ALL ABOUT FORMULA 1
REVIEWS OF ALL SEASONS
LANGUAGE
INTERESTING STORIES
50's YEARS:
JUAN MANUEL FANGIO:
At the end of the 1940s, Juan Manuel Fangio was considered a great revelation in motorsport after winning the GPs of Pau, San Remo, Perpignan in 1949 for Maserati and the GP Marseille in 1949 for Simca Gordini. Tazio Nuvolari himself, considered the greatest genius of the pre-F1 ERA, said that the Argentine would be the best driver of the 50s.
Fangio was invited by Alfa Romeo to replace Giuseppe Farina in the 1950 GP Sam Remo, the Argentine won that race. Then the Italian team invited him to be an official driver for the team, in a new category that was emerging, Formula 1, this was a month before the opening of the season. Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagioli were already official drivers, so in the 1950 British GP, Fangio broke down and Farina won. In the following races, Fangio scored 3 victories and would only need a 3rd place to be champion in the last race. Unfortunately, Fangio's car broke down and Farina took the title.
In 1953, the Argentine raced in the Mille Miglia with an Alfa Romeo Esporte. In the final third of the race Fangio felt that something was wrong with his car in the corners, but he managed to reach the end. After the test, mechanics examined his car and discovered that only one of the front wheels was responding to steering input. (Source F1 Yearbook 1976 pg 67) A truly amazing fact, only Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna did something similar.
Fangio was already an established pilot with 5 world titles, he was in Cuba and was kidnapped by Fidel Castro's Guerrillas who were fighting against the government of Right-Wing Dictator Fulgêncio Batista. That same year, Fangio returned to F1 and raced in the French GP 58, but his Maserati was unbalanced in the curves, the Argentine asked his mechanic why the car's shock absorber was so bad and the mechanic replied: "Because that was the shock absorber that the sponsor pays us to use." Fangio came in 4th place and after that retired from F1.
There's no way around this sport, even Fangio needed a reasonably good car to win...
CHICO LANDI:
On September 16, 1951, at the Italian GP, the first Brazilian to race in F1 debuted: Chico Landi. He raced for the Ferrari team. The Ferrari team began manufacturing its cars in 1947 and Chico Landi was the first driver to win for Ferrari, at the 1948 GP Bari. (Information from Emerson Fittipaldi in the podcast by the tracks in July 2024)
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYEMVgoZYAA&t=1244s
FERRARI 1952/1953:
The 1952/1953 Ferrari is little remembered, but it was one of the great cars in the history of F1. In proportion to its time, it was a car as dominant as the McLaren 88/89, Williams 92/93, Williams 96/97, Ferrari 2002/2004, Red Bull 2011/2013, Mercedes 2014/2015/2016/2019/2020 and Red Bull 2022/2023.
In the 1952 German GP, Ferrari drivers simply finished in the first 4 places in the race. In the 1952 and 1953 seasons, the Maranello team won 14 races, had 13 poles, 14 fastest laps, 7 one-two starts and 10 one-two finishes and Alberto Ascari was twice champion with 9 consecutive victories. All this in just 15 races, absurd numbers!
FIRST SERIOUS ACCIDENT IN F1:
The first major accident in F1 occurred at the 1953 Argentine GP, in which Giuseppe Farina left the track with his Ferrari and hit 49 spectators who were on the side of the circuit. 9 of them died and 40 were injured.
MERCEDES W196 (1954):
In 1954, the Mercedes W196 appeared, which was the first F1 car with a direct injection engine (fuel injection directly into the explosion chamber). The traditional system used by the other teams consisted of indirect injection of fuel into the engine's intake manifold, through the opening of the carburetor butterfly.
Mercedes' new direct injection system, oddly enough, was MECHANICAL and not ELECTRONIC, and required a high-pressure fuel injection pump and injection nozzles resistant to the high temperatures of the explosion chamber. The system was derived from diesel engines, but did not use electronics.
Mercedes W196 engine, with mechanical direct injection
STIRLING MOSS HONESTY:
After Fangio, Stirling Moss was the best driver of the 50s. The only reason the Englishman was not champion was due to absolute bad luck: in 1959 he lost a title because of crashes, in 1960 because of an accident that left him out 3 races and in 1958 because of his honesty. Moss could have easily been a three-time world champion and everyone would have seen more clearly how talented he was.
