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[Mikep99]

Now those were the days

Alain Prost
Gilles Villeneuve
Keke Rosberg
Rene Arnoux
Niki Lauda
Carlos Reutemann
Nelson Piquet
Didier Pironi
Ricardo Patrese
Andrea De Cesaris
Elio De Angelis
John Watson
Michele Alboreto
Nigel Mansell
Manfred Winklehock
Bruno Giacomelli
Raul Boesel
Eliseo Salazar
Mauro Baldi
Derek Daly
Slim Borgudd
Jochen Mass
Jean Pierre Jarrier
Jacques Laffite
Chico Serra
Eddie Cheever

DNQ:

Teo Fabi
Roberto Guerrero
Brian Henton
Derek Warwick
Riccardo Paletti

The greatest F1 grid, ever!

Roebuck's Rio '82 report in full
The class of '82 rolls up to the startline in Rio
Piquet and Rosberg were later excluded, giving Prost the win

In this week's bumper Christmas double issue of AUTOSPORT magazine, Mark Hughes tells the story of what he believes was the greatest grid line-up in the history of Formula 1: the Brazilian Grand Prix in Rio, 1982. As promised in the issue, we have decided to take the opportunity to print Nigel Roebuck's original race report from AUTOSPORT - in its full, unabridged form. As Mark discusses in his feature, 1982 was a turbulent year for F1, and Nigel's report from the time reflects just how some of the problems were viewed at the time - as early as this, the second race of the season.

It was what the crowd had come to see. Nelson Piquet is Brazilian and the World Champion, and on Sunday he won the Brazilian Grand Prix. A crowd huge by Rio standards gave him a fantastic reception, and Nelson climbed onto the podium, briefly acknowledged the applause - and collapsed. A combination of powerful heat and humidity, an unrelenting battering for an hour and a half, ridiculous g-forces; all these came together to reduce the World Champion to a state of helplessness.

Piquet's drive was therefore one of great courage. He took the lead shortly before half-distance, when Gilles Villeneuve crashed. The Ferrari driver's fans were in rapture for the first 29 laps, for Gilles made a splendid start to lead into the first corner, and headed the field comfortably for a while, until Piquet and Keke Rosberg (Williams) got past Rene Arnoux's second place Renault and began to catch the Ferrari. For a few laps we had a wonderful scrap, but after Villeneuve's departure the race became somewhat processional. Rosberg, his right rear tyre going away, was never able to make the late challenge his greater stamina might have permitted, but his second place was an honourable one. He was in the thick of it throughout.

Alain Prost consolidated his World Championship lead with a troubled run to third place, after starting his Renault from the pole, and John Watson took an excellent fourth for McLaren. Nigel Mansell, totally exhausted, took fifth in the Lotus 91's debut race, and the final point went to gutsy little Michele Alboreto, whose Tyrrell was in less than showroom condition by the end.

The early going was wonderful, with a lot of aggression from many drivers, including Niki Lauda, who looked like the Ferrari driver of 1974 again, diving for gaps, forcing everywhere. Unfortunately, his McLaren was struck by Carlos Reutemann's Williams after 22 laps, and had to quit. A lap later the Argentine also came into smart contact with Arnoux's Renault, the ensuing accident putting out both.

All in all, a very good race, and welcome relief after two days of the tedium which used to be called 'practice'. But the overall quality of the Brazilian Grand Prix should not be permitted to mask the crisis which currently jeopardises Formula 1's healthy future. The absurd specification of the modern car was largely responsible for the condition of Piquet afterwards, but Nelson was in no worse state than some of his colleagues. And Riccardo Patrese, his team mate, called it a day at half-distance after blacking out. "If we carry on like this," said one driver afterwards, "the races will be won by the strongest gladiator. Pure driving won't come into it at all." Gentlemen of Formula 1, it should not be that way. Act quickly.

Entry and practice

As I opened my briefcase on Saturday evening, a number of papers - practice time sheets, statements from Jean-Marie Balestre and so on-fell out, and so, too, did a photograph. It had no particular business being there and quickly I wished that it hadn't been. It was of Jimmy Clark at Silverstone in 1967, flicking the Lotus 49 through Copse in an exuberant power slide. In so many ways, living in the past is more palatable than the hard-nosed present.

The moment at which my gaze fell upon the picture could not nave been more exquisitely unfortunate, for it came after two days of watching Grand Prix cars, 1982 style: shatteringly fast, unnecessarily lethal, woefully unspectacular.

