A website by people with an incurable obsession with Formula One Racing
One is for Formula One, the pinnacle of single seater, open-wheel racing. Since the first Formula One World Championship race in Silverstone 1950, 804 drivers have made it to the big show. 79 of them didn’t actually start a Grand Prix, but they took part nonetheless. Of the 725 that started a race, 98 have won one or more Grand Prix. Just 29 have become champions. These are the best of the best.
Peter Gethin came across the finish line in the lead just three times in his Formula One career. This in itself is not very special, since many drivers have led three or more laps. However, one of these three laps was the final lap of the 1971 Italian Grand Prix, making Gethin the winner in the closest competitive race in Formula One history.
BRM driver Gethin started the race from eleventh, moving up to eight in the first few laps of the race. After a short drop back to tenth, he moved up to seventh after twenty laps. After 32 laps he moved up to sixth when race leader Jo Siffert dropped back. Slowly Gethin moved towards the leaders and when Chris Amon dropped back eight laps from the end, the BRM driver moved to fifth place. On the 50th lap Gethin passed both Howden Ganley and Francois Cevert to find himself in third place within a second of Ronnie Peterson and Mike Hailwood.
In an exciting slipstream duel five drivers dodged and dived past each other. After 52 laps Gethin crossed the line as the leader for the first time. The next lap he maintained his position, but a lap later he was fourth as Ronnie Peterson came across the line leading. As the drivers came out of the Parabolica for the final time it was unclear who was going to be the winner. Cevert led, but Peterson outbraked him. However, the Swede drifted to the side, giving Gethin room to slip past him. As Peterson and Gethin moved to the finish line side by side, it was just a matter of centimeters. Gethin won the race by a mere one hundredth of a second.
[singlepic=4,150,,,left]Since the team started in 1991, Jordan has won four races. It took until 1998 before the first win arrived. In a rain soaked Spa-Francorchamps, Damon Hill secured the team’s first win. This happened after one of the biggest pile-ups in Formula One history at the first start, where 15 of the 22 cars were damaged. The only team to survive the shunt without any damage was Jordan. At the second start, Hill took the lead, but after a while had to make way for the much faster Michael Schumacher. However, as Schumacher collided with McLaren driver David Coulthard, Hill inherited the lead and brought home Jordan’s first win.
The team’s second win came a year later in the French Grand Prix. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was victorious, again in wet conditions. The German drove a solid race climbing into first late in the race after it had previously been a battle between Rubens Barrichello in the Stewart, both McLarens and Michael Schumacher. Jordan’s third victory came later in 1999, when Frentzen was the winner in Monza. Starting from second, Frentzen remained behind Mika Hakkinen until the Finn retired after which he was able to keep Ralf Schumacher at a safe distance for Jordan’s first dry win.
The team’s final win so far was again in an incident packed race. In once again wet circumstances with many drivers crashing out, Giancarlo Fisichella reached the red flag behind Kimi Raikkonen after Fernando Alonso had ploughed into the wreckage of Mark Webber’s Jaguar. However, the result of the previous lap counted and Fisichella and Jordan were declared winners of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix.
[singlepic=2,150,,,right]Between 1989 and 1995 Bertrand Gachot scored five points in Formula One. He started his career with the Onyx team but failed to pre-qualify for the first six races. Finally in the French Grand Prix he made his race debut with a 13th place finish. In the final two races of 1989 he drove for the Rial team and in 1990 he joined the Coloni team where he failed to pre-qualify for all the races. His real break in Formula One came in 1991 with the new Jordan team. In the Canadian Grand Prix he scored two points with a fifth position and in the British and German Grands Prix he finished sixth. After the Hungarian Grand Prix Gachot attacked a London cab driver with teargas and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The sentence was later revoked but Jordan had already signed a deal with Michael Schumacher. In 1992 he made a comeback with the Venturi team and the only highlight of the year was a point in the Monaco Grand Prix.
In 1994 and 1995 he drove for the Pacific team but the car was not good enough to fight for any points. The closest he got to a point finish was in the Australian Grand Prix of 1995 where he finish in eight and last position.
McLaren has won the Constructors’ Championship eight times, ranking third behind Ferrari (15) and Williams (9). The first championship came in 1974 when Emerson Fittipaldi’s driver title formed the basis of McLaren’s championship. The Brazilian scored 55 of the 73 points for the team. However, it wasn’t until the last race of the season that both titles were secured. An exceptional bad race for both Ferrari drivers, Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni, made sure that a fourth place for Fittipaldi was enough for both championships. It would take ten years for the second title to arrive. In 1984 McLaren were the strongest team by far, winning by 86 points as Niki Lauda and Alain Prost finished first and second in the championship. The next year was less of a walk over, but McLaren still won both championships. With a lead of ten points and both cars out after 57 laps in the final race, it was a tense few laps until the Ferrari of Michele Alboreto broke down, handing McLaren the championship.
Then after two years of finishing second came McLaren’s strongest year. With Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, the team won 15 of the 16 races, scoring a massive 199 points, 134 more than number two Ferrari. It was the beginning of four consecutive championships for the Woking team. After that it was another long period without much success until Mika Hakkinen won the drivers championship in 1998 and with the help of David Coulthard secured McLaren’s eight constructor’s championship.
The most significant championship for McLaren is arguably be the one that got away. In 2007 the McLaren team dominated the field with consistency and reliability. They had two driver fighting for the driver’s title but controversy and off track trouble plagued the team and they were eventually excluded from the constructors championship handing the title to to Ferrari.