In 1958, Stirling Moss was competing for the title with his compatriot Mike Hawthorn. In the 1958 GP Portugal there was an accident on the track with Graham Hill and Hawthorn let his car stall, so he had to let the car roll down a hill in the opposite direction to make his car "take" and get back into the race. After the race he would be disqualified by the race stewards, but Stirling Moss testified in Hawthorn's favor and the disqualification did not happen. This HONEST attitude from Stirling Moss ended up taking away his title at the end of the year and Mike Hawthorn won the title by just 1 point, after Phil Hill let him pass on the last lap of the 1958 Morocco GP.
BERNIE ECCLESTONE AND ROGER PENSKE:
Still in 1958, a driver who would become well known in the future as a team leader was Bernie Ecclestone, who tried to qualify for the 1958 British GP, but failed (see photo below). As a driver he was weak, but certainly as a team leader, entrepreneur and visionary he was one of the best in the business.
Another curiosity is that Roger Penske, future owner of the Penske team, raced in the 1961 and 1962 US GP in F1.
DEATH OF PETER COLLINS AND END OF DRUM BRAKES:
Few people know that F1 cars from the 1950s reached speeds of 300 km/h, but most of them use drum brakes, which were admittedly less efficient than disc brakes. At the 1958 German GP, Peter Collins racing for Ferrari suffered a fatal accident, and the brakes were considered the cause of the accident. From that date on, almost 100% of F1 cars started to use disc brakes.
WOMEN IN F1:
The first woman to race in F1 was Maria Teresa de Filipps (Italy) who raced in the 1958 Belgium GP for Maserati, she started last and came in 10th place.
After her, they ran: Lella Lombardi (Italy) in 75 and 76, who scored 1 point in the controversial Spanish GP 75 for March, Divina Gallica (England) who ran in an unofficial race in 77 for Surtees and did not score a point, and Giovanna Amati (Italy) who did not qualify for any race for Brabham in 1992.
60's YEARS:
PHIL HILL, WAS IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME:
Phil Hill was perhaps the least talented champion in the entire history of F1, with only 3 career victories. The curious thing about this story is that he was Ferrari's 4th driver, he was also the one who played the team in the Morocco GP so that Mike Hawthorn would become champion in 1958 and after he joined Ferrari, four drivers theoretically better than him, died from 1958 to 1961, until the title fell into his hands in 1961.
Luiggi Musso died in the 1958 French GP, Peter Collins in the 1958 German GP and Jean Behra in the 1959 French GP. In 1961, German driver Wolfgang Von Trips was competing for the title race by race directly with Phil Hill, but Von Trips died in the accident in GP Italy (see photo below), Phil Hill won the race and took the title.
VON TRIPS AND THE SCHUMACHER FAMILY:
Von Trips was an F1 driver for Ferrari and owner of the Kerpen kart track. He was competing for the title with Phil Hill and died in an accident at the Italian GP 1961 and the most curious thing is that even if he didn't die in the race, his plane flight that was scheduled for after the race crashed and all the passengers died, that is, he was going to die one way or another.
The detail of this story is that after his death, the Kerpen Kartdrome continued with its activities and in the 70s, Rolf Schumacher, who was a carpenter, would become a kart mechanic. In the 80s Rolf became the Administrator of the kart track and supported his two sons Michael and Ralf Schumacher developed as drivers to reach F1.
The surprising thing about this story is that Schumacher's fate was set anyway, as Von Trips would die on the Monza track or in a plane crash on 08/10/1961, and Schumacher made his F1 debut in Spa on 08/25/1991.
Von Trips' fatal accident at the 1961 Italian GP was related to the emergence of Schumacher 30 years later
JIM CLARK x INNES IRELAND:
Jim Clark was the greatest genius of the 60s and is considered one of the greatest drivers of all time. In 1965 he won everything he competed in (F1, Indy 500, winner of the 200 miles of Riverside, champion of the French F2 and the Tasmanian Cup). The Flying Scotsman was super talented and destroyed almost all of his teammates, but there was a driver called Innes Ireland, who gave the Flying Scotsman a hard time.
Innes Ireland came ahead of Clark in two races (Eng/1960 and USA/1961) in the Lotus team, and at the end of 1961, they had disagreements within the team and Colin Chapman had to fire the Irishman to stay with Jim Clark in the team . After him, the Flying Scotsman defeated all of his teammates with extreme ease.
JACKIE STEWART AND THE FIGHT FOR SAFETY:
Drivers Jo Bonnier and Jackie Stewart were pioneers of driver safety in F1.
At the 1966 Belgium GP, Stewart suffered an accident that left him trapped in the car for 25 minutes with the steering wheel pinning his body to the seat and gasoline falling on him, until a mechanic appeared with a wrench and unscrewed the steering wheel of the Scot's car, so that he could get out. He was very lucky the car didn't catch fire. From that day on, the Scot started to demand more safety in cars and on F1 tracks.
