It was first held at the atmospheric Autodromo di Monza as long ago as 1922, making it the oldest track as well, and in that time it has hosted some of the sport’s greatest races.

We have selected four from the event’s relatively recent history and are asking you to select which one you would most like to watch here on the BBC Sport website and on the red button on interactive television.

We would like you to leave your views as responses on this blog and we will use them to inform our choice of which race to highlight next week to whet your appetite in the run-up to this year’s Italian Grand Prix.

For the chosen race, we will broadcast the full ‘Grand Prix’ highlights programme that was shown on BBC television at the time, as well as the shorter highlights packages we cut for all the races.

We will also make available short and long versions of the highlights of last year’s Italian Grand Prix, won by Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello.

This week’s selections are the 1987, 1991, 1996 and 1998 Italian Grands Prix. And to fend off the inevitable calls for some other races, I’ll remind you that last year we featured 1988, 1990, 1995, 1999 and 2004, so we cannot pick them again this year.

The first of our selections, 1987, featured one of the late, great Ayrton Senna’s best – and most overlooked – drives.

In his last year at Lotus, Senna had taken two opportunistic wins at Monaco and Detroit, but his car, despite its unique active suspension, was no match for the flying Williams-Hondas of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet. So in Italy, the Brazilian chose to gamble on trying to make it through the race on one set of tyres.

He took the lead as the drivers in front of him – Piquet, Mansell, Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger, Benetton’s Thierry Boutsen and McLaren’s Alain Prost – made their mid-race tyre stops.

Senna had driven brilliantly to stay in touch with the leading group while also preserving his tyres as best he could in the first half of the race, and he appeared on course for a superb victory.

Then, seven laps from the finish he made a mistake while trying to lap the Ligier of Piercarlo Ghinzani and slid off into the gravel trap at Parabolica. By the time he rejoined, Piquet had slipped through into the lead.

Piquet’s Williams slips by into the lead as Senna runs through the Parabolica gravel. Photo: BBC

Senna gave chase, but his tyres – and for that matter his car – were not up to the job. He hung on bravely, though, and crossed the line less than two seconds behind his fellow Brazilian.

Our next choice is 1991, a race held against the backdrop of one of F1’s great controversies – Benetton’s poaching of Michael Schumacher one race after he had made his grand prix debut for Jordan, to whom he was under contract.

Mansell’s Williams FW14 was a faster car than Senna’s McLaren by this stage of the season and the Englishman was trying to close a points gap his rival had built up by winning the first four races of the season as Williams struggled with reliability problems.

Senna led from pole for the first half of the race, fending off the challenge of Mansell and Williams team-mate Riccardo Patrese. Mansell and Patrese, held up by Senna, were having their own battle too, and the Italian passed his team-mate for second place at the Ascari chicane on lap 26, only to spin off at the same place a lap later.

That left Mansell to challenge Senna alone, and he finally made it past with 19 laps to go. Senna pitted for new tyres, rejoining in fifth before working his way back up to finish second.

Schumacher finished fifth on debut for his new team, ahead of team-mate Piquet, whose F1 career he effectively ended by outpacing him for the rest of the season.

The next choice is 1996, when Damon Hill tossed away a chance to clinch his world title two races early.

That year, race officials had been forced to put piles of tyres on the kerbs at the apex of the chicanes after a worrying incident in practice when a block of concrete ripped up by one car that had strayed too far over the kerbs broke the front wing of the Williams driven by Jacques Villeneuve, Hill’s team-mate and title rival.

The stacks of tyres were an inelegant solution to the problem – they were asking to be hit. And Hill did exactly that while leading the race on lap six, spinning and stalling his engine.

Fortunately for him, Villeneuve had already made the same mistake, bending his suspension and creating tyre problems that would mean he would fail to score points, so Hill still left Monza with a 13-point championship lead. But it took him until a nail-biting final race of the season in Suzuka to finally clinch the crown.

Alesi’s Benetton leads Schumacher’s Ferrari through the first chicane at Monza in 1996. Photo: Getty Images

Hill’s exit left Benetton’s Jean Alesi in the lead from Schumacher, who was in his first season at Ferrari, then a far less competitive proposition than it became.

Schumacher was clearly faster, but could not pass the Benetton until eventually managing to do so during the pit-stop period. The German stopped two laps later than Alesi, set stunning times on his in and out laps, and emerged in the lead, after which he cruised to the flag.

It was the first Ferrari win at Monza since Berger’s in 1988 and the place went predictably wild.

Finally, we have 1998, a race that brought the intense title battle between Schumacher and McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen to a head.

Schumacher was on pole, with Hakkinen third on the grid, but a bad start left the Ferrari driver only fifth, although he quickly moved up to third behind Hakkinen and the Finn’s McLaren team-mate David Coulthard by the end of the second lap.

