Occasions in Italy’s Emilia Romagna area this week have rightly resulted within the cancellation of the Grand Prix at Imola. On the level the choice was taken, it was solely possible that the race might have taken place, however the significance of saving lives – and livelihoods – within the space was paramount.
Right here’s our collection of among the Components 1 occasions of the previous which have been badly affected by hostile climate situations…
1966 Belgian Grand Prix
Brabham was among the many survivors at Spa in 1966 as Stewart was caught out within the treacherous situations
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Spa is infamous for its changeable climate, and simply three years earlier the 1963 Belgian GP had been desperately moist, dominated by Lotus maestro Jim Clark.
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In 1966, it was the sudden deluge that enveloped the sector midway across the opening lap that resulted in chaos, and offered a set off to Jackie Stewart kicking off his security marketing campaign. Simply seven of the 15 starters filed by means of on the finish of lap one, and amongst these lacking was the Scot, who was being extracted from the wreckage of his BRM by team-mate Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant. They laid him in a barn, whereas eradicating his fuel-soaked overalls.
Remarkably, those that accomplished the primary lap all completed, with John Surtees taking victory in his Ferrari after passing the Cooper-Maserati of Jochen Rindt at three-quarters distance.
Stewart was on his method to hospital in Liege, however solely after being left on the ground on his stretcher within the ‘medical centre’, and through a detour after the ambulance driver received misplaced.
Usually for Spa, the climate had been wonderful within the build-up to the race, with Saturday qualifying even delayed whereas the native pompiers put out a hearth that had damaged out within the woods at Burnenville.
1975 British Grand Prix
An costly automobile park forming at Membership, together with early chief Hunt, induced the 1975 British GP to be stopped
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Few would try to match a flat former airfield on the Northamptonshire/Buckinghamshire border with the rolling Ardennes hills, however there could be similarities…
There have been loads of moist grands prix at Silverstone over time, however this one is notorious as a result of, very similar to the 1966 Belgian GP at Spa, it was a wet-dry observe that induced chaos.
The race had begun within the dry, with Carlos Tempo main in his Brabham earlier than Clay Regazzoni took over for Ferrari. However a sudden rain bathe simply after one-quarter distance resulted in many of the subject heading for the pits to modify to wet-weather tyres. A kind of who stayed out on slicks was James Hunt and, when the circuit dried out and people on wets returned to the pits for dry rubber, his Hesketh moved into a snug lead.
A failing exhaust started to hamper Hunt, and at two-thirds distance he was overhauled by the McLaren of Emerson Fittipaldi, with Tempo and Jody Scheckter’s Tyrrell additionally shifting in entrance. After which again got here the rain…
It arrived from the south of the circuit, that means it hit Stowe and Membership corners first. Tony Brise, Scheckter, Tempo, Hunt, Dave Morgan, Wilson Fittipaldi, Brian Henton and John Nicholson had been concerned in a pile-up at Membership; Stowe claimed John Watson, Patrick Depailler, Mark Donohue and Jochen Mass.
Six vehicles remained on observe, Emerson Fittipaldi headed for the pits for rain tyres, returned to the circuit and encountered pink flags. He was the winner, however it took three days for the consequence to be confirmed.
1975 Austrian Grand Prix
Brambilla famously crashed shortly after taking the chequered flag for what was his solely F1 win
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With its beautiful location within the Styrian mountains of central Europe, the Osterreichring – lately recognized in its truncated kind because the Crimson Bull Ring – was susceptible in mid-August to scorching warmth or torrential thunderstorms.
Very often race weekends in the summertime on the venue have featured each, however solely in 1975 did hostile climate lead to such a extreme impression upon the Austrian GP. Circumstances had been dry within the build-up to the race, and continued to be so in the course of the race morning warm-up when Mark Donohue crashed his Penske-run March on the ultra-fast first flip of Hella Licht, sustaining deadly accidents.
Rain swept in in the course of the day, and it was dwelling hero Niki Lauda, within the technique of cruising to the world title with Ferrari, who led early on from pole. Then James Hunt moved in entrance together with his Hesketh, solely to be baulked by new team-mate Brett Lunger, permitting Vittorio Brambilla to maneuver in entrance together with his March.
At 29 laps – a tad over half-distance – the choice was made to wave the chequered flag. Brambilla flung an arm aloft after crossing the end line to assert his first – and solely – GP victory, and clonked into the obstacles. Hunt, who was about to take his ailing Hesketh into the pits to retire, noticed the flag, modified his thoughts, crossed the road to take second place, after which pulled over within the pitlane exit.