Stewart himself spoke years later: “From then on, I told myself that someone should do something to stop it. The way they acted towards me led me to lead a crusade to ensure we had a minimum level of security. Unfortunately, it took a while for us to have fewer deaths, I lost a lot of friends in the 70s.”
Thanks to Jackie Stewart's insistence in 1969, the following were installed: Santo Antônio, 6-point seat belts and a fire extinguisher in F1 cars.
COINCIDENCES JIM CLARK, AYRTON SENNA AND FANGIO:
Clark and Senna are two of the greatest geniuses in F1, with the most amazing performances in history, they won races with a damaged car, competed for titles with an inferior car and lost titles because of breakdowns (Clark in 62, 64 and 67, and Senna in 89 ). Many who saw Jim Clark race see similarities with Ayrton Senna in terms of genius.
The coincidences go as far as the percentage of success compared to his teammates in training (Senna 89% and Clark 83%) and in pole positions per race contested (Senna 40% and Clark 46%).
Both died in a very similar way: both were in their prime, both due to a failure in the car's steering system (no matter how much Williams tries to deny it) and both with skull fractures. Too much coincidence.
Another coincidence is that Fangio had a very similar problem with a crack in the steering bar in the 1956 Italian GP, he could have suffered a fatal accident like Clark in F2 and Senna in F1, but the Argentine managed to drive his car to the box without suffering the accident. Lucky that Clark and Senna didn't and their careers were interrupted.
JACK ICKX:
Jack Ickx was a genius in long-distance races such as the 24 hours Le Mans, 1000 km of Spa and Monza, etc. He made a huge impression when he had a storm in practice at the 1968 Nurburbring GP and was 10 seconds faster than 2nd place on the grid, as well as being a very good driver in wet conditions. But apart from some sporadic highlights, by F1 standards, the Belgian was a GOOD DRIVER very far from being a GENIUS.
What proves this is the fact that the great F1 team bosses: Enzo Ferrari (1969 to 1973), Colin Chapman (1974 to 1975) and Frank Williams (1976) were disappointed with the Belgian driver's performance, not renewing the his contract for the following seasons. Perhaps this genius in long-distance racing has overvalued his talent as a driver in F1 a little.
70's YEARS:
JOSÉ CARLOS PACE ON SURTEES:
In 1973 José Carlos Pace had good races for the small Surtees team, but the car had a chronic problem that caused the rear suspension to break. This chronic problem created insecurity for the driver, as the rear suspension could break at any moment, but Pace still achieved two fastest laps and 1 podium for a small team, something very impressive. That year he was considered by F1 experts as the 4th best F1 driver behind Stewart, Fittipaldi and Peterson.
As the Surtees team was small and had financial problems, the person who did the welding on the suspension was team owner John Surtees (F1 world champion in 1964). (Source José Carlos Pace- world champion without title pg 100)
José Carlos Pace was considered the 4th best driver in F1 in 1973 for his good performances at Surtees
GP SPAIN 1975:
Emerson Fittipaldi refused to race on the Montjuich track in the Spanish GP 75, due to the lack of safety of the track's guard rails. FISA President Jean Marrie Balestre threatened to learn the McLaren car and suspend Emerson Fittipaldi for 3 races.
Emerson did not start and on the first lap of the race an accident occurred, killing 4 spectators, due to the poorly fixed guard rails, proving that the Brazilian was right. Balestre decided not to suspend Fittipaldi.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYEMVgoZYAA&t=1232s (CANAL PELAS PISTAS)
EMERSON FITTIPALDI'S CAREER MISTAKE:
Emerson Fittipaldi, Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda were the best drivers of the 70s, despite the Brazilian having one title less than the two of them. Emerson could have been a three-time F1 champion, if he had remained at McLaren and then we would more easily prove that he was a driver at the level of the two three-time champions mentioned above.
Fittipaldi was a good car adjuster, fast in races, cerebral and had a clean, error-free touch and in the 70s, the driver made a difference in getting the car right and saving equipment was essential to complete the races. But he made a wrong choice, leaving McLaren and going to Copersucar, which was a small team, far below the giants of the time (Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren and Brabham) and so he lost the chance to win his 3rd world title. in 1976.
James Hunt joined McLaren in place of the Brazilian and became champion, at the time Hunt even thanked: "I owe a lot to Emerson's work at the end of 75 with the McLaren 23." (Motores Yearbook 1977 pg 100)
The English driver was very fast, for sure, but Fittipaldi was more technical, more regular than Hunt and everything indicates that he would have been this season's champion if he had stayed at McLaren. One wrong choice and goodbye career...
