2000s: Greatest impacts on F1 part 5

 Michael Schumacher

a) Championships

Actions: He went on to win five consecutive driver championships from the year 2000 to 2004, hence becoming a seven time world champion and the most dominant driver of this era. Not only that Schumacher took hold of almost all F1 records with the most number of poles, most number of wins, most number of points way ahead of the rest.

Repercussions: There were deservedly many comparisons of him with Fangio, Clark and Senna, but it as expected reaches a stalemate as they were all driving during different eras. He amassed a very large fan following, but faced lot of criticism because of his dominance apparently making the sport less thrilling to watch.

Presently: With 5 different drivers winning the subsequent 7 championships, things are looking good for the fans in competition front, but with Vettel’s decimation of the field this season, you never know.

b) Team Orders

Action: It reached its ugliest point with Schumacher in his Ferrari as explained earlier.

Repercussions: After facing heavy criticism from the journalists and fans alike, Schumacher allowed Barrichello to take the top step on the podium in Austria 2002, much to the dislike of the already angered crowd. Later in the season, he attempted a photo finish (with both cars crossing at exact same time) with Barrichello during the US GP, but with Barrichello ending up victorious, he was left embarrassed.

Presently: After the temporary ban on team orders, team orders are back but with proper policing being promised.

      c)       Retirement

Action: At the end of the 2006 F1 world championship, Michael hung his boots and decided to call it a day.

Repercussions: Many pundits called it the right time for him to do it as he had fought hard for the world championship that year (despite losing it to Alonso). This left many fans a tad disappointed a general decrease in F1 viewership due to decreased interest in F1.

Presently: Michael has been back for 2 years now, though he hasn’t set the tracks on fire, he is slowly regaining his touch and much can be expected the coming year. His return was generally well received from fans but many did criticize him as he was already into his 40s. Viewership has increased, but it’s perhaps more down to the rule changes than his return, but surely many of his former fans have embraced his resurgence.


Conclusion:
As we saw in almost all the impact notes, things are coming back to normal in most cases but there are some far reaching consequences too but to a smaller scale. The greatest of them all arguably being the reliability and the loss of some historic circuits. How the coming decade goes, will perhaps indicate the direction and strength of these changes.

2000s: Greatest impacts on F1 part 4

 Renault: 

They too were involved in some infamous scandals, sadly after their 2 years of dominance, there form too went down.

a) Mid- decade dominance

Action:  After almost a decade of seeing a Ferrari- Mclaren struggle for the top honors, Renault found them all of a sudden ahead in 2005. Though Williams had been involved earlier, they weren’t able to get any title since 1997. Renault’s domination in the hands of Alonso continued into 2006.

Repercussions: It finally showed to the masses that there were still other teams capable of holding their own in this tough F1 world. And this brought a lot more competition as it wasn’t out right domination with 2005 being between Renault (Alonso) and McLaren (Raikonnen), and 2006 being between Renault (Alonso) and Ferrari (Michael).

Presently: It does continue surprisingly with Brawn taking the honors in 2009, followed by Red Bull in the past 2 years.

b) Spy-gate scandal:

Action: Renault too was named in this notorious affair mentioned earlier, with their man rumored to be Philip MacKereth who had transferred from McLaren to Renault.

Repercussions: Though they were found guilty, they escaped penalty.

      c)       Crash gate scandal:

Action: During the inaugural Singapore GP in 2008, Nelson Piquet Jr. was infamously asked by the Renault team to crash on lap 14 at turn 17 forcing a safety car to be deployed due to unavailability of immediate crane assistance, just 2 laps after Fernando Alonso had done a surprisingly early stop. The race ended with Fernando Alonso winning the race and there were heavy celebrations in pit lane with none the wiser. Only a year later, when Nelson Piquet Jr. was axed from the Renault squad after the Hungarian Gp 2009, did he (Piquet Jr.) came out with the details, blaming Team Principal Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds for threatening him prior to Singapore Gp.