The McLaren was generally the faster car in 1998, but at Monza things did not go smoothly for the team. Hakkinen began to run into brake problems, and Coulthard passed him for the lead on lap eight, whereupon Hakkinen began to fall into Schumacher’s clutches.

Coulthard’s engine failed on lap 17 – and the cloud of smoke it emitted unsighted both Hakkinen and Schumacher. In the confusion, Schumacher slipped ahead into a lead he was never to lose. Hakkinen soldiered on to finish fourth and he and Schumacher left Monza, with two races remaining, tied on points.

I know some of you would like to watch some of the great races from earlier in Monza’s history – the closest ever F1 finish in 1971, for example. There are, sadly, some gaps in the archive that mean we do not have enough serviceable footage from many of these pre-1980 grands prix.

No matter, there’s four super races to choose from. I look forward to reading your views.

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

On Thursday morning at 7.30, I was genuinely standing outside the Houses of Parliament hitching a lift to Spa. The slight cheat, of course, was that I knew a certain Martin Brundle would appear at any moment in his E-type Jaguar, looking like Kings Lynn’s answer to James Bond. He was a demon on the Brussels bypass!

I’ve seen plenty of messages on Twitter from you guys saying you enjoyed our little road trip. If you missed it, I’ve uploaded it onto the blog below, and amazingly, as I write this blog, I’ve yet to see it myself!

You might be wondering why. On race morning, usually at about 10am, the whole team of presenters, including David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan, get together, have a meeting and watch all the VTs (pre-produced films) in the show. However, the drive-a-thon was such a big job that the producers and editors hadn’t finished putting it together by then.

I’d usually get to watch it on the little screen that Roger the monitor man faithfully carries around the pit lane. But we began the show walking live through McLaren with Martin and, as the garage is a tight squeeze at the best of times, the monitor was waiting at the far side of the garage.

While it was being transmitted on live TV we could hear the elements that had been chosen through our earpieces. We were cringing at the singing. Hope your eardrums survived!

To give you some idea of the effort the guys in the edit suite went to last weekend, this is what they filmed and edited since we arrived in Spa just for the race show: the driving piece, the Rubens Barrichello 300 GP’s interview , the Jenson pre-race interview , the story of qualifying, Mark Webber’s pole lap, and what we call the ‘closer’.

That list doesn’t even take into account the stuff we did on Saturday. There was even more ‘VT’ in that show and if you missed it, the build-up to qualifying can be watched on the iPlayer until next Saturday.

It’s the closer that really blows my mind. During the race the guys are watching loads of different feeds from the FOM director who controls the race, also looking for other shots that tell a story, picking a good music track. And most impressively of all they get it all cut together for the end of the show – it makes standing next to EJ and DC seem a doddle!

Perhaps on Sunday the ‘closer’ mission wasn’t as hard as usual because they had stacks of incredible shots to play with. One of the things we’ll all benefit from massively when F1 joins the high-definition revolution is how dramatic the on-track action will look.

Just imagine what the collision between Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel would look like in HD – Button’s prone McLaren puttering out steam after Vettel had buried his nose cone into its sidepod. When F1 does become High Definition, it will become even more of a must-watch event, and we’re continuing to talk to FOM about when that might be.

And how much of a ‘must-watch’ season is this turning into? On Sunday morning I woke up at the cute B&B I was sharing with Jonathan Legard, Lee McKenzie and Ted Kravitz, went downstairs for breakfast and had one of those moments of realisation that I was about to have a day to remember.

Even with a job as rewarding as this it is sometimes easy to get so caught up in the circle of travel, preparation, scripts and transmission that you almost forget the event that your covering is central to what you are doing.

On race day in Belgium I was properly excited as we joined the hoards heading through the rather ramshackle villages that surround the circuit. Spa is like nowhere else on the calendar. Got a driving licence and a rain mac? Then pay a visit!

So, where are we now in the gripping championship battle?

Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber have grabbed the momentum within their teams by the scruff of the neck, Hamilton re-taking the championship lead just at the right time and Fernando Alonso now facing a real battle to remain in the running. I’d be really interested to know who you think can do it.

We spent the weekend talking up all five’s chances but take into account the seemingly error-prone form of Alonso and Vettel, Hamilton and Button knowing their car might not be as strong around tracks such as Singapore and Korea, and Webber knowing Red Bull’s advantage has been eroded somewhat and there are reasons to doubt the chances of all five. Equally, each has the unquestionable talent to finish the job. Who can put the whole package together? It is SO close!

Anyway, it’s now time to turn my attention towards Monza. Before that, though, next weekend I’ll be doing some presenting that really scares me.

I’m cool with seven million people on BBC One but less comfy with the guests who will watch me do a reading at my best mate’s wedding back home in sunny Norfolk – wish me luck. And if I mess it up, Steve, I apologise now.

