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"It&amp;#039;s hard to make a logical case for Formula 1 today. The cars are incredibly fast, the drivers are superbly skilled, it&amp;#039;s a technological showcase and a thrilling spectacle, and I love it passionately. But if I had to sit down here and explain empirically to someone who&amp;#039;d never watched it why it&amp;#039;s better racing than the World Rally Championship, NASCAR, or the Wednesday night test and tune at the drag strip, I don&amp;#039;t know if I could. What&amp;#039;s the biggest story in F1 this year? Tires? That&amp;#039;s the same as every other year. The mere fact you have to explain F1&amp;#039;s appeal to a novice is evidence that something&amp;#039;s wrong with it. Much of what we love about Grand Prix racing is not the reality of today&amp;#039;s highly managed races, but the accumulated history, and an idea that we&amp;#039;re part of an ongoing story. It&amp;#039;s the thought that today will someday be looked back upon with the same sort of hazy memories of glory as we now remember, say, 1955. But what do we actually know about the early days beyond a few repeated montages of Fangio flinging a Maserati around? Who&amp;#039;s to say it actually was any different 50 or 60 years ago? Perhaps in its own way, it was all just as carefully stage managed and presented as the Bernie Circus is today. Well, in 1955, Shell commissioned a half-hour documentary about the Belgian Grand Prix that says it wasn&amp;#039;t. The Spa-Francorchamps course was then nine miles on public roads, and top speeds on the long straight hit 180 mph, with an average course speed of 120 mph. Corners were marked with hay bales and spectators planted themselves alongside the course, and sometimes from their bedroom windows. Safety fences were the same wire ones that kept cows out of the roads on weekdays. It is, undeniably, dangerous, thrilling, personal, and raw. I can&amp;#039;t conceive of today&amp;#039;s Formula 1 having this sort of appeal in 50 years. In fact, after watching this video, I can&amp;#039;t imagine the sport even lasting another 50 years. At least we&amp;#039;ll always have 1955.      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/videos/a5351/go-news-videos-1955-belgian-grand-prix/>