It is really quite remarkable how the powers that be have contrived to remove from the sport so many of the ingredients essential to its magic. Time was, for instance, when practice - particularly the closing minutes of the final session - was something to savour only slightly less than the race itself. There was a crackle in the air, the need for another cigarette, as every ace gathered himself together for one final shot at the pole.

But not now. Practice and the business of qualifying for a Grand Prix have become a separate entity, a fugitive from the race itself. The set-up of the cars is entirely different, and so are the tyres. We really need not be told that the escalating costs of racing are getting out of hand when money is available for gumball tyres with a useful life, at Rio, of a little more than three miles.

Most people seem to be in agreement, as they have always been, that qualifying tyres should be banned, but this opinion is inevitably qualified by the suggestion that such a thing would be "difficult to police," which is true. In today's world, such a situation could probably exist only at a time of one-make monopoly. In an effort to keep costs under some sort of control, each driver is restricted to two sets per timed session.

"We get one good lap out of a set of qualifiers," commented Gordon Murray, "and that's it. The next one is always half a second slower." In other words, in the course of two days of practice, you had four chances only of setting a really good time, and that inevitably led to some fairly desperate driving. "When you're going for a time," said Gilles Villeneuve, "you have to keep your foot in it. You need a clear lap, and if you don't get one, you have to make one. You simply can't afford to lift when your tyres are really working, so you just have to hope that the guys ahead have seen you."

Qualifying therefore means staccato bursts of action, and long periods of silence, these last extended by the increasingly prevalent custom of halting a session every time someone spins. And the closing minutes seem to be the province of the stragglers, flogging round in the hope of making the grid. The stars have done their bit long before.

If the reader detects a jaded note in these remarks so early in the season, it must be said that everything seemed to be working against racing last Friday and Saturday. I had not seen the Rio circuit before, and shall not be seriously concerned if I never do again. It is a flat and featureless white elephant of a place at which to spectate and, apparently, to drive. Interlagos, sinuous and testing, a classic Grand Prix circuit, is but 250 miles down the road, but the times have left it behind. It requires suspension movement.

Then again, the weather played its part, hot and muggy and overcast, a constant mist swirling round the mountain tops. In these conditions, irritability is heightened, and the overall mood of the paddock was scarcely light. FOCA people complained anew about the turbo equivalence formula, and the Renault and Ferrari teams spoke scathingly of the FOCA teams' underweight cars. The drivers were again highly critical of rock-hard cars. A really quick lap, they said, was a matter of gripping the wheel tight, shrugging off the jolts to the spine, ignoring momentarily blurred vision, holding your breath. "At qualifying speeds," said Didier Pironi, "you are exhausted after eight or 10 laps. No one could do more. It is really not at all pleasant."

During testing, the two fastest men had been Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg, with the Brazilian alone marginally under 1m30s, more than five seconds quicker than his 1981 pole time. But Keke was the star of the first day, his time of lm29.91s looking likely to stand as the quickest, until Alain Prost found himself a clear track and went round in a shattering 1m28.80s. The Renault drummed its way unobtrusively to the top of the lists, and left the rest looking a bit breathless.

The following afternoon, Alain was troubled with a slight misfire, and did only three timed laps - the last of which was also the quickest of the session.

Rene Arnoux's two days were altogether more hectic. Within only a few minutes of the track opening, the chequered flag was out to bring practice to a halt, the first of many such incidents. At the ultra-quick left-hander at the end of the back straight, the RE30B's wing support sheared, and the car hurtled off the road, just grazing the catch fencing. Remarkably, there was no damage whatever, and Rene was soon back out. In the afternoon, he was quickest for a while, before being eclipsed by his team mate, but he failed to improve on Saturday. Another excursion damaged the car's skirts and broke a rear upright, but Arnoux was still in good shape for the race, fourth on the grid.

Joining Prost on the front row was Gilles Villeneuve, who worked the Ferrari C2 round in 1m29.12s, another of his spectacular banzai laps. "The car is fantastic through the quick corners, one of the best 'ere, I'm sure, but there is this odd lack of grip in slow turns. At the hairpin for instance, I'm losing three or four tenths to the Williams and Brabham." For the first time, the tough little Canadian had a neck support fitted to the cockpit of his car: "The g-forces are just incredible this year."

Didier Pironi frankly admitted that his recent Ricard shunt had shaken him somewhat, but his driving was as precise and aggressive as ever. "No, my knee is not hurting very much now, except occasionally when it knocks against the cockpit side." The Frenchman's Friday time was close to his team mate's, but traffic hampered him in the last session, and he did not improve, dropping to eighth overall.

