On 19 April 1970, Jackie Stewart won the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in a March 701 — giving March Engineering their first-ever World Championship victory in only their second race. The team had been founded seven months earlier by four men: a barrister, a racing driver, a production manager, and a designer. Their announcement had shaken the paddock. Whether their ambition could be matched by substance was the question. It could. Meanwhile, Ken Tyrrell was running the winning car while secretly commissioning his own from scratch — a project that would end in triumph at the same circuit twelve months later.

On 19 April 2009, Sebastian Vettel won the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai in the wet, giving Red Bull Racing their first-ever Grand Prix victory in their ninety-second race. It was the beginning of four consecutive world championships and one of the most dominant eras in modern F1 history.

And then there is 19 April 2015 — Lewis Hamilton winning the Bahrain Grand Prix as defending champion, while behind him Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes was failing, Kimi Räikkönen was ending an eighteen-month podium drought with a late pass, and Jenson Button’s McLaren-Honda never made the grid at all. On paper, a procession. Underneath, a sport beginning to crack.

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