What Happened On This Day April 12 In F1 History?

What happened on this day, April 12 in Formula 1 history? Find out interesting facts and stories about Formula 1 on this day.

1942

Carlos Reutemann was born on this day in Santa Fe, Argentina. A supremely talented driver, he was capable of brilliance, yet his performances could be as inconsistent as they were spectacular. At his best, he was untouchable, but on other days, he could struggle to make an impact.

This inconsistency was never more evident than in the dramatic conclusion of the 1981 season. On the verge of clinching the World Championship, Reutemann secured pole position with a stunning lap. However, in the race, he faded to a disappointing eighth place—despite only needing to finish ahead of Nelson Piquet, who himself was barely conscious in fifth, to claim the title.

Reutemann’s later years were overshadowed by health issues, leading to his death on July 7, 2021, at the age of 79.

1950

Flavio Briatore was born on this day, rising from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential—and controversial—figures in Formula One. His career, however, will likely be most remembered for his role in the infamous Crashgate scandal, alongside the 1994 Launch Control controversy and the 2007 Spygate affair, although in both cases his teams escaped penalties.

It wasn’t the first time Briatore found himself in trouble. As a young man, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison but evaded incarceration by fleeing abroad until he was legally permitted to return to Italy. From there, his career soared, with success in F1 spanning decades—until his dramatic downfall in 2009 after being forced out of Renault. Fifteen years later, he returned to Renault and the Alpine team as “team boss in all but name.”

1962

Scottish racing driver Ron Flockhart tragically lost his life on this day in 1962 when his Mustang crashed in the Dandenong Hills while preparing for a second attempt to break the record for a flight from Australia to England.

Flockhart competed in 14 Formula One championship Grands Prix between 1956 and 1960, achieving a podium finish in just his third championship race with third place at the 1956 Italian Grand Prix. His best result for Lotus came in 1960 when he finished sixth in France.

Beyond F1, he was best known for his success at Le Mans. In 1956, driving an ex-works Jaguar D-Type for the Scottish privateer team Ecurie Ecosse, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside co-driver Ninian Sanderson. He repeated the feat in 1957, this time partnering with Ivor Bueb, cementing his legacy in endurance racing history.

1981

Brabham driver Nelson Piquet dominated the 1981 Argentine Grand Prix, seizing the lead on the opening lap and holding it until the checkered flag. Meanwhile, Williams driver Carlos Reutemann’s second-place finish propelled him to the top of the drivers’ championship standings. Alain Prost finished third for Renault.

Off the track, controversy surrounded Lotus boss Colin Chapman, who was fined $100,000 for “discrediting the world championship” after alleging that pressure groups had prevented his team from participating in the race.

1981 Argentine Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham Ford	53	1:34:32.740	9
2	2	Carlos Reutemann	Williams Ford	53	+26.610s	6
3	15	Alain Prost	Renault	53	+49.980s	4
4	1	Alan  Jones	Williams Ford	53	+67.880s	3
5	16	Rene Arnoux	Renault	53	+91.850s	2
6	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	52	+1 lap	1
7	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	52	+1 lap	0
8	22	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	52	+1 lap	0
9	30	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows Ford	52	+1 lap	0
10	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	51	DNF	0
11	8	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren Ford	51	+2 laps	0
12	9	Jan Lammers	ATS Ford	51	+2 laps	0
13	4	Ricardo Zunino	Tyrrell Ford	51	+2 laps	0
NC	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	40	DNF	0
NC	33	Patrick Tambay	Theodore Ford	36	DNF	0
NC	7	John Watson	McLaren Ford	36	DNF	0
NC	6	Hector Rebaque	Brabham Ford	32	DNF	0
NC	21	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi Ford	28	DNF	0
NC	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier Matra	19	DNF	0
NC	14	Marc Surer	Ensign Ford	14	DNF	0
NC	20	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi Ford	4	DNF	0
NC	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus Ford	3	DNF	0
NC	28	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	3	DNF	0
NC	3	Eddie  Cheever	Tyrrell Ford	1	DNF	0

1987

Alain Prost battled through scorching conditions to claim victory at the 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix, his third win at the event in four years. Starting from fifth on the grid, he quickly worked his way through the field, seizing the lead by lap 13.

Nigel Mansell faced a frustrating race, compounded by paper debris being sucked into his engine. However, he managed to salvage sixth place, despite a late tyre puncture, after Michele Alboreto’s Ferrari spun off just three laps from the finish. Local hero Nelson Piquet was second in a Williams-Honda, while Prost’s new McLaren teammate Stefan Johansson took third.

1987 Brazilian Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	1	Alain Prost	McLaren TAG	61	1:39:45.141	9
2	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams Honda	61	+40.547s	6
3	2	Stefan Johansson	McLaren TAG	61	+56.758s	4
4	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	61	+99.235s	3
5	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton Ford	60	+1 lap	2
6	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams Honda	60	+1 lap	1
7	11	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus Honda	59	+2 laps	0
8	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	58	DNF	0
9	10	Christian Danner	Zakspeed	58	+3 laps	0
10	3	Jonathan  Palmer	Tyrrell Ford	58	+3 laps	0
11	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell Ford	57	+4 laps	0
12	14	Pascal Fabre	AGS Ford	55	+6 laps	0
NC	18	Eddie  Cheever	Arrows Megatron	52	+9 laps	0
NC	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus Honda	50	DNF	0
NC	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham BMW	48	DNF	0
NC	8	Andrea de Cesaris	Brabham BMW	21	DNF	0
NC	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows Megatron	20	DNF	0
NC	21	Alex Caffi	Osella Alfa Romeo	20	DNF	0
NC	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi Motori Moderni	17	DNF	0
NC	9	Martin Brundle	Zakspeed	15	DNF	0
NC	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton Ford	9	DNF	0
NC	23	Adrian Campos	Minardi Motori Moderni	3	DNF	0

1998

A determined Michael Schumacher took the win at the 1998 Argentine Grand Prix, but the race was overshadowed by controversy after a fifth-lap collision with McLaren’s David Coulthard. Attempting an overtake, Schumacher clipped Coulthard, sending the Scot into a spin and leaving him furious.

