大象传媒

Thank you Paul - great choices. Lets hope the the Beeb will show it on the red button this time.

Excellent choices. I hope though that those who criticise Hamilton's "aggressive" style of racing, calling it dangerous look closely at Villeneuve.
The blog states:- "It was one of the iconic Villeneuve's landmark performances, a man of sublime talent transcending the limitations of his machinery and taking on faster cars."
Whilst genius the man was dangerous. His sadly early death wasn't totally unforseeable given his "aggressive" style. Hamilton (and I am by no means a fan of his) has a long, long, way to go to reach these levels. Hopefully for his and others sakes I hope he stays sufficiently aggressive to entertain but not damage. (He probably does too!)

Di Resta's choices are like a breath of fresh air.. A bit of everything, which was what I was hoping this series would turn out to be. Well done Paul!
Let's hope the rest of the drivers follow his lead.

Di Resta's choices are like a breath of freash air...A bit of everything which is how I hoped this series would turn out to be. Well done Paul. Let's hope the rest of the drivers featured on this blog follow his lead!!!

@ 3+4 Looks like I just agreed with myself.
Well done me! LOL

Great picks! Best choices by a driver so far.

Not surprising a novice picks better races.
Older racers tend to have a bit more of an ego and focus on their own era.
These are good choices.

Both links for the Canada 2010 race take you to extended highlights.

Great choices but the link to the 1993 race goes to the 1979 French GP video

I think 大象传媒 may have had a word with Di Resta to choose something different, either way with astitute picks and a cool driving style hopefully one day Di Resta will one day be able to pick one of his own victories in this "Classic GP Blogs."

As a Ferrari fan i still believe Glock gave Hamilton the Title in Interlagos, had it been the other way round there would have been an out cry by the British Media.

Prediction for Canada: 1st Hamilton 2nd Alonso 3rd Vettel .

Great choices from Di Resta. Nice to see an appreciation for some of the sports legends . Im not particularly into motorcycling in but anybody who dosent appreciate how brave and skilled the likes of Stewart and Villeneuve where should watch a bit of the Isle of Man TT racing being televised at the moment -very similar levels of controlled lunacy. The thought of 500 bhp behind your ears in an ill handling car and only a bit of tubing and riveted aluminium between you and the armco. My view is that supreme skill and single minded bravery has been replaced by supreme skill and lots of cash. Youll probably guess Im 50.

"As a Ferrari fan i still believe Glock gave Hamilton the Title in Interlagos"

As an F1 fan I know he didn't.

Both Toyotas (Glock AND Trulli) had dry tyres on and were BOTH lapping several seconds slower than the rest of the cars, as it was raining heavily. Glock AND Trulli had two options - come in for wets (Hamilton would have got past while Glock pitted), or stay out and run several seconds a lap slower, meaning anyone on wet tyres would get past the Toyotas easily, as Hamilton did.

No conspiracy at all, simply that in heavy rain cars fitted with wet-weather tyres were much faster than cars in dry-weather tyres.

Some great races there, fantastic stuff.

Is it possible to complain about a comment if you consider the opinion advocated to be utter baloney?

The circuit they raced on during the French GP looks amazing - lots of undulation and fast corners. It'd be good to see the Red Bulls on there.

No 14. The circuit was the Prenois circuit near Dijon in Burgundy. Renowned for attacking driving and plenty of overtaking. It's still in use for classic grand prix racing and in the French National racing series

Wow, races from the 60s and 70s...what a novelty. I'm a bit disappointed that Brazil 2008 is back again, though - it's not that long ago since we last saw it. Other than that, fine choices.

nice choice. Good to see a current driver with a sense of history for the sport. doesn't matter how many times I see it but that first lap at donington always blows me away!

For those interested, there's a brief clip of the '68 GP here:



Only a short clip but shows the weather conditions - some people wouldn't drive their road car in those conditions, nevermind an F1 car round the 'ring! Astounding stuff.

Great to see such an old race, but surely this is not a case of the 'good old days' when the racing was much better. Aside from the brilliant end of race battle, this race was pretty dull! And probably the wheel banging on the last lap would require a summons to the stewards!

Such a shame there's no 大象传媒 footage for 1968 but watching Villeneuve is always amazing, I'm only 22 but Gilles has always been a favourite of mine and personally I feel he's the most exciting driver I've ever seen. Hard racing at it's best. Great choices from Di Resta, I think this should help me pass a few hours today.

