Formula 1’s 1000th Grand Prix is this weekend at the Shanghai International Circuit for the Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2019 and we begin the lost circuit series with the host of the 500th race, the much very loved Adelaide Street Circuit.

The great city of Adelaide played host to the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix for 11 years from 1985-1995 and was a favourite amongst the drivers, teams, media and fans around the world.

It was a temporary street circuit in the east parklands of the city, adjacent to the central business district in South Australia.

The circuit was 3,780 km (2.349 miles) in length, which still currently just meets the FIA’s Formula 1 circuit requirement length by a narrow .280 km.

The circuit began in Victoria Park Racecourse with the lap starting off with the famous “Senna Chicane”. It then snaked it’s way through from Wakefield Street with 90 degree left and right handers, up to the changing direction turns seven and eight “Banana Bend” and into the popular “Stag Corner” right hander. Then they charged up the Jones Straight (Rundle Road) and into the fast turn nine “Brewery Bend” kink, which then saw the cars blast along the long Sir Jack Brabham Straight (Dequetteville Terrace) before braking and slowing down into the Race Track Hairpin right hander. The cars then returned back into Wakefield Street and into the Paddock Turn 13 left hander and returned into the racecourse running down to the Adelaide hairpin and completing the lap.

The streets were nice and wide, which offered plenty of room for overtaking and was widely accepted as the best of it’s kind in the world.

The longer “Grand Prix” version of the circuit has also been run by the American Le Mans Series (Race of a Thousand Years) on New Year’s Eve in 2000 with the shorter 3.219 km (2.349 mile) layout as displayed with the red lines is currently used by the Australian Touring Car Championship/Virgin Australia Supercars Championship since 1999. Also a smaller 1.4 kilometre (0.9 mile) sprint circuit has been run for the Victoria Park Sprint segment of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival since 2014.

The party-like atmosphere often reminded the Formula 1 world of Monaco and it’s tough, physically demanding circuit, which was one drivers really wanted to win to end the season on a high whether or not the Driver’s and Constructors Championships were on the line.

The Adelaide Grand Prix was run in a relaxed and professional manner as legendary Formula 1 commentator Murray Walker described it and set the standard among race-tracks around the world and created a long lasting legacy carried over to the Superloop Adelaide 500 and Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

It is still talked about in the Formula 1 paddock today and one of the most missed circuits in the sport along with the old longer Hockenheimring, the Nurburgring Nordschleiffe, Brands Hatch, Long Beach, Imola and many more.

Onboard lap of the Adelaide Street Circuit

Here is an onboard lap of the historic street circuit with the late, great, two-time Adelaide Grand Prix winner and three-time World Champion, Ayrton Senna in his Marlboro McLaren-Honda MP4/6 3.5L V12 in 1991:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGfsQ-3ZyAk

Adelaide’s moments in F1 history

• 1985: The inaugural Australian Grand Prix saw the legendary Ayrton Senna dance his Renault-powered Team Lotus 97t to pole position with 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg winning the first race on the Adelaide Street Circuit. It was also three-time World Champion Niki Lauda’s final race for McLaren and Formula 1 with the Austrian crashing out from the lead on lap 57. The first Adelaide Grand Prix also won the Formula One Promoters Trophy as the best run Grand Prix on 1985.

• 1986: Probably one of the most remembered races in Formula 1 history, two Williams drivers (Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell) and a McLaren (Alain Prost) fighting for Formula 1’s top honour, the World Driver’s Championship. Mansell’s tyre exploded in spectacular fashion at over 290kph on the Sir Jack Brabham Straight, destroying his title hopes on lap 63. A lap earlier, McLaren’s Keke Rosberg in final race, also suffered a tyre failure after leading the race by a huge 30 seconds. Rosberg’s McLaren team-mate Alain Prost won the title after his first victory in Adelaide, with the Frenchman becoming the first back-to-back World Champion since Sir Jack Brabham done so in 1959 and 1960 with the latter watching Prost emulate his feat. It was also 1980 World Champion Alan Jones’ final Grand Prix after a good qualifying, taking 15th and retiring from the race early on lap 15 due to a blown engine.

• 1987: It was Ferrari’s first Formula 1 victory on Australian soil with Gerhard Berger dominating the race and taking the fastest lap with Ayrton Senna taking second place for Lotus before being disqualified for having larger brake ducts, which promoted Berger’s team-mate Michele Alboreto to second, giving the Scuderia it’s first one-two since the 1985 Canadian Grand Prix. Benetton’s Thierry Boutsen completed the top three in the final race for the Ford V6 Turbo as the company opted to build a 3.5L normally aspirated V8 engine to prepare for the 1989 season.

