GEAR // VINTAGE BENETTON F1 SHIRT

Merry Christmas Mr.Coffey! Over the weekend, while visiting some family friends who just recently moved into the city, I was given something of an early Christmas present. Now, follow me if you can, but the guy that gave me this is the husband of my uncles ex-wife, so effectively we're not related. But that didn't stop him from gifting me this vintage Benetton F1 shirt!

A fan of Formula One, my "uncle" picked up this shirt at the Australian Grand Prix on November 12th, 1995 at the Adelaide Street Circuit. As this was the final race of the 1995 Formula One season, the teams were apparently selling everything, to include the nose sections of their cars... [read more]

The Benetton Renault Formula One Team, who the year before had been Benetton Ford, managed to place third in qualifying with none other than Michael Schumacher at the wheel. David Coulthard placed second and Damon Hill took pole, both driving for Williams-Renault.

If you look closely, this shirt, which was produced in Italy by the United Colors of Bentton, was once branded with the blue oval of the Ford Motor Company. Instead of removing the Ford patch and/or replacing the shirt as a whole, they simply patched over the Ford emblem with a Renault logo!

A shirt that documents both the first season of the Benetton-Renault relationship and the last season that Ford powered Michael Schumacher in Formula One, this shirt is a little bit of motorsport history that I will cherish for years to come.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Damon Hill won the 1995 Australian Grand Prix for Williams-Renault, while Michael Schumacher in the Benetton-Renault retired after a collision early in the race. Also of note is the fact that only eight of the 24 cars that started the race, managed to cross the finish line! Complete results listed below...

1995 Australian Grand Prix Race Results:

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired[4] Grid Points
1 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 81 1:49:15.946 1 10
2 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 79 +2 Laps 12 6
3 9 Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Hart 79 +2 Laps 13 4
4 7 Mark Blundell McLaren-Mercedes 79 +2 Laps 10 3
5 4 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 78 +3 Laps 14 2
6 23 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 78 +3 Laps 17 1
7 21 Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 77 +4 Laps 21
8 16 Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ford 76 +5 Laps 23
Ret 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 70 Engine 16
Ret 2 Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault 69 Transmission 8
Ret 15 Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 62 Engine 9
Ret 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 39 Gearbox 6
Ret 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 34 Engine 4
Ret 25 Martin Brundle Ligier-Mugen-Honda 29 Spun off 11
Ret 1 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 25 Collision 3
Ret 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 23 Collision 5
Ret 22 Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 21 Spun off 20
Ret 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 20 Spun off 7
Ret 6 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 19 Accident 2
Ret 10 Taki Inoue Footwork-Hart 15 Spun off 19
Ret 29 Karl Wendlinger Sauber-Ford 8 Physical 18
Ret 17 Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 2 Gearbox 22
DNS 24 Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 0 Electrical 15
DNS 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes - Injured 24


Photo/Editorial: Justin W. Coffey