As group personnel stood round questioning what to do subsequent, there was a break within the climate and discussions started about restarting the race. However the ever-sharp March group principal Max Mosley identified that the waving of the chequered flag with out a black flag for accompaniment meant that the race was definitively over. Solely half-points had been awarded, however Brambilla’s win was confirmed.
1979 Race of Champions
The non-championship Race of Champions in 1979 was belatedly held a month later than deliberate after snow induced the occasion to be postponed
Picture by: David Phipps
The British local weather is temperamental at the most effective of occasions, and thru the Nineteen Seventies the knowledge of internet hosting non-championship F1 races, which historically acted as curtain raisers to the European leg of the grand prix season, so early within the 12 months may very well be known as into query.
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Sure, it was a gloriously sunny Silverstone the place James Hunt took victory for Hesketh within the Worldwide Trophy of 1974, however only a 12 months earlier Jackie Stewart had triumphed on the similar venue after navigating his Tyrrell by means of snow flurries. In 1978, once more at Silverstone, Keke Rosberg scored a shock win for Theodore after practically all of the fancied runners – and a few decidedly unfancied – skated off the street early within the race because of heavy rain on a newly laid, and gripless, observe floor.
Issues had been much more slippery at Manufacturers Hatch in the midst of March 1979, the place some groups – together with Ferrari all the best way from Maranello – had already assembled for the Race of Champions. With six inches of snow protecting the rolling Kent hills, and little likelihood of it melting, circuit impresario John Webb had no possibility however to make the choice on the Thursday afternoon to name off the occasion.
A brand new date was confirmed for the Easter weekend a month later. Manufacturers was already slated to host a spherical of the Aurora British F1 Championship on that date, so paradoxically the Race of Champions was a non-championship race that awarded factors – at the least to some!
Ferrari hero Gilles Villeneuve took victory after passing the ailing of Lotus of reigning world champion Mario Andretti, with up-and-coming Brabham starlet Nelson Piquet additionally overtaking the American to assert second place. A lap down, Man Edwards received the Aurora ‘class’ in his Fittipaldi.
1984 Monaco Grand Prix
May Senna have taken the Toleman to victory at Monaco in 1984? It stays considered one of motorsport’s nice unanswered what-ifs
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What occurred in Monte Carlo in 1984 has gone down in motorsport folklore as a result of it cemented a win for Alain Prost and denied chasing rookies Ayrton Senna and Stefan Bellof of what might have been their maiden F1 victories.
Prost was main in his McLaren from the fast-closing Toleman-Hart of Senna and the even-faster-gaining Tyrrell-Cosworth of Bellof when the Frenchman started gesticulating for the race to be stopped amid the worsening situations. Senna was within the technique of passing Prost for the lead alongside the pit straight on the finish of the thirty second lap when clerk of the course Jacky Ickx brandished the pink flag.
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On outcomes countback to the tip of lap 31, Prost was given the decision by 7.4s from Senna, who had carved 10.7s from the Frenchman’s benefit over the previous three laps. Bellof, in flip, was 13.7s behind Senna and had sliced 12.7s out of the Brazilian in the identical interval…
Ickx, as a manufacturing facility Porsche driver within the World Endurance Championship, was condemned by some for his resolution, which had resulted in a victory for a automobile powered by a Porsche-built engine. However there’s no query that situations had been appalling.
1985 Belgian Grand Prix
Farcical scenes at Spa in 1985 induced the race to be deserted when the observe broke up within the warmth
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This explicit episode at Spa goes down in infamy as a result of it was a race that was known as off because of sunshine…
The circuit organisers had deliberate resurfacing for the winter, however dangerous climate – quelle shock – meant this was delayed till the run-up to the Belgian GP, because of be run on the primary weekend of June. The brand new floor, often called Stress Absorbing Membrane Interlayer (which sounds just like the form of title The Fall would have chosen for considered one of their LPs of the time) hadn’t set correctly, and chunks had been torn out in apply by the highly effective turbo equipment. The infuriated drivers refused to race.
Retrospective: When F1 previously aborted a race at Spa
Additional emergency resurfacing happened on the Saturday evening and this at the least allowed the Components 3000 race to be run on Sunday, and received by the Ralt of Mike Thackwell. However even these Cosworth DFV-powered machines wrecked the observe.
The Belgian GP was rescheduled for September. Naturally it was rain-affected, and Ayrton Senna took victory in his Lotus-Renault.
