Another Brit in the Hall (of F1 fame)

Paul McCartney belting out the hits, Emma Radacanu belting back returns* , and the sights of cars belting up narrow hillside roads.

Great Britain has been busy this week with Glastonbury, Wimbledon, and the Goodwood Festival of Speed (you must read that last word in a Clarkson voice).  

Things don't let up as we head to Silverstone this weekend for one of my favorite races at a track with a corner named after me**

Watching all these events and looking ahead to the F1 race got me all sentimental about the little island I was born on.

So, please indulge me as I take you on a little drive down memory lane taking in the F1 sights as we go.  For a little island we've made some big contributions to F1 down the years.

In fact, it's fair to say we've made the biggest impact on the sport than any other nation.

Big claim?

Let's go with some Sap-Stats to take a look at the numbers behind the claim.

10 - The number of world driver champions down the years.  

Which for the trivia fans out there are Mike Hawthorn, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Jenson Button, and Lewis Hamilton.

Finland, Brazil, and Germany are all joint second on the list with three champions each.

20 - Total number of titles won by these guys.

Germany take second spot with 12 driver titles.

164 - Number of British drivers that have taken part in F1 races down the years.  

The USA come second on the list with 158.

307 - The total number of British driver race wins ahead of Germany in second who have 179.

519 - The total race wins by British constructors down the years.

Italy are second with 262 constructor wins.

OK, I think that's enough number analysis to clearly see it backs up the claim that Britain is indeed great in terms of it's contribution & success in the sport.

Let's get our flux capacitors out and do some time travelling to look at the historical relationship of F1 and team GB.

1950s

Saucer men were used as safety marshals

F1 held it's inaugural season in 1950 and can you guess where it was held?

Yup, Britain.  

In fact Silverstone to be precise.

On that day, Reg Parnell scored a podium and set off a streak of a British driver competing in every single Formula One World Championship season.

The mid 1950s saw the rise of a driver we have featured in one of our special Vale's Tales episodes and dubbed the greatest driver never to win the title; Stirling Moss.  

From 1955 to 1961 he finished runner up four times.

Towards the end of that period he was pipped to the title by Mike Hawthorn who became the first British champion.  

In fact that year saw Britain secure the top five drivers in the championship namely Hawthorn, Moss, Brooks, Salvadori, and Collins.

1960s

How the pit team denoted a two stop strategy

The swinging sixties kicked off with Graham Hill taking the title in 1962, Clark in '63, Surtees in '64, and Clark again in '65.

Graham Hill ('68) and Stewart ('69) closed out the decade to make it six British drivers titles overall.

It wasn't just the drivers bringing home the accolades either as constructors Cooper, BRM, Brabham, and Lotus kicked off a golden age of British F1 engineering.

1970s

Starting grid of the 1971 German GP

The 1970s arrived and Britain made a fast start.

Stewart ('71,'73), and Hunt ('76) made it three drivers titles in the seventies with Lotus grabbing a constructors title in 78 with Andretti at the wheel as well as McLaren taking their first title in 1974 (Fittipaldi) and adding a second with Hunt in '76.

Not one race was won by a VW camper van.

1980s

McLaren's simulator from the 80s

The eighties saw the competitive landscape change as Williams secured their first constructor title in 1980 and the retained it in 1981.  McLaren & Williams took turns in winning a pair of titles as McLaren took the '84 and '85 titles before Williams took '86 and '87, and then McLaren closed the decade out with '88 & '89 titles. 

However, the eighties was a decade that saw no British drivers crowned champion.  

It did however see many a child enjoy the cutting edge graphics that Final Lap on the Nintendo offered.  

1990s

Wind-tunnel software came on 280 of these

McLaren kicked off the nineties with back to back titles making it four in a row split between two guys called Senna (3) and Prost (1), neither of which were British.

Williams then decided enough was enough and brought both the McLaren run to an end and also filled the void in the entry of British driver champions.

Sporting a fabulous moustache, which rumor had it even Magnum PI was jealous of, Nigel Mansell took the 1992 title and Williams took the constructors title.

