I love street circuits, even though we will probably never see them again in F1, apart from Monaco. They are impractical, dangerous and lack passing places, a sure combination to prevent their ever being tried again by the sport. But they are also atmospheric, dramatic, somehow produce good races, and enable the spectators to get closer to the sound and sight and smell of F1 cars than anywhere else.

Just the sound should be enough to convert anyone: experience this video of a Red Bull doing a demonstration run on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil - then tell me that the scream of that engine echoing off the buildings does not stir your blood. And the roads were drenched with rain - the driver was holding back!

My favorite of those street circuits that have gone is Long Beach. The sight of the cars streaming down to the hairpin after the start was one never to be forgotten. And there were always dramatic races at Long Beach; it was the one circuit where you could guarantee that uncompetitive cars suddenly came to the fore, where there were tussles between unlikely competitors and drivers in underpowered cars had a chance to make their mark.

Actually, that last statement is true of most street circuits. It was Detroit where John Watson earned his reputation as the only driver who could overtake on street circuits. And Detroit was a place where nobody could pass! Unfortunately, I could not find a decent picture of the circuit so you will just have to take my word for it that the photo of Senna up there was taken at Detroit.

Even the strange aberration of the circuit in a car park in Las Vegas gave us some great races. It was artificial and a poor excuse for a street circuit but it did let us get close to the action.

Notice that all these places are in the States. It was the only country that Bernie Ecclestone was so desperate to get into that he would accept such circuits. Now that seems to have changed (the money has moved elsewhere) and Bernie asserts boldly that F1 doesn’t really need a race in the USA at all.

So our chances of new street circuits coming along are non-existent. We must content ourselves with the annual and glorious experience that is Monaco - and fight tooth and nail to prevent it ever being taken off the calendar. It may be dangerous, cramped, outdated and whatever else its critics throw at it; but it is also the last reminder of a time when the public could experience F1 close up and the drivers had never heard of such a thing as safety.

It’s that man Senna in the lead again - but there’s something else interesting about this photo. Starting from the front, we have a McLaren, a Tyrrell (!), two Williams, a Benetton, a McLaren and two Ferraris. Then come a Jordan and another Benetton, but what are those two red cars behind them? They sure look like two more Ferraris to me.

Just to round it off, there are a Tyrrell, a March and a Minardi after that. But those red cars have me wondering. I suppose I could dig in the records and find out but I thought it might be more interesting to see if anyone has a better memory than I do - can you help me out?

As reported by F1 Racing-live, Olivier Panis will retire from his position as Toyota’s test driver at the end of the year. He is hoping to race in other formulae but has decided that F1 is no longer for him.

Olivier’s career in F1 began with the Ligier team in 1994. He showed considerable promise, driving the uncompetitive car to unexpectedly high positions and, in 1996, he won the Monaco Grand Prix. Admittedly, this was after almost the entire field had spun off or collided in the wet conditions but Olivier avoided the trouble to come through at the end. And that’s what counts.

Panis continued to drive for Ligier after Prost took over the team and renamed it. In 1997 he produced some excellent early results, second in Spain and third in Brazil, but in Canada he broke his leg in a bad accident, thus putting an end to a promising season.

Thereafter, Olivier’s F1 career went downhill. He left Prost at the end of 1998 and signed for McLaren as a test driver. Returning to competition in 2001 with BAR, he found that the car was less than he’d hoped and, after two years, he departed for Toyota’s new team.

Although the Toyota improved steadily during 2003 and 2004, Olivier elected to take on a test driver role for them from 2005 onwards. And now he has decided to call it quits. He leaves F1 with a reputation for being a competent and solid driver. Always honest, Olivier could be counted on for some good quotes on F1 events. I will miss his insights into the Toyota team.

Today, F1 Racing-live dot com has a very good article on evolving safety measures at Grand Prix circuits. I was going to write a little post on how things have developed in this area and knew immediately that I would need some relevant photos. But then this happened:

I was looking for a photo of Monaco to show the impossibility of having runoff areas there when I came across the picture below. At first glance it seems quite normal but then one notices some strange things about it. Since when have ordinary members of the public been allowed to sit and watch the race from the inside of the Loews hairpin, for instance?