Repercussions: Renault F1 were handed a disqualification conditional to further rule infringements in the next 2 years. Flavio Briatore was suspended from all FIA-sanctioned events indefinitely while Pat Symonds got a similar penalty but for 5 year duration.

Presently: Both their bans have been overturned with both of them not to be directly involved in F1, with Renault not requiring facing disqualification. It is currently unclear whether Flavio will be seen again in a team though he denies it. Pat has returned as a consultant for Virgin racing (now Marussia).

2000s: Greatest impacts on F1 part 3

 McLaren (was famously anointed as McLewis)

 a) Form

McLaren was a major contender in the first year of this decade but gradually their form dipped, and they had to wait for Kimi and 2003 before they were any sort of a force again. Despite that, throughout the first half of the decade, they suffered from severe unreliability, but towards the end of the decade, they clearly have become one of the most (if not the most) reliable car on the grid.

This, though, is not what made such a large impact this decade. It was the various scandals that they got involved in.

b) Many Gates

1.       First, was the spy-gate scandal

Action: (as described under Ferrari earlier).

Repercussion: The spy-gate scandal resulted in their exclusion from the 2008 championship.

2.       Then came the lie-gate scandal

Action: Lewis Hamilton lied to the stewards about the incident involving him and Jarno Trulli. Though once again the entire blame was put on their then sporting director Dave Ryan, it is unknown as to how much Ron Dennis and co. were involved.

Overall Repercussion: Ron Dennis decided to remove himself from all F1 involvement, with several quarters saying it was an angry Max Mosley that caused Ron Dennis's departure.

      c)       Equal opportunities??

Action: One thing that is highly debatable is whether McLaren have actually given equal opportunities to both drivers. Many do believe that Hakinnen had been given the upper hand over Coulthard and Hamilton over Alonso/ Kovalainen.

Hamilton- Alonso pairing was expected to be the best pairing in F1 in a long time, with some comparing them to Prost- Senna pairing (talent -wise), the similarity actually did not end there.

Repercussions: At the end of the year after many on-track and off-track skirmishes (as talked about earlier), Alonso decided to leave what was his dream team (at the start of that year). One such skirmish resulting in McLaren being pulled up in front of the FIA after Alonso was supposed to have deliberately impeded Lewis during the Hungarian GP qualifying. This resulted in exclusion of constructor points for that event.

All these incidents have brought down the image of one of F1s most historical constructor. Now with the separation of McLaren and Mercedes, McLaren have a rough path ahead with its future not exactly known.

Presently: In spite of all this, the arrival of Jenson Button in the year 2010 has given McLaren a different image, and there is a belief that now there is equal importance given to both drivers, leading to the past perhaps being forgotten.

2000s: Greatest impacts on F1 part 2

 Circuits: Bernie Ecclestone/ Hermann Tilke

This is my second part on the largest impacts on F1 this decade.

With Bernie believing in there being a demolition derby off track instead of on track, lots of old circuits have faced the axe with number of new circuits (courtesy Hermann Tilke) coming up.

Good circuits such as Imola, A1-Ring have been removed, and great circuits such as Spa and Montreal have been on and off the calendar thanks to Bernie and co’s bambling. 

Wanting to generate more revenue (for himself), he has forced all circuits to cough up improbable amounts of money, but due to their inability to do so, has started circuits at places such as Bahrain and Abu Dhabi where prolonged interest cannot be expected. Circuits such as Malaysia, Turkey hardly get any spectators watching the races and hence are having astronomical losses.

It is not just the lack of fans that is being a downfall for these new generation circuits, it is the circuits itself which lack uniqueness.

It even came to the point where Silverstone was axed from the F1 calendar from 2010 onwards, but luckily Donington weren’t able to obtain the desired funds, and hence Silverstone has got its traditional slot back (which is great news for F1).