At the moment, Keke Rosberg is very much a man under the spotlight. After several thankless seasons with Theodore, Wolf and Fittipaldi, the Finn's natural aggression was like shaken champagne. Now, with Williams, the cork is out, and Keke has a point to make. He likes these current cars no more than any of his colleagues: "No, they don't feel nice to drive, but at least I get out with a competitive time now, instead of struggling to qualify." Rosberg was electrifying on both days, easily the fastest Cosworth runner, and the only one of them to get under the 90-second barrier.

Changes to the Williams cars' set up, the results of lessons learned during the team's recent tests at Brands Hatch, proved not to travel well, and neither Rosberg nor Carlos Reutemann was happy on Friday morning. Before the timed session, therefore, both FW07s were put back to the specification of their Rio test programme a month ago, and all was well. Reutemann had problems with gear selection on Friday and fluctuating fuel pressure on Saturday, but qualified sixth, immediately after the remarkable Niki Lauda.

Before the race, a lot of money was riding on Lauda. The circuit was not to his taste, but everyone reckoned that the Brazilian Grand Prix would be a race of tactics, a matter of pacing, making your tyres live for 63 laps, your stamina for an hour and forty minutes of manhandling a car in sapping heat. Niki is superbly fit now, and most people reckoned he would be around at the end.

Lauda lost an engine on Friday morning, and kept his timed laps to a total of 12 over the two days, He started fifth, well ahead of John Watson, who complained of understeer in his McLaren MP4, and seemed to suffer more than most with traffic on Saturday afternoon.

After setting the quickest time during testing, Nelson Piquet was a little disappointed to qualify only seventh for his home Grand Prix. There were extensive bodywork and aerodynamic changes to the cars for this race. For the time being, Brabham are running Cosworth engines again, and rumours persist that the alliance with BMW is all but over.

"We're reasonably happy," said Gordon Murray after practice, "but we seem to have lost out a little to Williams. There were no major problems today at all - apart from this business of getting a clear lap. It seemed that every time Nelson got himself set for a flier, someone'd go off and the flag would come out. Still, I think we've got a pretty good race set-up."

Piquet, who looked quicker than anyone into the quick right-hander after the start, finished up three quarters of a second faster then Riccardo Patrese, who qualified ninth. One had to wonder where Bernie's cars might have qualified with the German turbos in the back, but no one in the team appeared to be missing them too much.

Andrea de Cesaris looks a much more relaxed young man this year, fitting in happily with the Alfa Romeo team. Apart from one alarming moment (not his fault) when his car bucked alarmingly sideways over the bumps at the approach to the first corner, his qualifying days were calm, his driving neat yet aggressive.

Neither he nor Bruno Giacomelli were ever entirely free of the slight top end misfire which has always been the hallmark of the Alfa V12 engine, but Andrea nevertheless qualified 10th, a second and a half quicker than Bruno, who had a very disturbing moment on Friday, coming past the pits with flames licking from the back of his car. At the first corner, Giacomelli halted, leapt out and grabbed an extinguisher from a hesitant marshal, then efficiently and calmly dealing with the problem.

After the car's stunning test times at Paul Ricard, Gerard Ducarouge and his boys were somewhat disappointed with their practice results, and perhaps could have used more testing in Brazil. The rear of the car remains a mystery, for everyone in the team is paranoid about keeping prying eyes out. It seems clear that the big secret is some sort of twin venturi in the sidepod, but questions on this topic were not answered.

A little disappointing also were the Lotus 91s, unquestionably the most beautiful cars on the current scene. Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell were both well up after the first day, but both were slower in the final session. Neither was without his problems, Nigel going off a couple of times, once as the result of jumping out of gear, and Elio also damaging a set of skirts on the kerbs. On Saturday morning, Mansell ground to a halt in front of the pits with a broken crown wheel and pinion, afterwards being obliged to run an 87B, there being no spare 91 yet. His race car was repaired in time for the afternoon session.

Thirteenth on the grid was Michele Alboreto, now very much a comingman. The Tyrrell 011 was worked very hard during practice, Michele being particularly impressive through the first, quick, right-hander, where he was early on the power, and kept it there through all the car's darts and swerves. Well over three seconds slower, Slim Borgudd nevertheless qualified fairly comfortably.