At which point, we see the Mercedes just ahead of the two Williams and presume that this is the pace car and there must have been an incident somewhere to bring it out. Only the Williams team has caught it as yet. But then we see the parked cars before the hairpin and realize that this cannot be a race; it’s a demonstration run of some kind.

The picture was so unusual that I had to include it in this article and, while I was doing that, I decided to have a bit of fun with it:

Then, having made the guy in the pic ask the question, naturally I had to answer it with this:

It is, of course, Mansell giving Senna a lift back to the pits after winning the British GP of many years ago. Senna’s car had broken down a long way from home and “Our Nige” took pity on him on his victory lap. I am pretty sure that this would not be allowed today, just as they have long banned the practice of picking up your national flag for display on your winning lap.

There are two F1 races that are “must-sees” for me each year and, perhaps predictably, they are are held on old circuits that have managed to resist the worst excesses of the chicane-insertion years. One is the Monaco GP, which survives against all modern reasoning, and the other is the Belgian GP on the Spa circuit.

It is easy to criticize Monaco; tight and narrow streets, no run off areas, plenty of concrete to punish the smallest of errors and (we’re told) no opportunity for passing. Yet it is an incredible spectacle, the only GP run through city streets and a tradition that the FIA dare not touch. And, in spite of its lack of passing places, it always gives rise to dramatic races and fierce tussles.

The strange thing about Monaco is that you are more likely to see cars passing each other on the track there than at any other circuit. Every year there seems to be two or three drivers who manage to progress up the leader board despite the race’s reputation for no overtaking.

Why is this? Could it be that the reputation is undeserved and that it is actually well within the bounds of possibility to pass at Monaco? I think the answer lies in several factors. For one thing, the circuit is so tight that the cars do not attain the huge speeds they achieve elsewhere; it is risky to attempt a passing manoeuver but the slower speeds mean that there is more chance of halting the car before disaster occurs. This encourages the more determined drivers to have a go anyway.

And determination plays its part too. Most of the overtaking at Monaco happens away from the first few places and involves either drivers who have little to lose by risking a racing accident or top line drivers who have been relegated to the back of the grid by misfortune or a misdemeanor - they, too, have nothing to lose.

It is true that any passing manoeuver at Monaco requires some co-operation from the driver in front; it would be very easy to be obstinate and send both cars crashing into the wall. Yet every driver wants to finish the race and so, generally, once the car behind has the inside of a corner, the driver in front will allow discretion to be the better part of valor.

Whatever the reason, the fact is that passing does happen at Monaco. And that is more than can be said for many of the modern circuits.

Spa is magnificent, of course. Even though it is a shortened circuit, the best parts have been retained and the new section carefully designed to fit in with the older circuit. And the Eau Rouge corner remains as the most severe test of nerve and skill in F1. To see drivers hanging on grimly to the edge through that swooping corner is the highlight of the year.

The driver who supplied my most undying memory of Eau Rouge was the highly unlikely Andrea de Cesaris in the 1983 Alfa Romeo. We always felt that Andrea was just a little out of his depth in F1 for, after a flying qualifying lap, he would get out of his car with eyes staring and hands shaking. He was fast but so prone to accidents that the McLaren team called him Andrea de Crasheris.

In 1983, however, Andrea had matured a great deal and secured a seat with the Alfa Romeo team (wonderful cars, no reliability at all). He raced well throughout the year, always near the front, yet bad luck prevented him from winning a race. But at Spa, everything came together.

At the start, Andrea leapt into the lead and raced away from the field. For lap after lap he went through Eau Rouge flat out, the Alfa barely managing to hang on to the last few millimeters of road surface. It was an incredible sight, man and machine at the utmost limit of their ability, and I have never seen another driver take Eau Rouge as Andrea did that day.

Deep into the race, the inevitable happened. The Alfa’s engine went bang and Andrea coasted to a halt, a well-deserved win slipping from his grasp. It remains his finest race performance and a sight that confirms me in my love for Spa and the Eau Rouge corner. Let the FIA never remove it from the calendar.