Circuits such as nurburgring and hockenheim are now being forced to alternate due to losses being generated by the millions. The only way out of it in this recession based climate is for Bernie to start accepting lower amounts from those circuits and keeping less for himself.

In short: Less overtaking and on- track action, less crowd and less revenue are all the major factors plaguing these new venues.

It is a harsh reality that F1 is facing, and with no solution close in sight, F1 is facing an uncertain future.

Presently: With the advent of the Indian grand prix, lot of the criticism has died down with the circuit coming in for lot of praise both in terms of on track challenge as well as region interest in sport. Will it last though?

2000s: Greatest impacts on F1 part 1

I thought I will write certain things which I feel impacted F1 the most this decade. Feel free to comment

 Ferrari

They had arguably one of the largest impacts on F1 this decade both on and off the track. Here are some of the important moments

      a)      Lows:

1.       Austria 2001/ 2002

Action:  They supposedly ended what was and will always be a very controversial aspect in Formula 1 racing. It began in Austria 2001 with Barrichello allowing Schumacher to go ahead in order to take second place.

There was not much noise made about this as this had been seen various times before. But when the same was repeated the next year on the same track and between the same two, but for the victory, the crowd could not take it anymore. Michael Schumacher was left highly embarrassed by the move and he got Rubens to come onto the top step of the podium leading to him being fined due to interfering in the podium ceremony.

Repercussion: Ferrari was forced to apologize to the crowds and symbolically “team orders “were banned from the sport.

There is still no confirmation as to whether team orders still exist or not with drivers and teams diplomatically avoiding any direct acceptance.

Presently: Team orders were reinstated into Formula 1 as per 2011 regulations.

2.       Spy-gate scandal 2007:

Action: This got the sport into large disrepute with reports coming out that Ferrari man “Nigel Stepney” had been caught having given confidential information to Mclaren through Mike Coughlan.

This is the only thing that is widely known, but there is no denying that those two were actually made scapegoats of this scandal. Renault too might have been involved along with other teams possible, and even other employees in Mclaren.

Repercussions: Mclaren were handed a large fine along with exclusion from that year’s constructors championship. But were Ferrari totally innocent??

Presently: Mike Coughlan has been announced as Williams F1’s chief Engineer on May 2011, whereas Nigel Stepney is currently the head of Sumo Power. McLaren offered Ferrari compensation for above scandal in 2009.

      b)      Highs:

Champions from 2000 to 2004:

Being the oldest team existing in F1, they are the most popular F1 team with clearly the largest fan following. But being the oldest team alone doesn’t make them the most popular, it is also their ability to build competitive cars, and in this decade they were at their competitive best winning back to back championships between 2000 (2001 in case of constructors) and 2004. In the following years too they regularly challenged for wins with Raikonnen winning the 2007 WDC and Ferrari the 2007 (due to Mclaren’s exclusion) and 2008 WCC.

      Repercussions:

F12002 and 2004: While their consecutive championships made them popular. The 2002 and 2004 seasons stand out with their dominance taking them to about 30 races in those two years. This made them more loved among their fans but caused critics much irritation with many telling that such dominance was making F1 “boring”.

So views vary based on the eyes of the beholder. With doubts (by Luca Di Montezemolo) being cast on their future participation, one thing that will always be true is Ferrari has had the largest impact on F1 since its inception, and if Ferrari does eventually leave the sport, it will leave the sport in tatters.

Presently: Though Ferrari havent been the dominant force they used to be since then, but by frequently fighting for the titles or wins, they have lept their own and all their fans hopes alive.

d)  Reliability

Action: This has been the least talked about aspect but is equally important. While in the previous decades completing 75% of races was considered nominal, Ferrari largely achieved their dominance thanks to their reliability.

Repercussions: With seasons coming and going, there has been an ever increasing focus on reliability which has lead to season results dependent largely on the performance, hence making many races a procession, which has lead to frustration for fans.

Presently: With the world moving towards green, it id=s becoming more and more important to conserve engines and machinery with engines expected to last 4-6 weekends together, disputing which drivers face grid penalties.