Some good choices in there.... But it is a great shame footage of the '68 race doesn't exist in the archives. Makes you wonder how Di Resta can formulate an opinion without (like the rest of us) being able to see the race!

Much better selection this time, although 1993 and 2008 are ones I thought had been done before, but maybe I'm thinking of the previous form of classic F1.

Such a shame the 大象传媒 don't have highlights of 1968, although the weather seems so bad you wouldn't have seen much anyway. Also, due to the length of the Nurburgring much of the racing was filmed from helicopters, which obviously wouldn't have been flying that day.

To the poster of comment 10 - Good grief, I cannot believe there are still nutjobs out there that still believe Glock deliberately handed the title to Hamilton. That is truly pathetic! As has already been pointed out Glock was on dry tyres on a track that needed wets to drive at a respectable speed. Everyone else around him had stopped for wets, and so he was a sitting duck.

If Glock had stopped to get wet tyres like everyone else, Massa would not have come so close to winning the title, as Hamilton would have been in the top 5 without having to get past anyone. It should also be noted that Glock was lapping faster than Trulli who was also on dry tyres.

Fingers crossed that the Canadian GP tv director lets us see the pole-setting lap.

Having missed out for several years in succession - too busy showing JV, etc. - I was truly staggered when, with the introduction of single-lap qualifying (only ONE car trying to set a fast lap), the Canadian coverage still managed to miss almost all of the eventual pole lap (too busy watching that driver's teammate coming into the pits on his 'slowing-down' lap).

Better in recent years, but the coverage still seems to be a 'surprise' - almost as if the tv broadcasters are learning on the job, as the weekend progresses.

Everyone else enjoys the Canadian GP, what about the Qu茅becois?

Great choices Paul. Hope to see some featuring you in years too come - very talented and personable young driver.

Although almost over-done, I must admit I never get tired of watching that Villeneuve/Arnoux battle.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Great choices from Paul

I suspected the Beeb wouldn't have a highlights package of the 68 race, but glad Paul picked it all the same. It shows he has an appreciation of the sport.

Massive disappiontment that the full 79 race (surely never to be shown again) won't be on Freeview. Therefore i can't record it to watch again on a rainy afternoon in a few decades time when i'm an old man, and it'll be put back in the 大象传媒 archive for another 100 years, (see final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark)

Fair point about Queens Tennis and realise us F1 fans shouldn't have a Monopoly, but come on Andrew, give a polite knock on the Red Button Controllers door and point out Queens Tennis won't have any Live coverage from 10pm to 9am at least, and if its repeats, surely he/she can find 2 hours out of 11 hours to put this Classic Race on for at least 2 hours on one of the nights this week? (In 3 years of Classic GP, i seem to remember you've had a decision reversed once, so come on, Lets hope the Red Button Controller is the Jean Todt type and backtracks)

Incidentally, talking of the 大象传媒 archive, great on the Monaco coverage to find that onboard lap with Graham Hill (from 1970?) at the Beginning of the Race Day coverage. Where did you guys drag that from? Might be worth looking through the rest of that tape. Great stuff - Many Thanks.

I absolutely love this feature, just wish the 大象传媒 would broadcast it on freeview TV. (I know its not your fault Andrew).

Thanks for the continued great work.

zzzzzz boring decisions , these are everybodys favorites. these have been replayed hundreds of time. looking forward to a driver with a personality so we can see some different stuff. could be a wait.

Firstly, Great choices from Paul though such a shame that there is no archive footage of Germany 1968.

Secondly, to continue a debate from the Rubens Barrichello choices and the decision to edit out the Peterson crash from the Monza 1978 highlights.
Bloggers (including myself) referred to 大象传媒4 post-watershead programs which have shown such (and much worse) accidents. Your reply was as follows:

鈥淭he comparison with the 大象传媒4 documentary about the 1960s and 鈥�70s is invalid 鈥� that was a documentary, broadcast after the watershed, about fatalities in grand prix racing. Anyone turning it on would have had no doubt what to expect鈥�

/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/05/rubens_barrichello_-_classic_f.html

However, on Sunday evening 大象传媒2 8pm to 9pm (BEFORE the watershead) there was a great program called 鈥楳urray Walker: Life in the Fast Lane鈥�. This program had no problem in showing the fatal crash of Ayrton Senna and the aftermath of the accident, in a prime time show about the Great Murray Walker (not about F1 accidents). I am not expecting you to respond to this comparison, though it would be interesting to hear how you consider it tallies with your previous post.

