. Really would love to see this, your description of the race makes it sound fascinating.

Its great to see this blog back, any chance of us getting to see the stuff on the red button again? Can't wait to see what races you have for us to choose from as the season goes on, keep up the brilliant work from last year.

#36 - my mistake, it could well have been covered previously. Have missed out on some of the excellent British coverage of recent times on account of having been living abroad. America could not be less interested in F1 these days, which is a real shame.

please put the 2009 GP on to review Jenson's glorious season at the 3rd race in Bahrain

78 or 90. Both sound brilliant!

A tough one to call for season openers, Andrew. Not least with Phoenix 1990 and South Africa 1982 being bona fide classics.

As the 1982 season was rather full of turmoil, the FISA-FOCA war and all that, it made the season opener more interesting. (for those of you who didn't know, the drivers did actually go on strike in South Africa about the terms and conditions of their licences)

So South Africa 1982 it is.

I would like to see the 82 South African GP. I haven't seen that race before and reading on it, it has the most potential to be this race's classic

#1 - You may be talking about 92 France when Alesi stayed out on slicks when it was bucketing it down. Jean was always brilliant at gambling with the weather.

Although Argentina 1978 would be a good choice, it would be nice to see a full length highlights programme. Therefore, my vote goes to 1982 South Africa both because of the come back drive by Prost and the chance to see the fabulous 'old' Kyalami.

@f1-lightmas - just pick the one you are interested in most shorty.

1982 South Africa for me Benson.

Good to see this feature back

Would have to be the 1990 grand prix for us as well, a classic battle between two of the sports greatest drivers

84 in brazil gets my vote!

USA 1990 please.

Andrew, could I put forward some suggestions for Australia?

- 1989
- 1995
- 1997
- 2001
- 2002

Argentina '78 here too, if only because Brazil '94 has already been done

Since the BBC only have 10mins of footage from Argentina 1978, can't they use the ORF footage, who covered the race in full, and edit it down into a highlights programme?

I'll go for South Africa '82 please
:)


@ Chris
The issue may be one of rights as opposed to ability to edit

As an Irishman I would have to say Spa 1998 because it was Jordan's first win in F1. Also the multi-car pile up at the beginning was a plus too!

@ Leigh....

Yes, I'd imagine it's because of the rights issue. I believe any F1 footage before 1981 is owned by the broadcaster who covered the race, or televised the race, so if they were to use the ORF footage, they would probably have to pay for it.

Although I really would love to see the 10mins of footage which the BBC have of this race, since I've not seen it for 32 year.

Some good (if somewhat obscure) choices there. Only the hardcore F1 fan is really going to know much about these races methinks. I will have to go with SA 1982.

1) Hungry 2006 (just because I'm a huge Jenson fan)
2) Monaco 1996 (never seen a race where so few cars made it to the finish)
3) Brazil 2008 (phew after 2007 couldn't have taken lewis losing again)
4) Spa 1998 (Go Damon!!!!)
5) Suzuka 2005 (Alonso Passing Michael round 130r WOW!)

if it is opening races though probably AUS 2006

I agree with Chris - even seeing only 10 mins of the BBC coverage will be very special after all these years. I go with Argentina 1978.

1990 US Grand prix is my choice as i would like to see aryton senna racing.

It just has to be Mansell's 1987 British Grand Prix victory at Silverstone. He had 29 laps to catch (and pass) Piquet who was 28 seconds ahead, after Nigel had had a puncture. A race I will always remember, what drama!

Pheonix '90 for me.

The Phoenix track was actually pretty good as street circuits go -- unless you were a driver who felt like you were stuck in a neverending tunnel...

...plus I was..am..a huge Jean Alesi fan and it'd be great to see him on fire. Just to remind everybody of the potential that he had!

FOr me, has to be Phonenix 1990, that duel between Ayrton Senna and Jean Alesi was epic to watch

It's amazing how many people fail to read and understand something so basic that even a 5 year old should be able to understand it. You're voting for which of the 5 options given to you, in the article at the top of the page, you wish to see full highlights of. You're not being asked to vote for your favourite ever race, or anything like that. You have 5 choices at the top of this page. Look at what those choices are. Vote for 1 of those 5 choices. Simple. Very, very simple. Isn't it?