Brazilian GP 2003: a fan's perspective

I am a fan of Giancarlo Fisichella and this was one report I had roughly written after the race. I have edited it but tried to stick to my original to see it through a fan’s perspective. Enjoy:

Review:

It was raining very heavily before and during the start of the race. Frentzen’s car had a problem so he started from the pit lane. A few others- Pizzonia, Firman and Verstappen visited the pits as well for minor changes. Due to the extreme heavy rain, the race was started behind the safety car. It lasted for quite a few laps with many drivers visiting the pits in between in rider to fill up so as to stay on track as long as possible once the race actually began. The SC finally went in once the rain had reduced and track had become drier.

Very soon Heidfeld (Sauber) was the first retirement thanks to an engine failure. David Coulthard (Mclaren) took the lead from Barrichello (Ferrari). Barrichello was fading away at that point. Coulthard was under pressure from teammate Raikonnen who sliced ahead. Ralf Schumacher (Williams) and Jarno Trulli (Renault) were the first 2 casualties to the conditions, spinning but luckily saving the car at curva do sol. Ralph Firman’s (Jordan) front suspension broke and he smashed into Monaco 96 GP winner Oliver Panis (Toyota), hence ending both their races. This resulted with another SC period but things were not over for Maylander yet as he was called upon 2 more times as Justin Wilson (Minardi), JPM Montoya (Williams), Antonio Pizzonia (Jaguar), wet weather maestro Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), Jos Verstappen (Minardi), Jenson Button (BAR) spun and crashed at the later badged “most expensive junkyard in the world” curva do sol falling foul to the treacherous track conditions. 

Mark Webber (Jaguar) and few other drivers had scares but saved their car on time at the same turn. The wet track had been suiting the Michelin shod runners, but now the drying track played into the hands of the Bridgestone shod runners (Ferrari, Jordan, Minardi and Sauber). Barrichello who had fallen down the order soon started catching up with the leaders and was back in the lead ahead of David Coulthard on lap 44. Dreams of a home win for Barrichello were in everyone’s mind only to see him retiring having run out of fuel (fuel system issue). That continued a tearful Barrichello’s horrific home run. By this time Fisichella (Jordan- had pitted a few laps before SC had returned to pits) had worked himself up to fourth place, only to move up to third position after Ralf Schumacher pitted. Ralf came out ninth as Fernando Alonso (Renault) served a drive through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags. 

The order was Coulthard, Raikonnen, Fisichella, Alonso, Frentzen, Trulli, Villeneuve, Webber, R. Schumacher and Da Matta with all others out of the race. Coulthard then pitted handing the lead to Raikonnen. Trulli (apparently struggling) pitted and came out eight while Coulthard had rejoined in fourth place. Fisichella began to challenge Raikonnen and finally overtook him to the extreme joy of Jordan (who were celebrating their 200^th GP in F1). Seventh place Webber crashed on the start-finish curved straight hence bringing out the SC once again immediately. As the drivers were passing the debris (tyre), an over-enthusiastic (3^rd placed) Alonso ended up hitting it and spiraled into the barrier, thus bringing the race to a premature end. Due to a lapse by the officials, it wasn’t sure as to whom the actual winner was.  All thought Fisichella was the winner, and there were celebrations in the Jordan pit as Fisichella came into the pits (with his car partly on fire). While they were celebrating, the news came in that Raikonnen was the winner based on a 2 lap count back from when the red flag had been shown. Fisichella and the Jordan team were devastated, but they sportingly agreed to the result, but it was nice to see Raikonnen invite him to the top step of the podium.