NIKI LAUDA:
Niki Lauda was one of the most charismatic and talented drivers in F1, but unlike other geniuses, he didn't show his genius in the first seasons, it took him 4 years to "explode" in the category.
Lauda started in 1972 at March, then moved to BRM in 1973, always losing to his teammates: Ronnie Peterson and Jean Pierre Beltoise. In 1974, he went to Ferrari recommended by Clay Regazzoni, who admired the Austrian's ability to get cars right, but did not see him as a potential opponent. Pure mistake...
In 1974, Regazzoni was ahead of the Austrian in the points, but in the 1975 season Niki Lauda "exploded" as a driver and simply took no notice of his teammate, finishing ahead of the Swiss in the 1975, 1976 and 1977 championships. he was so massacred by Lauda in those seasons that he ended up being replaced by Carlos Reutemann, who performed much better than Regazzoni, but also lost to Lauda.
It was only when Nelson Piquet appeared at Brabham and Alain Prost at McLaren (two geniuses), that the Austrian's reign began to be shaken. Rumor has it that Piquet started to drive more than Lauda and he was responsible for Niki Lauda's first retirement in 1979.
In 1982, Ron Dennis convinced Lauda to return to F1 in the McLaren team, he lost to John Watson in 1982 and 1983. In 1984 he competed for the title with Alain Prost, and beat him by just 0.5 points. The French driver was responsible for the three-time champion's permanent retirement in 1985.
JAMES HUNT AND THE 33 STEERING STAFF:
James Hunt is looked down upon because of the 1976 title, but he was indisputably a very fast driver. But off the track he was a disorderly person, the Englishman liked to smoke, drink, got involved with several women and sometimes had relationships, in public places, such as the back of the pits, as Patrick Head himself testified.
Legend has it that before the 1976 Japan GP, in which he became world champion, he had an orgy with 33 Britishi Airways flight attendants at the hotel, but this story has a good chance of not being true. Firstly: there is no way to have so many Britishi Airways flight attendants staying at the same time in Tokyo... Secondly, it would be almost impossible for all of them to deal with the "mess"... Thirdly, there was no VIAGRA at that time. So this story seems more like those urban legends that remain on people's lips forever.
NELSON PIQUET’S FIRST TEST IN F1:
Piquet's first F1 test in 1978 greatly impressed the McLaren team. The Brazilian requested 6 adjustment requests for the car and each of them brought improvements in the car's performance. This Brazilian's ability left the engineers who followed the test very satisfied with the Brazilian, at this stage of his career he already knew what the car needed to go faster.
Piquet's 1st test in F1. Reproduced from Jornal o Globo of 07/21/1978 pg 26.
80's YEARS:
PIQUET AND TIRE HEATING:
Piquet was a pioneer of tire heating in English F3 in 1978, as before the races he would place his car under a tent with a stove on. With this trick, he could make the car and tires warm up and have an advantage at the start over his opponents.
In F1 in 1982, Piquet suggested to Gordan Murray that he warm up the tires before the pit stops, and the South African Engineer built a gas-heated cabinet to heat the Brabham tires. This cabinet was hidden at the back of the pits and no one from the other teams noticed the existence of the equipment. There is even a drawing made by Gordan Murray himself about this cabinet (see photo below).
The ELECTRIC TIRE BLANKET was the creation of the Lotus team that introduced the device from the 1984 European GP, but in fact it was an evolution of Piquet's initial idea. In F1 there is no way around it, good ideas are quickly copied and improved by other teams.
Explanatory drawing by Gordon Murray about the tire heating cabinet, reproduced from Canal Automobilismo Brasil. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0U4NPrxTT4A and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0U4NPrxTT4&t=1195s (at 22 minutes).
PATRIOTED IN ENGLISH F3 1983:
This is not a story about F1, but it deserves to be told here.
In the 1983 English F3, Senna won the first 9 races of the season, and after that NOVAMOTOR began to supply engines with a more evolved version to Martin Brundle's Eddie Jordan Racing team, without the members of Ayrton's West Surrey Racing team Senna knew and there was still a suspected illegal race in the English driver's car, but he was not punished. This made Brundle's performance grow, he won races, reduced the gap to Senna and even led the championship by 1 point ahead of the Brazilian.
