The ‘Lost’ Generation

Examining the front-running drivers of today's Formula One field, there are two distinct 'generations' of drivers. First, we have the older group of drivers who debuted in the early part of last decade and are mostly in their early thirties; second, there's the newer crop who have joined the foray in the last four or five years and are in their mid-twenties. In other words, there's the Alonso-Webber-Button group and the Vettel-Hamilton-Rosberg group.

Whilst they are our current leading generations, they're not the only ones on the grid. Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher are the remaining remnants of a formidable generation of drivers that emerged in the early 1990s. Featuring such other heavyweights as Mika Hakkinen, Damon Hill, David Coulthard and Eddie Irvine, not only did this cluster rise to prominence unusually quickly owing to the tragic of death of Ayrton Senna, their considerable prowess allowed them to remain at the top of the game for an extensive period, denying much chance for what I like to call the 'lost' generation to make their mark on F1 history.

The 'lost' generation refers to drivers who debuted in the latter half of the 1990s – drivers such as Jacques Villeneuve, Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, the only member of this group who remains an active F1 driver in 2011. It was only the first-named who was able to clinch the title, but the French-Canadian benefitted from a very rare set of circumstances. After taking the 1995 IndyCar title, he debuted for the dominant team of the era, Williams, in 1996. He narrowly lost out to teammate Hill in his first season, but when the Brit was unceremoniously sacked by the team, the way was clear for Villeneuve to see off Schumacher in 1997 in dramatic fashion.

Williams then suffered a decline after the departure of both their engine supplier, Renault, and their famed designer, Adrian Newey. A barren 1998 season led to Villeneuve throwing his lot in with the fledgling BAR team in 1999, a move his career never recovered from. As Williams fell from grace however, McLaren were able to secure the services of Newey to rejoin Ferrari as one of F1's undisputed top teams. Hakkinen sealed his overdue first title after a fierce battle with Schumacher as a result, and followed that up with a successful defence in 1999 after defeating Irvine, who was left to salvage glory for Ferrari after Schumacher broke his leg mid-season at Silverstone.

Schumacher recovered before the season was out however, and bounced back in 2000 to defeat Hakkinen and take his third crown. From thereon, there was just no stopping the man, who went on to put away four more titles during the following four seasons, rewriting the record books as he did so. He was finally deposed by Fernando Alonso in 2005, a member of today's older generation. His teammate was Fisichella, but his best years had been wasted in relatively uncompetitive machinery at Benetton and Jordan. The way he was outperformed by Alonso when he finally found himself with a race-winning car beneath him at Renault merely demonstrated how the 'lost' generation had missed the boat.

Schumacher remained with Ferrari until his retirement at the end of 2006, and Irvine's replacement for 2000 was not somebody from the next generation in line, but another member of the previous one – Barrichello. He remained at Maranello until the end of 2005 when he was replaced by fellow Brazilian Felipe Massa, part of today's older generation, meaning Ferrari skipped out the 'lost' generation. McLaren were guilty of a similar crime: their long-time drivers Hakkinen and Coulthard were eventually replaced by Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya respectively, both members of the early 2000s club.

After Villeneuve, the next-closest 'lost' generation driver to realise success was Michael's younger sibling, Ralf. After two promising seasons at Jordan in 1997 and 1998, he moved to Williams in the place of Villeneuve for 1999 in order to best position himself for the British team's forthcoming alliance with engine suppliers BMW, a partnership most speculators at the time believed would see the team return to their rightful place at the top and thus allow Ralf to challenge his more illustrious elder brother. Under the leadership of Michael though, Ferrari had become an almost unbeatable force in 2001 and 2002, and when an opportunity arrived for an upset in 2003, teammate Montoya was closer than Ralf to getting the job done.

Ferrari and Michael re-asserted their hegemony in 2004, by which point Williams were back on the down-slope. Ralf made a switch to Toyota that began promisingly enough in 2005, but he ultimately failed to impress, the German retiring at the end of 2007 with his obvious potential having gone largely unfulfilled. His teammate in his final years was a fellow constituent of the 'lost' generation, Trulli, who had moved to the Japanese car giant after stints with Jordan and Renault, the latter of which yielded his one and only race victory at Monaco in 2004. Like Ralf, Trulli was able to take advantage of the Toyota when it was competitive, but otherwise he achieved little of note before the manufacturer's pull-out at the end of 2009.

In the meantime, Fisichella couldn't quite cope with his rookie Renault teammate Heikki Kovalainen in 2007 after Alonso departed for McLaren, and Villeneuve jumped before he was pushed at BMW Sauber mid-way through 2006 after years of struggle at BAR, where he was sacked and replaced by Takuma Sato after being shaded by Jenson Button in 2003. That would be the end of the road for Villeneuve, but Fisichella became the lead driver for the then-new Force India team in 2008 after Alonso moved back to Renault after his unhappy stint at McLaren. Although Force India was the perennial back-marker in its first season, the team improved considerably in 2009 – Fisichella put the car on pole for the Belgian Grand Prix and would have likely won the race if not for the KERS button of Raikkonen's Ferrari.

This performance prompted Ferrari to sign the Italian up to replace his struggling countryman Luca Badoer in Massa's absence, but ironically it was this move that finished Fisichella's career. He failed to score any more points in the final five races of the season for the prancing horse, and his status as Ferrari reserve driver for 2010 made him unemployable in the eyes of Peter Sauber, who instead plumped for Pedro De La Rosa in his selection of an experienced hand to join the young Kamui Kobayashi at his eponymous team. His options having ran out, 'Fizzy' decided to become a sports car driver for the legendary Italian marque, sadly calling time on an F1 career that promised so much but delivered little in comparison.

The undeniable talents of the drivers who made up the 'lost' generation were squandered by the sheer brilliance of the generations either side of them. On that basis, with such a sizeable amount of capable drivers at the forefront of today's field, one has to fear that the next generation – the likes of Jaime Alguersauri, Sergio Perez and others who are yet to join the ranks of F1 – could well find themselves squeezed into the margins of the sport's history too.