April the twentieth has quietly accumulated more Formula 1 history than almost any other date on the calendar. In this episode we trace the thread — from Phil Hill, born on this date in 1927 and still the only American-born Formula 1 World Champion, to Stuart Lewis-Evans, the forgotten Vanwall driver born three years later who helped his team win the first Constructors' Championship and then died for it. We mark the anniversary of Ayrton Senna's first pole position, set at Estoril on April 20th, 1985 — the opening chapter of the greatest qualifying record the sport has ever seen.

And at the centre of it all: Imola, April 20th, 2003. The night Michael and Ralf Schumacher flew to Cologne to be at their mother's bedside. The race they came back to run. The podium without champagne.

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

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.

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

On 18 April 1971, Jackie Stewart won the Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuïc Park, Barcelona — in a car designed at a kitchen table and built in a fifty-pound wooden shed in Surrey. It was Tyrrell Racing's first Grand Prix victory as a constructor, and the race most widely credited as the first F1 championship event run on slick tyres. A

lso: it's Jochen Rindt's birthday — the only man ever to win the Formula One World Championship posthumously. Chequered Past tells the stories behind the results, every day. 

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

On 17th April 1994, Formula One travelled to TI Circuit Aida — a hundred-million-dollar racing circuit carved from a mountainside in rural Okayama, accessible almost entirely by coach, built by a golf-course billionaire with a vision and a very large cheque book.

The race that followed has been buried under the weight of what came next. But it deserves its own moment. A world champion knocked out before the first corner. A young Brazilian dancing on a podium for the first time. A journeyman Austrian finishing his first and only Grand Prix start, thirteen days before he died. And Ayrton Senna, sitting on a wall, listening to a car he knew wasn’t legal.

This is the 1994 Pacific Grand Prix. This is the race that history forgot.

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

Sir Frank Williams founded his first Formula One team funded by a grocery van and sheer will. He conducted team business from a phone box when he couldn't pay the bills. He lost his close friend on a racetrack in 1970, and kept going. He lost his first team to a wealthy investor in 1976, and started again — in an empty carpet warehouse in Didcot — with an engineer he'd convinced to back him on nothing more than belief.

What followed was one of the most remarkable stories in motorsport history. Nine Constructors' Championships. Seven Drivers' titles. Nigel Mansell. Alain Prost. Damon Hill. Ayrton Senna. One hundred and fourteen race victories.

And then, in March 1986, a hire car left a road in the south of France. Frank Williams never walked again.

He was back running his team nine months later.

This episode tells the full story — from South Shields to Silverstone, from the phone box to the podium, and through the tragedies that should have broken him but never did. We also tell the story of the woman beside him throughout: Ginny Williams, whose own role in building one of F1's greatest teams has never quite received the credit it deserves.

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

Every date on the calendar has its stories. But April the fifteenth has something rarer — a pattern.

In 2001, at Ferrari's home circuit, a brother stepped out of the most famous shadow in Formula 1 and wrote a line in the record books that has never been repeated. 

In 2007, a twenty-two-year-old rookie finished second in Bahrain and quietly announced that the sport had a new era coming. 

In 2012, a silver car crossed the line in Shanghai and ended a silence that had lasted fifty-seven years — setting in motion a chain of events that would reshape Formula 1 for the next decade.

And then there's 2018. No record broken, no dynasty launched. Just Daniel Ricciardo, a rebuilt engine, a strategic gamble, and one of the great drives of the modern era.

Four races. One date. This is Chequered Past.

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

The 14th of April is just another date on the calendar. Unless you love motorsport — in which case it's one of the most remarkable dates in Formula One history.

In this episode we tell the stories of four races, all run on the same date across nine decades. In 1929, a mysterious British driver called W. Williams guided a privately-entered Bugatti through the streets of Monte Carlo to win the very first Monaco Grand Prix — a race that almost didn't happen, organised by a cigarette manufacturer who needed to impress a governing body. In 2002, Michael Schumacher and Ferrari arrived at Imola with a car so dominant it bordered on the unwatchable — and proceeded to prove exactly that. In 2013, Fernando Alonso produced a masterclass in tyre management and race craft at the Shanghai International Circuit to win his 31st Grand Prix at his 200th. And in 2019, Lewis Hamilton stood on the podium in Shanghai as the winner of the 1,000th World Championship Grand Prix — ninety years to the day after Grover-Williams took the chequered flag in Monaco.

Four races. Four champions. One date. This is the chequered past.

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

On April 13, Formula One delivered races shaped by precision, power, and split-second decisions.

At Jerez in 1986, Ayrton Senna held off Nigel Mansell by just 0.014 seconds — one of the closest finishes in Formula One history — after a dramatic late charge built on tyre strategy and recovery through the field.

We also mark the birth of Max Mosley, a central and often divisive figure in Formula One. As FIA President, his influence reshaped the sport’s governance and safety, but his tenure was also marked by controversy and dispute.

And in Buenos Aires in 1997, the 600th World Championship Grand Prix unfolded through first-lap chaos, a decisive safety car, and contrasting strategies, as Jacques Villeneuve held off Eddie Irvine to secure victory.

Three moments from the same date — each showing how races, and the sport itself, are decided by margins both on and off the track.

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

On April 12th, Formula One history takes us to Buenos Aires in 1981, where Nelson Piquet delivered a controlled performance from pole, building an early lead that was never challenged. Behind him, Carlos Reutemann marked his birthday with a home podium that kept him at the head of the championship, despite never truly shaping the race.

We explore that race in detail, before stepping back through Reutemann’s career — from debut pole to title contender — and the season that would define him.

From there, we remember Ron Flockhart, a double Le Mans winner whose career reflected an era of versatility across disciplines.

We then close in Brazil in 1987, where Alain Prost secured victory by managing the race as it unfolded — a contrast to the control seen in Argentina six years earlier.

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

On April 11, Formula One history offers four races shaped not just by speed — but by how key moments unfolded.

At Donington Park in 1993, Ayrton Senna transformed the race on the opening lap, moving from fourth on the grid to the lead before the lap was complete. What followed was a Grand Prix defined by changing conditions, pit stop decisions, and maintaining control across multiple phases.

At Interlagos in 1999, Mika Häkkinen lost the lead after a missed shift, briefly handing control to Rubens Barrichello before recovering through strategy and pace to secure victory.

Beyond the World Championship, the 1955 Pau Grand Prix was led and lost through mechanical failure, while the 1976 BRDC International Trophy was controlled from the front from start to finish.

Four races.
Four different structures.
Each one reshaped by a defining moment.

Cover image: By Martin Lee - Senna_1993_European_GP, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Send us Fan Mail

Music by #Mubert Music Rendering