Then the week after that we’ll be at the fastest track on the circuit.

When I last drove at Monza I was disappointed not to win. Mind you, the Red Bull looked amazingly fast in the hands of a man who has won national races and just drove away from me, and as I looked across to my other rival, Lewis Hamilton, just before lights out, it was clear he was desperate to win.

All I can say is that he’s a ruthless competitor and… erm… he was driving in his socks!

No idea when I raced him or what I’m talking about? Well I guess you’d better tune in to our coverage in Italy, then!

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

The sun shines on Lewis Hamilton as he faces up to Eau Rouge during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. Hamilton made the most of a slow-starting Mark Webber at the beginning of the race, and held onto the lead throughout – hoisting himself back to the top of the driver’s championship.

Credit: McLaren.com

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

Hello, this is F1 Minute for the 29th August 2010 – the Belgian Grand Prix.

From the second the lights went out, the chaos began. Webber started on pole but went nowhere off the line, whilst Barrichello collided with Alonso, thus on his 300th Grand Prix, he couldn’t make it past the end of the first lap. Gutted. The Safety Car was deployed whilst the Williams was retrieved.

A bit of rain here, a bit of rain there, the race became all about Vettel as he kept getting mixed up in things. He passed Kubica on the safety car restart, and was investigated. He smashed into Button, and was given a drive through penalty. He swiped past Liuzzi and gave himself a puncture. He survived the race but was out of the points. Elsewhere, Hamilton led throughout, and Kubica was sat behind him until he overshot the box during a pit stop and handed second to Webber.

Finally, Alguersuari picked up a single point finishing 10th but was given a 20 second post-race penalty for cutting the chicane, handing the place to Liuzzi.

What a race.

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

The spectacular Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes mountains tests Formula 1 drivers to the limit, and never more so than in the sort of changeable conditions in which Sunday’s race took place.

Two of Hamilton’s title rivals, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, failed the examination. Hamilton, by contrast, was virtually flawless all weekend and this win will surely come to be ranked among his very best.

“Perfect,” was the judgement of three-time world champion Niki Lauda, which seemed about right.

The foundation for the victory was a quite brilliant final lap in qualifying, with which Hamilton clinched second place on the grid despite a light shower of rain.

From there, he was in the ideal position to benefit from a slow start by pole-position man Mark Webber, and his team-mate Jenson Button, slowed by minor damage to his front wing, backing up the pack while Hamilton built his winning margin.

Rain late in the race, though, meant it was far from an easy cruise to the finish and Hamilton survived an off-course moment at Malmedy, when running in the rain on dry-weather ’slick’ tyres, and the tension of a re-start after a safety car intervention to win his third race of the season.

His reward is to leapfrog Webber to the top of the drivers’ standings after falling behind the Australian following Webber’s win in Hungary before F1’s summer break.

Hamilton’s advantage is only three points but there is every chance it will increase at the next race in Italy in two weeks’ time. Monza is a low-downforce track dominated by straights and chicanes – just like Canada, where McLaren finished one-two – and Hamilton will head there as favourite.

Webber, by contrast, will be viewing the trip to another of F1’s iconic tracks as an exercise in damage limitation before F1 heads east to Singapore, South Korea and Japan, three circuits which will suit the Red Bull far better.

After that, only Brazil and Abu Dhabi will remain.

Webber – who celebrated his 34th birthday on Friday, and knows this could be his last chance to win the title – will be a little disappointed to have finished second after starting from pole. But far more important for him is the lead he has now established over Vettel.

He is 28 points – more than a win – ahead of his team-mate with only six races remaining. It is still too early for the team to start backing one driver over another, not least because of their massive emotional and financial investment in the German, but they will have no choice if Vettel does not make up some serious ground over the next two or three races.

Spa was yet another example of Vettel’s propensity to make critical – and very costly – errors. They cost him the title last year, and are looking like doing so again in 2010.

After crashing into Webber in Turkey and costing the team a victory, Vettel made a beginners’ error in Hungary by slipping back too far behind the safety car, earning himself a drive-through penalty and costing himself an easy win.

In Belgium, it was a catastrophic error of judgement by Vettel behind Button that cost him and his rival dear.

With the frustration of following a slower car building inside him, Vettel was closer than ever to Button as they steamed through Blanchimont on lap 16. He had a look down the inside approaching the Bus Stop chicane, but it was soon clear that Button was defending that line, so Vettel switched to the outside. But he did it too late and too violently.

Initially, the suspicion was that his error might have been provoked by the fact that it had just started to drizzle, but Button said during the BBC F1 Forum that the track was “bone dry” at that point.

