Motor Sport F1 Show with Mark Hughes

John Surtees has a lot of fans. That much is clear from how many questions and good wishes were submitted when we announced we were recording a podcast with him.

He’s also amazingly sprightly and his memory is far better than mine. At the end of the podcast below I fired a completely random question to him about racing around the streets of Madrid in the late 1950s and within a matter of seconds he was into a story about the crowds and Francisco Franco sitting in a dangerous place. Astonishing.

We talk through the 2016 Motor Sport Hall of Fame shortlist (below) and John gives his view on who he’d like to see victorious in each category. What’s more, we take as many questions as possible.

The shortlist, as voted for by you, is: Formula 1 – Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, Gilles Villeneuve, Professor Sid Watkins, Sports cars – Derek Bell, Brian Redman, Pedro Rodríguez, Motorcycling – Joey Dunlop, Mike Hailwood, Valentino Rossi, Rallying – Richard Burns, Sébastien Loeb, Hannu Mikkola, US racing – Dan Gurney, AJ Foyt, Roger Penske.

Here’s what Il Grande John had to say…

40 minutes with the 23-time Isle of Man TT winner before he was awarded the Segrave Trophy.

The first in a new series – we look back at the 2008 and 2009 Formula 1 seasons when Honda pulled out of the sport. Ross Brawn and Nick Fry, after trying to find a buyer, decided to purchase the team themselves. What followed was one of the most remarkable seasons in Grand Prix history. Here is the full story.

Simon Arron, Damien Smith, Mark Hughes and Rob Widdows are joined by Williams' Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds to review testing and preview the 2016 Formula 1 season.

This weekend at Race Retro Damien Smith sat down with 1996 Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill and head of Williams Heritage Jonathan Williams.

The first half is dedicated to Damon’s racing career with questions from you, the Motor Sport readers, while the second part looks at the cars which brought Damon so much success.

Ex-McLaren team manager Alastair Caldwell joins us for our second podcast of 2016. We look back at how he got his foot in the door at the now-Woking-based outfit, his memories of Bruce McLaren, the 1976 World Championship with James Hunt and which driver impressed him the most.

You will also hear about our request for stories from anyone who was at Brands Hatch in 1976 for the British Grand Prix. In the July issue of the magazine we're looking back at that day and, instead of giving you the (well-told) story from the paddock, we want to hear from you. Were you there? Did you throw cans on the track? What are your memories? Do please use #Brands76 on social media to share your stories. Alternatively, you can leave a comment below or email [email protected].

The first podcast of 2016 is here. We persuaded four-time Indycar champion and three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti to come down from Scotland for it and, after answering readers' questions, we launched the shortlist for the final 2016 Hall of Fame category: US racing.

We talk about Jim Clark, Franchitti's most satisfying race win, his perfect car for driving the north coast of Scotland and even Ganassi's 'secret' tunnel used for aero testing...

In the second half the team decides the shortlist for the US racing category.

As always, let us know what you think and thank you very much for sending in so many questions.

The Formula 1 season review podcast is here! We welcome back Williams' chief technical officer Pat Symonds for a discussion of the year's events, themes and challenges. Dec 18, 2015

The fourth Hall of Fame category is here. This month we turn to motorcycling and its greatest names. To help us narrow all the names down to a short list of 12 we brought in Mat Oxley and ex-MotoGP rider Jeremy McWilliams.

We run through two-wheeled stars from Valentino Rossi to the cheeky Londoner Barry Sheene. As Rob says in the introduction this one's for all you racers.

As always, let us know what you think.

It was 5am and due to a computer failure the queue for check-in at Gatwick airport snaked out of the terminal door. Because of all the audio equipment needed to record a Motor Sport podcast there was no way I could proceed with hand luggage only.

Having tried for a few years to secure Nigel Mansell as a podcast guest it looked like I was going to miss the flight to Jersey and the first proper chance... This was going to be a tough one to explain to editor Damien.

Amazingly – with a little queue jumping – I made the flight and The Mansell Collection in St Helier, Jersey by 10am. The 1992 World Champion was there already, finishing another interview and within 15 minutes of arriving the tape is rolling.

The next hour is spent talking about his rise to Formula 1, his memories of Colin Chapman, his stint in Indycar, the touring car outings and his thoughts on the likes of Senna, Piquet, Prost and Keke Rosberg. Oct 26, 2015