WHAT
MAKES A FORMULA 1 DRIVER A CHAMPION?
Carlos de
Paula
With
Michael Schumacher’s retirement, I am almost positive that we will have a
new Formula 1 champion in 2007. Although I do like Fernando Alonso, and
believe he is the most complete Formula 1 driver of the current era, after MS’
departure, I was not at all impressed with McLaren’s 2006 performance, so I am
betting on a red car winning the title. See my preview on the site’s home page.
Michael’s
retirement also brought about the search for the “new Michael”, just like there
was a search for a “new Fangio”, “new Clark” and “new Senna”, in the past. You
know, that driver you just knew was going to win the championship one day,
sooner or later.
After 57
editions of the Formula 1 championship, one reaches the conclusion that there is
no such a thing as a sure bet. The current crop of serious candidate for
“certain champions” includes Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton, Heikki
Kovalainen, Sebastien Vettel and Nelson Piquet Jr. Certainly drivers like
Fangio, Senna, Michael and Clark were obviously meant to be champions, however,
the list of failed “certain champions” is much longer than the sure bets.
Take, for
instance, Stirling Moss. Widely known as the champion by merit, Moss managed to
amass four runner up and three third places in the world championship, with no
less than sixteen victories. But he is not alone. The list of “sure champions”
who never won the title is indeed very long: Ronnie Peterson, Gilles
Villeneuve, Juan Pablo Montoya, Heinz Harald Frentzen, Jean Alesi, Jarno Trulli,
Carlos Reutemann, Jacky Ickx, Dan Gurney, Stefan Bellof, Francois Cevert, Peter
Collins, Clay Regazzoni, Chris Amon,
Didier Pironi, Ricardo Rodriguez, Tony Brise, Tom Pryce, Jean Pierre Jarier.
Johnny Servoz Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Ivan Capelli, Tim Schenken, Michele
Alboreto, Eugenio Castelloti…
On the
other hand, there are some drivers who seemed destined for anything but grandeur
in their Formula 1 career, who ended up achieving much instead. A clear example
is Niki Lauda. His early career was not successful. His forays in F-3
were not indicative of a future champion, he was just an average Formula 2
driver, and most of his early wins came in poorly supported sports car races.
His first Formula 1 starts, with a self financed March, did not indicate
anything special. In fact, it was only late in 1973, when he had been around
Formula 1 for two years already, that Lauda appeared to have special skills,
after great drives in Germany and Canada in a down on power BRM. When he was
hired by Ferrari at the end of the season, many thought the association would
not be successful, and the rest is history.
Britain has
produced at least three world champions that seemed destined for failure in
their early careers as well: James Hunt, Nigel Mansell and Damon
Hill. Hunt was so accident prone that he was nicknamed “James Shunt”. His
patron believed him enough to buy James Formula 1 cars before he proved his real
worth in Formula 2. And aboard the March 731, in 1973, James transformed himself
into a veritable Formula 1 powerhouse, posting fast laps and podiums in what was
essentially an average car. In fact, he finished mighty close to Ronnie Peterson
in the last championship race of the year, a little over one second. Lord
Hesketh dug deeper into his pocket, building Hunt a proprietary challenger, with
which he won the Dutch Grand Prix in 1975. Eventually Hunt made his way into the
McLaren team, winning the 1976 handsomely, after Emerson Fittipaldi took
the foolhardy step of joining his brother’s Formula 1 team. The fire was gone
after a couple of seasons, and Hunt quit mid way through the 1979 season.
Nigel
Mansell’s Formula 2
and Formula 3 performances did not indicate a future star in the making. In
fact, his first Formula 1 drives were not that impressive, although he did
manage a podium in his seventh race, at Belgium, 1981. He stayed at Lotus from
1980 to 1984, and during this period he was always overshadowed by Elio di
Angelis, himself not a stellar driver. By 1984, Mansell was qualifying
better, but the best he could do was third places. Mansell seemed at best a
solid number 2 driver, who might win a couple of races before the closing of his
career. He did catch the eye of Frank Williams, though, who needed to replace
Jacques Laffite for 1985, and thereafter appeared a new Mansell, who won the
1992 title in commanding style, posting 31 career wins.
Damon
Hill began his race
car career late, and in spite of a fair performance in Formula 3, by 1992 he
seemed destined to join a long list of Formula 3000 drivers who never made it
beyond that level. Being hired by the Brabham Formula 1 team for 1992 was
anything but a promising move. The team was in its last legs, and Damon managed
to qualify a couple of times. However, Damon was also the Williams testing
driver, and was surprisingly hired by the team for the 1993 season as a race
driver. The Williams car was the class of the field, and soon Damon was posting
regular podium finishes, culminating with a run of 3 straight wins late in the
season. Frank had obviously found the perfect number 2 driver, who would partner
Ayrton Senna well for 1994. It was not to be. Senna died after three
races, and Damon was left to carry the Williams fight against the might of
Michael Schumacher. He did admirably well, winning the 1996 championship, and a
whopping 20 races. Not bad for a driver that appeared heading for the sports’
footnotes.
