Matt Bishop: F1 Flashbacks

On June 13, 2026, it will be exactly 50 years since Formula 1 staged one of its most eccentric and therefore most memorable races. Eccentric? Memorable? Yes and yes, unquestionably so, for the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix was, is, and always will be the only F1 grand prix won in a six-wheeled car, and that alone guarantees its place in motor sport folklore.But F1’s six-wheeled odyssey does not end there because, although the Tyrrell P34 was the only six-wheeled car ever to race at F1 world championship level, it was not necessarily the most interesting six-wheeled F1 concept.Hear the full story in this podcast, and read more from Matt Bishop at Motor Sport: https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4g9Etma

Let us flash back to Sunday, June 2, 1996; exactly 30 years ago today; a time travel of three decades during which an entire generation of Formula 1 fans has been born, grown up, studied, discovered love, bought cars, paid rent, arranged mortgages, gained weight, dieted, joined gyms, even acquired reading glasses, and learned to mutter darkly about tyre degradation, track limits, and now power unit algorithms. What happened on this day 30 years ago? Michael Schumacher delivered the single greatest grand prix victory of his astonishingly accomplished F1 career, that’s what.Hear the full story in this podcast, and read more from Matt Bishop at Motor Sport: https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/49zZ7ba

Motor sport has always attracted romantics, rogues, and rebels, and Johnny Servoz-Gavin managed to embody all three archetypes simultaneously. He looked less like a racing driver than the bassist of a psychedelic rock band. He was a French F3 champion, a European F2 champion, a multiple Le Mans entrant, and a Matra works driver. Already, before his F1 story had properly begun, his CV was formidable. Servoz-Gavin had climbed the racing ladder correctly, and a glorious destiny appeared to be beckoning him.Hear the full story in this podcast, and read more from Matt Bishop at Motor Sport: https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4dyvlGg

Sixty years ago, Formula 1 entered the finest era in the history of the world championship: that of the naturally aspirated 3.0-litre engine formula.No other F1 engine formula has endured remotely as long, and there was good reason for its longevity, says Matt Bishop. Engines could be V8s, V12s, or flat-12s, or occasionally even stranger configurations. They could be narrow or wide, or torquey or peaky; they could scream, howl, bark, shriek, or thunder according to their cylinder count and design architecture; above all, they all sounded utterly magnificent.Hear the full story in this podcast, and read more from Matt Bishop at Motor Sport: https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4dBJAsA

Forty years ago, Italian F1 driver, Elio de Angelis, died in a Marseille hospital following a testing accident at Paul Ricard the previous day. Matt Bishop looks back on one of F1's great might-have-beens: a man of serious ability, extraordinary charm, and uncommon grace, born in Rome to wealthy parents but the very opposite of arrogant. He won only two F1 grands prix, but there are some drivers whose win stats tell only the smallest fraction of their story. De Angelis is one of them.Read more from Matt Bishop: https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4noZjPZ

Matt Bishop's F1 flashback: 1971 International TrophyGraham Hill's final Formula 1 victory came in the 1971 International Trophy at Silverstone when the veteran driver, almost two decades older than the young and thrusting Emerson Fittipaldi, won at the wheel of a Brabham nicknamed 'lobster claw' for its challenging looks.It was a vignette of an era when our sport was more anarchic, more inventive, and more down-to-earth than it is today.Read more from Matt Bishop at: https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4wbLubC

Matt Bishop's F1 flashback: 1976 Spanish Grand PrixThe controversial FIA decision that changed the course of the Formula 1 world championship.2021's Abu Dhabi season finale wasn't the first time that the title race was decided by an official error. In 1976, James Hunt was disqualified from the Spanish Grand Prix after winning it when his McLaren was found to be too wide.It was a decision that would have ended his title hopes - but it was then controversially overturned on appeal. Hunt then drove to a popular world championship — cheered on by Matt Bishop who now accepts that Niki Lauda should have been crowned in that remarkable year.Read more from Matt Bishop at: https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/3QNwuk4