Williams then retained both titles in 1993 although their driver was Prost not Mansell. They also won the constructors in '94. 

The next constructors title is technically British as the Benetton team was registered in Britain for 1986 to 1995 after which they re-registered as Italian and became the second team ever to officially change nationality.

So, I'm claiming the constructor title of Benetton in '95, won mainly down the the skills of Schumacher, as British.

This is important as with Williams taking '96 & '97 followed by McLaren in '98 and '99 it meant that the nineties was a decade where the constructors titles were won solely by British teams!

That '96 season also saw Damon Hill follow in his father's footsteps and secure a drivers title for Williams & Britain.

2000s

Schumacher could fit all of Hasselhoff's albums on one device

The 2000s almost became another decade without British success, but this time on both fronts.

While people were lining up to buy this newly launched thing called an iPod, Ferrari and Schumacher took the F1 world by storm.  They owned the first half of the decade and were utterly dominant taking 5 straight titles.  

Alonso powered by Renault broke that run but it wasn't until 2008 that Britain put it's name back on a trophy. 

Adding his name to the list of champions for the first time was a young man called Lewis Hamilton.  Ferrari still took the constructors title so a British constructor title in the decade looked unlikely.

Then 2009 came along and with it came another story we dedicated an episode to on the podcast; The one season wonder that was Brawn GP!

Existing for one year only, these guys took both titles for Britain as their double diffuser design saw Jenson Button take the drivers title in a season that surely has to be made into a movie one day.

2010s

British F1 fans were angry until Lewis arrived

The decade started much like the previous decade with a German in a non-British car dominating.  

Rather than a red car with a Schumacher in it, this time it was a Red Bull with Vettel driving to secure four double titles all in a row.

The second half of the decade was owned by Lewis though as he secured five titles in six years driving for Mercedes.

While that was great on the driver side of things, this decade went by without any constructor titles as Mercedes and Red Bull dominated.  

While Red Bull has headquarters in Britain and many of the key resources are British, I cannot make a stretch and claim these guys as a British team.  

However, the genius of Adrian Newey runs deep through this team so there is a heavy British influence here (deploying the clutching at straws protocol)

2020s

An unfortunate icon of the decade so far

Lewis took the title in 2020 and Max in '21 but the calendars were hit by Covid as was everything else in the world.  Thankfully they managed to hold most races and we were not starved of F1 completely.

That title for Lewis means we are certain to have at least one British driver champion this decade.

Whether or not we are going to see a British Constructors title is up for debate.

There will need to be boat-loads (tech term) of improvement from McLaren in order to challenge and Williams, well, they are just going to need a bigger boat. 

That brings us up to date as we continue to charge through the 2022 schedule where early indications are that we may not even see a British driver standing on the top step of the podium this year.  

George is keeping the flag flying on the podium, but it feels right now that it would take multiple retirements ahead of him to see him on that top step.

Beyond Silverstone

Away from drivers and constructors one of the other aspects of the sport are the venues.

We all know Silverstone will host this weeks race, but there have been three other circuits to hold an F1 race.

Down the years there have been races at Aintree, Brands Hatch, and Donington Park.  

In addition there are a further 10 circuits that have held non-championship races back in the weird days of such events.

In Summary

As you can see, Britain is intimately entwined in not just the very DNA of F1 but also the F1 hall of fame. 

Not bad for such a little plot of land whose square footage would pretty much fit inside Colorado!

What next for Britain and F1?

Can George or Lando one day win a title and become another Brit in the hall***?

Can a British constructor pull themselves up to the front of the grid again?

Only time will tell and it will be fun finding out.

Until next time.

Rob 

*When I started writing this she hadn't lost. Regardless, she still belts the ball so I'm leaving her in the opening line. So there. Not sorry.

**This claim has never been formally acknowledged by Silverstone, however I would also add that it has never been denied either.  Most probably on the basis that no one has ever asked them. So please no one ask them so that I can maintain the Status Quo....ooh, another British thing ;-)

***Yes, third blog post, third song title seamlessly woven into the title.