91Èȱ¬

good choice on the 2005 japanese gp, that doesnt get mentioned much.

First comment of the Japanese Grand Prix! Come On Jenson!!!!!!! Win and Vettel retires and the battle goes on. You've been brilliant this year and murdered(yes murdered) Golden boy. Brilliant wins in Montreal and Budapest, Jenson you're a legend and the Hay family are so proud of you

Some times people ask me why as a Brit I support an Aussie, well there's lots of reasons; his talent, his attitude, his professionalism and also... he's an F1 fan, just like us. And he doesn't need to always be the centre of attention; not one win, podium of his included here.

Japan 2005 has always been my favourite race, but sadly it hardly ever gets mentioned. Good choices.

@ 3 Kate Derby:

I completely agree. He is such a likeable, down-to-earth chap and absolutely honest. Loved his "not bad for a number two driver" in Britain last year!

Some really good non-self indulgent choices. 2005 was an epic. Went for Donington in the rain, not a great race but has gone down in history.

Good stuff Mark.

Good choices Mark.

No to Sky.

2005 is my favourite race. This is the first time I have seen it since watching it live.

Did anyone notice the incident between Alonso and Klien? It was similar to the Kimi and Hamilton incident in Spa 2008 when Hamilton was demoted to 3rd after his `win'. I always thought that was an injustice but it seems the FIA are consistent with these things.

Nice choice and some cracking overtakes.

some nice races .. but from Webber's point of view it seems like F1 didn't exist before '92. ...

just to mention:

1979 French grand prix ... Gilles Villeneuve vs Rene Arnoux race was unbelievable!

Kanochal - never knew 86 came after 92.

Most people say the 79 French Grand Prix - I'm guessing Webber was just trying to be original with his choices.

Don't like the swipe at Lewis 'The _origonal_ yellow helmet, say no more...'


Meh, go watch Silverstone 2008, son.

Great choices there, Mark! Some refreshingly different choices to the norm here. Looking forward to watching these later on!

PS... 14 posts and no mention of a certain sattelite-based broadcasting company! Have people finally got bored of whingeing about it? ;)

10. At 10:23 5th Oct 2011, Kanochal wrote:

1979 French grand prix ... Gilles Villeneuve vs Rene Arnoux race was unbelievable!

=================================

Bear in mind he only gets to pick 5. Maybe 1979 was his 6th choice :P

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

@ 10 Agree that Villeneuve v Arnoux was/is an absolute classic duel - always worth a re-run imo.

@ 14.............how very dare you lol, err nope :) It's only that Mark's great choices deserve an airing before the WUM's appear....oh, too late.

ps. great news about Jenson re-signing here:

Andrew, quick request.

When you post the links to the videos can you also include a direct link to the one you're embedding?

I would prefer to watch the 2005 Japanese GP in the separate page, as the video player is (ever so slightly) bigger. However, each week I have to embark on a little search of the 91Èȱ¬ website to try and find the page myself, as you don't provide a link to the one you're embedding.

It'd be much easier if the search function on the 91Èȱ¬ website was any good, too :P

@14

It was mentioned at #7, so I'm guessing you didn't actually thoroughly read the comments ;)

Good race choices, always good to see what the knowledgeable guys think are the best races.

@12

Perhaps you should go watch the whole of Senna's career before deciding that one race means Lewis is better. I'd put Senna above Lewis any day of the week - perhaps when Lewis has won more than three titles we can recheck the position, but until then, Senna was THE original yellow helmet.

@20 - "It was mentioned at #7, so I'm guessing you didn't actually thoroughly read the comments ;)"

So it was.... *facepalm*

Great choice Mark. 1986 was a classic year that is fondly remembered by many F1 fans but not many F1 drivers. 2005 Suzuka race is one of my all time faves - Kimi on a charge in the McLaren was always a great sight.

I wish someone would pick Hungary 1989 - the classic race where Mansell stormed through from 12th on the grid to win - overtook Prost & Senna on track. An unknown fact is that Nigel was the only driver that year to pass Senna on track and hold the position and this was the race it happened.

@12 Senna was the original yellow helmet whereas Lewis's is just a copycat - it's the only similarity between Lewis & Ayrton when they're in a race car.