1991 Australian Grand Prix
The horrible situations at Adelaide in 1991 meant the race was shortly curtailed
Picture by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images
Everybody loved the Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide. Coming because it did on the finish of the season, it was both a dramatic title decider (most memorably in 1986) or a nice end-of-season blast across the South Australian streets.
The 1991 working ought to have belonged within the latter class, with Ayrton Senna already confirmed as world champion, and it was the Brazilian who headed a 1-2 on the grid from the sister McLaren-Honda of Gerhard Berger.
However rain hit the town on Sunday. This was nothing new – two years earlier, Thierry Boutsen had splashed to victory in his Williams-Renault within the 1989 finale. The sphere set off, however it was clear that this time the situations had been on a unique degree.
Nigel Mansell had simply crashed his Williams out of second place, amid rising depth of the downpour and a number of other different incidents, when the race was halted. Senna claimed victory, with simply 14 laps of racing within the books, with Mansell reinstated in second on countback.
Half-points had been awarded, that means that sixth-placed Gianni Morbidelli, subbing at Ferrari for the sacked Alain Prost, goes down in historical past as scoring half some extent throughout what amounted to a 24-minute profession on the Prancing Horse!
2007 Japanese Grand Prix
Vettel famously clouted Webber underneath the protection automobile at Fuji in 2007
Picture by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Final autumn, the knowledge of holding the Japanese GP in October was known as into query due to that month’s perilous proximity to the nation’s wet season, coming because it did simply three years after qualifying had been shifted to race morning because of hurricane warnings. Certainly, the 2022 race resulted in utter confusion earlier than affirmation arrived that race winner Max Verstappen was world champion. However such criticism isn’t actually honest, as a result of Japan is at all times liable to be hit by sudden, heavy rain, no matter time of 12 months it’s.
The nation’s maiden F1 GP in 1976, after all, resulted in that well-known moist race at Fuji received by Mario Andretti for Lotus, and the place James Hunt snatched the title from the grasp of the heroic Niki Lauda. In 2005 at Suzuka, moist climate performed havoc with the one-at-a-time qualifying system in place on the time, leading to many of the main contenders beginning in direction of the again of the grid and one of many best grands prix of the twenty first century.
Few might declare that of the 2007 working at Fuji. First, the circuit, again on the F1 schedule for the primary time since 1977, was a shadow of its former self following an enormous revamp. After which, for 42 minutes, the sector droned round behind the protection automobile whereas officers labored out whether or not it was dry – and secure – sufficient to let the racers unfastened.
Lastly they did after 19 laps, and poleman Lewis Hamilton went on to take honours in his McLaren-Mercedes from the Renault of Heikki Kovalainen, and apparently take a giant step in direction of profitable the world title as a rookie, since simply two rounds remained…
2009 Malaysian Grand Prix
Button was the chief when the 2009 Malaysian GP was stopped, and by no means restarted
Picture by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
For the primary time for the reason that 1991 Australian GP, half-points had been awarded for a race, which on this case ran to simply previous half-distance earlier than being deserted because of heavy rain that had hit the Sepang circuit.
Jenson Button had received the season-opening race in Melbourne on the wheel of his Mercedes-powered Brawn, and claimed pole in Malaysia. He ran third early on after a poor begin, however leapfrogged early chief Nico Rosberg’s Williams and second-placed Jarno Trulli’s Toyota in the course of the first spherical of pitstops to maneuver in entrance.
When the rain arrived, the vast majority of runners headed to the pits for wet-weather tyres. However the water quickly dispersed, and intermediates turned the rubber of selection. A subsequent sudden downpour resulted in Sebastien Buemi and Sebastian Vettel – each on wets – spinning out and situations declared too harmful to proceed. Button was declared the winner from the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld.
2021 Belgian Grand Prix
The shambolic 2021 Belgian GP by no means actually received going
Picture by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
The go to to Spa two years in the past is a black mark in F1 historical past, not essentially due to the torrentially moist situations, however due to its abandonment after simply two laps behind the protection automobile – ostensibly so as to fulfil obligations to ticket holders for some type of ‘race’ to have taken place.
That was a disgrace, as a result of Saturday’s moist qualifying had featured some intriguing and thrilling components, none extra so than George Russell beautiful everybody by wrestling his Williams-Mercedes onto the entrance row of the grid alongside the Crimson Bull-Honda of poleman Max Verstappen.
That, after all, is how they completed after 3m27.071s of ‘racing’ behind Bernd Maylander within the security automobile.