Eddie Jordan: "We were actually receiving priority treatment from NOVAMOTOR and we always felt we had a slight advantage, so much so that Dick Bennetts went looking for John Judd." (Source: Book The Face of a Genius by Christopher Hilton pg 66)
At the end of the season, Senna's team discovered that Brundle was using a more developed engine. Before the last race of the year, Senna personally went to NOVAMOTOR headquarters with his engine and introduced the same evolution as Martin Brundle's engine. After that, Senna took pole, fastest lap and won the race, becoming British F3 champion. (Source: Book The Face of a Genius by Christopher Hilton pg 66, 77 and 78)
Dick Bennetts: "We only discovered later that Jordan had a slightly different specification engine, so we were running a wee bit less wing to maintain speed on the straights. There was no direct protest, but it turned out that Martin Brundle's car was slightly illegal in a race." (Source: Book The Face of a Genius by Christopher Hilton pg 68)
SENNA TEST AT BRABHAM IN 1983:
In 1983, Senna was testing F1 cars and beating the times of the teams' official drivers. Senna beat Keke Rosberg's time in the Williams test, in the McLaren test he beat the other drivers' times and in the Toleman test he was 1.5s faster than Derek Warwick's time in official training for the 1983 British GP. But when he arrived in the Brabham test, he took 2 seconds off Piquet.
Test times at Paul Ricard:
Piquet 1m05s9
Baldi 1m07s8
Senna 1m07s9
Guerrero 1m08s6
Martini 1m08s9
Knowing Piquet and knowing that the Brazilian had bet 100,000 pounds with Bernie Ecclestone that no one would beat his time, it is possible that Piquet did some trickery in the car so that no one could beat his time. All drivers were 2 to 3 seconds behind the Brazilian's best time.
Piquet, Senna, Murray and Guerrero in the cockpit at Brabham, photo from globo.com
SENNA’S MERCEDES 190E FROM THE CELEBRITIES RACE:
On May 12, 1984, Mercedes invited all living F1 champions to the 190E Celebrity Race. As Fangio, Stewart, Andretti, Piquet and Fittipaldi were unable to race, Mercedes invited other drivers to complete the grid (Prost, Moss, Laffite, De Angelis, Ludwig, Hermann and Schultz), and Emerson Fittipaldi recommended Ayrton Senna to race against the F1 "medallions": Prost, Lauda, Brabham, Rosberg, Hunt, Scheckter, Hulme, Surtees, Phil Hill, Reutemann, Moss, Watson, Laffite, De Angelis.
Senna achieved a surprising 3rd time on the grid for a rookie F1 driver, who had never competed in a touring car and this made Niki Lauda, who achieved the 14th time, complain that the Brazilian's Mercedes engine was better. So he asked Mercedes to change cars with Senna's, in other words, he did the old driver's "crying". Result: Senna won the race with the car that Lauda had the 14th time in training.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpXByGpsTtE&t=1s (Drive Channel 61)
Today this Mercedes 190E is in the Mercedes museum, and it was the car driven by Lauda and Senna, two F1 geniuses.
Photo of Lauda and Senna's Mercedes 190E (source UOL)
SENNA AT LOTUS IN 1985:
Few people know, but Senna joined Lotus as second driver to Elio De Angelis, as the Brazilian did not have equipment priority over the Italian driver.
The Renault EF15 engines were more powerful and more economical than the EF4 B engines. Elio De Angelis of Lotus and the two Renault drivers (Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick) used the EF15 engines from the first race of the year and Senna only had the right to using it from the 1985 GP Monaco onwards, that is, the Brazilian ran in 4 races with an outdated engine and also won the GP Portugal 85 and led 56 of the 60 laps of the GP San Marino 85, both with the EF4 B engine.
Senna also did not have priority to have a spare car and an on-board computer. A spare car was only given to the Brazilian after the 1985 Monaco GP and the priority of having an on-board computer was for Elio De Angelis' car. The consumption of Senna's car was measured by engineers making calculations in the pits. It is not known for certain whether Senna actually had an on-board computer this season, as there are reports from Peter Warr's heirs that a PAGER was installed in Senna's car to mislead other teams about the real consumption of the Renault engine.
The lack of an on-board computer explains why Senna had two dry spells that year (San Marino and Silverstone), and why he only won races in the rain this season. Everyone knows that in the rain you use the accelerator less and consume less gasoline, so your chances of it increase in these weather conditions. Maybe if Senna had the EF15 engine in San Marino, he would have won the race because he led 56 of the 60 laps and only lost the race because he ran out of gas at the end, that's because he used the old, more fuel-drinking EF4 B engine and because It didn't yet have an on-board computer.