Erm, I'm fully aware of why Lewis has the yellow helmet. But Lewis' drive at Silverstone 2008 in those very difficult conditions (ala Donnington) was just as insanly awesome as Sennas drive. Don't jibe at a driver just because he has the same colour helmet.

"it's the only similarity between Lewis & Ayrton when they're in a race car."

Utter nonsense.

In diabolic conditions at Silverstone, Lewis finished an entire minute ahead of second place and lapped every one upto around 5th place.

To say theres no similarities between the two, is just utter tripe.

Great choices, I remember '86 felt like it might have been Mansells only chance at the time but was glad when he went on to be F1 champ and Indy car champ in his debut season.

Great choices from Mark Webber, as with his blog its obvious hes thought about his choices long and hard. Forgot what a great GP the 2005 Japanese one was!

Miss the monster 2005 spec cars as well....sound awesome!

#22 Stumm:-

Do you not think that MAYBE Lewis Hamilton having a yellow Helmet is a show of respect to the driver who was his favourite driver and biggest influence to take up motorsport? I think its a nice touch...especially as hes a Mclaren driver.

Have to agree with Peoples points about Lewis' wet weather drives aswell.

Agree with you Mark, the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was one of the best.

Makes you wonder, what if, next seasons race matchs it, will we be able to see it in full on the 91Èȱ¬?

Yes to terristrial TV.

27. At 13:26 5th Oct 2011, dontbeabitterlemon - we love Sandro wrote:
#22 Stumm:-

Do you not think that MAYBE Lewis Hamilton having a yellow Helmet is a show of respect to the driver who was his favourite driver and biggest influence to take up motorsport? I think its a nice touch...especially as hes a Mclaren driver.

============================

There is no maybe about it - Lewis has said this himself in the past. the yellow helmet is a nod to his childhood hero, Senna.

A good demonstration there of Kimi at the peak of his powers in the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix.

He might not have won the WDC in 2007, but at the end of 2005 he achieved four wins in the space of six races and could have been champion if not for having to retire from the lead of two races earlier in the season. 2003 was a similar story.

That's the Kimi that I - and many others - would like to see return to the sport. Even if his car is off the pace, if the motivation is there, there will be excitement.

And I really couldn't care less about his lack of enthusiasm for talking to the media. I thought his "I was taking a s--t" comment in the last race of 2006 was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in Formula One.

With that said, I am still not convinced it will happen. If it doesn't, I promise never to mention Kimi and F1 in the same breath again, and I think others should follow suit :)

That was meant to read: He might not have won the WDC until 2007...

I don't get why anyone is moaning about Webber talking about 'the original yellow helmet', as it's not a jibe, it's not having a go, it's not slagging off Hamilton, he's merely stating a fact, that Senna was the 1 with the original yellow helmet, the 1st person to wear 1 probably, and certainly before Hamilton came in, was the 1 driver you instantly recognised due to the helmet, and the 1 driver you associated with it, so I'm completely baffled as to why people think Webber is basically having a go at Hamilton. I see absolutely nothing wrong with what he said. Had he said "The only driver who should wear the yellow helmet" then yes, maybe, but he didn't.

@32 I know, that comment he made went straight over my head, it didn't register as anything sinister with me.

If he wants to wear a yellow helmet then let him, if he wants a bright pink one, let him....it's just a helmet and no matter how much reading between the lines one does, it is just the colour of a helmet.


Yes to RTL with 5LIVE.

Hamilton's helmet design was never a copy of Senna's, or even a conscious nod to him. His father bought him a yellow helmet when he was karting and Lewis got to pick some colours to add to it. He chose red, blue and green purely because he liked them. The resemblence to Senna's helmet was just a happy accident.

As for Donington 93 vs. Silverstone 08, I still think Donington, no contest. Hamilton's drive was outstanding, one of the best of that decade but Senna's drive at Donington was God-like stuff, especially that first lap. Don't forget that Donington is a lot narrower than Silverstone, so passing has to be very precise, even in the wet.

Isn't Webbers Helmet design predominantly yellow and Nico Rosberg - oh and Bruno Senna?? will the lot of you leave Lewis alone!!