No 1968? Will 67' do?.. :) (sorry if i'm jumping the gun but i doubt a drivers gonna choose this - not too well remembered despite a decent race), and yeh great to have Dijon 79' in full highlights despite no freeview...

@Ninja Hedgehog, that part of Andrew's response was an answer to my own challenge of the program "GP racing: The Killer Years" being shown on the 大象传媒 and why Petterson's accident was removed but the program, which was extremely graphic with footage of Bandini burning alive, Roger Williamson dying trapped in his burning car, could be viewed on the iplayer at any time of day. I watched it not at the time of broadcast but at around 2pm. I'm not looking to argue nor a further response as he displayed his reasons for it's removal at the time and gave his view which I accept. I think that blog was simply emotionally charged as a few of us as we felt it was wrong to remove it given the event's impact on the sport.

A nice choice there Paul, Brazil 2008 is getting boring now Sorry.

In the news it say that the championship isn't over yet. I have done some sums and if Vettel wins 3 more races it is over. Even now Hamilton will only be able to overtake him if he podiums (ideally 1st or 2nd) all the remaining races and Vettel suffers some kind of mental breakdown that leaves him at the back of the grid.

#32 not so sure, McLaren looks like it might be the quickest car now and so Vettel winning another 3 races might not be too easy. He's also due some bad luck I reckon, a DNF or two would dent his lead.

Regards the choices, excellent stuff!

@28. Very good point. I watched that documentary and yes it did show senna's fatal crash. I suppose the difference being is you didn't see senna being stretchered away in the documentary. However, by this reasoning they could have shown the crash in question in classic f1, but cut the scenes where he is being stretchered to his ambulance? Anyway! Good choices! Brazil is a bit overdone now though; however I do like it when vettel passes Hamilton in his torro rosso! I honestly thought the climax to the 2010 season was just as exciting though. Alonso vs. Petrov was great.
All in all good stuff.
Canada predictions- Vettel, Hamilton, Button.
It does look wishful but you have to be mad these days to bet against vettel!
All in all good stuff.
Canada predictions- Vettel, Hamilton, Button.
It does look wishful but you have to be mad these days to bet against vettel!

The Villeneuve/Arnoux duel is a classic, shame it was way before my time.

The 2010 race was highly entertaining too. My favourite bit is Vettel's radio messages where he presumes he's on for the win then realises he will have to overtake. For me that sums him upas a driver

Very good choices, it's great to see a driver choosing some older races. I have always wanted to see longer highlights of the 1979 French race ever since seeing brief clips on a video Murray Walker presented in the 90s.

Your comment Andrew that "it has never been shown since that day 32 years ago" sums up neatly what I like this feature to do - show things that very few of us will have already seen, I doubt even the few people who had VCRs at the time would still have a viewable copy today.

To the comments suggesting di Resta's choices were "prompted" by the 大象传媒, if this was the case I sincerely hope they would have done it sooner...

32 - sorry to say, but your sums are completely wrong - vettel can't win the championship with just 3 wins - he is currently 58 points ahead, and the points differential between a 1st and 2 2nd is 7. So, if Vettel were to win 3 races like you are saying, and hamilton gets 2nd in all 3, then he wins 21 points on hamilton, stretching his lead to 79. Considering there are 13 races left, Hamilton would only need vettel to crash out 3 times, and him to win all 3, for the gap to be down to 4 points with 7 races left!

GUTTED that Germany '68 couldn't have been shown, would have been great to catch decent-length highlights from a race in the Jackie Stewart era!

Anyway...

France '79: Interesting to see that Piquet had a lot of credibility in that year given that stats wise he came out of nowhere the following year. Ickx must have been getting on a bit though!

As for the race itself, Jabouille's win was pretty smooth and that was one hell of a rumble between Villeneuve and Arnoux!

Reminds me of playing 'Turbo' on my Colecovision......

It would be a good idea if the great and powerful in F1 were to visit La Sarthe, see some real motor racing.