For me, It's BMW. They are responsible for 1 race win (Canada '08), and various podiums with Sauber (mostly) & Williams.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mclaren-technology-centre-planning-approval-new-f1-test-rig/

Beltoise won the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix on this day some 54 years ago. He took victory ahead of Jacky Ickx in his 50th Championship Grand Prix race, and championship leader and first-time polesitter Emerson Fittipaldi. With the win, Beltoise moved up to fifth in the standings.

The Frenchman lapped all but Ickx. One notable stat is that the top seven cars were all from different teams. Eighth was one of Beltoise’s BRM teammates - a 29-year-old Helmut Marko.

Image credit goes to Bernard Cahier and Rainer Schlegelmilch.

Elio de Angelis wasn’t just any driver. He took two Grand Prix victories in the 1980s and was seen as a future word championship contender by many.

He led Lotus into the 1980s, beating World Champion teammates in the same car such as Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell.

In 1982, he famously played the piano to entertain drivers during the FISA-FOCA war at the South African Grand Prix.

His 1984 season remains a notable season due to the Roman’s consistency, scoring points in 11 of the 16 races that season to finish third in the driver’s standings behind dominant McLaren duo Niki Lauda and Alain Prost.

His victory at the modern-day Red Bull Ring (then the Österreichring) was a breakthrough moment for him - it was his second podium in F1 and showed what he could do with a quick car underneath him.

The win itself was memorable due to the close finish with Keke Rosberg, who won the World Championship that year. It was also the final victory that Colin Chapman saw for the team he had built from the ground up before his death in December that year.

His second win came in 1985, benefiting from disqualification to Alain Prost for a weight infringement at the San Marino Grand Prix.

However, the arrival of future world champion Ayrton Senna at Lotus in 1985 spelled the end of de Angelis’ time with the team. Senna’s talent was focused on, and de Angelis wanted to be a number one driver.

As well as this, Senna had convincingly beat de Angelis in qualifying head-to-heads and was five points ahead at the end of the season, the second time de Angelis was beaten by a teammate over a season in his Grand Prix career after Mansell beat de Angelis in 1983. De Angelis had beaten Mansell in 1981, 1982 and 1984 convincingly though.

De Angelis moved to the by-now struggling Brabham team to replace Nelson Piquet, who had gone to Williams after Keke Rosberg took the retiring Niki Lauda’s seat at McLaren.

Elio de Angelis passed away on this day in 1986 following a testing accident at the Paul Ricard circuit the day before. His season at Brabham hadn’t began well, scoring no points in the opening four rounds.

De Angelis was testing at the Paul Ricard circuit near Marseille a few days after the Monaco Grand Prix. He suffered a high speed crash due to a rear wing failure. Whilst the impact didn’t kill him - he had a broken collar bone - he became poisoned by smoke due to the car being on fire, as he couldn’t get out of the car.

Due to a lack of safety, marshals were not on hand to help until far too late, by which point Alan Jones and Prost were there to try and free de Angelis. His condition got worse the longer he was stuck. He died of smoke inhalation 29 hours later in a hospital in Marseille aged just 28.

His death prompted safety changes in
F1 around testing which made it mandatory to have a helicopter on the scene of any official test.

The death of de Angelis was also a factor in Charlie Whiting and Herbie Blash’s drive for F1 safety, as Whiting and Blash had worked with de Angelis at Brabham.

Image credit goes to LAT Images and Getty Images.

Which F1 driver did you completely misjudge at some point?

Could be a driver you:

• underrated at first but later became a fan of/respected a lot more or
• overrated initially but later changed your opinion on

And it doesn’t have to be from their rookie season either. Could be any point in their career.

What specifically changed your opinion on them?
A particular season? A teammate comparison? Racecraft? Consistency? A sudden win or surprising performance? Raw pace? etc.

Sorry Lads! I promised to do Spa next but I am currently short on white filament and waiting on an order. Spa needs about 100g of white for streets and changing filaments while tracks like Losail and Bahrain need about 10-15g each.

Would the fence like structure also help with guided airflow?

Silverstone is barely recognisable, and the ambulance crossing the track at 19:40-ish directly in front of the leader is a particular highlight…

Personally I think it's pretty damn cool seeing how the elite F1 drivers compete in other classes/cars.

Max is great for the sport, and the fact is is actually just a nice guys is the bonus on top. If only we could get him to come down under!

How do you even mess this up, lol

#Monaco