FORMULA 1

 

 

Ahead is a general take(with some UK bias) on the Forrmula 1 scene in the late stages of the 2005 season.

 

STATE OF PLAY

 

" And Damon Hill comes through to win the 1996 World Championship...and I'm going to have to stop, because there's a lump in my throat." Murray Walker

 

Slight problem with that statement. I was still in school in 1996, and Damon Hill retired at the end of the 1999 season, his career fading out racing inferior cars.

Coincidentally, ever since Damon's retirement, recent Formula 1 has been dominated by a certain German in a red car who has nearly always rubbed me up the wrong way. His name is Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher made his F1 debut for Jordan in 1991 but soon switched to Bennetton and went on to win a few races in 1992 and '93. For 1994 however everyone thought that the Williams pairing of Damon and the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna were going to run the show. But even before Senna's death at that year's San Marino Grand Prix, it looked to be Schumacher's show and he went on to win the '94 and '95 championships(using a variety of dirty tricks with Damon snapping at his heels) before moving to Ferrari for '96. This allowed Damon to blow everyone to pieces early on in the '96 season on the way to getting his well earned title.

It wasn't till 2000 that Schumacher got his first title for Ferrari but for the next few years, fans of Formula 1 largely had two options: Worship the ground Schumacher walked on or growl in frustration. I chose the latter.

But now things have changed, the 2005 Ferrari appears to be a relative dud(or rather it's Bridgestone tyres are duds) which has allowed Formula One to have a fresh start with two of the yonger generations of drivers fighting for the Championship. Spain's Fernando Alonso and Finland's Kimi Raikonen.

Alonso started out in Formula 1 in 2001. Driving a Minardi. Note for any F1 newbies: Minardis are the cars that get lapped ten times by the leaders during a race(though they are starting to get their act together this season). Alonso decided that he was better off testing for Renault(formerly Benetton) in 2002 and got promoted to the race team in '03 - winning his first Grand Prix in Hungary that year and never looking back.

Raikonen also started out in 2001 - with Sauber. The most impressive rookie that year, he went to McLaren in 2002, and also like Alonso won his first Grand Prix in 2003. And he too has never looked back.

So, the 2005 story so far goes like this: Alonso's Italian Renault team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella won in Australia. Alonso then hit fire, winning three in a row in Malaysia, Bahrain and San Marino. Raikonen then joined the party with wins in Spain and Monaco. Alonso won the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, Raikonen in Canada. In the US? Well...Michael Schumacher technically picked up 10 points. Alonso won in France. Raikonen's Columbian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya won at Silverstone. Alonso won in Germany and Raikonen in Hungary and Turkey, Montoya won in Italy and Raikonen won in Belgium.

The Championship standings currently look like this: Alonso 111 points, Raikonen 86, . Which means that with 3 races to go in the season, the title is Alonso's to lose, Raikonen will have to finish in the top three and hope Alonso finishes outside the top four to even have a chance of keeping the title race alive after the next result in Brazil - and if if he does claim the 2005 Formula 1 title then he won't just be the first Spaniard ever to do so, he'll be the youngest driver ever to do so at 24 years old.

And if Schumacher is smart, then he'll retire after this season. He has 7 world titles, he's unlikely to get an eighth this year and he's the oldest driver in the field. Tschuss Michael. Well that's the theory, in practise he's hanging round till 2006 with new Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa while current teammate Rubens Barrichello heads to BAR.

In the meantime...'what about the Brits?' I hear you cry. Well there are two of them still around in '05, though only one has won any Grand Prix. From Scotland, David Coulthard, and from Somerset, Jenson Button.

Coulthard or 'DC' as he's often known started the 1994 season as Williams's test driver, but then became the late Ayrton Senna's replacement from Spainish GP onwards. Hitting the podium in a Williams 1-2 that year in Portugal, he went on to win the same race the following year before joining the Finn Mika Hakkinen for 1996. While DC picked up wins on a semi-regular basis while at McLaren his sportsmanship probably lost him his best shot at the title early in '98 when he moved over to allow Hakkinen to win in Australia - honouring a pre-race deal. And so it was Hakkinen that went on to win the '98 and '99 titles and gain the 'unofficial' bias of McLaren team boss Ron Dennis while he was at it. In the meantime, DC could always be relied upon to give Schumacher a fight and did finish the 2001 championship in 2nd place after Hakkinen's form faded before he was replaced by Raikonen. After another frustrating few years in McLaren's of varying quality, DC has eventually wound up at the new(ish) Red Bull team. And this car looks like it has it's uses - it's not top grade and DC won't be winning races anytime soon but it is allowing him to score points on a regular basis. There's still life in this particular old dog and he'll be sticking around for '06!

Button on the other hand, is the younger gun of the two. Exploding on to the scene with Williams in 2000, Jenson had a solid rookie year before being theoretically loaned to Renault for two seasons. The 2001 vintage Renault had hardly any reliability but the following year's car was an improvment and Jenson outscored his teamate only to get booted. OK, so Alonso was his replacement but it was still one of the dumber moves I've seen in F1. Anyway, Jenson wound up at BAR and teamate to the Canadian '97 world champion Jaques Villeneuve whom he promptly took to the cleaners. Exit Villeneuve(till his return with Sauber this year). 2004 was a sensational year for Jenson. A string of podiums early on in the season was followed up by his first pole in San Marino and his form rarely dipped - allowing him to finish 3rd in the championship that year. Unfortunately, the '05 vintage BAR isn't so good and he nowhere near that sort of form as a result. In the meantime he's gotten himself into a mess over his contract for '06! Last year he did a deal with Williams saying that he would return to them in '06 if his halfway points total was under 75% of that of the championship leader's. Sure enough...it was. However he now wants to stay at BAR. Frank Williams(Williams team boss) is moaning that they've already promised sponsers that he'd be on board(not Jenson's problem, Frank). Whichever team Jenson drives for out of Williams and BAR is certainly(theoretically) capable of producing quality cars. Which one Jenson drives for we'll have to wait and see.

So, next stop Brazil

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