Road to the Title

Monday, September 26th, 2005

With everyone talking about how the baton has been passed from Senna to Schumacher to Alonso, it might be interesting to look at how each made his way to his first title.

Senna joined F1 in 1984 with the uncompetitive Toleman team, but immediately impressed with his pace and car control. He progressed to Lotus in 1985, then to McLaren in 1988, where he clinched the title at the age of 28. At the time he clinched the title, on his 79th race, he had 14 wins to his name. Senna will probably always be a legend of qualifying, so it is no surprise that he dominated his teammates early in his career. How his qualifying/scoring dominance went during those 79 races:

1984 (v Cecotto): qual 8-2; pts 9-0
(v Johansson): qual 2-0; pts 4-3
1985 (v deAngelis): qual 13-3; pts 38-33
1986 (v Dumfries): qual 16-0; pts 55-3
1987 (v Nakajima): qual 16-0; pts 57-7
1988 (v Prost): qual 14-2; pts 90-87

Michael Schumacher also impressed with his pace from his first moment in an F1 car. He had only a single race for Jordan, at Spa 1991, before being snapped up by Benetton, where he stayed until he won the title in 1994. At the time he clinched the title, he was 25 years old, and had won 10 of the 52 races he had entered. Michael will always be known as a better race driver than qualifier, but his sheer pace ensured that he almost always out-qualified his teammates:

1991 (v. deCesaris): qual 1-0; pts 0-0
(v. Piquet): qual 4-1; pts 4-3.5
1992 (v. Brundle): qual 16-0; pts 53-38
1993 (v. Patrese): qual 16-0; pts 52-20
1994 (v. Verstappen): qual 8-0; pts 50-8
(v. Lehto): qual 4-0; pts 36-1
(v. Herbert): qual 2-0; pts 6-0

Fernando Alonso’s claim to fame has always been his youth. He was the youngest driver to win an F3000 race, the youngest to be on an F1 podium, the youngest at everything. And now he is the youngest F1 champion, having clinched the title at the age of 24, on his 68th race, with 7 career victories. He, like several other exciting young drivers, got his start with Minardi, in 2001. After sitting out 2002, he moved to Renault for 2003, where he has stayed. Alonso has never been thought of as the absolute quickest driver in F1, but he has shown the ability to pick up championship points by the bunch. Even when he doesn’t out-qualify his teammate, he is likely to finish ahead. His qualifying statistics aren’t quite as impressive as Senna’s or Schumacher’s, but that is primarily due to being paired with a qualifying demon like Trulli for two years:

2001 (v Marques): qual 12-2; pts 0-0
(v Yoong): qual 3-0; pts 0-0
2003 (v Trulli): qual 8-8; pts 55-33
2004 (v Trulli): qual 8-9; pts 59-46
2005 (v Fisichella): qual 13-4; pts 117-45

There isn’t much point in using these statistics to compare these three drivers to each other, because the circumstances are different, the times are different, the teammates are different, the opposition is different, etc. But there is a definite pattern that is in stark contrast to virtually every other driver: each of these three immediately made his mark on joining F1, and progressed steadily to the championship. Notice that, while on his way to his first title, not once was one of these three out-scored by a teammate over a season. Many other drivers have legions of fans who will swear that their favourite driver would win the title under the same circumstances, but it never happens. These top drivers fight their way into a top car, and then waste no time taking home the title. Each of them won the title the first time his car was close to good enough.

Maybe this season will be the only championship Alonso wins in his entire career. Maybe in a few years we’ll be talking about how Kimi finally started winning titles in 2006 and never looked back. But Alonso has earned respect. He wasn’t dropped into the best car on the grid; he worked his way to the front by making sure he was never beaten by a teammate.

Posted in Nostalgia | 3 Comments »

The end of an era. Or is it?

Wednesday, September 21st, 2005

Michael Schumacher will not be F1 World Driver’s Champion this year. That much is certain since he was mathematically eliminated from the championship after the Italian Grand Prix. To add insult to injury Ferrari are nowhere near the top of the constructors championship either. All this has many people speaking of the end of an era. For some fans this era couldn’t end soon enough. The domination of Ferrari and the consecutive championships for Schumacher have left many fans with a sense of boredom and predictability.

Having one team dominate for so long can bring any sport to its knees. This year has seen the rise of Renault’s reliability and McLaren’s pure pace. We saw the flash of what was when the Ferrari in the hands of Schumacher was 2 seconds a lap faster than anyone else on the track at Imola. I like to think it was the ghost of Ferrari past that was urging on the prancing horse on it’s home turf but a comment from Jock Clear in Montreal during a casual conversation at the open house on Thursday makes me think if there was a higher power at work then it was more like Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ than anything else.

I’m glad to see other teams at the top but for me personally I’m sad to think Schumacher might be leaving the sport soon. Ferrari I could give a toss about, they are hitting a low like any dominating team from the past. If we know anything about F1 it is that the peaks are high and the valleys are deep and no team will dominate for too long.

My only sadness from the demise and inevitable departure of Schumacher is that he is my last link to nostalgic F1 that I know for myself. I started watching F1 in 1985 when I attended a race in Montreal. What a way to get hooked! I admire the history if F1, in fact it’s part of the allure of the sport for me personally but the history I saw with my own eyes is what keeps my mind occupied with F1 for too much.

In only 7 years from 1985 there was a new kid on the block challenging the greats like Senna and Prost. Schumacher is the tie-in for me to those legends, especially Senna. F1 fans were dealt a cruel blow on May 1st, 1994 when we were denied the passing of the torch from one great warrior to another great future champion. I’m not saying Senna was going to lose the WDC to Schumacher that year but the writing was on the wall that we were going to see only a few more years of Senna’s brilliant talent and that Schumacher was the future. Those first 3 races in 1994 are etched in my memory as if they happened yesterday. The restart at Imola with Senna bearing down on Schumacher going into Tamburello … how could it end like that? Why?

That battle in 1994 is an unrealized event in F1 that for me is now coming to a close. It’ll never be resolved, and maybe, in a silly way, through Schumacher’s career I’ve been able to hang on to those memories of F1 I have for myself, the ones I witnessed with my own eyes. Once Schumacher hangs up his racing boots that chapter will be closed forever. He is my last link. How many active F1 drivers can say they were on the same track as the great Senna? Barrichello was but the amount of tarmac between Rubinho and Senna was quite a bit more than Senna and Schumacher in those early 1994 races.

Yes the link will be broken soon, even if Schumacher pulls a Senna (circa 1993) and has a few brilliant races in an inferior car for me the era has ended … but … I look forward to the next.

If there is one other thing we’ve learned about F1 it’s that legends come and go and we have our own personal connections to each era, the memories and stories we cherish, but the next legend is around the corner … and I’m not saying his name is Kimi … :)

Posted in Nostalgia, Op-ed | 10 Comments »