Either way, Vettel lost the rear of his car and speared into the side of Button’s McLaren, taking the world champion out and ending his own hopes of victory as well. A later collision with the front wing of Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Force India punctured one of Vettel’s rear tyres and put paid to any remaining faint hope of points.

A driver who is chasing the world championship can normally get away with one – or possibly two – such major errors in the course of a season, but any more than that and you are making life very difficult for yourself.

Vettel closes on Button’s McLaren shortly before their crash at Spa. Photo: Reuters

As Lauda told BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz after the race, Vettel is “too aggressive – he has to get his act together”. BBC F1 analysts David Coulthard and Anthony Davidson pointed out quite rightly that Vettel is still young and has time, in terms of his career, to iron out these rough edges. They may have already ended his hopes of winning Red Bull’s first world title this year, though.

Both he and Button, who is four points adrift of Vettel, have now slipped back significantly in the championship and, as Button acknowledged, this result was a “massive blow” to their hopes. They need a big result pretty soon to ensure Hamilton and Webber do not get too far ahead.

The same applies to Alonso, the third contender whose hopes suffered a major setback at Spa.

Unlike Vettel, Alonso entered this season with a reputation for incredible consistency and making very few mistakes. Yet in his first year with Ferrari he has made almost as many errors as he had in his entire career.

Knowing he needed to score heavily in Belgium and with the car to do so, there were a number. Alonso and the team chose the wrong tyre strategy in qualifying, making his first run in the top-10 shoot-out on used tyres, and setting only 10th fastest time. He expected to move up to the front with his final run on new tyres, but a mistake and the rain shower cost him dearly.

In the race, he was blameless when Rubens Barrichello crashed into him on a slippery track at the end of lap one – although when you qualify in the midfield that is the sort of thing that can happen, as Hamilton and Button discovered at Spa last year, when they were taken out on the first lap.

But his gamble in coming in to fit intermediate tyres immediately after that failed to pay off, and he had to come in again two laps later to put on dry tyres. He chose the harder ‘prime’ tyres, hoping to pick up some places by not having to stop again, but that throw of the dice also failed to come off thanks to the late-race rain, in which he crashed.

Just as with Vettel and Button, it is not yet too late for Alonso to get back into the thick of the title fight but, also like them, it is beginning to feel as if this might well not be his year.

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

In one sense, it is, because there has been a month’s gap between races.

But however much Red Bull’s rivals, most notably McLaren, tried to switch off during the sport’s summer break, the performance advantage rolled out in Budapest by Adrian Newey’s RB6 flying machine haunted their holiday down-time.

Without doubt, the longest faces can currently be found in the McLaren garage. The team’s renowned resilience and resourcefulness look like being tested to the full.

Publicly, team officials dismiss the idea that the next two races in Belgium on Sunday and Italy in two weeks’ time will make or break their title challenge this season.

Privately, however, there is reluctant acknowledgement that they have to score heavily at these final two European low downforce tracks where straight-line speed – where McLaren are stronger than their title rivals – can be decisive.

As one team member put it succinctly: “It’ll be all over for us, if we don’t. Red Bull will walk it in Singapore (first of the final five long-haul races), and be strong elsewhere.”

While Sebastian Vettel happily described himself as “carefully optimistic” about Red Bull’s prospects for the weekend, the normally upbeat Lewis Hamilton has been unnaturally pessimistic, seemingly resigned to chasing Red Bull’s shadows for the remainder of the year.

“I don’t think anything’s going to change here. The car’s still not quick enough compared to the others.

“We have to understand where the extra time and downforce is – and only once we’ve done that can we really move forward,” he said on Thursday.

Now, I understand the McLaren engineers believe that a clever trade-off between more downforce and less drag thanks to their efficient F-duct aerodynamic device should make a difference here.

Yes, the Red Bulls will be quick through the long corners in Spa’s middle sector, but McLaren should have the stronger performance along the straights in the first and final sectors to offset Red Bull’s greater grip.

Not enough, probably, to find the margin of 1.7 seconds that Red Bull enjoyed over McLaren in Hungary but sufficient to be significant podium contenders.

Nonetheless, such a downbeat assessment of his car’s current competitiveness is a vivid contrast to the optimism within McLaren at Silverstone last month.

That’s when the team introduced their version of the ‘blown diffuser’ concept which has been an integral part of the Red Bull design from the first race in Bahrain.

Unfortunately the gains have not come close to fulfilling McLaren predictions. If anything, Button and Hamilton have found the car’s balance worse.

Red Bull have continued to improve their performance since the British Grand Prix – as have Ferrari, whose own version of the blown diffuser has worked without problems since it was introduced in Valencia, the race before Silverstone.

McLaren, by contrast, have lost the edge they had enjoyed since their one-two at the Turkish Grand Prix and have now lost the lead in both the drivers’ and the constructors’ championships.