Nice choices Mark, some entertaining races to watch whilst waiting for very early Friday morning!!

Yes to RTL with 5Live

The drivers' choice of races gives us an insight into their character. Many F1 drivers get admiration, this one, Mark Webber, gets my respect too.

Some nice choices there!


No to Sky

That move by Alonso in '05 is the best overtake I've seen in my time watching F1. I hope the teams chasing this year will have considerably improved machinery next year i.e. Mercedes and Ferrari, even to an extent the Renault, Force India and Williams. Because the monopoly of Red Bull means that they are the only car that can make these high speed moves at the front of the pack.

The Raikonen pass on Schumacher down the straight in SPA whilst overtaking a back maker was a sweet move as well

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

Wasn't that Häkkinen, spongebricknick?

Congratulations to you Mark for some great choices. How refreshing to see a great range of exciting races (1st lap only in the case of Donington) that is not completely self-centred.
I agree that it's a pity we don't see many opting for the older races, but it's hardly realistic to expect the current crop of ever younger GP drivers to be overly familiar with races before 1990. Perhaps they could all be forced to watch clips of the old races on YouTube after the season has finished!
As for the comments about Hamilton, I am not personally a fan (and wouldn't be even if he drove for Ferrari) and just wish he'd stop acting like a big kid throwing his toys out of the pram all the time. I do, however, acknowledge that he is undoubtedly one of the fastest drivers around, and that when he finally grows up he could well be the best. Of course, so much depends on the equipment he has to work with, but I seriously doubt that he will ever be regarded in the same bracket as Ayrton Senna.
And as to whether he did or did not doff his helmet to Senna by choosing the same colour is totally irrelevant and I do not understand why so many of the previous posters have decided to engage in an argument about it. I cannot seriously believe that Webber was a having a jibe at Hamilton in what he said.

Nice to hear the Radio 5 live team over the video.

Also good to see the low rear wings - make the cars look much prettier. And one has to say the overtaking didn't look too bad either !!!

"The Raikonen pass on Schumacher down the straight in SPA whilst overtaking a back maker was a sweet move as well"


Definitely Mika Häkkinen that one, not kimi Raikonen

No to sky

I cant see Sky being happy with Monty B Eccelstone giving pubs free F1
i thought it cost about £12000 a year for a pub license to show Sky Sports ?

Has to be said, of all the drivers contributing to this, Mark and Karun were the ones who I knew would provide the best choices. They are just F1 fans first and foremost, so you can rely on them to roll back the years and bring out the good stuff. You dont have to feel weird to be a Brit and like Mark, its easy because he makes it easy. Top bloke. Plus I just like people who tell it like it is, people that have an ability to stand in front of a camera and not look like a cardboard cut-out was put there just to deliver cliches. What you see is what you get with Mark, a few other drivers would do well to have a close look at him, and how people feel about him, and exactly why people feel that way. One driver in particular should take a close, close look at him and maybe then he wouldnt have to worry about his standing in the popularity stakes.

Good choices from Mr Webber, he is one of the few drivers who would have surprised me if he had only chosen races he had done well in.

It's a pity all the highlights were already available from previous editions of the feature. There is a huge archive of material waiting to be exploited by an intelligent broadcaster. Will the 91Èȱ¬ still have the rights to broadcast "old" F1 as part of the package next year? There is a demand for full, unedited repeats of archive footage, and that is not just for F1 but other sports as well.

@46 Totally agree with you, I used to think he was just another stroppy ocker, but he had done ok this year even with all the bad luck, must be really tough having SV as a team mate, better luck next year, although sadly there won't be many of us watching you.
No to Sky

Superb choice with the Japan 2005 race. A true classic.

No to sky. Shame on the 91Èȱ¬.

It was Hakkinen and that was a truly epic pass...

Hope you get to see this before its removed.

Nice choices

NO TO SKY!

Whoopsie - they both sounds the same, from the same country and both have the funny " in there names lol

Just tuned in to have a look at what's on this week via the BSkyB Red Button, and the lip sync is WAAAAAAY out.

Not that annoying 'just slightly out of kilter' - I'm talking several seconds. Brundle opens his mouth, and MacKenzie's words fall out. Funny, but so wrong!