In reply to comment #77:

1) Hungry 2006 --> https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8161319.stm
2) Monaco 1996 --> https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8055845.stm
3) Brazil 2008 --> https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8304965.stm
4) Spa 1998 --> https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8222487.stm
5) Suzuka 2005 --> https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8273482.stm

Please look to see races already chosen before making inane comments.

I found those by doing simple Google searches and clicking on the first BBC link i.e. "classic monaco 1996". Not too hard, hey? (although it would be a lot more easier if BBC did have their own F1 dedicated archive page with the Classic races that have already been uploaded.

Andrew....great blog, good to see it's back for 2010 with the classic GP feature!
I'd like to request the Argentinian GP highlights, but if you only have 10 minutes, then perhaps another GP should take it's place as winner so we can see 30 mins highlights of another great season opener?

I wanted the Argentine GP because I used to love that track on Grand Prix 3, it was a good one to drive around, and only being 10 at the time I didn't 11 years old, I didn't know why it got axed...can anyone let me know without wikipedia'ing it?

78 Please, Now we have Lotus racing again is a good reason to look back at some of their great years.

ACBC

Cheers

Cris

1990 alesi please why no hd!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1978 Argentine Grand Prix please!

1. Because it's, as you say, a classic circuit.

and

2. Because it will show all these youngsters just how the BBC's coverage has improved!

other series are shown in hd why not f1?

sorry to harp on but im not happy!

mikeyd784, it's upto Bernie Ecclestone. If he doesn't give companies the HD feed, they can't show it. Nothing at all that the BBC can do about it, they're at the mercy of Bernie basically.

If you only have 10min of 1978 then how about you just show all of it and then give us the full highlights from 82 :-)

Most of these GP's are way before my Interest in F1 but I would like to be interested in the 1978 Argentine GP.
Maybe the Sportsnight build-up should be added in then straight into the Race itself.
Then the 82 South African GP sounds a good 'un followed by the 1990 USGP, love to see a USGP highlights which was held somewhere else then Indy! (May have had a classic USGP on last year but I missed a few Classic GP blogs last season :()
No need to wheel out last year's Bahrain GP..which was epically Dull, so I hope this years race is better.

Also Andrew, you again say you dont have ITV's full rights which of course happened last year but you put 1997 to 2008 in this blog, does this actually mean you have the races that you said were unavailable last year available this time?
Or does the Ban on James Allen still exsist?

Has to be the US Grand Prix in 1990. I was there working at the time and I distinctly remember the Alesi / Senna battle. Awesome stuff between 2 greats. Sadly I was also working at the race when Senna was killed in '94, not one to remember..

Hi Andrew.

Glad to see this feature is back for another season. Of the choices given, I would vote for the 1982 South African Grand Prix, although the footage from 1978 is tempting.

I cannot bring myself to vote for the US 1990 race. Even though it featured a surprising grid and a titanic battle between Senna and Alesi, it took place on perhaps the dullest circuit ever to grace the F1 calender(and that includes the Aida TI Pacific GP).

As for alternative season opening Grand Prix, I seem to remember enjoying the 1997 Australian Grand Prix. I realise that this is an "ITV race" and that it may feature in your plans for the Australian round. Or what about South Africa 1993 with some good battles between Senna and Prost and Senna and Schumacher.

Hilarious selections and even some lists by people who don't understand the 'complex' voting rules. Please pay more attention when voting in the general election!
Anyway... SA '82 just to see the circuit: it's a fascinating layout that fully tests the drivers. The cars were only slightly less bonkers than the beasts of Argentina '78. 10 mins isn't worthwhile as the main choice, we'll get 5-9mins of the 10 anyway. Tactical voting is back!

I was only born in 1987 so dont remember the older races, I have to say my favourite GPs have been:
1. Spa 1998 (Jordan 1-2!)
2. Spa 2008 (Hamilton vs Raikkonen!)
3. Monaco 1996 (Only 6 finishes!)
4. Silverstone 1998 (Schumacher vs Hakkinen!)
All involve rain causing chaos!- Can't wait for the start of the season!

1982 South African GP would be my vote - but can we have the 1978 one also please as thats was the year I was born and we dont see many 70's races

Hi guy's
It's got to be 1990 US for me. Any chance to see Senna at work is not to be missed. If not for that tragic day in 1994, I reckon Michael would still be trying to catch Ayrton's record of championship titles.