NELSON PIQUET'S ACCIDENT AT TAMBURELLO IN 1987:
Nelson Piquet suffered a serious accident, hitting his head, in training for Williams for the San Marino GP on May 1, 1987, exactly seven years before Senna's death on that same curve. After this accident, he had difficulty concentrating, lost sense of depth and speed in training. This can be proven in the comparison with his Williams teammate, Nigel Mansell BEFORE and AFTER the accident:
Mansell x Piquet starts in 1986 (before the accident):
8x8 (tie in times)
Mansell x Piquet starts in 1987 (after the accident):
11x3 (0.6s faster Mansell)
Even with less speed, Piquet used his head to race and had an extremely regular season, applying the same "medicine" that Lauda did with Prost in 1984, and Prost did with Senna in 1989. Piquet raced to reach the podiums and scored a lot of points, while Mansell ran to win and sometimes got in the way.
Piquet still remained slow in 1988 and 1989, when he was beaten 3 times by Nakajima in training for Lotus, and only in 1990 at Benetton, the Brazilian recovered his speed from the beginning of his career and ran much better.
JEAN MARRIE BALESTRE:
Jean Marrie Balestre carried out a very controversial administration at FISA, with a lot of arrogance and interference in the F1 championship, always to benefit his friend and compatriot Alain Prost.
In 1984, he irregularly interfered in the interruption of the 1984 Monaco GP, ordering Jack Ickx to stop the race. Ickx gave a red and checkered flag, which was not supported by the regulations, given that the race would have to be stopped and the Stewards would decide whether the race would have to be finished or continued.
In 1989, he had Senna disqualified in the 1989 Japanese GP for cutting the chicane. This item existed in the regulations, but from 1981 to 1989 it was never applied, as 13 drivers cut the chicane or had their cars pushed and none of them were disqualified. Then Balestre revoked the Brazilian's Super License arbitrarily, because the person who caused the accident was Prost who threw the car over the Brazilian, not Senna.
In 1990, again at the Japanese GP, McLaren and Senna agreed with the Race Stewards that the pole would start on the clean side of the track, Senna took pole, but later Balestre reprimanded the race stewards and had the starting position changed ( Source: Yearbook F1 1990 pg 152). Everyone else saw what happened...
In 1998, towards the end of his life, Balestre confessed that he "gave a hand" to Prost in F1. It was actually a great help.
90's YEARS:
MCLAREN x FERRARI IN 1990:
Whoever looks at the 1990 season classification table and sees McLaren's 12 pole positions and 6 one-two finishes, little does he know that it was a very balanced season between McLaren and Ferrari.
Firstly, Senna discovered from the first training sessions that Goodyear tires came with a layer of "wax" that if sanded off, would bring performance from the tire's first lap, and Ferrari took a while to discover this trick, so that was the advantage that McLaren had it in training at the start of the season.
Second, the McLaren's performance loss during the races, so much so that Berger was the driver of the top teams most outperformed throughout the season precisely due to tire wear and the McLaren Technical Body had to hire an Aerodynamic Engineer, as they realized that the Ferrari did not lose performance due to its more refined aerodynamics. The English team did not do any one-two finishes, while Ferrari did two. And Senna had a chronic problem with a puncture in his rear tires this season, this happened in 3 races: San Marino, Mexico and Hungary, which caused him to lose some points.
Third at the end of the year, Ferrari came with a "cannon" engine helped by AGIP gasoline and passed on the power of the Honda engine, which caused difficulties for McLaren. Analyzing coldly, it was a very balanced season, with McLaren better at the beginning of the year and Ferrari better at the end.
McLaren x Ferrari comparison in 1990:
Poles: 12x3
Wins: 6x6
VMR: 5x5
Points: 121x110 (if Mansell had been more regular, Ferrari could have been the constructors' champion)
TONY KANAAN:
In 1992, Tony Kanaan got a test in the Italian F3 through Nelson Piquet. Without money, he asked Rubens Barrichello's father for a plane ticket and went to Italy. During the test, he was faster than everyone else on the track and was hired. But without money, he started sleeping in the team's mechanic's workshop. His team was unable to race in the Italian F3, so he went to race in an Opel Formula in 1993.
In 1991, Tony Kanaan raced in a kart against Senna and beat him. In 1993, during a stage of the Opel Formula, Senna met him and recommended him to a Formula Alfa Boxer team, which hired him and Tony became champion in 1994.
