One week before this year's first Formula One race of 2011, join me to reminisce about the fascinating seasons of thirty, twenty and ten years ago – three very different seasons, all won by great drivers of their respective eras.
Thirty Years Ago – 1981
1980 had seen a new team and a new driver crowned in Formula One – Australia's Alan Jones driving for Williams, which had scored almost double the Constructors points of its nearest competitor. With an unchanged driving strength of Jones and his formidable Argentinean teammate Carlos Reutemann, the question emerged as to whom, if anyone, would be able to stop the Williams steamroller in 1981. The man who had come closest to doing so the year before had been Brazilian Nelson Piquet in only his second full season of Formula One, so the expectation was he and his Brabham team may be the ones to get the job done.
After a third of the way through the season, the man in charge was Reutemann. He had been on the podium at all of the first five races, including two visits to the top step at Rio and Zolder. He had fifteen points in hand over Piquet, who also had two wins to his name at Buenos Aires and Imola; his non-scores at both of the races won by Reutemann accounting for his points deficit. Meanwhile, Jones had taken the flag at the season-opener at Long Beach, but Imola marked the start of a slump that served to remove him from championship contention.
Zolder was also the first of four retirements in five races for Piquet, but the Brazilian got himself back on track at Hockenheim with a win in changeable conditions. Further podiums at the following two rounds at Osterreichring and Zandvoort saw Piquet draw level with Reutemann, who had taken just eleven points since his win at Zolder. The Argentinean managed to score a podium at Monza, but a particularly lacklustre drive at the final round at Las Vegas allowed Piquet to clinch the title by a meagre one point.
It was Jones who took the victory at the final round, but for the Australian it was too little, too late – it was his first win since the very start of the season, and the outgoing champion had failed to score on no less than seven occasions in the meantime. His win allowed him to pip Ligier's Jacques Laffite to third place in the final standings, though two late-season wins for the Frenchman saw him start Las Vegas with a slim hope of becoming France's first ever Formula One champion. Alain Prost racked up as many wins as Piquet for the Renault team but his appalling finishing record meant he was never a real factor in the championship, winding up fifth in the points behind Laffite.
Ulsterman John Watson took sixth place, and was victorious at the British Grand Prix which marked McLaren's first win under the control of Ron Dennis whose Project Four organisation effectively took over the beleaguered British team at the start of the year. Ferrari's Gilles Villeneuve was the only other race winner of the season with back-to-back successes at Monaco and Jarama, but like Prost he retired from over half of the races, managing only seventh in the championship. Elio de Angelis for Lotus came eighth in the points ahead of Rene Arnoux, who took only one podium for Renault in an underwhelming year, and Piquet's Mexican teammate Hector Rebaque.
Even though the fight for the 1981 crown was ultimately between Piquet and Reutemann, the top five drivers were covered by a mere seven points. This intense level of competition led to no fewer than eleven drivers recording wins during 1982 – Formula One was on the brink of one of its most exciting periods.
Twenty Years Ago – 1991
After the explosive Alain Prost vs. Ayrton Senna battle of 1990 that saw the latter take his second title in the most controversial way imaginable, more of the same was expected in 1991. However, this prospect failed to materialise as the 1991-spec Ferrari Prost was charged with driving proved to be far less competitive than its predecessor. Instead, Senna and McLaren were faced with a new rival in Britain's Nigel Mansell. After two ultimately fruitless seasons with Ferrari, Il Leone negotiated a return to the Williams team for which he so nearly had clinched the championship both in 1986 and 1987.
It was Senna who drew first blood on the streets of Phoenix, a success he supplemented with close-fought wins at Interlagos and Imola. In the meantime, Mansell had retired from all three races, but finally got himself on the scoreboard at Monaco with a well-earned second. Nonetheless, he never looked like challenging the dominant Senna who took his fourth win in as many races. The Brazilian's perfect streak may have been interrupted by Mansell at Montreal, but the Brit gifted the win to Benetton's Nelson Piquet after he accidentally stalled the engine in a premature celebration of victory on the final lap of the race.
Mansell later bounced back to win three races in succession, including in front of his adoring home fans at Silverstone – he now appeared to be carrying decisive momentum which lasted until Estoril, where disaster struck. Whilst pitting from the lead, one of his mechanics failed to properly secure his new right-rear wheel, leading to it parting ways with the rest of the car shortly after he pulled away from the pit-box. Mansell was disqualified after his crew rushed to the car to fit the errant wheel, and his hopes were finally dashed early in the penultimate race at Suzuka where he spun into retirement.