Alan
Jones’ first few
years in Europe were not good. He seemed stuck in Formula 3 for many seasons,
with poor results and no apparent progress. By 1973 his F-3 performance had
improved, and in 1974 he was the class of the field in Formula Atlantic, still
far from view of F-1 team managers, though. He did find a good backer in former
driver Harry Stiller, who bought him a Hesketh for 1975, and Jones impressed
enough to be hired by Graham Hill for a few races, scoring 5th in
Germany. Luckily Alan was not in the plane that killed Hill and “future
champion” Tony Brise in 1975, so in 1976 Jonesy was back in F-1, driving
for Surtees. He impressed in the race of Champions, where Surtees cars always
seemed to do well, and scored a few championship points. He was not back in F-1
for the beginning of the 1977 season, having been replaced by Brambilla at
Surtees, until he was called to substitute the deceased Tom Pryce at
Shadow. Jones got the big break he needed scoring Shadow’s single F-1 victory,
beginning a very successful partnership with Frank Williams in 1978. This was
Williams second attempt at building a F-1 team, having lost his original équipe
to Walter Wolf in 1976. Backed by plentiful Saudi money, the Williams was
moderately successful in 1978, but an improved Lotus 79 copy, in 1979,
transformed Williams into the class of the field. Jones ended up winning the
title in 1980, an unlikely proposition back in 1971.
This shows
that success in the lower formulae is not a recipe for guaranteed success in
Formula 1. In fact, a lot of drivers who had very good careers in the lower
formula, failed to achieve ultimate success in Formula 1. Among others, Brian
Henton, Jonathan Palmer, Bruno Giacomelli, Rene Arnoux, Jacques Laffite, David
Walker. Some, like Sebastien Bourdais, will likely not even make it
to Formula 1 at all.
On the
other hand, there are those “sure champions” who ended up winning the
championship, but did so unconvincingly. One such case is Jody Scheckter.
Very fast and successful from his arrival in Europe, in 1971, Scheckter was
winning in Formula 2, by 1972, and by the end of that year he got a chance to
drive for McLaren in Formula 1. He impressed greatly, and was back on the team,
driving the occasional third car with great speed and gusto. The general opinion
was that if only he could survive his over indulgent driving, he would surely be
a world champion. After the crash prone 1973 season, Jody was lucky to be hired
as Tyrrel’s number 1 driver for 1974, as Jackie Stewart’s heir, François
Cevert, another “sure future champion”, had been killed in the last race of
1973. Jody became a more sedate driver from the word go, but was a constant
points scorer and occasional winner. He got some of his verve back, when he was
hired by Walter Wolf for 1977, but by the time he was placed in a Ferrari, for
1979, Jody had become a somewhat bureaucratic, results driven driver. It did not
help the fact that his team mate was Gilles Villeneuve, but not only did
his teammate drive better that year, so did Alan Jones. One year after
winning the championship, Jody quit Formula 1, after a very poor year at
Ferrari.
Keke
Rosberg’s
championship year, 1982, was also anti-climatic at best. Having become the first
champion to win the championship in an year after he went scoreless (1981), it
seems plausible to presume that Keke would not be champion if Didier Pironi did
not have his terrible accident in Germany. Additionally “anti-climatic” about
Keke’s championship year was that, although known as a very fast driver, the
title was won on the strength of regularity, hardly Keke’s main trait, and that
he almost won the title without a single victory. Too bad Keke would not last
much longer in Formula 1, to show what he could do with a top car, such as the
Williams-Honda he left in 1985.
There are
no formulas. For instance, a “driver has to win the championship within “x”
years after entering Formula 1”. A clear example of that is Mario
Andretti. Having debuted in 1968, Mario won the championship ten years after
his debut, in 1978! Just to show there are no formulas, after winning the
championship Mario was never again competitive in Formula 1, except for his
participation in the 1982 Italian Grand Prix.
Mika Hakkinen also took a while to become champion, having debuted
in 1991, and winning his first title in 1998, thus seven years later. Denis
Hulme won his championship in his third year in Formula 1, 1967, then he
stayed on for an additional eight seasons, never again being a real factor, but
winning odd races until his final season, 1974.
Then there
are those drivers who won the championship very early on their careers, only to
fall on a pattern of failures later on. The most outstanding example of this is
Jacques Villeneuve. He came to Formula 1 the best possible way, driving
for the best team of the time, Williams. He scored pole on his first race,
almost winning it. He went on to win four races on his maiden year, finishing
runner-up, then winning the championship the second time out. He spent another
year at Williams, then changing to the newly formed BAR team for the 1999
season. After a scoreless initial season in the new team, Jacques would never
obtain success at BAR. Making matters
worse, the team instantly became competitive once he left. The ever outspoken JV
was hired by Sauber in 2005, leaving midseason 2006 when facing the prospect of
fighting for his drive with rookie Robert Kubica.
Emerson
Fittipaldi came to
Formula 1 in the middle of the 1970 Formula 1 season, driving for Lotus. He won
in his fourth start, and after an indifferent 1971 season, things worked out in
1972, and he became the youngest world champion. He would still win an
additional title, in 1974, and after spending one more year at McLaren, he went
to race in his brother’s Copersucar sponsored team. From top driver to also ran,
Emerson spent an additional five years in Formula 1, without even a glimpse of
the success achieved in the first five seasons.
Jack
Brabham is one
driver with a curious career. The Australian won three titles, and the bulk of
his 14 wins (11 of them, in fact) were scored in championship years, although he
was in Formula 1 for a long time, from 1955 to 1970. Brabham had scored only
three points from a 4th at the 1958 Monaco G.P., before he began his successful
1959 campaign with a win at Monaco. Brabham began his last season, 1970, with a
win in South Africa, and lost two Grand Prix on the last lap, to Jochen Rindt,
due to running out of fuel. He was the first driver to win a Grand Prix with a
car built by himself and also the first World Championship winner equipped with
a rear engined car. You could say he was a win or bust type of guy. Although he
raced in 126 Grand Prix, he managed to win five straight in his 1960
championship year, and four straight in 1966. In between the last of those wins,
in 1960, and the first in 1966, he won nothing!
So, whoever
wins the 2007 will definitely add more confusion to this story. I see only three
real possibilities: Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, the last,
an outside chance.