1994 SEASON:
The 1994 season was perhaps the darkest in the history of F1, with teams wanting to circumvent the regulations and the Williams team trying to escape blame from the Italian courts for Senna's death. But what caught the attention of this season were the various changes to the cars implemented by the FIA, after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzemberger and Karl Wendlinger's serious accident in 1994. Main changes:
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From Canada the weight of cars increased to 515 kg.
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From Germany the weight of cars increases to 530 kg,
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Placing a 10mm wooden plank under the cars,
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Prohibition of dynamic engine air intakes,
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Reduction of front and rear diffusers,
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Changing front suspension components,
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Use of commercial gasoline.
So many changes in the course of the season have never been seen in the entire history of F1, so Benetton, which was the best car at the beginning of the year, lost its position to Williams, who had their car completely overhauled by Adrian Newey. In this review, Newey corrected the problem of turbulence from the sidepod to the rear, which generated instability that Senna complained about so much, hence the car's improvement throughout the year.
Adrian Newey himself said in an interview: "I completely made a mistake with the aerodynamics when I went back to passive suspension, with the chassis height being much higher than it should have been. It was a very difficult car to drive..." (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u14Tn0CR8sE Adrian Newey-CANAL ENERTO)
There were so many changes that they had to launch the FW16 "B" version from the 1994 German GP, which proved to be much more competitive than the car from the beginning of the year. If there are still doubts about Williams' improvement during the season, just analyze the difference in performance between Hill and Schumacher in the first, fifth and last races of 1994.
In GP Brasil 94, Damon Hill took the lap of Schumacher and was around 2 seconds slower than Alemão. From the Spanish GP onwards, Williams began to improve their car and for the first time in the year Hill would start on the 1st row of the grid, and in the second part of the season (with the exception of Hungary and Belgium) both were driving at the same pace. As Schumacher was much better than Hill, we can conclude that at the end of the season Williams managed to surpass Benetton's performance.
Below is part of Adrian Newey's interview talking about the FW16's aerodynamic error, reproduced from Canal ENERTO. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u14Tn0CR8sE Adrian Newey on the Williams 94 and Senna)
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AFTERMATH OF MIKA HAKKINEN'S ACCIDENT 1995:
In 1995, Mika Hakkinen suffered a serious accident in training at the Australian GP and was left in a coma in hospital. This accident left consequences for Mika Hakkinen, who hid them from everyone, and only revealed them after Schumacher's ski accident in 2013, in which the former German driver was left in a coma. In fact, the Finnish driver was never the same driver as before the accident (Jo Ramirez had already confirmed this), but he still managed to win two titles, so we have to thank him for his return to the track to compete against Michael Schumacher, because if it had been up to Coulthard, the German would have won easily in 1998.
Mika Hakkinen: "One side of my face still has partial paralysis and I can't hear well with my right ear. I started running again, but I ended my career earlier than planned because it wasn't healthy."
Source: http://esporte.uol.com.br/f1/ultimas-noticias/2014/01/04/hakkinen-recorda-superacao-de-coma-e-envia-e-mail-a-familia-de- schumacher.htm
EVOLUTION OF DAMON HILL:
Damon Hill is a typical example of a pilot who started out AVERAGE, evolved and became a GOOD PILOT. In the Formula 1 access categories, the English driver has never been champion or even runner-up in any category:
10th place in the English F Ford 84
3rd place in the English F Ford 85
9th place in English F3 86 (lost to Capelli)
5th place in English F3 87 (lost to Modena)
3rd place in English F 3 88 (lost to JJ Lehto and Gary Brabham)
13th place in F3000 90 (lost to Comas)
7th place in F3000 91 (he was the 1st driver for Jordan-Middlebridge, but lost to Christian Fittipaldi)
In 1992, in F1 Damon Hill took Giovanna Amati's place at Brabham, managed to get through pre-classification in England and Hungary, but lost to his teammate, Eric Van der Pole, 5 x 2 in the starts at the front.
In 1993, he raced alongside Alain Prost in the mighty Williams. In training he lost 14 x 2 to the Frenchman, but gave the four-time champion trouble in some races. In fact, Prost was at the end of his career, he raced well below his peak and the Williams was still 1 to 2 seconds faster than the other cars, this supersized the talent of the Englishman, who won 3 races and was still behind Senna in the championship, with a car much inferior to Williams.
Still in 1993, in the team kart tournament in Bercy (France) in honor of the driver Philippe Streiff, Damon Hill raced but did very poorly... While Panis, Herbert, Prost and Senna did 29.4s or 29.5s, Damon Hill was 31.9s. The English driver was 2s slower than the others on the track. His performance was so bad, that he withdrew from racing the 2nd heat.