Within 2 weeks there was the Imola GP to be held, but before that, things were cleared and Jordan sufficiently proved that Fisichella had started the new lap due to which a 2 lap count back would mean that Fisichella had been in the lead on the lap 2. Hence Fisichella was rightly declared the winner on the eve of the Imola GP and the trophies were exchanged. This was Giancarlo’s first and most special GP victory in my opinion

Historical facts:

-          This was Jordan’s 200^th GP

-          This was Formula 1’s 700^th GP

-          This was the first race wherein a driver (Alonso) was missing from the podium due to injury (as he was stretchered off to the medical center).

-          This was the first race wherein the victor didn’t get the trophy during that event.

-          15 out of first 34 laps were behind SC (21 SC laps overall)
      This was Giancarlo Fisichella's first win in F1
      This was Jordan Gp's last win in Formula 1.

The Unlikely Champions

Almost 2 years ago, with Hamilton being crowned the F1 world champion after a season long battle with Massa, one had the feeling that the F1 world would be back to the days of Ferrari- McLaren tussles at the top of the standings at least for a few years to come. Not much was thought of the seventh placed team Red Bull and the 9th placed team Honda, even less might have been expected from a certain 2 drivers – Mark Webber and Jenson Button. 


This can be made justifiable because Honda always was one of the largest funded teams in the paddock and Red Bull is owned by the energy drink billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz and have arguably the best engineering brain in the F1 industry (Adrian Newey) at their service. Though Button and Webber have been appreciable respected for their driving, but most accepted that neither of them had the outright speed. 


With Honda pulling the plug at the end of 2008 and forcing Ross Brawn and Nick Fry to dig deep into their pockets in order to save the team. Save they did, mere weeks before the start of the 2009 F1 championship, with the new team being called Brawn GP. 
All doors seemed closed for Button as well , and his denial to leave the team at its current state only complicated matters for him; but that proved to be a masterstroke by Jenson, as he went on to become the World Driver’s Champion, on the way surprising all in the paddock. The rest is what one calls “history”, with Brawn GP providing the shock of the season and ending up winning both championships.


 All knew him to be very consistent and dependable as a driver, but none expected such a result at the end. Critics (which include me) still do say that he will not win another championship and the only reason he won it last time, was due to the sheer dominance of the Brawn that helped him to win; but one cant ignore the level headedness with which he approached the second half of the championship when things were not going right for him, never did one see him panic and he always seemed to be at the right place, hence delivering the title against all odds (betting ones that is). 


With 2009 complete and with red Bull emerging to the fore from the mid-point of the season along with McLaren’s and Lewis Hamilton’s resurgence in the latter part of the season, one assumed that Button’s chances of another title wouldn’t be there due to the apparent lack of resources and sponsors with Brawn GP’s grasp. True to form, it was Red Bull and McLaren on top at the start of the season and the now rebadged Mercedes team (With Mercedes taking over Brawn GP) floundering in the middle of the pack; but Button was no more at Mercedes, after another surprising decision being made by the British driver to move onto McLaren to team up with Lewis Hamilton. Several people criticized Button as he had left a team fully behind him and gone to a team which was expected to be in Hamilton’s pocket, but with the full season complete, Jenson finished 5th in the championship 26 points behind Hamilton and 40 points behind eventual winner Vettel. 26 points might seem more but it is only a little more than a win away from Hamilton and he was in with a shot for the championship with 2 races to go.

Now, we move over to the Red Bull side of the pit lane. Ever since Sebastian Vettel’s triumph in a Toro Rosso at Monza, great things were expected from him, and with his promotion to Red Bull and Adrian Newey’s toy showing very strong pace during testing, all eyes were on him. True to expectations, he did deliver and was in contention for the title until the second last race. With Mark Webber having a poor string of races in the second half of the season, he was given the ‘disliked’ Number 2 driver status in the team. 


In his defense, Mark had broken his leg before season start and had hampered him for at least the first few races of the season, but the writing on the wall seemed clear as to who the favored son of Red Bull was going to be. With 2009 complete and red Bull looking strong once again for 2010, once again Vettel’s name was being bandied about as a possible WDC with no mention of Webber. 


