Grand Prix Insider

31st of May – Gilles Villeneuve wins the 1981 Monaco GP sporting the number 27 that became somewhat emblematic for the legendary Canadian on his Ferrari 126CK-V6 Turbo. It was the 10th victory in the World Championship by a number 27 entry. 6 wins Gilles scored by himself. Who scored the other four, where and when?

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As usual the Indianapolis 500 was included in the World Championship but none of the Europeans went to The Brickyard in 1953. The entire event was dominated by one brilliant in Bill Vukovich, a man I would have loved to see in a Formula 1 Grand Prix car.

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30th of May - Who? When? Where? What? What happened then? And… why not? Any takers?

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Although the Mexican Grand Prix took place at the Circuito Hermanos Rodriguez, a totally different type of track than the previous race at the streets of Monaco, the McLaren-Honda domination would continue the same way.

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29th of May - Frenchman Johnny Servoz-Gavin died two years ago to the date and the brush with a fiery accident at the 1970 Spanish GP was enough to make him crack. He showed up for the next round at Monaco but, failing to qualify, he simply knew it was all over. He announced his retirement from sport right after and had the guts to admit to the world he was simply too afraid to continue. Today’s question is simple: Which drivers were involved in the crash at Jarama?

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28th of May – Today is Eppie Wietzes birthday and the Dutch-born Canadian wrote his own little piece of tragic F1 history. Driving the safety car at the Canadian GP at Mosport, after Jody Scheckter and Francois Cevert collided, taking his yellow Porsche 914 onto the track with FOCA representative Peter Macintosh beside him. As the initially wet track dried up, drivers pitted for slick tires. In no time everyone’s lap charts, in those days still made by hand, were a useless mess. As a result, Wietzes and Macintosh mistakenly picked Howden Ganley’s Iso-Marlboro as race leader, instead of Fittipaldi. The result was that race became a total mess as several drivers, including eventual winner Peter Revson, gained a lap on the field for free.

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27th of May – Today would be Piers Courage’s birthday, seen above with a bunch o colleagues. Can you tell who they are?

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Lorenzo Bandini’s fatal accident the previous year instigated a number of changes to the circuit, the chicanes were relocated and the race was shortened by 20 laps to just 80. The Scuderia Ferrari withdrew nonetheless from the race, it was widely believed that the Italian’s did not agree with the safety measures in place. So the clear favorite was Jarama-winner Graham Hill.

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As the new season unfolded there were several changes in the team line-ups with John Surtees now with Ferrari, Gurney driving for Brabham and Phil Hill joining the tiny ATS team of former Ferrari designer Carlo Chiti. But high favorites remained Graham Hill and Jim Clark.

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