“I was angry,” Coulthard said. “I have only got one point from a weekend that could have brought me 10 and that is a bitter pill to swallow. I don’t think it was up to me at that instance to give way to him. There has to be some give and take between drivers otherwise collisions will happen. I suppose it’s that sort of aggression which I guess is needed to get wins and on this day it’s given him a win.”

Schumacher defended his move, explaining, “David went a bit wide, but when I went for it he closed the door and left no room. But I did not want to lift off the pedal because I had the chance. The car was damaged after that which made it not nice to drive, but it was good enough.” Despite the incident, Schumacher drove to victory, securing an important win for Ferrari. Mika Hakkinen finished second for McLaren, with Eddie Irvine third in the sister Ferrari.

1998 Argentine Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	72	1:48:36.175	10
2	8	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren Mercedes	72	+22.899s	6
3	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	72	+57.745s	4
4	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	72	+68.134s	3
5	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber Petronas	72	+78.286s	2
6	7	David Coulthard	McLaren Mercedes	72	+79.751s	1
7	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	72	+88.438s	0
8	9	Damon Hill	Jordan Mugen Honda	71	+1 lap	0
9	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	71	+1 lap	0
10	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart Ford	70	+2 laps	0
11	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost Peugeot	70	+2 laps	0
12	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell Ford	70	+2 laps	0
13	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi Ford	69	+3 laps	0
14	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell Ford	68	+4 laps	0
15	11	Olivier Panis	Prost Peugeot	65	DNF	0
NC	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi Ford	63	DNF	0
NC	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	52	DNF	0
NC	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber Petronas	46	DNF	0
NC	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan Mugen Honda	22	DNF	0
NC	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	18	DNF	0
NC	19	Jan Magnussen	Stewart Ford	17	DNF	0
NC	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	13	DNF	0

2015

Defending race winner and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton arrived in China with a three-point lead in the World Drivers’ Championship over Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who had shocked the field with a victory in the previous Malaysian round.

Hamilton secured pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session—his 41st career pole and third in a row. He carried that momentum into race day, leading a dominant Mercedes one-two finish to take the win at the 2015 Chinese Grand Prix ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Vettel rounded out the podium in third.

2015 Chinese Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	1:39:42.008	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	+0.714s	18
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	56	+2.988s	15
4	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	56	+3.835s	12
5	19	Felipe Massa	Williams Mercedes	56	+8.544s	10
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Mercedes	56	+9.885s	8
7	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Mercedes	56	+19.008s	6
8	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber Ferrari	56	+22.625s	4
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Renault	56	+32.117s	2
10	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	55	+1 lap	1
11	11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	55	+1 lap	0
12	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	55	+1 lap	0
13	55	Carlos Sainz	STR Renault	55	+1 lap	0
14	22	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	55	+1 lap	0
15	28	Will Stevens	Marussia Ferrari	54	+2 laps	0
16	98	Roberto Merhi	Marussia Ferrari	54	+2 laps	0
17	33	Max Verstappen	STR Renault	52	DNF	0
NC	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus Mercedes	49	DNF	0
NC	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing Renault	15	DNF	0
NC	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India Mercedes	9	DNF	0

2020

Sir Stirling Moss is often hailed as the greatest all-round racing driver in F1 history and a true icon in the motor racing world. Known during his career as “Mr. Motor Racing,” Moss became a professional driver in 1948 at 18, starting with a Cooper 500.

His early career was meteoric, earning work drives for both Jaguar and HWM. In 1955, a seminal year for Moss, he was signed by Mercedes-Benz, the famed “Silver Arrows,” to partner with the legendary World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio. That year, Moss shadowed the great Argentine in most Grand Prix, famously beating him to win the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree in the Mercedes-Benz W196 Monoposto. Moss also won the epic 1,000-mile Mille Miglia road race in the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR that year at an astonishing average speed of 97.96 mph on public roads, the Targa Florio road race, again in the 300 SLR, and the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod.

Out of the 375 competitive races he finished during his professional career, he won an astonishing 212, achieving more than one win in every two races. A near-fatal accident at Goodwood in 1962 ended his professional racing career.

Even after his death on this day, 12 April 2020, one of the original F1 jet-setters, Stirling Moss, remains a British icon of F1 and motorsports.

F1 Driver Birthdays 12 April

Birthday	F1 Driver
12 April 1907	Eugene Chaboud (d. 1983)
12 April 1917	Robert Manzon (d. 2015)
12 April 1942	Carlos Reutemann (d. 2021)
12 April 1961	Corrado Fabi

Birthday	F1 Mentions
12 April 1950	Flavio Briatore

F1 Driver Deaths 12 April

Death	F1 Driver
12 April 1962	Ron Flockhart (b. 1923)
12 April 2020	Stirling Moss (b. 1929)