This time last year – a look at the last twelve months in Formula One
Formula One is a sport that is constantly evolving and every Grand Prix season is markedly different from the one it precedes. The result is a World Championship with an incredible depth of history, and a sport that will be noticeably more developed today than it was this time last year.
At the dawn of a new year it’s a great opportunity to look back on 2010 and reflect on the changes that shaped Grand Prix racing over the past twelve months.
Michael Schumacher
At the start of 2010 Michael Schumacher was the most successful Formula One driver of all time returning to the top of world motorsport. Today, he is a fallen hero under pressure to salvage his legacy.
Michael Schumacher’s comeback was the easily biggest story in F1 twelve months ago and there was plenty of hype surrounding the German as he signed with the reigning Constructors World Champions. It turns out that much of that hype was sadly misplaced because 2010 was the worst season in Schumacher’s Grand Prix career. Not only did he fail to reach the podium all year, but he was thrashed by Nico Rosberg in the same car. Mercedes claimed that Michael was struggling, in part, due to the narrow front tyres supplied by Bridgestone but the truth is that Schumacher was simply past his best. Exactly how far past his best remains a mystery, and the former World Champion will be under huge pressure to turn his form around in 2011.
Lotus Racing
Tony Fernandes took on a huge challenge by entering Formula One with Lotus Racing in 2010. Not only did he have to start a Grand Prix team from scratch, but he had to convince the F1 world that he was a worthy custodian of the historic Lotus name. At the time, many fans thought it was nothing more than a disrespectful marketing exercise. Crucially, Fernandes had the support of Proton, who still make Lotus road cars, and the Chapman family who founded the company back in 1952. Fernandes entered the season confident that he could engage with fans around the world and reinvigorate the Lotus brand.
Heading into 2011 the future of Tony Fernandes and the Lotus name in Formula One is rather unclear.
Group Lotus, under the Proton umbrella, changed management during 2010 and started a battle with Lotus Racing over the use of their brand in Formula One. As a result, Fernandes lost the right to call his team ‘Lotus Racing’ but responded by purchasing the rights to ‘Team Lotus’, the other half of Colin Chapman’s original Lotus company. A legal battle will now take place in the British High Court to decide whether the people who make Lotus cars, or the people who bought the ‘Team Lotus’ name, have the right to call themselves Lotus in Formula One.
Fernandes has lost the support of Proton and the Chapman family, but has most of the F1 community on his side – the opposite to the scenario that he faced twelve months ago.
USF1
It has been 34 years since a Formula One team was based in the United States of America but this was due to change last year as USF1 prepared to enter the sport for the first time. Of all of the new Grand Prix teams starting in 2010, USF1 should have been the best prepared having first signalled their intentions in early 2009.
However, rumours emerged during preseason testing that suggested USF1 wouldn’t be ready for the first Grand Prix in Bahrain. Team bosses, Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, denied the claims on January 8th and unveiled their plans to launch their new car at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.
The reality was that, by that stage, many technical people in the team knew there would be no car to launch. Despite having no secure finances, team management continued to publicly state everything was fine until February 20th when they asked the FIA for permission to miss the first four races. Eight days later they formally confirmed they would not participate at all in the 2010 Grand Prix season. USF1’s application to race this year was refused and the team was fined for breaking their original terms of entry.
Interestingly, USF1’s investors unsuccessfully discussed a merger with Serbian outfit Stefan GP, another F1 hopeful to have drifted off the sporting radar over the past twelve months.
Pirelli
Bridgestone announced they would be exiting Formula One well before the end of 2009, but it wasn’t until six months ago that a replacement for the Japanese manufacturer was confirmed. Michelin and Pirelli submitted formal proposals to F1 management in May, who subsequently confirmed Pirelli as the official tyre supplier to the Formula One World Championship and the feeder GP2 Series.
United States Grand Prix
Since Formula One abandoned the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2008 there have been constant rumours about the sport returning to the USA. Upstate New York and New Jersey emerged as likely candidates to host a revived United States Grand Prix last year, but were surprisingly trumped by Austin Texas in a shock announcement on May 25th.
With a large number of motorsport facilities available in the USA and an economy in recession, it seemed unlikely at the start of 2010 that a brand new Tilke-designed F1 circuit would be built in America. Construction work has now started on the venue and progress is reportedly on track for the Grand Prix in 2012.
Pastor Maldonado
At the start of 2010, Pastor Maldonado was a midfield GP2 runner with little prospect of an F1 drive. He finished sixth in that year’s GP2 championship and was thrashed by his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, who went on to win the title.
In 2011, Maldonado will be a Williams Grand Prix driver thanks to an unexpected victory in the GP2 series and substantial backing from the Venezuelan Government. His appointment to Williams was a huge surprise, but Maldonado will be aiming to change the perception that he is just a pay driver over the next twelve months.
Ferrari and Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa started 2010 in a buoyant mood with the team that supported him during his darkest hour. Disappointingly, he ended the year feeling demotivated in an environment where he became a sacrificial lamb.
Felipe Massa has always been immensely popular within the Ferrari family. This was particularly evident at the end of 2009 when the team chose him over their most recent World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen, to partner Fernando Alonso into the future. Despite some occasional performance issues, Ferrari management has always been very loyal to Felipe and have invested plenty into the Brazilian’s career over the past eight years.
In 2010, everything changed.
On lap 48 of the German Grand Prix, Ferrari’s pitwall instructed Felipe Massa to swap positions with Alonso in order to gift his teammate victory. Not only was Ferrari asking Felipe to sacrifice the race lead, but they were asking him to support Alonso’s championship campaign for the remainder of 2010. The use of team orders at Hockenheim noticeably demotivated Felipe, and he must have felt even worse when Luca Di Montezemolo later criticised him for his attitude by saying “at a certain point in the season Felipe was fed up and sent his brother. For this Felipe gets seven minus”.
Massa may be willing to continue with Ferrari in 2011 but he is certainly not 100% happy within the team. The coming season will probably be Felipe’s last for the Scuderia because he is unlikely to stay knowing that Fernando Alonso will be given preferential treatment.
The last twelve months have proven to be tumultuous for Felipe Massa, and his story is just one of many in F1 that have changed dramatically since this time last year.