Now, we’ve seen this before when Mark Webber and Red Bull hit the front after Monaco. It appeared that the team were all set to capitalise on their advantage and take charge of the title race.

On that occasion McLaren struck back.

But this time they feel more vulnerable to attack, and their frustration is fuelled by the continuing controversy over flexible bodywork.

They believe that Red Bull and Ferrari have made their performance leaps because their front wings and the front part of the car’s floor – frequently referred to as the ‘bib’ – are flexing excessively outside the regulation limits.

In McLaren’s view, their extra downforce gains are, therefore, illegal.

If you watched the last two races, you would have seen slow-motion footage of the front wings of the Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren while the cars were on the track.

While McLaren’s is very stiff and well clear of the road, the wings on the Red Bull and Ferrari appear to be almost touching it.

The team believes that the new FIA load tests, particularly on the rigidity of the floor at the Italian Grand Prix, will have an impact on their rivals’ level of performance.

In the words of Jenson Button on Thursday: “I’d be amazed if there wasn’t a difference (at Monza).”

One engineer I spoke to claims that Red Bull and Ferrari have a series of sections in their floor which allows the ‘bib’ to move, creating greater downforce behind the front wing.

The regulations state that the floor must be one solid piece.

Another engineer told me that if the other two teams have been doing this and are forced to make changes, then McLaren could find an extra 0.7secs, bringing them back into much stronger contention.

Not just at Monza, but for the championship run-in.

But he also stressed that the team has to be prepared for Red Bull and Ferrari to pass the new tests, in which case McLaren will be left to rely on their own technical talents to make up lost ground.

It should be emphasised that each time this season Red Bull have come under scrutiny for alleged technical irregularities, the FIA has consistently found no fault.

“We are confident that we will comply with whatever tests there are,” said team principal Christian Horner.

“The new test will affect us only as much as any other team.

“If people are complaining, it shows that they don’t know what we’re up to.

Remember also that where once McLaren’s championship ambitions looked to be a straight fight against Red Bull, now Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso is back in the thick of it, only 20 points off leader Webber.

The World Motorsport Council hearing on 8 September into the Hockenheim team orders controversy hangs darkly over their challenge but their rate of development continues apace.

Ferrari, I understand, have reworked the rear of their car – with a new blown diffuser in which the exhaust gases blow through as well as over the new floor for the first time, as well as modified rear suspension and a new gearbox casing.

Their concern is over engines. Both Alonso and Felipe Massa have already used six of their season’s allocation of eight.

If they follow the lead of some teams planning to use new units at both the power tracks of Spa and Monza, that could become a big issue for Alonso over the final five races.

For this weekend, though, Hamilton and Button, F1’s two most recent champions – both of them wet-weather specialists – have to hope that McLaren can maximise what they have, otherwise they will feel like they’re pushing water up Eau Rouge until November.

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

“Wow,” Barrichello beamed. “Is something special happening?” As if he didn’t know…

The 38-year-old Brazilian is celebrating reaching another milestone in Belgium – his 300th grand prix.

Barrichello was presented with a commemorative “300 GPs” racing top

Already the sport’s most experienced driver, Barrichello tops the all-time list with 44 more race weekends under his belt than the next man, the Italian Riccardo Patrese and 51 ahead of Michael Schumacher.

“It’s magic, a great honour” said Barrichello, who was wearing a T-shirt showing a speedometer with the needle pointing to the 300 mark.

“I am surprised that I am still so enthusiastic. I remember at my first race in Kyalami, I saw Ayrton Senna coming out of the pits and I was in doubt thinking, am I looking at my television?

“It was such a fantastic feeling being part of the action and I’ve had a great time in the 299 races since.”

Barrichello has been reflecting on his 18-year F1 career in Spa, where drivers and team bosses – including McLaren’s Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn – gathered at Williams on Thursday evening to raise a glass of champagne to the popular man from Sao Paulo.

He jokes that his racing career began when his mother was eight months’ pregnant with him and decided to attend the Argentine Grand Prix.

Barrichello was given a go-kart at the age of six and moved to Europe in 1989 to compete in single-seater racing before Jordan handed him his Formula 1 debut in 1993.

“During the summer break in Brazil, I put some videos of my old races onto DVD and I’ve been watching them at half past five in the morning,” Barrichello revealed.

“The ones I’ve been watching most are from Formula Ford, Formula Three and Formula 3000.

“But the race that stands out for me in F1 is (my first win) on slick, grooved tyres at Hockenheim in 2000.

“I was watching it the other day and it really made me smile and cry again because it was such an emotion to go through.”

There have also been more difficult times for Barrichello, who is rarely seen in the paddock without a smile on his face.

On the first day of running at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Barrichello hit the wall, his Jordan flipped upside down and he was knocked unconscious. The first person he remembers seeing at his bedside was his mentor, Williams driver Ayrton Senna.