Mark did not have a great start to the championship, but soon found his feet and soon displayed himself as a serious championship contender with 3 consecutive poles and 2 wins, the last pole at turkey perhaps not being converted to victory thanks to his teammate. From that point of the season things started going downwards for Mark with some key members of the team trying to shift the blame on Mark for the Turkey fracas followed with the team giving Mark’s front wing to Vettel during the British Grand Prix. This did not go down well with Mark, but he kept his head down and went on to win the British Grand Prix followed by the Hungarian Grand Prix two races later; hence slowly surging to the lead of the championship with 3 races to go, much largely due to his consistency (despite lack of outright speed). 


Could this have been his year? Or could it have been another championship for Button? With Vettel, Hamilton and Fernando Alonso mixed in the championship fight; the end result could have gone in any of these drivers favor. But alas, due to a disappointing last 3 races, Webber was robbed off championship glory by his teammate Vettel. One thing is clear in my mind though, irrespective of the end result, both Mark Webber and Jenson Button have shown that there might not be just one brand of winners in Formula 1, but there can be another…..

Rantings of a confused f1 fan

There are so many drivers and teams in Formula 1; it makes it a hard choice to choose between them. To a purist, it will definitely sound odd when he or she hears that a person is a fan of a driver who has not been F1 world champion or might never become. This makes things not so simple in the fan world, leading to many arguments and tiffs; but little do people realize that it is what brings about enjoyment in the sport for fans. 


If all supporters were there to support just one driver or one select club of drivers, then the sport would no longer be a fun sport and then there would be not much of endless discussions, and perhaps no more sport due to the fact that with only few drivers being supported, there would be only those few drivers required to race, but with so few competitive drivers racing, and with very little overtaking these days, there would be very less to enjoy about the sport and one would see people’s patience dwindling below what it already is. This though might seem a lame reason for as to why a person tends to support some other driver. 

To answer this, one might have to go to the past and understand in total how the human psychology developed. This is a topic which would require much understanding and discussion, and what will be mentioned here on, might be just the tip of the iceberg, so as to speak. There are numerous reasons as to why people tend to go for different drivers, but in the end it burns down to one simple fact, which is that all humans are unique in their own way, and the same applies to their likes and dislikes. The same reasons apply for all sports, all entertainment and for everything in life, but here I will stick to F1.


There is a general tendency for a racing enthusiast to stick behind a driver who is of their nationality and who he/she has followed right from the beginning of the driver’s fledgling motorsport career. This perhaps becomes the easiest choice in most cases. It especially holds true in the case of countries who have not had a driver in F1 at least for some time, so when a new driver comes from that country, one from the outside can see a general overwhelming support for that driver coming from his own country. This not only brings fans for an unexpected driver (as he might be slow in the end), but then adds to an increase in the F1 fan base. 


The above fact is not lost out on the team owners, and these teams try to capitalize on this fact and hence, through demonstrations and sponsorship deals, increase the general f1 knowledge among the new masses, and hence undeniably increase the support for that F1 driver. This approach has its side-effects too, one being if this driver’s teammate ends up achieving quite better results, then these new less knowledgeable and curious supporters begin to like the teammate and the team too. Support slowly shift as the masses become more knowledgeable and it might tend towards those drivers which are getting wins and podiums.


Things are unfortunately not as simple as mentioned in above paragraph. The question remains as to why even the knowledgeable fan supports the less known drivers. This comes down to psychology. A person might like to see certain character from their favorite driver, and they might not necessarily find it in the top driver. This is perhaps the best reason as to why we have such variance in driver supporters. 
At the end when one assesses the situation, it becomes an infinite loop with many things needed to be taken into consideration, such as sport visibility, profits, knowledge, character and so on. Now, one can come back to what was said at the start of the article, and one slowly gets to realize that there are too many variables which do affect F1 mania. So at the end, only a rhetorical question remains- would one like a world with fans just supporting the Alonsos, Hamiltons and Vettels, or would it be better as it is?