Welcome to the 2008 System 1 grid: Lewis Hamilton clinched his maiden world championship, Crimson Bull was on the point of dominance, and everybody was embracing their emo part. A resurfaced video from the ultimate race of the season confirmed key members of the paddock, together with most of that season’s drivers, lip syncing My Chemical Romance’s punk rock hit, “Welcome to the Black Parade.”
If that’s a string of phrases you by no means anticipated to learn in a sentence, it is best to do not forget that the late 2000s had a really completely different vibe. The endearing clip, which has the texture of a middle-school iMovie challenge, was really an ITV manufacturing that aired earlier than the final race of the season in Brazil.
For these nonetheless new to F1, ITV held the sequence’ broadcast rights within the UK from 1997 to 2008, totaling 206 Grands Prix over 12 years (BBC regained the rights in 2009, however agreed to a cope with Sky Sports activities simply two years later). The community was credited with altering the best way we devour F1 by producing extra interviews, higher digicam angles, and in-depth reporting. Nonetheless, it was closely criticized for interrupting races with commercials, in the end lacking over 31 races’ price of reside motion. Notably, the advert breaks meant viewers didn’t get to see Damon Hill’s gorgeous cross on Michael Schumacher on the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix or the gearbox difficulty that dashed Hamilton’s title hopes at Interlagos in 2007, amongst different pivotal moments.
However let’s get again to the video: lengthy earlier than lip-syncing-as-entertainment was normalized by TikTok, ITV tapped just a few acquainted faces to assist them say goodbye to the game. Whereas drivers like Hamilton, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg solely made temporary appearances, others had been clearly very enthusiastic concerning the process at hand.
David Coulthard, together with future world champions Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel absolutely embraced the emo spirit, taking part in air guitar and dancing round whereas mimicking the American emo band. Martin Brundle, Ted Kravitz, Steve Rider, James Allen (who has since joined Motorsport Community), and the late Murray Walker had been additionally featured within the video, earlier than ITV made a self-deprecating reference to their important variety of industrial breaks.
It was adopted by clips of a number of the most iconic on-track moments of the earlier decade, a quick David and Victoria Beckham cameo, and concluded with an ode to Hamilton’s first title. “Certainly the primary of many for Lewis Hamilton, the world is at his toes,” the commentator precisely predicted on the finish of the clip. Watch the complete video beneath and see who else you notice.
