28th May 1989: The Suspicion That Never Goes Away

29th May 1960: The Pit Stops That Decided Monaco

On the twenty-ninth of May, Formula One has been decided in the pit lane more than once.  In 1960, Stirling Moss brought a Rob Walker Lotus to the pits in Monaco running on three cylinders — and went on to win, delivering Lotus their first World Championship victory through a private entry in the wrong colours.  In 2022, Charles Leclerc qualified on pole for his home race and lost it in two laps of strategic confusion that handed the race to Sergio Pérez and the season to Red Bull.  And in 2016, a pit crew who weren’t ready cost Daniel Ricciardo a win he had controlled from the start. Hear all these stories in today’s Chequered Past. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2506134/fan_mail/new] Music by #Mubert Music Rendering [https://mubert.com/render]

28th May 1989: The Suspicion That Never Goes Away

The 28th of May appears four times in Formula One's history as a date that produced not just results, but questions — the kind that follow drivers and teams for years without ever reaching a clean answer. In Mexico City in 1989, Alain Prost finished fifth, lapped by his McLaren teammate Ayrton Senna, and left the circuit carrying a suspicion about his Honda engine that he would never fully let go of. Whether he was right has never been established. Whether it mattered is a different question entirely. In Monaco in 1995, Michael Schumacher outthought Damon Hill on strategy — a one-stop gamble against a two-stop plan — and won by thirty-four seconds. Hill acknowledged they had got it wrong. The suspicion, in hindsight, was quieter: had Williams ever really given themselves a chance? In Monaco in 2006, Schumacher parked his Ferrari at Rascasse in the final seconds of qualifying, bringing out yellow flags and aborting Fernando Alonso's pole lap. The stewards concluded it was deliberate. Schumacher maintained it was a mistake. The suspicion has never gone away. And in Monaco in 2017, Ferrari kept Sebastian Vettel out five laps longer than his teammate Kimi Räikkönen, and Vettel emerged from his pit stop ahead. Ferrari called it strategy. Räikkönen said second place didn't feel awfully good. The suspicion, as ever, was left to the listener. This is Chequered Past — the podcast about the stories behind the results. The ones the sport never quite explained. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2506134/fan_mail/new] Music by #Mubert Music Rendering [https://mubert.com/render]

27th May 2018: The Circuit That Offers Redemption

There are dates in the Formula One calendar that give you one story. And then there are dates that seem to have been waiting — accumulating history across decades, storing it up, until you can’t look at them without seeing everything at once. The 27th of May is one of those dates. This episode of Chequered Past takes three races — separated by nearly thirty years at their extremes — and asks what Monaco does to a driver that no other circuit can. Not what it demands technically, but what it finds. Because Monaco doesn’t just test pace. It tests what you’re carrying. And on the 27th of May, across 1990, 2007, and 2018, three drivers arrived at the Principality with something to prove, something to settle, or something to survive — and the circuit gave each of them exactly what they’d earned. We begin, briefly, in a forest north of Bern. May 27th, 1951. The second season of the Formula One World Championship, and the first wet race it had ever seen. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2506134/fan_mail/new] Music by #Mubert Music Rendering [https://mubert.com/render]

26th May 2024: The Race That Calls You Home

Monaco doesn’t simply produce the fastest driver — it produces the one who belongs there.  On the twenty-sixth of May, across 1963, 1968, 1974, 2002 and 2024, five races asked that question in five different ways.  Graham Hill won here twice on this date, carrying a broken team through grief in 1968.  Ronnie Peterson drove a four-year-old Lotus to victory over the finest cars of 1974.  David Coulthard held off Michael Schumacher in Ferrari’s most dominant season.  And in 2024, Charles Leclerc — Monégasque, haunted by near-misses, carrying the memory of people who never saw it — finally won his home race. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2506134/fan_mail/new] Music by #Mubert Music Rendering [https://mubert.com/render]

25th May 2008: The Day That The Lead Changed

On May the twenty-fifth, across four decades of Formula 1, the world championship changed hands. Four times. Four drivers. One date. In 1975, Niki Lauda drove a controlled, clinical race at Zolder and went to the top of a championship he would never relinquish — while a sport still reeling from the deaths at Montjuïc Park tried to look forward rather than back.  In 1986, Nigel Mansell won at Spa and dedicated his victory to Elio de Angelis, killed eleven days earlier in a testing accident that should never have happened.  In 1997, Jacques Villeneuve took the championship lead at Barcelona — but the afternoon belonged to a Frenchman on Bridgestone tyres, charging from twelfth, closing a gap that other people kept reopening. And in 2008, Lewis Hamilton turned a puncture at Tabac into the foundation for the most important win of his career. Monaco. Rain. A fuel call that changed everything. Four races. Four new leaders. This is what May the twenty-fifth looked like. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2506134/fan_mail/new] Music by #Mubert Music Rendering [https://mubert.com/render]