Manfred Winkelhock was something of a revelation at Rio, very neat and controlled in the ATS D5. He qualified 15th, despite missing the last session because of a blown engine in the morning. This was changed, but Manfred managed only one lap before being halted by an electrical problem. Eliseo Salazar damaged a sidepod on Friday morning when he went off the road, after collecting a skirt lately fallen from Rosberg's Williams. On Saturday morning Salazar was in the catch fencing once more, this time damaging the engine mountings, although he was able to drive the car back to the pits. There were many detail changes to the D5s, the most obvious an unusual airbox, which worked well.

It was, of course. the first race for John Macdonald's March Grand Prix team since the recent sponsorship agreements with Rothmans and, on a small scale, ICI. In their new livery, the cars looked very striking and they ran in practice with no problems worthy of the name, Raul Boesel qualifying an excellent 17th, Jochen Mass 22nd.

Mauro Baldi was the only Arrows driver to qualify in Brazil, for Brian Henton was hobbled throughout by a persistently misfiring engine, as well as poor handling. As well as that, the general consensus seems to be that Pirelli have been left behind in the current tyre war.

"There's a basic aerodynamic imbalance in the car at present," said Derek Daly of the Theodore TY02. "It needs new underwings, and we'll have them for Long Beach. At the moment it just doesn't want to change direction." For all that, Derek was comfortably in the race.

The only man who failed to pre-qualify was Riccardo Paletti, who crashed his Osella on Friday morning. Jean-Pierre Jarier qualified his car, however, and actually lapped quicker than both the Talbot-Ligiers!

"Problems?" said Jacques Laffite, "no, not really - unless you consider that the car is out of date and heavy and slow! People ask if we have a water tank on the car. Ha! The car is 600 kilos without any water tank."

Eddie Cheever qualified his JS17 literally at the last minute, in so doing putting Teo Fabi out. Indeed, neither Toleman qualified, which was shattering for the team after the very encouraging test at Paul Ricard recently. "We're getting good engine consistency from Brian Hart now," commented Derek Warwick, "and pretty good power. But the chassis is just hopeless wherever there are bumps. I'm having to overdrive everywhere, and it's almost impossible to get a clear lap."

Chico Serra claimed 25th starting position with the Fittipaldi F8C, but Roberto Guerrero sadly failed to qualify for his first Grand Prix. The new Ensign N181 simply lacks test miles, as does its driver.

The Grand Prix

Although their boy was only seventh on the grid, the crowds arrived in force on race morning, and I was pleased to see that no 'supporting races' had been scheduled, for they inevitably detract from the business of the day, put oil all over the place and cause delays.

After the sultry mugginess of the qualifying days, the weather relented on Sunday. It was still extremely hot, but by now at least there was sun to go with it. Jacques Laffite groaned. He, understandably, had been praying for rain.

Back at his hotel, Gordon Murray also groaned, stricken with a Brazilian strain of Montezuma's Revenge. Wisely he opted to wait in his hotel until his evening Concorde flight. Gordon had been confident of a good race set-up for the advanced carbon-fibre-braked Brabham BT49Ds, and Piquet duly recorded the quickest time in the morning warm-up, with de Cesaris and Lauda next up.

After practice, Villeneuve had stressed his intention to try and lead at least the early laps - "I need it for my morale" - but it seemed that Ferrari were in for a difficult time. The C2 may have a considerably better chassis than its predecessor, but it retains the 126C's appetite for tyres. Thus, it was no secret that Villeneuve and Pironi would use '13' compound Goodyears, markedly harder than the 'Cs' of Williams and Brabham.

As the drivers sat on the grid, waiting for one o'clock, many cockpits had a decidedly Heath Robinson appearance, some with head restraints, most with some kind of additional ducting or piping to feed in cool air. It was going to be a very long 90 minutes.

Villeneuve was determined to get them over as soon as possible: at the green light the Ferrari blitzed away, and so too did Rosberg's Williams. Through the first few turns, out on to the back straight. the white car was right with the red, but the gap opened up on the straight, during which Keke was also devoured by the Renaults of Arnoux and Prost.

End of the first lap: Villeneuve, Arnoux, Prost, Rosberg. Patrese, Pironi, Piquet, Reutemann, Lauda, Alboreto. For a couple of minutes that was the position, with Villeneuve looking very confident, obviously mindful of tyre wear. Patrese, whose start had been excellent, seemed in very threatening form in the early stages, and it was clear that the Brabham was very quick in a straight line, the Italian easily towing past Rosberg.

At the final corner of the third lap, Pironi asked a little too much of his hard Goodyears, the Ferrari flicking sideways and sliding to the outside of the turn. That little faux-pas dropped him from sixth to 16th.