Two days later, Senna was killed when he crashed into the wall when leading the grand prix.

“I had a broken nose, a broken memory and a broken heart in a way,” recalled Barrichello.

“It was the very first funeral I even went to and it was very hard to believe that Ayrton what part of that.

“It was a very tough moment but one that taught me everything I know, the one that taught me how to overcome difficulties – and that’s why I am here right now.”

There were more testing times ahead for Barrichello when he joined Ferrari in 2000. He had the fastest car on the grid but was partnered with Schumacher, already a double world champion with Benetton.

Although it was not explicitly written into his contract that Barrichello was to operate as a number two driver, he was asked to support Schumacher during his six years with the team.

Under team orders in 2002, Barrichello surrendered his lead in the Austrian Grand Prix to Schumacher to the outrage of those watching.

At this year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, old wounds were opened when Schumacher came dangerously close to pushing Barrichello into the wall in an extreme defensive move.

Schumacher apologised to his old team-mate in Spa in a text message but was seen leaving the paddock before Barrichello’s 300th anniversary celebrations began on Thursday evening.

Does he regret his time with Ferrari spent in Schumacher’s shadow?

“No, I don’t regret anything,” Barrichello said. “I can be proud of my memories [at Ferrari].

“I fought to have the same treatment and the day that I felt, OK, they’re not going to give that to me is the day when I left the team.

“During those years, the car was better than all the other cars – and I had been on the other page with Jordan and Stewart. I had the chance to win races even though Michael was there – and so I wouldn’t change anything.”

After adding two more victories to his tally with the championship-winning Brawn team last season, Barrichello is now spending the twilight of his career at Williams.

Barrichello has already expressed his desire to carry on in 2011 and says retirement has “never been on my mind”.

“My wife is terrified,” laughed Barrichello. “She thinks I’m going to be racing forever.

“It will be a hard decision to say that I’m going to stop but it will also be an easy one because I’ve always been so honest with myself.

“The day that I don’t feel great pleasure in taking a corner will be the day that I will know exactly when I will shutdown – but I hope I’m going to do a hell of a lot more races before then.”

A full interview with Rubens Barrichello will be shown during Sunday’s race programme which begins on BBC One on 1205 BST (UK users).

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

That means you have a chance to watch the full ‘Grand Prix’ highlights programme of the time as well as the shorter highlights edits we produce from the other selected races, which were the 1987, 1993 and 2000 Belgian Grands Prix.

There will also be short and long highlights of last year’s event.

The extended race highlights are embedded below, with links to the other events underneath.

WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1979 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1987 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1993 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2000 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX

The classic races will be broadcast on the BBC red button in the UK on satellite and cable television from 1500 BST on Wednesday 25 August until 1900 on Friday. Unfortunately, they will not be available on Freeview this time.

The 1979 race was a defining moment in a season that delivered Ferrari their final drivers’ title for 21 years and it was the overwhelming favourite among respondents to my last blog.

Ferrari’s Jody Scheckter took the chequered flag after an epic race-long battle also involving the Ligiers of Patrick Depailler and Jacques Laffite and the Williams of Alan Jones.

It was one of three victories by the South African on his way to winning the title that year. But the star of the race – and the season as a whole – was Scheckter’s team-mate Gilles Villeneuve.

Although Scheckter joined Ferrari for 1979 as the man expected to lead their title charge, he had not won in the five races preceding Belgium while his younger team-mate had taken two brilliant victories.

Back then, the Belgian race was held at Zolder, before its move to Spa in the early 1980s, and the Canadian qualified one place ahead of Scheckter in sixth.

But before the race had a chance to settle down, Villeneuve’s hopes of victory were dashed when he got tangled up in a collision between Scheckter and the Williams of Clay Regazzoni, and broke his nose cone.

He returned to the pits for a new one, and rejoined in 23rd, and last, place, whereupon he began a quite stunning comeback drive, scything through the field and setting fastest laps as he climbed back into the points, which went down to sixth place.

His charge came to a temporary halt behind the obstinate Riccardo Patrese’s Arrows for 10 laps, before he passed the Italian at the chicane in a move that combined skill and muscularity, feinting one way then the other before forcing his way alongside and banging wheels as he went past.

Villeneuve then set off after Didier Pironi’s Tyrrell, closing a 14-second gap in 10 laps before starting to chase down Laffite. With a 21-second advantage and the race almost over, the chase appeared fruitless, but Villeneuve – as was his way – gave it a go.

He reduced the gap by 11 seconds in seven laps but as they headed into their last lap, the Ligier was edging clear again, and Villeneuve’s Ferrari sounded terrible. It was running out of fuel. He made it round to 300m from the finish line before the flat 12 engine coughed its last, and its driver was classified seventh, costing him four points that would have come from finishing third.

