17 Days Until the 2008 Australian GP

February 27th, 2008

[singlepic=3,150,,,left]After a very bad Canadian Grand Prix in 1968, Jackie Stewart started a very impressive sequence of 17 races in which he led at least one lap. The first race of the series immediately set the tone. Starting from second, Stewart grabbed the lead directly and never looked back. The last race of 1968 was another thing. In Mexico Jackie quickly made his way to the lead, but was no match for Graham Hill.

In the first eight races of the next season, Stewart won six times, retired from the lead in Monaco and came second at the Nurburgring after having led the first half of the race. While leading the race in Canada, the Scot lost control and crashed out. In the American Grand Prix the Tyrrell driver led only briefly, before eventually retiring. Leading the Mexican Grand Prix briefly from the start meant that Stewart had led in all of the season’s races.

In 1970 the series continued. Stewart led from pole in South Africa, while he came from third to lead every lap of the Spanish Grand Prix. From that moment lady luck started to turn her back on Stewart. In Monaco he led from the start until engine problems made a pitstop necessary and in Belgium the Scot just led for two laps in the beginning of the race before dropping back and retiring. At the Dutch Grand Prix the series ended. After having dropped back to fourth at the start, Stewart slowly made his way back to second, but Jochen Rindt was too far ahead for Stewart to grab the lead.

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19 Days Until the 2008 Australian GP

February 25th, 2008

Between the 2001 US Grand Prix and the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher set a record that’s unlikely to be broken any time soon. The German stood on the podium for 19 consecutive races, more than twice as much as the previous record holders Jim Clark, Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet and 4 more than Alonso’s impressive podium run between 2005 and 2006. After having finished the 2001 Italian Grand Prix in fourth, Schumacher ended the season with a second place at Indianapolis and a win in Suzuka to claim his fourth World Championship.

What happened in the next season was incredible. Schumacher put his Ferrari on the podium in each of the seventeen races of the season, displaying a level of dominance that had only been achieved by Jim Clark in 1963, Nigel Mansell in 1992 and Fernando Alonso in 2005.

When the F2002 made its debut at the third race in Brazil, it’s power became immediately clear. Schumacher won the first four races in the new car before coming second in Monaco. Three more wins and another second place meant that Schumacher clinched the World Championship in France, after just eleven rounds. After that, the German took his foot slightly off the pedal, helping teammate Rubens Barrichello win three races in which the World Champion came second.

In the first race of 2003, it looked as if Schumacher would continue his impressive sequence after having qualified well ahead of the pack. However, in the race things went wrong when Schumacher damaged the car while driving over a kerb. A fourth place just behind Kimi Raikkonen meant that the string of 19 consecutive podium finished had come to an end.

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21 Days Until the 2008 Australian GP

February 23rd, 2008

Today we have a guest blog from Keith Collantine of F1 Fanatic. If you would like to contribute then just drop me a line.

It’s 21 days to go until the Australian Grand Prix and there have also been 21 world championship Grands Prix in Australia since the race was first held in 1985.

Keke Rosberg won that first race but the following year’s event was one of the most memorable: Alain Prost triumphed in a three-way title decider, snatching the championship from Williams duo Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet.

The parallels between the 1986 championship decider and last year’s are uncanny: a team with two drivers battling for the title seeing the championship slip away to a rival in the final round; a British team with a British driver and a new, double-champion team mate who demanded – and did not receive – number one preference in the team. And a shock mechanical failure that denied the British racer in that final race.

Those two dramatic days that settled the championship were separated by 21 years.

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22 Days Until the 2008 Australian GP

February 22nd, 2008

John Watson was the winner of the 1983 USA-West Grand Prix at Long Beach. Starting from 22nd on the grid, this is win from the worst grid position in history. The first half of the 1983 season was a matter of waiting until the TAG Porsche turbo engine was ready. Practice at Long Beach was a disaster. Both McLarens ended up some four seconds behind polesitter Patrick Tambay. With John Watson in 22nd and Niki Lauda in 23rd, there really wasn’t a shade of hope for points.

At the start, Watson gained two places. After six laps Nigel Mansell dropped back and a lap later Watson made his way past Mauro Baldi. Shortly thereafter the Ulsterman overtook Adrea de Cesaris, while Derek Warwick became the first driver to crash out, putting Watson in 17th after twelve laps.

In the next few laps, John Watson saw four drivers disappear in his rearview mirror and something hopeful started to develop. Then after 25 laps total mayhem broke loose ahead of Watson. Keke Rosberg collided with the Ferrari of Patrick Tambay. Tambay retired on the spot and Rosberg several hundred meters further, when Jean-Pierre Jarier ran into the back of him. Less than a lap later the Frenchman retired as well. This all meant that Watson climbed into fourth just before the halfway point!

In the remainder of the race, the McLaren driver kept his head cool and took profit of further mistakes ahead of him to take the lead after 45 laps and not making a mistake himself to score one of the most surprising victories in Formula One history, with teammate Niki Lauda coming second.

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25 Days Until the 2008 Australian GP

February 20th, 2008

Unlike today, there was a time when there were so many teams trying to qualify for a Formula One race that pre-qualification was needed. Gabrielle Tarquini has the dubious record of being the driver that failed to pre-qualify the most times. He failed to pre-qualify in 25 races. Pre-qualifying consisted of a 30-minute session at 9am where the new teams of the current year and the worst teams of the previous season had to battle for four slots in qualifying. Most of the times the drivers coming out of pre-qualifying would fail to qualify for the race anyway but at least they made it to Saturday afternoon instead of going home on Friday.

Further down the list of drivers who failed to pre-qualify there are names like Roberto Moreno with 22, Bernd Schneider with 14, Stefan Johansson with eight and even Michele Alboreto with three failed attempts to pre-qualify.

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