No to Sky....

...not least because the transmission fault on a number Sky branded channels (including Sky Sports), about which they're STILL not telling customers who 'phone Customer Services, has still not been fixed almost two months after it was first identified.

Addendum to 53.

Sound delay now fixed.

Thanks.

Ah, my 3rd favourite race of all time. The best ever overtake in F1 by Alonso on Schumi. Excellent choices Mr Webber.

@ samson2009

For me it's very late Thursday night.

Yup, Webber's choice of races are excellent.
So, gonna be a Japan on Auntie next year?
What's Sky gonna let Auntie have?
And when Sky tell you, how do you broadcast it in our best interests?

Mark Webber's choices say it all about him - a real fan of the sport. That Alonso pass on 130R at Suzuka should never be forgotten...

Bittuva contrast to certain other drivers (self-obsessed but nameless) whose top races of all time were all their own wins! :D

On a related, more topical, subject - I see that despite his ever-extending string of penalties, Lewis still doesn't understand that he's ever done anything wrong. Hmm... present sanctions obviously not having the desired effect then.

So what can we do to deter a repeat offender, who regularly compromises the races & safety of others, but will not apologise, & indeed expresses an eagerness to take future penalties "as and when they come"?

Obviously the line between offences and racing incidents can sometimes be fine, so massively increasing the penalties for any given isolated incident would be unfair. But here's a thought. We can avoid the unfairness of a huge penalty for a first offender, while clamping down on the problem of serial offending, by the simple measure of Doubling Up.

First offence you get a drive-thru. Second offence you get a 10 second stop-go. Third offence a 20 second stop-go. Fourth offence 40 seconds, etc.

I'm willing to bet that the offender would suddenly & miraculously realise that he Was Indeed doing "something wrong" and would stop doing it. Isn't human psychology amazing? ; )

57 - "So what can we do to deter a repeat offender, who regularly compromises the races & safety of others, but will not apologise, & indeed expresses an eagerness to take future penalties 'as and when they come'?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Simple - get rid of the cause of the problem that is named Massa. Ferrari know how poor he is, and over the last few races he has gone out of his way to prove it to the world :)

Loved those choices, got to be the best selection so far this season. We can look up 1979 on the website as well anytime so they're all there as far as I'm concerned. Japan should be an exciting one this weekend, can't wait for it.

@ helmet argument people.
Senna's trademark was his distinctive helmet, Webber made a reference to it, it wasn't a dig. Loads of drivers have yellow helmets with Rosberg (though design isn't his, sponsor design), Massa, Webber and Kubica's (yellow to fit with sponsors as well). Irvine's was red and green at Ferrari, doesn't mean he was ripping off Villeneuve's.

@cleanlang
Not sure Massa's the problem, pretty sure it's been Hamilton triggering those bits of contact.

Sad to say that we are only going to get highlights according to Mark Thompson /iplayer/episode/b015cnm2/Shelagh_Fogarty_06_10_2011/?t=17m02s
I can not believe that 91Èȱ¬ has not made a public announcement of this, what a disgusting way to treat F1 fans! Is it not about time that Barbara or Ben at least crept out from under the rock that they have been hiding under for the last few months and tells us what races we can see and what races that they are going to butcher in order to fit into the correct time slot! Lets hope that this weeks race is a great one as it may be the last Japanese Grand Prix that a lot of us will see for along time

Has anyone else noticed that F1 blogs are only staying open three or four days now
are the 91Èȱ¬ trying to hide the amount of posts on F1 blogs ?
they never used to go over about a hundred post's now they are always in the multiple hundreds
91Èȱ¬ Stop censoring the publics opinion
no to Sky

In case my link is removed please check out Shelagh Fogarty's interview of Mark Thompson on the radio section of the 91Èȱ¬ I player the date is 6/10/2011 at about 17 mins in! Important news about 91Èȱ¬ F1 deal.

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

@61 yeah I notice that also if I did know better I would swear they were happy with the 91Èȱ¬/SKY deal and would like all the people to carry on praising them for their great move .....NOT !!!!

@62 Jazzotang

Just listened to it what a load of waffle he said they got the general public's opinions what a load of tosh they did tell a soul even the 91Èȱ¬ f1 team were unaware of it.

