Grand Prix — unleashed by TV
Even a hopelessly addicted Formula 1 (F1) tragic would have to acknowledge that the majority of Grands Prix (GPs) are a reliable cure for insomnia. Some can be interesting in stages during the course of the race but most are either quickly forgotten, or remembered for the wrong reasons. The majority of those in the latter category are recalled for unsporting moments some considered great TV and that consequently never received the penalties they deserved.
There were GPs like the 1982 race at Monaco, which was excruciatingly boring for 73 of the 76 laps and then came alive as the leading contenders either spun, crashed, or ran out of fuel. It was a race that no one seemed to want to win!
F1 fanatics will have races they recall above others because their favourite drivers or teams won — and then there is the prospect of misty-eyed nostalgia varnishing what really happened.
Perhaps it’s that category into which my memory of the 1990 French GP falls — but for we Kiwis who were largely starved of instant international information, that race marked a
