Matt Bishop 🏳️‍🌈 🏁

Yup.

#OnThisDay in 2003, in Melbourne, David Coulthard won an #F1 GP for the 13th & last time. Pic: his winning McLaren MP4-17D was a very pretty car, wasn’t it (grooved tyres notwithstanding)? #AusGP

#OnThisDay in ’97 David Coulthard won the #AusGP - McLaren’s first #F1 GP win since Ayrton Senna had won the #AusGP 4 years before, a dry spell of 1219 days - #AnorakFact. Great Kodachrome pic taken by Paul-Henri Cahier.

Pablo Birger died in a road car crash on Ruta Nacional 7 between Luján & General Rodríguez, near his native Buenos Aires, #OnThisDay 60 years ago, aged 42. He started 2 GPs, in Argentina, in Gordinis, in ’53 (pic) & ’55. He’s buried at Cementerio San José de Flores, Buenos Aires.

Maldonado’s win wasn’t the end of the drama, for a fire then broke out in the Williams garage. No-one was killed - thank god - but 16 suffered burns &/or smoke inhalation. Maldonado himself lifted his 12-year-old cousin out of the flames, since his right leg was in a cast. (2/2)

#HappyBirthday Pastor Maldonado, 41. He started 95 #F1 GPs, shunted enough to earn a reputation for it, but famously won for Williams in Barcelona in 2012. #AnorakFact: his shock #SpanishGP victory remains the only F1 GP win by a Venezuelan driver. (1/2)

#HappyBirthday Teo Fabi, 71. He drove 64 #F1 GPs, bagging 2 podiums, but he never won in F1 nor even led an F1 lap despite 3 F1 poles. He was successful in #F2 & #IndyCar. Pic: Monaco, ’86, battling the mighty Benetton-BMW B186, which pumped out around 1400bhp in qualifying trim.

#HappyBirthday Danny Sullivan, 76. He started 15 #F1 GPs for Tyrrell in ’83 - but he was an #IndyCar  ace & he’s best known for his brilliant ’85 #Indy500 ‘spin & win’. Pic: 2nd for Tyrrell in the ’83 #RaceOfChampions at Brands Hatch, the last non-championship F1 race.

Brian Redman started 12 #F1 GPs, bagging one podium (Jarama, ’68; Cooper-BRM), & was hugely successful in sports cars, scoring more outright wins than I can list in 280 characters (hence the table below). He was also #F5000 champion 3 years running. The word is ‘complete’. (2/2)

#HappyBirthday Brian Redman, 89, a truly magnificent sports car driver. Warwick Brown once said: “The best I ever raced was Brian Redman. As capable as Mario Andretti & a better thinker. A British gent. Butter wouldn’t melt. But put him in a race car & he was an animal.” (1/2)

“Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”

This is the UN theme for International Women’s Day 2026 and it couldn’t resonate more loudly with our LGBTQ+ community.

#iwd2026 #internationalwomensday #allwomenarerealwomen #lgbtq #racingpride

#OnThisDay in ’98 McLaren totally dominated the #AusGP - but the manner of the lead change from David Coulthard to Mika Häkkinen became an #F1 media feeding frenzy. Great pic taken by the much missed Martyn ‘Elfie’ Elford, son of the equally much missed ‘Quick Vic’.

Paying tribute to motor sport’s pioneering female drivers Podcast Episode · And Colossally That's History! · 15 May 2024 · 1h 13m

Since today is #InternationalWomensDay, I thought I’d share the #AndColossallyThatsHistory podcast that Richard Williams & I recorded last year on the fascinating subject of the history of female racing drivers. It’s quite a tale. Click below to listen.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

This post - & this column - aged rather well! Congrats George Russell! #AusGP #F1

Despite a complex knee operation that had left 41-year-old Graham Hill (Lotus; pic) with impaired mobility, he finished 6th - a drive that he rated as among his very best. After the race he couldn’t get out of the car by himself & had to be lifted out. (2/2)

#OnThisDay in ’70 the #SouthAfricanGP was all about 2 men in their 40s. Jack Brabham (Brabham; pic), a month shy of his 44th birthday, scored his 14th & final #F1 GP victory, while 41-year-old Graham Hill returned to F1 after a huge shunt at Watkins Glen the previous year. (1/2)

Matt Bishop: 'I'm backing Russell to beat Verstappen in bitter 2026 F1 title duel' Pre-season testing suggests the 2026 Formula 1 title race could come down to a duel between Max Verstappen and George Russell. Our F1 columnist is buckling up for a fiery contest from which he sees th...

