All the times Formula 1 has encountered snow

On Wednesday, 21 December, winter officially began: the snow season! To celebrate the arrival of the coldest season of the year GPblog decided to dig into Formula 1's past to find all the times the category has had to deal with snow.

Testing in white

The most recent encounter between snow and Formula 1 dates back to the 2018 winter tests in Barcelona. On that occasion, the teams and drivers were forced to stay in the pits, skipping the morning test session, due to the snowfall that had hit the Catalan city during the previous night. A rare event, but not impossible to see. In fact, even during the 2003 tests snow fell on Barcelona, providing an unprecedented snowy landscape on the Montmeló circuit.

At Silverstone, at least for reasons of latitude, it is easier to come across a completely snow-covered track (which is also why testing in winter is not usually done so far north). Indeed, photos of the snow-covered British circuit can easily be found on the web in 2001, while in 2005 Renault was caught in bad weather during a test session, which was not interrupted.

In the race (but not in the championship)

Never in the history of Formula One has snow fallen during a championship race, not even during free practice or qualifying. However, on two occasions the track was covered in white during a race run with F1 cars but not valid for the championship.

The first case was the 1973 BRDC International Trophy. The race, organised annually by the British Drivers' Association (the BRDC), was held at Silverstone during April of that year. Unusually cold temperatures caused a few snowflakes to fall on the track, but not enough to stop Jackie Stewart's run to victory.

Two years later, however, is the second episode. This time we are at Brands Hatch, where the 1975 edition of the Race of Champions takes place. Snow falls before the race, forcing the organisers to postpone the start. The event then actually came to an end, with the victory of the late Tom Pryce in his Shadow.

Cold car presentations

On two occasions, an exceptionally cold winter in Italy led to heavy snowfall on the day of a car presentation. A souvenir photo from the freezing winter of 2003 is that of the Sauber presentation for that season, with the chilly team members posing with the new car amidst the snow that fell at Fiorano. In memory of the big snowfall of 2012, meanwhile, is the photo of Massa and Alonso with the following season's car in a completely whitewashed Maranello.

The forerunner in the genre, however, was the Arrows team. The British team was supposed to present the car for the 1978 season at Silverstone but had to deal with an enormous snowfall, which forced them to limit it to a few photos of Riccardo Patrese in the cockpit of the single-seater. Even more curious is the encounter between Jordan and the snow, which took place when the team decided to present the car for 2005 in Red Square in Moscow (for sponsorship reasons).

Christmas holidays

In 2007, BMW indulged in a nice trip to St. Moritz, where Nick Heidfeld did some demonstration laps on a snow-covered lake with special tyres. Ferrari and Fisichella imitated them in 2016 when the Rossa sped through the snowy streets of the Lombardy town of Livigno. Renault also decided in 2009 to challenge the snow, but in that case it was the artificial snow of the winter village of Dubai, on which Nelson Piquet Jr. drove.

Mika Hakkinen also joined the list of those who have driven in the snow, taking a ride in his homeland in early 2000 in a special two-seater car that allowed him to take his wife along. Finally, one could not miss Max Verstappen, who in 2016 even tackled a giant slalom in the Kitzbuhel ski resort by mounting chains on the tyres of his Red Bull.