European GP facts and figures

    Actually, the title of European GP was used on several occasions before the creation of the world championship in 1950. The first race to be given the title was a grand prix at Monza in 1923. Three years later the race was held at the San Sebastian track in Spain. Incredibly, one driver was taken so ill in the extremely hot conditions, that he went to hospital and came back to finish the race! Two other drivers required a break in the middle of the race and all three men were disqualified.

    The ‘Ring is the nearest thing the European GP has to a permanent home. In 1954, Fangio won for Mercedes-Benz. In ‘61, Stirling Moss put on one of his best performances in a Lotus to defeat the might of Ferrari and the 1968 race will always be remembered for Jackie Stewart's total mastery of the treacherous conditions, winning by over four minutes in torrential rain. These races were held on the old 22.5 kilometre Nordschleife, while the circuit we know today played host to its inaugural European GP in 1984, won by Alain Prost. There have been five more F1 races held here since then, but just to mess up the record books still further, for a couple of years it was known as the Luxembourg GP!

    Perhaps the most memorable European GP of recent times was the 1993 edition, run at Donington Park. Typical of an Easter weekend in England, the weather went through every season in the space of an hour, although the main feature was heavy rain. Ayrton Senna had started from fourth on the grid in a less than competitive McLaren-Ford. He dropped one place at the start, but in the course of the most mind-blowing opening lap in the history of the sport, he passed Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger, Damon Hill and finally Alain Prost in the Williams to take the lead. As the heavens opened and shut more often than a Mexican brothel door on Ladies Night, Ayrton made do with a mere five pit stops to beat Hill and Prost, who changed tyres thirteen times between the two of them! Needless to say, there have been no calls for the event to return to Donington, much to the relief of the over-worked pit crews.

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Formula One Grand Prix - Race Report
(c) 1earth Media 2001

Formula 1: 1999 World Championship Yearbook
by Roberto Boccafogli, Bryn Williams
Hardcover (1999)

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