In 1994, he ran alongside Senna in three races at Williams, at the Brazilian GP he took 1.6s off Senna in training and took one lap in the race before Senna retired. At the San Marino GP, he was unable to keep up with Senna and Schumacher in the first laps of the race, before the Brazilian's fatal accident. At the end of the year, Hill competed for the title with Schumacher, much more at the expense of disqualifications and punishments for the German, than of the English driver's competence.
In 1995, Williams was better than Benetton, Hill began to evolve as a driver, but he was still far from being a genius like Schumacher, proof of this is that he had difficulties with his teammate Coulthard in training (he won by 9x8) and made many driving errors (Ing, Ale, Ita, Eur and Jap) giving Schumacher the championship on a platter.
In 1996, Damon Hill clearly became a more solid and regular driver, he controlled his number of mistakes and had a very good season, being champion with 8 victories in 16 races. He was deservedly champion.
In 1997 he did the historic race with Arrows at the Hungarian GP, in which he led much of the race ahead of Williams and Ferrari and only lost the victory on the penultimate lap due to a problem with the electronic accelerator.
In 1998, he won the Belgian GP in the Jordan team, but we have to point out that his teammate Ralf Schumacher would be the winner, as he was going much faster than the English driver at the end of the race, but was ordered not to pass Hill. Regardless, these results show the evolution of the English driver.
2000's YEARS:
WHAT FEW PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT BARRICHELLO AT FERRARI:
Schumacher was one of the best drivers of all time, but few people know that Rubens Barrichello played a fundamental role in the 2000 and 2003 titles.
In 2000, McLaren was the fastest car of the season, in a fairly even duel with Ferrari, which was the most reliable car (especially with Schumacher). In the middle of the season, McLaren was very strong, forcing the Italian team to make improvements to the car. Before Monza, Schumacher and Barrichello tested several improvements to the car, in the official training session for the Italian GP 2000, Barrichello was on provisional pole and Schumacher was unable to beat his time, that was when the German entered the pit and he was clearly seen changing the setting. suspension for Rubinho's hit (this was shown live on TV and was confirmed in the F1 2000 Yearbook pg 162). With this setup, Schumacher went to the track, took pole in the last attempt, won the race, and also won the last races of the year. This hit was essential for Schumacher to pass Hakkinen in points and win the championship.
In 2003, Barrichello was tasked with developing Bridgestone tires, but the agreement was that the best tire would go to Schumacher and Barrichello would get the 2nd best. But Rubinho reversed and said that the best was the 2nd best, and that the 2nd best was the best, with that the Brazilian performed better than the German in England, Germany and Hungary. Jean Todt discovered the trick and ordered the Brazilian to develop the tire that Schumacher wanted. Result: the German recovered, won in Monza and went on to claim his sixth championship. Not forgetting that Barrichello won two races (England and Japan) that prevented Kimi from scoring the points needed to take the title from Schumacher at the end of the year.
Ross Brawn even said at the time: "Barrichello is a driver underrated by critics, but he has a lot of value for the team, Schumacher often adopts Barrichello's setup." (Ross Brawn in 2004)
Schumacher himself admitted that on some occasions he copied Rubens Barrichello's setup (For example: Italy 2000, Spain and Australia 2002, Australia 2003).
ANTI SCHUMACHER RULES IN 2003:
Schumacher was one of the fastest and most talented drivers in the history of F1, but Ferrari exaggerated by giving him excessive benefits, to the point of not allowing the 2nd driver to compete against the German under any circumstances.
Michael was a master at setting up and driving oversteering (rear) cars, but on certain tracks during the season this type of set-up didn't work. Rubinho's entry into Ferrari in 2000 was fundamental in the sense that Rubinho set up the car well on tracks that did not accept a rear set-up, that is, both drivers complemented each other in terms of set-up and Schumacher never had any ceremony in copying the set-up of the Rubinho.
In 2002, Ferrari had produced the best car, but the Italian team simply wouldn't let there be internal competition. When Barrichello got the car better, his set-up was copied to Schumacher's car, or when the German was dissatisfied with the car, he asked for the Brazilian's car to race (See RACING Magazine 2002), or even, when the Brazilian dominated the German during the weekend, he had to give up the victory to Alemão. (GP Austria 2002)
Due to Ferrari's lack of "fair play", the FIA changed the regulations for 2003, prohibiting changing cars and moving the car from Saturday until the race on Sunday. At the time they claimed that this item in the regulations was to reduce the cost of the category, but everyone who saw what happened in 2002 knows that in fact that wasn't exactly the reason... This item in the regulations remains today.