After four laps or so came the first evidence of Nelson Piquet's mood, the World Champion passing Rosberg on the back straight, to frenzied applause from the stands. The first dozen cars were well together, although Villeneuve was starting to stretch his lead a little.

The first pit caller was Laffite, whose wretched weekend was now further blighted by a severe misfire in the Matra V12. Later he rejoined, sans engine cover, but the engine still refused to run cleanly, later still, in desperation, unhappy Jacques ran over a kerb, damaged his skirts, and called it a day.

At the front Villeneuve still led from Arnoux, but both Brabhams got by Prost on lap six, Piquet then swooping past his team mate a couple of laps later. Now third, Nelson quickly closed on Arnoux, but the Frenchman was in resolute frame of mind. And all the while Gilles was going clear.

De Cesaris's promising showing effectively ended on lap 10. For a while the Alfa had clearly been holding up the group behind it - which was led by Lauda. But now Andrea came in, the elegant 182's one-piece undertray loose.

Ten laps, 53 to go: Villeneuve, Arnoux, Piquet, Patrese. Prost, Rosberg, Reutemann, Lauda, Watson, Mansell. Elio de Angelis had been running on their tail, but a spin with Alboreto on lap nine dropped him to 15th. Michele rejoining one place ahead. Towards the back of the field, Daly pressed on in the Theodore, despite a punctured rear tyre: "The problem is that when the ride height drops on this car, we get terrible porpoising. Then I ran into Boesel at the last corner, and damaged the front wing and the right sidepod. Next lap I spun off on the grass, and couldn't restart. Not a good day, all in all."

On the very next lap Boesel flew off the road at the ultra-fast left-hander at the end of the back straight. No one could establish whether this was a legacy of the Daly incident. Immediately after this, de Cesaris was back in the pits, this time for the afternoon.

The pace at the front - seven or eight seconds off that of qualifying, incidentally! - continued, with Villeneuve now in an ever-increasing lead, and. Piquet, Patrese and Rosberg becoming frustrated, bottled up behind Arnoux, and watching the red turbo grow smaller in the distance. Similarly, Prost, hampered by a misfire at the top end, was keeping back a Reutemann-Lauda-Watson crocodile.

Lap 17 provided the turning point, both Piquet and Rosberg scratching past Arnoux. Another lap, and Patrese, too, was by the Renault. At the same moment, Lauda's aggression took him past Reutemann, and on lap 19 Niki had also displaced Prost.

The Austrian looked very strong at this stage, with Watson shadowing him all the way, but all that ended on the 21st lap when Reutemann ran into the back of Lauda at the last turn, punting the Austrian high and wide to the outside of the corner. Niki held the slide superbly, but dropped three places. Next time around, he was into the pits, right rear wheel slightly out of true. He was out of the race, and he was not amused.

Next lap, and there was no Reutemann. And no Arnoux. The two of them had touched, spun into the catch fencing, and two more possible winners were out.

This was a time of action. Mauro Baldi's Arrows trundled slowly into the pits, rear wing absent. At the fast left-hander following the back straight, the Italian had moved over to let a following group - Pironi, Alboreto, de Angelis - through. Didier and Michele made it without difficulty, but Elio was less fortunate, Baldi chopping across in front of him. The Lotus hit the back of the Arrows, flew over its rear wheel and slammed into what remained of the catch fence. After acquiring a new wing in the Arrows pit, Baldi continued.

On lap 27 there was sensation - received in silence by the crowd - when Rosberg came by in second place ahead of Piquet. The two of them were now right with Villeneuve, causing one to wonder anew about the equivalence formula. On the basis of this race, it did not seem wildly out.

Lap 29: Villeneuve fighting desperately to stay ahead of Piquet's nimbler Brabham, now back in second place. On the back straight Gilles could pull out a maximum of three car lengths: indeed, he pulled out more through the fast turn at the end of it. Through slow corners, though, the British car was all over the Italian one. Gilles was hanging on by his fingernails.

On lap 30 it happened. "I got a little wide on the right-hand turn before the hairpin onto the back straight," related Villeneuve. "I was out on the marbles, and the car wouldn't put its power down, which let Nelson get alongside - on the outside-into the hairpin. I had a choice: hit him or go off. And I chose to go off, the car snapped round and that was that. Some people thought Nelson had hit me, but that wasn't true. I tell you what," he finished, "for sure I would swap a lot of my power for a little of their grip."

