Classic F1 races to watch

Ben McCarthy

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Classic F1 races to watch image

08252025

Formula 1 returns this week to the Dutch Grand Prix, which means a racing void of nearly four weeks is set to end. Ten races stand between now and the end of the campaign, which will see the championship resolved by Abu Dhabi, in early December.

But to trigger even more excitement, ahead of F1’s return, here are some races that you can watch on the F1TV app.

Alike in the previous article, only one race per decade will be chosen, which this time will include one from the 1980s, one from the 1990s and one from the 2000s.

1987 British Grand Prix

Unlike this season’s intra-team battle for the world drivers’ championship, there was a genuine animosity and dislike between the two Williams drivers of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell.

It had come about because of Piquet not getting the number one treatment, that he believed he was owed, when he debuted for the team as a double world champion, in 1986.

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But Mansell had the measure of him, even if Alain Prost did pip them both to the championship.

Yet despite the strong start to 1987, from both Prost and arising new star Ayrton Senna, it became more obvious that Piquet was battling just the moustachioed-Mansell for the crown.

At the British Grand Prix, Piquet started from pole but was passed by Prost in the run up to the first turn, Copse. Swiftly stealing the place back, and having Mansell pursue him, the Brazilian was comfortable in the lead.

However, his lead extended when Mansell dived into the pits, following a wheel-bearing issue, which affected the balance of his tyres. With 28 laps left, Piquet’s lead was around that many seconds, but the Brit reeled him in.

At his home race, Mansell reverberated the energy of the British crowd and diced, not just with his teammate, but with the fabric of motor racing history, as the crescendo to this race proved.

To find out who won, and how, make sure you watch this epic race.

1996 Monaco Grand Prix

What does a hectic race look like in 2025? 15 finishers, 12, perhaps even only 10? Well at this race, only three drivers saw the chequered flag, as rain hit and the track and caused mayhem.

But it was not just that. Around Monaco, where qualifying is seemingly everything, the winner started from outside of the top ten, in what turned out to be his only triumph of his grand prix career.

But where were the other names? Well, Schumacher started from pole but did not see the end of lap one, let alone the chequered flag, after he collided his Ferrari against the barriers. Damon Hill was set to replicate his father, Graham, by winning a race that the late champion had won five times, but reliability troubles desperately plagued him.

Jacques Villeneuve, in the sister Williams, also did not see the race’s climax, after suspension damaged cast him aside from the race. But they were only a handful of a collection of race-turning episodes, that marked this race as one of a kind.

2000 Japanese Grand Prix

In an era where Ferrari have been bereft of championship winning glory, it is worth recalling what winning has yielded, both to them and as a sporting spectacle.

Michael Schumacher joined the Maranello team as a world champion, in 1996, but could not cross the finish line with the prize. He was denied in both 1997 and 1998, at the final round, while another Ferrari driver of Eddie Irvine missed out on the title by just two points, in 1999.

But at the turn of the century, Schumacher re-ignited his battle with McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen, the man who denied him the championship in 1998. All of the tension, doubt, belief and will sent fate to Suzuka, where it would be a straight fight between the two leading drivers of that time.

Schumacher needed a win to confirm the title but would be passed at lights out by the McLaren. But carrying more fuel than the Finn, the German’s final pit stop came after he pumped in a string of electric laps, which allowed him to overcut his way to the lead.

With drizzle forming in the air, the tension was palpable, but a long-awaited first drivers’ title was won by Schumacher, and realised by Ferrari for the first time in 21 years.

It clearly meant everything, and was a decisive moment in the history of the sport, as well as setting the tone for the Ferrari domination that followed.

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Ben McCarthy

Ben McCarthy is a freelance sports journalist, commentator and broadcaster. Having specialised his focus on football and Formula One, he has striven to share and celebrate the successes of both mainstream and local teams and athletes. Thanks to his work at the Colchester Gazette, Hospital Radio Chelmsford, BBC Essex and National League TV, he has established an appreciation for the modern-day rigours of sports journalism and broadcasting.