THE PADDOCK BREAKDOWN — BARRY / GARY / KAT

ALL THE
TAKES
THAT SURVIVED.

Race breakdowns, arguments, technical notes, and verdicts — the ones that held up after everyone had a chance to argue back.

LATEST — R9

Britain

Leclerc won from P2 for Ferrari. Antonelli started on pole and finished fifteenth.

Drivers’ lead

Antonelli

179 points, five wins. Still leads despite a pointless Silverstone.

Season stat

25 pts

Antonelli’s lead over Russell — down from 40 after Silverstone.

Constructors

Mercedes

333 points, a 78-point lead over Ferrari with thirteen rounds still to run.

THE CLASSICS — PADDOCK BREAKDOWNS

Famous races, three opinions

2021 — Abu Dhabi

One Lap

Hamilton win probability: 99.1%. Then a safety car. Then a radio call. Then one lap on soft tyres.

championship decider controversy safety car

2019 — Hockenheim

Chaos at Hockenheim

Vettel was leading. It started raining. Forty-seven seconds later Verstappen was winning. Kubica scored a point.

rain chaos Ferrari

2010 — Abu Dhabi

Alonso’s Prison

The fastest driver on the circuit. Stuck behind Vitaly Petrov for thirty laps. Championship gone.

dirty air championship decider Alonso

2008 — Interlagos

The Last Corner

Hamilton needed one more position. Glock was on dry tyres. It was raining. Turn 12. Done.

wet race final lap Hamilton

2005 — Suzuka

Kimi’s Charge

He started from the pit lane. Said nothing about it. Won. This is who Kimi R�ikk�nen was.

pit lane start charge R�ikk�nen

1996 — Monaco

Panis and the Ruins

Schumacher, Hill, Coulthard, Alesi � all gone. Three cars finished. One was a blue Ligier.

chaos Ligier shock result

1993 — Donington

The Lap

Started fourth. One lap later, first. Four overtakes in the rain. There is nothing else to say.

Senna wet race opening lap

1992 — Budapest

The Pass

Mansell had the most dominant car ever built. Senna passed him anyway on the pit straight.

Senna Mansell overtaking

1986 — Adelaide

Mansell’s Tyre

He needed fifth. Not a win � fifth. And then the rear left disappeared at 290kph.

tyre failure championship decider turbo era

1984 — Monaco

The Race They Stopped

Senna was closing at three seconds a lap. The race director had seen enough. Lap 31 of 76.

Senna red flag controversy

1994 — Imola

The Weekend Everything Changed

Barrichello survived Friday. Ratzenberger didn’t survive Saturday. Senna didn’t survive Sunday.

Senna safety turning point

1976 — Fuji

The Race Lauda Refused To Die For

Six weeks after his own car nearly killed him, Lauda pulled into the pits and let the title go.

Lauda Hunt rain

2021 — Spa

The Race That Wasn’t One

Two laps behind the safety car in the rain. Half points awarded. Zero actual racing.

farce governance rain

1957 — Nürburgring

Five Titles, Four Teams, One Impossible Lap

He gave away a minute deliberately, then broke the lap record nine times to take it back.

Fangio legend greatest ever

1968 — Hockenheim

The One Everyone Says Was The Best

Two titles, an Indy 500 win, and a death in a minor Formula 2 race nobody expected to matter.

Jim Clark Lotus legend

1988 — Suzuka

The One The Rain Belonged To

Stalled on the grid. Dropped to fourteenth. Won the race and the title on the same afternoon.

Senna Prost rivalry legend

2011 — Interlagos

The Record Nobody Throws A Parade For

326 starts. Eleven wins. Two runner-up titles, both behind his own teammate. No trophy for that.

Barrichello longevity record

2005 — São Paulo

Still Here, Which Was Never Supposed To Happen

Youngest champion ever at 24. Two decades, a retirement, two Le Mans wins, and he’s still on the grid.

Alonso longevity legend

2018 — COTA

Finally

One word on the radio after a win nobody saw coming, from a driver who never once explained himself.

Räikkönen Iceman longevity

2008 — Singapore

The Crash That Won A Race On Purpose

A deliberate crash, a convenient safety car, a win. The truth took a year and a sacked driver to surface.

Crashgate Renault scandal

1978 — Anderstorp

The Car That Won Once And Was Never Seen Again

A giant fan, officially for cooling, that sucked the car onto the road. Won by half a minute. Withdrawn days later.

Brabham fan car banned tech

2022 — FIA Announcement

The Fine That Didn’t Feel Like One

A cost cap breached in a title-winning season. The penalty was a fine and a testing cut. Was it enough?

Red Bull cost cap governance

1994 — Hockenheim

The Title Year With Too Many Investigations

A software probe, a pit-lane fire, a black-flag disqualification, and a title-deciding wall.

Schumacher Benetton controversy

1993 — Adelaide

The Cars So Good They Got Banned Outright

A computer kept the car flat through every corner. It worked so well the whole category got banned.

Williams active suspension banned tech

2006 — Mid-Season

Legal In May, Banned By August

The FIA cleared it, raced it, then reversed itself mid-title-fight without changing a word of the rulebook.

Renault mass damper banned tech

2007 — FIA Hearing

Seven Hundred and Eighty Pages In A Photocopy Shop

Ferrari’s technical secrets, a $100m fine, and a team disqualified from its own championship.

Spygate McLaren scandal

BY CHARACTER

Choose your flavour of being too invested

Barry

History, racecraft, suspicion

Start here when the modern race has accidentally recreated something from 1998 and Barry is pretending not to enjoy it.

Gary

Models, deltas, regret

The place for probability swings, fantasy damage, and the emotional consequences of trusting a spreadsheet with feelings.

Illustration of Kat, the technical F1 journalist

Kat

Technical truth, calmly delivered

Aero, tyres, deployment maps, pit wall signals, and the details that explain why the result happened before the result happened.

ALL THETAKESTHAT SURVIVED.