Only a handful of races into the season and already the doom mongers are out for the scalp of Nelson Piquet Jnr The Renault driver’s erratic start to the year is, in some people’s view, enough to cost him his seat should he disappoint again at Monaco. Now, though I have never been the greatest … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: Piquet, Moto GP, and the star F1 driver of 2009
Ben Evans's articles on RaceFans
Motorsport commentator Ben is RaceFans' resident bookworm. Look out for his verdict on the latest motor racing publications on Sundays.
The Ben Evans column: Technique
Posted onI sadly missed the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday because I was racing in the Czech Republic, so I’ve had to rely on race reports to get a full understanding of what happened. Of all the comment and intrigue from the weekend, the factor that has stood out the most to me, has been the … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: Technique
The Ben Evans Column: Rubens Barrichello and Riccardo Patrese
Posted onAt the Turkish Grand Prix Rubens Barrichello will set a new record as the driver who has started the most Grand Prix, with 257 starts eclipsing Ricardo Patrese’s monumental 265 races. In many respects Barrichello and Patrese have had rather similar careers. Both enjoyed meteoric rises to F1 courtesy of some stellar performances in junior … Continue reading The Ben Evans Column: Rubens Barrichello and Riccardo Patrese
The Ben Evans column: Driving Dijon
Posted onAt the very moment that F1 Fanatics were tuning in to the Bahrain Grand Prix I was busy reliving one of the greatest F1 battles of all time racing at Dijon-Prenois. Dijon was home to F1 racing on and off from 1972 through to 1984, before falling into an international decline that was completed with … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: Driving Dijon
The Ben Evans column: qualified failure
Posted onAnother week, another qualifying rules change, as F1 strives to create a made-for-TV-extravaganza that also produces a good race. The one-hour, 12 lap, sessions used to be cracking TV and a rare opportunity to see what the teams and drivers could conjure up when they focussed their efforts on a single banzai lap. Problem was … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: qualified failure
The Ben Evans column: ITV aren’t bad
Posted onAnother early start for the UK’s armchair fans unfortunately didn’t equate to another exciting race last Sunday. Ferrari dominated and McLaren floundered – with Lewis Hamilton struggling get close to Mark Webber’s Red Bull and Jarno Trulli’s Toyota, let alone actually make a move. Yes he may have been driving for points (in the second … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: ITV aren’t bad
The Ben Evans column: A race worth getting up early for
Posted onF1 2008 started with a bang in Australia – and as a weekend did more to vindicate the views the armchair enthusiast (you and I) have held about F1 for a long time. Before the action even kicked off, I thought that Bernie Ecclestone’s comments demanding that Australia move to a night time race to … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: A race worth getting up early for
The Ben Evans Column: A new year
Posted onEarly March rivals October as my favourite time of the motor sport year. October is great because for me there is nothing like watching Formula Ford from Paddock Hill Bend at Brands Hatch sipping a mug of coffee as dusk closes in. All the championships are playing out and the winners and losers of the … Continue reading The Ben Evans Column: A new year
The Ben Evans column: Kiss & make up
Posted onAs is often the way, potentially the most significant motor sport story of the winter has gone largely unnoticed in the UK press, namely the reconciling of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car after 12 seasons of war. There are few more significant motor sport cautionary tales.
The Ben Evans column: Slowdown
Posted onAnyone with even a passing interest in the non-motorsport world cannot failed to have noticed a global recession is on the horizon. Those who like their economics with a whiff of F1 will have noted that the teams are finding it harder to pull in those all important sponsorship dollars. A disaster, surely? In the … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: Slowdown
Formula 3000: a brief history (part 3)
Posted onThe final instalment in our columnist Ben Evans’ look at the history of Formula 3000. In the 1990s the series briefly tasted success before grid numbers tailed off again. Although it could still occasionally provide great comedy moments and good racing, it was pensioned off at the end of 2004 to make way for GP2.
Formula 3000: a brief history (part 2)
Posted onBen Evans continues his look back at the turbulent history of F1’s former feeder category, Formula 3000. Strange tracks and bad accidents dogged the sport in the late ’80s / early ’90s, but these were the years when Johnny Hebert and Jean Alesi made their way into F1 via F3000.
Formula 3000: A brief history (part 1)
Posted onJuan Pablo Montoya, Nick Heidfeld, Vitantonio Liuzzi – just three recent F1 drivers to have reached the sport through Formula 3000. The series lasted two decades from 1985 to 2004. In the first of a three part series F1Fanatic columnist Ben Evans looks at the rise and fall of F3000.
The Ben Evans column – first thoughts on 2008
Posted onAlready 2008 is looking like being one of the most interesting F1 seasons for a long time, if only because if 2007 was a year of transition, then 2008 will be a year of consolidation (although there are a good number of top driver moves too). This is just my hunch, but I think that … Continue reading The Ben Evans column – first thoughts on 2008
Lapped Legends: Andrea Moda
Posted onI sometimes wonder what the FIA are setting out to achieve with their spoilsport rules. In particular, what is gained by raising the entry fee from $100,000 to $50,000,000? Sure a few bad apples slipped in through the net, but it’s now nigh on impossible for a privateer team to enter F1. Of the bad … Continue reading Lapped Legends: Andrea Moda
The Ben Evans Column: Taking safety seriously
Posted onI recently picked up a copy of Nigel Roebuck’s Inside Formula 1, a collection of his columns from the 1980s. He sticks to his usual themes: Villeneuve, Smoking, Villeneuve, evil left-wing politicians and Villeneuve. But as ever it’s worth keeping with it for the nuggets of pure gold. In particular I was drawn to his … Continue reading The Ben Evans Column: Taking safety seriously
The Ben Evans Column: The next Lewis Hamilton
Posted onAssessing the environmental impact of the 2007 F1 Championship, it is vital to consider all the trees that were cut down for the reprints of the Lewis Hamilton cash-in books which have subsequently appeared on the shelves. Clearly those chapters lauding his d?�?�but title success have had to be reprinted…
The Ben Evans Column: I’d rather be Raikkonen
Posted onOver the weekend I found myself running through the various scenarios that could play out in Brazil on Sunday night. Obviously there is the boring maths bit, who needs to finish where to clinch what. But I was more interested in the different strategies that can be employed by the drivers. On reflection I concluded … Continue reading The Ben Evans Column: I’d rather be Raikkonen
The Ben Evans column: Hamilton’s Mansell moment
Posted onWatching Sunday’s Chinese GP, I found that Mark Blundell’s summation ‘I believe Lewis did nothing wrong’ – bordered somewhere between the scarcely credible and utterly preposterous. Is that ‘nothing wrong – aside from crashing in the pit lane and dicing with Raikkonen when it was totally unnecessary’? Much as Nigel Mansell did in Mexico in … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: Hamilton’s Mansell moment
The Ben Evans column: Better DVDs, please
Posted onI missed Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix because I like to sleep in the tiny hours of the morning. Unfortunately my girlfriend then dragged me out of the house for a country walk and so I missed the repeat as well… As a result my motor sport viewing on Sunday was reduced to a quick spin … Continue reading The Ben Evans column: Better DVDs, please