If you’d like to read my whole #MotorSport column, click below. (2/2)
www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/sin...

In today’s #AusGP quali, Merc achieved that much coveted #F1 prize: a front-row lockout. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a #MotorSport column predicting exactly that (see attached screen-grab). Let’s see whether George Russell & Kimi Antonelli can complete the job tomorrow. (1/2)

Actually loved that Ligier-Matra JS5.

#OnThisDay in 2005 Giancarlo Fisichella drove a superb race from pole position to win the #AusGP for Renault. Team-mate Fernando Alonso was 3rd. Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello (2nd) split the 2 Renault men. All 3 had led the race at one point.

#OnThisDay 50 years ago, at Kyalami, Niki Lauda (Ferrari) completed a hat-trick of #F1 GP victories, having previously won at Interlagos in January & at Watkins Glen in October ’75. The high-airbox 312T is a thing of great beauty IMHO. #DabOfOppo

Mario Andretti won 12 GPs in his #F1 career, 11 of them for Lotus in a 22-month golden spell between Fuji ’76 & Zandvoort ’78. But he scored his first GP win at Kyalami #OnThisDay in ’71, a year in which he entered 6 GPs for Ferrari. Pic: Mario’s 312B that baking Transvaal day.

Remembering Jimmy Stewart, Jackie’s big bro, born #OnThisDay in ’31. The elder of the racing Stewarts by 8 years, Jimmy didn’t have JYS’s talent & he drove only one GP, Silverstone ’53, in this Ecurie Ecosse Cooper-Bristol T20; he spun off after 79 laps of a 90-lap race.

Remembering Piero Carini, born #OnThisDay in 1921. He drove 3 GPs in ’52 & ’53 but tragically crashed in the ’57 #Fôrez6Hours, a sports car race at Terrenoire (St-Étienne), killing himself & fellow racer António de Borges Barreto. Pic: Carini in his Ferrari 553, Monza, ’53.

Remembering Oswald Karch, born #OnThisDay in 1917. He entered one GP, the ’53 #GermanGP (pic), started by 34 drivers (the most in any championship GP - #AnorakFact). Karch qualified 34th in a Meteor-Veritas but retired on lap 11 with engine failure. He died in 2009, aged 91.

Remembering René Dreyfus, born #OnThisDay in 1905. Pic: Rudi Caracciola (Merc W154) outdrags pole man Dreyfus (Delahaye 145) at the start of the ’38 #PauGP, which Dreyfus won. #AnorakFact: after WW2 Dreyfus became a US citizen & a restaurateur, opening 2 restaurants in New York.

A monumental moment 🇦🇺🏎️

This Sunday, 366 days after its 2026 entry was confirmed, Diagonal client the Cadillac Formula 1 Team will make its Formula 1 debut at the Australian Grand Prix 🤩

Wishing the whole team the best of luck, as it completes its journey from 'launch to lights out'!

📸 Cadillac F1

The ’77 #SouthAfricanGP will be remembered not for Niki Lauda’s fine win but for the awful deaths of 27-year-old Shadow ace Tom Pryce (pic) & 19-year-old marshal Frederik Jansen van Vuuren, who crossed the track in front of Pryce, who tragically couldn’t avoid him. (2/2)

#OnThisDay in ’77 Niki Lauda won the #SouthAfricanGP - his first #F1 GP win since his death-defying accident at Nürburgring & subsequent miracle recovery the year before. The car he drove to victory - the Ferrari 312T2 - is a proper beauty, isn’t it? (1/2)

Remembering Graham McRae, born #OnThisDay in ’40, a clever driver-engineer who raced one #F1 GP, Silverstone ’73 (Iso-Marlboro: lap-1 DNF), & excelled in #TasmanSeries & #F5000. Pic: at Riverside, USA, in ’74, in his own McRae GM2 F5000 car.