Below is a draft of a letter we want to submit to the OFT who can then refer the matter to the Competitions Commission unfortunately the OFT will not take up the complaint from the public even though they were formed to protect the Consumers of the UK?

Therefore we ask that you sign this petition so we can then ask Consumer Focus to refer this to the OFT on our behalf.

If you are not aware of what this is about here is a general outline,

On the 29th July the 91Èȱ¬ announced it has signed a deal with SKY TV to share the rights to Formula One for 7 years with SKY showing all Races live and the 91Èȱ¬ only allowed to show 10 (50%) of the races Live this in effect means that to watch the sport in its entirety fans would have to subscribe to Sky + Sky Sports equating to a bill of £600 p.a this is on top of your licence fee that you have to pay regardless.

We feel that the deal is illegal and was made purely to prevent the other TV companies from acquiring the sport.

—â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”-

Firstly can I ask that you treat this report as a Anti Competition report and not a Broadcasting report as this does not fall within the remit of OFCOM.

Below I list a number of points that I think break both
Chapter I prohibition prohibits agreements between businesses that prevent restrict or distort competition to an appreciable extent in the UK.
Chapter II prohibition prohibits the abuse of a dominant position. Holding a dominant position is not unlawful but it is unlawful to abuse that position. The prohibition therefore relates to the conduct of the company not its position in a market.
of the Competition Act 1998

As you may be aware on 29/07/2011 the British Broadcasting Corporation (91Èȱ¬) announced a 7 year deal to share control of the Broadcasting rights for Formula One within the UK with British Sky Broadcasting (BskyB), This new contract I believe breaks the above Chapters for the following reasons.

Chapter I
I believe the 91Èȱ¬ have Restricted/Distorted competition as they have entered into the deal during a period of dominance.

The 91Èȱ¬ had exclusive rights under contract with the Formula One Management (FOM) to F1 until the end of the 2013 season and whilst this contract was in place the FOM could not consider any bids from any other companies who had shown interest in bidding for the rights.
On the 29/07/2011 the 91Èȱ¬ entered into a deal with BskyB and extended the period for a further 5 years (to 2018) effectively preventing other interested parties from making a legitimate bid once the existing contract came to an end.
Bernie Ecclestone (head of the FOM) was qouted as saying

‘Ecclestone added with the 91Èȱ¬â€™s original contract not due to expire until the end of 2013, it effectively scuppered any moves to go with Channel 4 or even return to ITV.
also when Asked ‘ if the 91Èȱ¬ ’held all the cards’ over the new deal, Ecclestone added: “Yes, absolutely. If they [Channel 4] had said they wanted to sign a contract today to start Broadcasting for £45m a year, then we would have probably done it.

“But that’s the problem. We couldn’t deal with them, even if they had wanted to.�
“I spoke with ITV and came up with the same problem as Channel 4 had. We had a contract with the 91Èȱ¬ which didn’t run out until 2014.“We couldn’t very well do a deal with other people for them to start doing something next year, because we had that contract.

As you can see from the above quotes ITV & Channel 4 were interested in bidding for the contract but were unable to do so until the existing 91Èȱ¬ contract had ended
The 91Èȱ¬ had also stated that they themselves may have had end the original contract at the end of this season (2011, two years early) due to finances.
So in effect the 91Èȱ¬ have extended a contract by 5 years whilst they were in a dominant position although they were in no position to make a new bid once the contract ended thus preventive other interested parties from making a legitimate bid.

Chapter II
I feel that the 91Èȱ¬ while in a dominant position (being in control of the contract and rights) abused this dominance be inviting BskyB to an extended deal preventing other interested parties from making a legitimate bid once the contract in place and ended.

—â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”

If you would like to discuss this deal please visit and/or

and sign the petition here :>

@66 Moderators I have made a complaint for you have wrongfully removed the post as it does not in any way break house rules.

Japan '05: Alonso had just claimed the title and at the time I saw him as a breath of fresh air for F1 after the years of Schumacher dominance. Still I got up for the Japanese Grand Prix and went on to see a move that said "Hey MIchael you're not World Champion any more!"

Well worth getting up for!