Badger's Favourite F1 overtaking moves
- Published on Jan 18th, 2011 by Benson JammichelloSeeing as it’s the off season and there’s not much happening, we at Badger thought we’d have a look back at what makes F1 so exciting – the overtaking.
Let’s face it – it’s the reason we all watch and the one thing that’s guaranteed to be talked about for years to come.
So, what we’ve done is asked a number of the BadgerGP writers to give us their favourite overtaking moves. Let us know yours at the bottom (including video clips if you can find them...)
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First up, the main man himself, Adam Milleneuve who’s chosen the ‘electric’ (his words) Senna vs Mansell move in Barcelona 1991.
[youtube width="580" height="400"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzN9u7T3iNg
The first thing that strikes us is the way the cars are so close at such high speed, especially in the days when safety wasn’t what it is now. These guys were, not to put too fine a point on it, lunatics. Old school.
The second thing that strikes us is a question: could we see this action now? The closeness of the wheel to wheel racing at the front of the grid; was it better in the old days? Look how close they get and decide.
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Secondly, Jimmy von Weeks, Badger favourite former Welsh karting champion, has gone for Montoya passing Schumacher at Brazil 2001, saying he made an instant decision as otherwise he’d “have spent the rest of the day on YouTube watching F1 cars pass each other.”
This was Montoya’s third Grand Prix, but it doesn’t look like it from the way he muscled Schumacher out of the way. World Champion?! Pah. Top stuff.
[youtube width="580" height="400"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Ve9BOIIac
As much as it pains us to say it, credit is due to Schumacher for realising what is going on and making sure there wasn’t an accident. Montoya came from a long way back and could easily have caused an accident (as could so many of the great overtaking moves), but Schumacher was aware of it and fought all he could without ruining his race.
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Thirdly, a recent addition to the Badger team, Graham Moggipaldi has chosen another classic.
To start with, he wanted to go for Schumacher on Barrichello at Austria in 2001 (or 2002), but thought that wouldn’t be a popular choice...
[youtube width="580" height="400"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u7EEdscVJI
Therefore, he went for Nelson Piquet (senior, obviously...) on Ayrton Senna in Hungary 1986.
[youtube width="580" height="400"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2o1klPy5dU
Amazing. Not a traction control device in sight...
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Badger's resident F1 oracle and knower-of-all-things, Riccardo Monza, has plumped for Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) overtaking Alan Jones (Williams) around the outside of the awesome Tarzan corner at Zandvoort, during the Dutch GP in 1979.
According to Mr Monza, it was "a mega battle for the lead which later ended with Gilles' famous puncture, two spins, and crawl back to the pits on 3 wheels episode. Alan and Gilles had plenty of good battles that year and thereafter." Great stuff!
[youtube width="580" height="400"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaLRdO10UW8
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Last, but by no means least, Benson Jamichello (and the collator of this article) has gone for Hakkinen on Schumacher at Spa in 2000.
Watching this in the context of Hakkinen and Schumacher’s rivalry and the epic grandeur of the Spa circuit, as well as the hapless Zonta stuck in the middle of the two, makes this your correspondent’s favourite overtaking move.
Even though Hakkinen eventually lost the Championship war to Schumacher, he created sheer F1 poetry.
[youtube width="580" height="400"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM4dQdpgHf8
Comments and Discussion
No question really. That move by Mika is just incredible. So brave and rarely did people outsmart Schumacher in those days.
Mika's is definitely one of my favourites as well. another great overtake that always springs to mind is alonso's pass on schumacher round the outside of 130R in 2005.
My top 5 choices in ascending order are:
5. Alonso vs Heidfeld at Magny Cours in er 2007? (not sure about the year). Perfectly judged by both drivers, absolute commitment and jaw dropping to watch.
4. Villeneuve vs Schumacher, Portugal 1996. Needing a win to stay in contention will championship leader Hill, Jacques found himself behind Schumacher in traffic. Taking full advantage of backmarkers, he got a run into the final corner and sat it out around the outside. Later Schuie told Jacques he shouldn't have even attempted the move, and in an echo of James Hunt vs Mario Andretii at Zolder 2 decades previously, Jacques told him he'd damn well overtake wherever he liked.
3. Mansell vs Piquet, Silverstone 1987. A classic Mansell LAST 10 LAPS NEW TYRES MANSELL CHARGE, he made it all the more special by doing it in front of his home crowd.
2. Senna vs the world, lap 1 Donnington 1993. The embodiment of driver at one with his car, he made everyone else look like they were parked on the track. No matter how much I dislike most of his other "let me through or we'll crash" overtakes, this was 2 minutes of pure genius.
1. Mansell vs Berger Mexico 1990. On fresh tyres, Berger caught and passed Mansell (himself on very worn tyres) with big lunge at the end of the straight which Nige did well to see coming. Having been woken up from his pretty average pace, our Nige proceeded to put on one of his famous late race charges although uniquely on used tyres. On the penultimate lap he sold two dummies and sold one up *the outside* of the 160mph banked final corner. Total fighting spirit.
80's looks more incredible even Mika moves.
All great choices, and shows how thorughout the years overtaking is prevelent.
My choices?
Villenueve vs Arnoux at Dijon, 1979. Two drivers without fear going wheel to wheel for several corners..and not even for the win!
Raikkonen vs Fisichello, 2005. Kimi had diced his way through the field from 14th to challenge for the lead, and passed Fisi for the lead on the first corner of the last lap to claim a gutsy win.
If it wasn't for the whiny black flag comment afterwards, I would have chosen Barrichello versus Schumacher in Hungary, 2010. Quite a move with quite a history behind it. Oh well, I would like to mention Petrov v. Rosberg, Belgium this year then. Not legendary in any way, but it shows Petrov has some true potential hidden deep inside.
I loved Sato on Alonso at Canada in a Super Aguri !!
I stood up and cheered when that happened
I had totally forgotten about that one! It was awesome.
Thanks for all the comments guys. Some great suggestions there.
I know it's not an overtaking move (I hope you'll forgive me!), but in terms of favourite F1 moments, this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emYvs3D-2q4&fmt=18
is pretty far up the list.
Bravery doesn't really quite cover it.
Ben, don't apologise - that's made my morning. We could do a whole article on 'mad stuff Kimi Raikkonen did'.
Never mind an article, I suspect we might need a series of articles.
From memory (no fact checking has gone on here), I think he said afterwards that he thought he "saw a trail of oil up the other side of the track". The longer you think about it, the more mad it becomes.
i thought he said something along the lines of 'it didn't smell like tyre smoke, so i knew it wasn't a crash' either way... mental!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X3vZRYHWYw