When made his debut in March 2007, he said his one regret was that he had never got to race against Michael Schumacher.
The world champion, though, will not be the only one licking his lips at the prospect of the most successful man in F1 history making a comeback as a temporary replacement for the . Suddenly the prospect of the unloved looks a whole lot more appealing.
For , it was a no-brainer to ask Schumacher to come out of retirement as a stand-in for Massa, who suffered a fractured skull when he was during qualifying for last weekend's Hungarian race.
At a time when F1 grids are incredibly closely matched and Ferrari do not have a particularly competitive car, their test drivers and offered the same underwhelming prospect - a midfield grid position and anonymous race to, perhaps, a point or two.
Set that against the idea of thrilling F1 fans the world over, and garnering acres of coverage, by putting a seven-time world champion in the car and sitting back to see how a legend, at the age of 40, stacks up against the new generation.
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This one really meant something. was the 10th of his Formula 1 career, but it has to be right up there as one of the sweetest.
Not even halfway through the , Hamilton was wagging his finger in the air as if to say, "I'm the number one."
His delight is rooted in the fact that it has become such an unfamiliar feeling for him this season, after the .
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Formula 1's governing body put out a news release on Friday afternoon confirming my report from Thursday that the sport is on the brink of a peace deal to end this season's political rows.
says that a new Concorde Agreement - the document that binds the teams, governing body the FIA and the commercial rights holders to F1 and defines their relationship - has been agreed and sent for approval to the FIA world council, its legislative body.
It adds that the should be ready to be signed by the end of next week - as long as a "satisfactory cost-reduction agreement is in place".
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Formula 1 is agonisingly close to an agreement that will end - and insiders expect a deal to be signed as soon as the end of this week.
The F1 teams are in the final stages of negotiations on the various documents that need to be finalised to usher in a new era of peace, securing all the interested parties to the sport until the end of 2012 under a new legal and financial agreement.
Sources say they expect a new version of the - the document that binds the teams, governing body the FIA and the sport's commercial rights holders together and defines the relationship between them - to be signed by the end of this weekend here at the .
Only small details remain to be resolved, and these are mainly in one specific area, albeit one that has been at the centre of the once-bitter rows this season.
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For the Hungarian edition of our classic grands prix series we have chosen 's brilliant victory in 1989 as the winning race.
In responses to this blog, the Englishman's famous win was by far the most popular request, with 's heartbreaking last-lap loss of the race in 1997 and 's maiden victory in 2006 some way behind.
All three would have been worthy choices for extended highlights, but Mansell's brilliant drive to take his second victory for feels like the right choice, in that it satisfies both the and the .
You can watch the full 'Grand Prix' highlights programme from the time here:
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The does not exactly have a reputation as the most thrilling of Formula 1 events but our trawl through the archive for our classic races series has thrown up some crackers.
Nestled in a natural amphitheatre, the Hungaroring's twisty nature makes overtaking tricky - once described it as "a street circuit without the houses" - so it has become notorious for processional races.
There have certainly been a few of those - where else except perhaps would 's have been able to hold off 's for virtually the entire race, as the did on his way to victory in , for example?
It is also fair to say that while the F1 community, in general, looks forward to going to Hungary, that is more to do with the charms of wonderful , where everyone stays for the weekend, than it is those of the dusty race track.
Yet the has also produced some grands prix that will be remembered as long as cars race.
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A driver's first grand prix win is always an uplifting moment but, as the dust settled following Mark Webber's at the German Grand Prix, there were further reasons to be delighted about events at the .
The Australian grinned broadly as he proudly displayed his national flag while he indulged in the traditional celebrations with his team in the paddock but even those who may have been smarting over - though they eventually scraped a draw - would surely not begrudge him this long-awaited victory.
Webber is one of the most popular drivers in F1 and he has certainly paid his dues to get to where he is.
There are other drivers who don't like his outspokenness or feel some of his Aussie aggression sometimes goes a little bit too far but they, too, would say he fully deserves his place among Formula 1's winners.
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The paddock at the is a low-key place this weekend, but behind the scenes there have been ground-shaking developments that could change the face of Formula 1.
It appears that Max Mosley's latest manoeuvrings in the political battle in the sport have backfired.
The motives behind the FIA president's actions in the last fortnight are not entirely clear but their consequences are coming into focus.
To recap briefly, on 24 June it appeared that Mosley, F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo had come to a deal that ended the threat of Ferrari and seven other leading teams setting up a rival championship.
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Fernando Alonso spoke for many on Thursday when he was asked to sum up his reaction to the latest twist in the seemingly endless political row that is still in danger of splitting Formula 1 down the middle.
"We have spent too much time talking about this," Renault's double world champion said, "and it doesn't help Formula 1.
"Hopefully, we can talk about the sport instead."
There's not much chance of that at the Nurburgring this weekend, Fernando.
The paddock here can quite often be a dull place, but that is certainly not the case as the F1 circus descends on this corner of Germany's Eifel mountains for the latest chapter in what is proving to be a tumultuous season.
The ongoing dispute between eight of the biggest F1 teams and Max Mosley, which has taken following a meeting on Wednesday, was certainly at the top of the agenda. But Alonso himself also featured heavily - most specifically where he might be driving next year.
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The winning choices for the German edition of our classic grand prix series have just about everything you could hope for in a Formula 1 race.
The five selected races - 1961, 1982, 1991, 2000 and 2008 - might have been controversial among some of the readers of this blog, but there is no doubt that between them they provided a colourful picture of the richness of the thrills on offer in this sport. Which is kind of the idea.
The most popular choice among respondents to this blog was 's maiden F1 victory in - a verdict with which I wholeheartedly agree.
But the 1982 race, which has become famous for the physical assault launched by world champion on backmarker , was also very popular. So we have decided to make the full "Grand Prix" highlights programme from that race available as well.
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The German Grand Prix is at the this year for the first time since 1985 but it is the that features in four of the five choices for the latest edition of our classic races series.
Hockenheim has hosted all the German Grands Prix but one since it took over from the Nurburgring following 's in 1976.
This year, though, is supposed to be the first in an arrangement whereby the two tracks alternate as hosts, although whether that actually happens is up in the air because of the doubts surrounding the .
If Hockenheim does drop off the calendar, its absence will be largely unlamented. In its new format, it is a flat and largely featureless autodrome near in the with a reputation for dreary races - one of the drivers told me recently that the place should be "levelled with a " - but there have been some great races there, and we have chosen those in 1982, 1991, 2000 and 2008.
Our one choice from the Nurburgring dates back to 1961, when , then racing a Lotus, put in one of his greatest drives to beat the faster of the eventual world champion and .
Now, before all those of you who are F1 experts say it, yes, I know there are a number of classic German Grands Prix at the Nurburgring not on that list.
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