Gilles's accident was, of course, received with something near delirium by the crowd, for Piquet now led. The one remaining hope for a close race was the ever-present Rosberg, who was driving beautifully. Gone from the equation were Arnoux, Lauda, Reutemann and Villeneuve. Prost's problems were keeping him from contention, but Patrese still ran third, albeit increasingly distant from the two leaders.

Lap 34 was dramatic for the three 'Ps,' for Pironi finally came in for new tyres, and Piquet completely missed his braking point for the last corner, the Brabham sliding wide and almost off the road. Nelson collected it, but lost a lot of ground to Rosberg. Next lap, same place, and the same thing happened, the Brabham this time very sideways, although held - just. Now Keke was within striking range. Was Piquet having a recurrence of his Las Vegas stamina problems?

Well, he was, but he managed to conquer them. And he was in very much better shape than his team mate. On lap 34, Patrese had an apparently unaccountable spin after riding the kerb on the exit of a turn. The Brabham did not hit anything, but nevertheless headed for the pits. Once there the driver did not move. Patrese, after 34 laps, was utterly at the end of his tether. The mechanics lifted him from the car, and laid him down in the pit, where he was attended by a doctor. A full hour passed before he had fully recovered. "He told me he'd blacked out, and that was why he spun," said Herbie Blash later.

One man not suffering in this respect was Manfred Winkelhock, and his was one of the drivers of the race. He ran hard and relentlessly in the ATS, and now, with Patrese gone, was up to sixth place, his day far more satisfactory than that of his team mate, Salazar, unhappy with his car's handling from the outset. After being lapped by Manfred, Eliseo felt his engine starting to tighten, and switched off before it blew.

For some time, there seemed a real prospect of a race to the flag between Piquet and Rosberg, and there was little doubt that Keke was the stronger man of the two. He never threw in the towel, but his tyres were really beginning to go away, and that alone prevented a serious challenge. "I couldn't believe how quick Nelson was in a straight line," was his comment afterwards.

Of particular concern to Keke was the state of his right rear tyre, whose inside shoulder seemed gradually to disappear.

For a brief period it appeared that Prost might have been sandbagging, carefully pacing himself, but such was not the case. As well as the misfire problem, his tyres were going off. This was a man with one eye on the World Championship, driving with points in mind.

The closing laps were as dull as the first half of the race had been exhilarating, with Piquet fighting off his fatigue, Rosberg his slithering Williams, Prost his misfire. Behind them, Watson, despite a surfeit of understeer, was still well in touch, running fourth, ahead of a desperately tired Mansell.

Other drivers commented that the Tyrrells seemed to cope with the bumps better than any other cars, and this was probably of some help to Alboreto, who fought back really well after his early alteration with de Angelis, passing Winkelhock for sixth place.

Piquet duly made it to the flag cruising round on his victory lap with the gallant Rosberg, accorded an ecstatic welcome.

In the paddock, however, there was less than ecstasy. Marco Piccinini and Jean Sage, of Ferrari and Renault, protested the first two cars. "We need to get a clarification about these water tanks," said Sage. "If they are legal, we need to know. We, too, can build lightweight cars if we have to."

This initial protest was rejected by the stewards of the meeting, and now goes before the Brazilian ASN, and thence, presumably, to Paris. Happy days are here again. The greatest F1 grid, ever!

[Moka]

What a good read! Maybe it was the best grid ever.

Thanks for posting it.

[7UpJordan]

What is interesting to note is back then, people were missing the cars of the 60's whereas today we all miss the 80's and 90's cars too. Will we be missing today's cars in 20 years time?

[bud]

What is interesting to note is back then, people were missing the cars of the 60's whereas today we all miss the 80's and 90's cars too. Will we be missing today's cars in 20 years time?

if there is cars in 20 years time

[darwin dali]

What is interesting to note is back then, people were missing the cars of the 60's whereas today we all miss the 80's and 90's cars too. Will we be missing today's cars in 20 years time?

if there is cars in 20 years time

Yup, by then we'll have flying saucers that use compressed hot air out of the driver's arse - pre-race diet: fried beans or chili with lots of onions .

[McLaren Fan]

Either that or "green"lobbyists will have them banned.

I think we will probably be missing the cars of today in twenty years time, for Formula One is becoming more and more wimpy as each year goes by.

Thanks for the article Mike. It was good reading.

[Hanwombat]

wow 1982, I was zero years old I would still be waiting 6 years to be born

[Rivelution]

I'm glad an American is in there