After the race, Villeneuve appeared satisfied to have demonstrated once again that he was the fastest driver of the day. But according to Gerry Donaldson’s excellent biography, he later confessed to his wife, Joann: “I hope those four points are not going to be important when this is all over, but I’m afraid they will be. Maybe I’ve just lost the championship.”

There would be other dropped points that year, and Villeneuve ultimately lost the title at the Italian Grand Prix, obeying team orders to sit behind his team-mate on his way to victory. But the fact remains that, as Villeneuve suspected, had he finished third at Zolder, he would indeed have been world champion rather than Scheckter.

Zolder was not a popular track, and it was even less so after Villeneuve was killed there in 1982, by which time he had become firmly established as the finest driver in the world. But this race was a deserving selection this time.

It’s certainly worth watching the other highlights, though, for Mika Hakkinen’s stunning pass of Michael Schumacher in 2000, the controversy between Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna in 1987, Damon Hill’s victory over Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost in 1993 and what looks like being Kimi Raikkonen’s final career F1 victory in 2009.

I hope you enjoy them all.

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

If it’s any consolation for all the messages I’ve received on Twitter about the month break being hard to cope with, we had a big BBC F1 meeting this week and we’re all set for some great content once the action gets going again in Spa at the end of the month.

Jake met up with Jenson Button, training in Guernsey for the London Triathlon

It was quite funny in the meeting because the production team, Eddie Jordan, Martin Brundle and others were all in the room, but David Coulthard was gearing up for this weekend’s DTM race at the Nurburgring so he was involved via Skype.

We were all sitting around a table and there on the six-foot high cinema screen was David’s disembodied head… It was how I imagine schools might be in 2050, with one teacher looking over a number of classrooms via the web! DC didn’t put anyone in detention, you’ll be pleased to know!

I’ll be filling the break with a little holiday with Harriet, my wife. We’re renovating our house and we’ve moved into the world smallest flat for the duration, so going on a beach holiday will be a good escape! I’m also hosting some football, starting with Leeds v Derby this Saturday.

It’s really important for me to keep a broad range of sports under my belt which is why I love doing the odd football game, the NFL or Sports Personality of the Year.

With this in mind, I would love to play a part in the BBC’s coverage of the 2012 Olympics. Therefore, we’ve decided that it would be a good idea for me to be involved in the Commonwealth Games towards the end of 2010.

Michael Johnson and London schoolchildren christened the Olympic Stadium

What this does mean is that I will sadly miss the Japanese Grand Prix. However, you’ll be in the more than capable hands of Lee McKenzie. I’ve actually already been working towards the London Games and I’ve included a snap from the two-year countdown show that I presented with Sophie Raworth last week.

I’ve bumbled around it on a boat, flown over it in a helicopter, and walked around it wearing very unflattering plastic glasses and safety gloves, and the Olympic Site never fails to blow my socks off.

It’ll be a great public park during the games and will not only separate the games themselves from all that have gone before but will hopefully be a legacy that the country can enjoy for years to come.

To see Chris Hoy on his bike in the velodrome, Louis Smith looking around the main stadium, and to think we’re over the halfway mark between Beijing and London makes me realise how quickly we’ll all be in the Javelin train!

Before I sign off, take a quick look at a few other snaps I took on the beautiful island of Guernsey. I had a great day training with Jenson. Well, he was training and I was eating ice cream to be honest, but it was brilliant fun and he is clearly at home there.

This weekend he’s taking part in the London Triathlon – his mild tonsilitis permitting – and I’m sure he’d appreciate the support if you’re down there. Alternatively, you can donate through his Just Giving page.

Have a brilliant summer break yourselves and, trust me, we’ll be back with a bang as the title run-in really hots up!

Jake

All credit goes to the Source of this article.

We have selected four superb races from the event’s history. Your role is to tell us by way of a response on this blog which one is your favourite and why. We will use those views to inform our decision about which one to highlight in the run-up to this year’s Belgian Grand Prix on 29 August.

If that race is from the time when the BBC owned the rights to F1 (ie before 1997), we will show the full ‘Grand Prix’ highlights programme of the time as well as the shorter edit we will cut for all the races.

We will also make available short and long highlights versions of Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen’s victory in Belgium last year.

So, to the choices – they are the 1979, 1987, 1993 and 2000 Belgian Grands Prix.

As some newer readers will almost certainly wonder why we have not included 1998 – with its 13-car first-lap pile-up, the controversial collision between Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard, and Damon Hill leading home a Jordan one-two – it’s worth pointing out here that it was among our choices last year, the others being 1985, 1992, 1995 and 2008.

In 1979, the Belgian Grand Prix was still held at unloved Zolder, before its switch to the majestic Spa-Francorchamps track a few years later.