This gifted the title to Senna, whose consistency proved key – Mansell's challenge was severely hampered by having six non-scores compared to Senna's two. Mansell's teammate Riccardo Patrese finished third after his most competitive ever season, including two wins at Mexico City and Estoril. Senna's teammate Gerhard Berger also scored a win at Suzuka en route to a solid fourth in the standings. Failing to win a race for the first time since his debut in 1980, however, was fifth-placed Alain Prost, who did little to endear himself to the tifosi after embarrassingly spinning off the circuit into retirement during the parade lap at Imola, and was later spectacularly fired by the Italian team after deriding his car a 'truck'.
Jean Alesi's debut at the Prancing Horse was also decidedly low-key, only scoring one more podium than he managed in 1990 with Tyrrell. The French-Sicilian wound up seventh in the points table, one place behind retiring three-time champion Nelson Piquet for Benetton, whose final win of his career came courtesy of Mansell's Canadian blunder. The Brazilian was followed home in Canada by young Italian Stefano Modena of Tyrrell, which allowed him to scoop eighth in the championship ahead of the experienced Andrea de Cesaris, driving for the brand-new Jordan team, and Piquet's teammate and countryman Roberto Moreno. Moreno however found himself usurped at Benetton by one Michael Schumacher after the German's magnificent performance for Jordan in his debut race at Spa.
While Senna took the 1991 title by a comfortable margin, the superiority of the Williams package meant it would be them, and not McLaren, who would dominate Formula One for much of the remainder of the decade.
Ten Years Ago – 2001
Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, having just taking his third crown in 2000, began the 2001 season as the hot favourite to become the sport's third four-time champion. 1998 and 1999 champion Mika Hakkinen was expected to be the German's closest opposition at the wheel of his McLaren-Mercedes, but instead he endured an excruciating start to the season. After losing two near-certain victories at Melbourne and Catalunya to mechanical breakdowns, he had tallied a miserable four points after five races and the championship already appeared out of reach.
Meanwhile, Schumacher had racked up three race wins by the same stage and had built up an eight-point cushion over Hakkinen's teammate, David Coulthard, who was enjoying his best-ever start to a season. He triumphed both at Interlagos and at the A1 Ring, but Monaco proved a disaster for the Scot after he stalled on the grid from pole, allowing Schumacher to take his fourth victory. After two more wins at Nurburgring and Magny-Cours, Schumacher had moved thirty-one points clear of Coulthard, the championship looking ominously secure. Indeed, the title was eventually sealed by the German with four rounds to spare at the Hungaroring, before he proceeded to break Alain Prost's all-time win record at the following race at Spa.
Conversely, '01 was something of a disappointment for Ferrari number two Rubens Barrichello, being outpaced by his Ferrari teammate just about everywhere and more importantly failing to overhaul Coulthard for the runner-up spot in the championship despite having the superior car. But the year was even more frustrating for Hakkinen, who ended up a lowly fifth in the championship thanks to victories at Silverstone and Indianapolis which helped to erase memories of an otherwise dismal year. The affable Finn decided mid-way through the season that he would take a sabbatical for '02, but unfortunately for the sport he never returned.
Whilst it was a relatively poor season for McLaren, it was very much the opposite for Williams. In the second year of its new alliance with BMW, the dominant team of the nineties appeared to be well on the road to recovery – Ralf Schumacher took his first ever win at Imola, before adding the winner's trophies from Montreal and Hockenheim to his collection en route to fourth in the championship. CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya settled into the world of Formula One with apparent ease at the wheel of the other Williams, taking sixth place in the championship along with his first win at Monza after retiring from the lead on two previous occasions.
Three men ended up tied for seventh in the points. One of those men was '97 champion Jacques Villeneuve, who despite making two trips to the podium, found himself rather downtrodden with the lack of progress made by his BAR team in '01 after a promising year in '00. Another was Jordan's Jarno Trulli, who rather humbled his more experienced teammate Heinz Harald Frentzen by outscoring the German two to one. The third, rebounding after a disastrous debut season with Prost, was Nick Heidfeld who shone after a move to Sauber which yielded his first podium finish. His rookie teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, came tenth in the points which was arguably even more impressive when one bears in mind his only prior to experience to Formula One came from Formula Renault.
It was Ferrari and Michael Schumacher that dominated in 2001, setting the tone for an even more comprehensive annihilation of the field in 2002. Formula One was now well and truly experiencing a 'Schumacher era'.
Theoretically, 2011 should be even better than any of the three seasons I've just described. Five champions in the form of Vettel, Button, Hamilton, Alonso and Schumacher will be taking to the grid, along with the likes of Webber, Massa, Rosberg and Heidfeld who all have the capacity to spring a surprise. Factor in the new, quick-to-wear Pirelli tyres, the return of KERS and moveable rear wings, there should be no shortage of overtaking either. Bring it on.
Be sure to check back Saturday morning for a quick report on the qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix, along with my predictions on what will happen in the race. Don't miss it!
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