• 1988: In a McLaren-Honda MP4/4 almost dominated season of 1988 Formula 1 World Driver’s Champion Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, Senna claimed his 13th pole position of the season, with the duo over 1.6 seconds clear of Williams’ Nigel Mansell. Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger, who knew he did not have enough fuel to finish the race, wanted to run his F187/88C in full boost and give a great show to the fans. Berger’s Ferrari team-mate Alboreto also wanted to do the same sending the Scuderia’s final turbo engine in a blaze of glory but was not to be as he crashed out in his last race for Ferrari on lap three with the Dallara-Ford of fellow Italian compatriot Alex Caffi on lap three. Berger got his plans into action passing Senna on the third lap and snatching the lead from Prost on lap 14. The Austrian continued to build a solid gap before being taken out by Ligier’s Rene Arnoux on lap 25 whilst attempting to pass the Frenchman. Prost then won from team-mate Senna, with outgoing World Champion Nelson Piquet in his Team Lotus-Honda 100t giving the Japanese engine manufacturer a dominant Honda turbo-podium send off before the 3.5L naturally aspirated engines were brought in.

• 1989: This was the first of two wet races in Adelaide, newly crowned three-time World Champion Alain Prost retired after one lap, protesting the wet and wild conditions. Only eight cars finished the Grand Prix with the other most notable retirements of the race including former champions Nelson Piquet who ran his Lotus into the back of Piercarlo Ghinzani’s Osella on the 19th lap and Ayrton Senna who drove his McLaren-Honda MP4/5 into the back of Martin Brundle’s Brabham-Judd, whilst with a huge 30 second margin on lap 13. Williams’ Thierry Boutsen won the event from Benetton’s Alessandro Nannini and team-mate Riccardo Patrese.

• 1990: The sport’s 500th Grand Prix since it’s inception in 1950, newly crowned World Champion Ayrton Senna dominated qualifying and took pole in his McLaren-Honda MP4/5B. The Brazilian lead the race for 61 laps until crashing out after a gearbox failure. Benetton’s Nelson Piquet won the race, his second in a row after winning in Japan. Ferrari’s Nigel Mansell came close in his final race for the Maranello-outfit, posting fastest lap times and chasing down both Senna and Piquet. Mansell finished just three seconds behind Piquet after a late last-lunge attempt at Race Track Hairpin, narrowly missing both Brabham’s Stefano Modena and race winner Piquet in the process. Mansell was too far back and just managed to slow his Ferrari 641 enough to avoid Piquet’s Benetton as he turned into the corner.

• 1991: It was the shortest race in Formula 1 history, running just 14 laps. Newly-crowned multiple World Champion Ayrton Senna won the event and waved furiously in his V12 Honda-powered McLaren MP4/6 to stop the race because the conditions were too dangerous. 1990 winner Nelson Piquet also retired from the sport, having won three world titles and 24 Grand’s Prix. Only half points were awarded, the first time it happened since the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix.

• 1992: In his last Formula 1 race before moving to IndyCar, 1992 World Champion Nigel Mansell blasted his dominant Williams-Renault FW14B V10 to pole position. He was taken out at the Adelaide Hairpin by McLaren’s Ayrton Senna on the 18th lap, Senna’s team-mate Gerhard Berger won the race, in the Woking-based outfit’s final Grand Prix win with Honda engines before using Ford 3.5L V8 engines for the 1993 season. Berger won narrowly by 0.741 seconds ahead of Benetton’s Michael Schumacher and Martin Brundle who finished a further 54 seconds behind the Austrian.

• 1993: It was Ayrton Senna’s 41st and final Grand Prix victory in Formula 1, 62nd pole position of his career and his final race for McLaren before moving to Williams for the 1994 season. It was also the last Grand Prix for newly-crowned four time World Champion Alain Prost who finished second for Williams and it was the last time both Senna and Prost stood together on the podium. Prost’s Williams team-mate Damon Hill rounded out the podium.

• 1994: The World Championship was decided in Adelaide for the second time, with Williams’ Damon Hill and Benetton’s Michael Schumacher famously colliding on lap 35 at turn six with neither able to finish the race. Schumacher therefore claimed the first of his seven world titles with Hill finishing only one point behind the German. 1992 World Champion Nigel Mansell, who made what was thought to be one-off comeback for Williams, clinched pole position for the race and also helped Williams to claim it’s third consecutive Constructors Championship (seventh overall at the time). The Briton went onto to take his 31st and final victory ahead of former Ferrari 1989 team-mate Gerhard Berger and Martin Brundle’s McLaren-Peugeot MP4/10.

• 1995: This was Adelaide’s final Grand Prix before the race was moved to Melbourne and the Albert Park Street Circuit. A huge 210,000 crowd in attendance and 520,000 over the four days gave it the second largest crowd to first place Indianapolis in Formula 1 history. It was a horrific Friday qualifying for McLaren-Mercedes driver Mika Hakkinen who suffered a tyre failure at the high-speed Brewery Bend, between the Jones and Brabham Straights. The Finn crashed heavily into the wall and required a trackside tracheotomy, which was performed trackside by a local doctor who was spectating where the crash took place. Hakkinen was then transferred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. The Finn spent a full month recovering in hospital. Damon Hill won the final Adelaide Grand Prix for Williams, lapping all the finishers by a dominant two laps. The race was also the third time that Adelaide won the Formula 1 Race Promoters Trophy, having won it at the inaugural event in 1985 and the 500th Formula 1 Grand Prix in 1990.

The city of Adelaide will always have a special place in the hearts and minds of all the Formula 1 world with many great memories that will live on forever.