Villeneuve’s Ferrari rides up into the air, sustaining damage that led to one of his great fightbacks. Photo: BBC

The race was one of three won by Ferrari’s Jody Scheckter on his way to clinching the team’s final drivers’ title before the Michael Schumacher era. But it is remembered more for a stunning fightback by his team-mate Gilles Villeneuve.

Scheckter won after a race-long fight with the Williams of Alan Jones and the Ligiers of Jacques Laffite and Patrick Depailler.

First Depailler led, then Laffite, then Jones, then Depailler, then Laffite again, before finally Scheckter closed in on the Ligier and took a lead he was never to lose with 16 laps to go.

Villeneuve, meanwhile, had been forced to stop for a new front wing at the end of the second lap after becoming entangled in a collision between Scheckter and the second Williams of Clay Regazzoni.

That dropped the Canadian to last place, whereupon he began one of the greatest drives of his career. By the last lap, he was up into third place, only for his car to stutter and then grind to a halt, out of fuel. He was classified seventh. Had Villeneuve finished third, the points would have made him, not Scheckter, world champion that year.

By 1987, our next choice, Spa was firmly established as the Belgian Grand Prix’s new home, having hosted the event in 1983, and then taking over permanently from Zolder in 1985. And like the 1979 event, this one is remembered for something other than the winner – this time an on- and off-track altercation between Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna.

Mansell looked set to dominate after taking pole position nearly 1.5 seconds clear of Williams team-mate Nelson Piquet. But after the first attempt to start the race was aborted following several accidents, the worst involving both Tyrrells at Eau Rouge, Mansell’s hopes were ended on the first lap of the re-started race.

Beaten away by Senna’s Lotus from third place on the grid, Mansell tried to overtake the Brazilian around the outside out the back of the circuit. The two tangled, Senna retired on the spot and Mansell limped around to the pits for repairs, eventually retiring on lap 17 as a result of damage sustained in the accident with Senna.

Still furious, the Englishman then marched down to the Lotus pit to confront Senna. Angry words were exchanged and punches thrown – Mansell even grabbed Senna by the throat before the two were separated.

Out on the track, Alain Prost won the race for McLaren to take his 27th F1 victory, equalling what was then Jackie Stewart’s record of F1 career wins. The Frenchman went on to break the mark in Portugal later that year, before leaving it at 51 when he retired at the end of 1993. Since then, Schumacher has raised the number to 91.

Our following choice, 1993, should probably have been Prost’s 52nd victory, but instead the race was number two for his team-mate Damon Hill.

Prost dominated from pole position until his second pit stop, when a mix-up with his team and then traffic when he rejoined dropped him behind Hill and the Benetton of Schumacher. Prost set the fastest lap as he chased Schumacher, who was himself chasing Hill, but the order stayed that way to the flag.

Hakkinen (left) passes Schumacher in one of the great overtaking moves of all time. Photo: BBC

Finally, we have 2000, a race made famous by McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen pulling off one of the greatest overtaking manoeuvres in F1 history.

As so often that season, the race devolved into a battle between the Finn and Schumacher, who were fighting each other for the title.

Hakkinen dominated in the wet early stages, but as the track dried McLaren delayed brining him in for dry tyres and Schumacher was able to close up, the German taking the lead when Hakkinen spun on a patch of standing water.

Clearly much faster, Hakkinen then began to close on the Ferrari and with four laps to go he had a run on him out of Eau Rouge and up the Kemmel straight towards the chicane at Les Combes.

As the two accelerated close to 200mph and Hakkinen went for the inside, Schumacher moved across on him with typical ruthlessness and, wheel-to-wheel, the two cars nearly touched.

Disturbed, but determined, Hakkinen was in position again a lap later, but as the two cars pounded up the straight a backmarker – Ricardo Zonta’s BAR - was in the middle of the track and it looked like Hakkinen would have to back off.

Schumacher, in the lead with Hakkinen right behind him, had to choose which way to go around the Brazilian, and he went for the outside, the racing line, probably expecting Hakkinen to follow him. Instead, the Finn saw a gap on the inside and dived into it, creating a spectacular sight as the two leaders zapped either side of the backmarker.

Schumacher initially moved to block the McLaren but realised it was too late. Hakkinen claimed the corner, and the race was his.

The drama was not finished, however. As they climbed from their cars in parc ferme, Hakkinen went over to Schumacher and, with his hands mimicking the positions of their cars on lap 40, made it abundantly clear in measured tones how unhappy he was with Schumacher’s driving.

After that, both men declined to discuss the incident in public.

So there you have it – a great selection, I hope you’ll agree. I look forward to reading your views. The videos will be published in the week preceding the Belgian Grand Prix.

All credit goes to the Source of this article.