S11 E8: 1996 Monaco GP - Panis's sensational sole F1 win
Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories
The Race Media Ltd
4.9 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2025
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the final regular episode of Season 11 of Bring Back V10s we let our members on Patreon choose a race from 1996, and they voted for the chaotic Monaco Grand Prix that was won by Olivier Panis's Ligier.
Ahead of the third season of our sister podcast And Colossally That's History, Glenn Freeman and Edd Straw are joined by Colossally co-host Matt Bishop to look back on a bonkers afternoon in Monte Carlo, and to discuss everything else that was going on in F1 around that weekend.
We look at how Panis came through the madness from 14th on the grid to claim Ligier's final F1 victory, and discuss the precarious state the French team was in at the time. And there's also discussion of the heartbreaking retirements from the lead of the race for championship leader Damon Hill and Benetton's under-fire lead driver Jean Alesi.
Speaking of Hill, this was the weekend when the first rumours about his seat being vulnerable for 1997 emerged, and it was also in Monaco that Ferrari first spoke to Ross Brawn about following Michael Schumacher over from Benetton.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.0 | Olivier Pannis only won one Grand Prix in his F1 career, but he at least made sure it was a memorable one. |
| 0:16.0 | Not only did it come in the jewel in F1's crown, the Monaco Grand Prix, but it was one of the craziest |
| 0:21.6 | races to take place on the streets of Monte Carlo, with only three cars still running at the finish. |
| 0:27.0 | And to make it even more dramatic, he won it after starting 14th on the grid, and this was the |
| 0:32.3 | final victory for Ligier in F1. |
| 0:34.9 | So to help me, Glenn Freeman, unpick F1's chaotic 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, |
| 0:40.7 | we have Ed Straw and making his first appearance on Bringback V10s, the co-host of our |
| 0:45.7 | sister podcast and Colossily That's History, Matt Bishop. |
| 0:50.3 | Matt, welcome to the show. I'm sure our listeners will be delighted to have a Bring Back V10's colossally mash up or crossover, use whichever phrasing you prefer. |
| 1:01.0 | So you can take our opening question for the first time, as it's your first appearance. |
| 1:05.5 | When you think of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, what's the first thing that comes to mind? |
| 1:10.7 | Well, can I have two things. |
| 1:12.4 | Of course. I mean, the obvious one is, which we'll talk about, you know, throughout the next |
| 1:18.4 | hour and a bit, Olivier Pannis winning Ligier's 13th and last Grand Prix from 14th on the grid. |
| 1:25.3 | But also, you know, I like my Anorac Facts, David Culfard finishing |
| 1:30.4 | second for McLaren wearing Michael Schumacher's helmet. Yeah, that's a very cool story. I haven't |
| 1:36.5 | actually been able to fit that into our running order for this episode. But perhaps I can expand |
| 1:41.2 | on that when we get around to doing our exclusive Bring Back V10s debrief on this episode on Patreon. Ed, you were very quick to volunteer for this one when I offered it around. So what's your presumably obscure memory from this race? Well, I'm always quick to volunteer for any of them. I'll turn up for any Bring Back V10s. But no, actually, I'm going a little bit off-piece compared to what I normally do. I've got a more personal memory because I watched this race as a 16-year-old Damon Hill fan, and I remember watching this with family. And always the joke that you'd normally have a kind of mid-race pit stop just to pop to relieve yourself. And when I did that, the joke was when I was out of the room, there'd be always some joke about, oh, something's happening, |
| 2:17.8 | oh, so you get noise and everything, and oh, someone's retired. And of course, it never was. |
| 2:22.4 | But in this case, I did happen to time my brief in-race pit stop with Damon Hill's engine failure. |
| 2:28.2 | So I always remember that happening and coming into the room and seeing that it was legitimately |
... |
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