My Past F1 Predictions

[jens]

Why would you try to predict anything is such detail? You only leave yourself to being more and more wrong!

Yeah, I think this is just fun. Regardless of how wrong or right it goes. Actually the more wrong it goes, the more exciting it is.

And other thing is that perhaps it is not so much "prediction", but "expectation". And even if we do not predict precisely, we still have expectations. But once I thought it would be better to project those expectations in a proper prediction to systemize, what exactly do I think.

For example I can't expect like 6 teams going for the championship or all the teams doing very well or being competitive, that would be impossible! So if I play through some scenarios, I'll find out some teams naturally disappoint and regardless of the pre-season PR they can't all do well.

And rjbetty...
About 2000.

I didn't really predict that year, but I remember reading a newspaper section after pre-season tests and before actual season. On those days I didn't follow winter tests, so it was interesting to read, how did those comments match up to my "expectation". Basically the newspaper analysis put teams into groups in terms of how good they might be in the upcoming season. It was like that:

5 (championship contender): McLaren, Ferrari
4 (front-runner threat): Jordan
3 (should get regular points): Williams, Benetton, Sauber
2 (struggle): Jaguar, Prost, BAR, Arrows
1 (backmarker): Minardi.

I remember thinking the first three teams made sense, but was somewhat surprised to see Benetton and Sauber on level 3 (I thought particularly Benetton is going to struggle after disappointing 1999 and thought they'd fade during the season anyway as they did in 98-99) and Prost, BAR, Jaguar on level 2, while I had expected them to be more likely on "3".

More about Benetton. When I saw them being absolutely rubbish in 2001, then I thought that "oh well, I suspected this is going to happen one day anyway". Such had been my feeling since 1999 or even 1998. Especially as I was new to F1 and then learnt not long ago Michael Schumacher was winning for that team. So I guess I felt this team was a sinking ship in a way. And was relieved, when I heard that they were sold to Renault, then I thought "okay, maybe after 2002 they'll come good again".

Well, as the season started, the media projections were pretty close to be honest with the exception of BAR, who was well competing in points. And certainly in Australia it was like that in terms of speed - two top teams in front, then Jordan. And then the rest with Sauber going remarkably well and Salo competing for points.

--

I think randomly thinking about the future I had a small wish for 2000, but I guess I didn't believe it could come true. Jean Alesi to win a messy wet race in the Prost Peugeot. A bit like Hill in 1998 and Herbert in 1999. Based on that evidence I expected each season to have one such race, which is complete chaos. All front-runners (both Ferraris and McLarens) mess up and one surprise package wins. And I wished and felt Alesi the rainmaster in the surprisingly fast Prost can capitalize on that this time!

Also thought Irvine would get at least podiums somewhere. Rjbetty, I can understand, why did you project Irvine to do so well. I guess I could have made the same mistake if tried to predict properly. The thing was that in 1999 he was a great underdog, who didn't really have speed, but all the time capitalized on other misfortunes and scored big points. So the "feeling" was that he could do that in Jaguar too while racing in upper midfield, but getting on podiums with attrition. But I certainly would not have projected him 3 wins unless there was proper chaos. And in my imagination the "chaos" win went to Alesi. The rest of them to Ferrari and McLaren and maybe, maybe-maybe the Jordan nicking one too somewhere.

[jens]

So maybe I'll start about 2001 before rjbetty puts his prediction here.

Once again I didn't predict. But yeah I can perhaps recall some of the general feelings.

For the first time in my mind M.Schumacher entered the season and championship favourite. While before the previous years I thought Häkkinen with his superior car is going to win anyway regardless of how "close" it is. But now I thought Schumacher should do it, Ferrari is on an upward curve getting better each year. I guess I would have thought Häkkinen would still finish second in the championship, so his bad season was a surprise.

Behind them perhaps expecting Williams-BMW to end up 3rd would have made sense regardless of the tyres they were using. Back then I didn't take the tyre-war seriously, I thought doesn't matter which tyres they have, they'd perform similarly anyway. But Williams turned out to be much better than "just 3rd", they were really fighting with two top teams.

I heard Jordan switched to factory Honda engines, so perhaps expected them to be a bit better, but didn't expect miracles. BAR was likely to keep going in points-competing positions as well.

Sauber was obviously a surprise even if I thought them to be their "usual solid self" and score several points as they did each year. But they got much more than that. Prost had switched to Ferrari engines, so it was a bit of a hope, but I had lost a lot of belief in the team and felt Alesi was perennially unlucky, so I didn't even dream anything going well for him any more.

I can't remember what I could have thought of Jaguar or Arrows. Perhaps thought Jaguar should be at least better than in 2000 after their "build-up season". Despite taking over Stewart there was some talk Jaguar had trouble in re-building the team and Irvine was speaking about "3-year-plan" about the team becoming competitive as he had a 3-year-contract. Perhaps I took this talk half or 20% seriously, but when I saw in 2001 again that they were in (lower) midfield, I lost all belief in them.

Arrows seemed like a great underdog team, who sometimes could be surprisingly fast and genuinely compete for points.

And of course, Minardi the last team. This was a constant expectation each season.

Overall. The past years had made me disillusioned of any "close contest". Ferrari and McLaren were so far ahead of everybody else in 2000, that basically I felt the rest of them have a hard time doing anything about it.

Perhaps I pinned some hopes on Renault and Toyota from 2002 onwards and that those two car manufacturer giants could do something about the "status quo", which I didn't feel like some privateer minnows like Sauber, Prost, Benetton, even Jordan, yeah, whoever, could do anything about. And the well-funded BAR wasn't anything more than a "big talk" team to me on those days, I didn't take their ambitions to reach the top seriously.

[rjbetty]

Yeah, I think this is just fun. Regardless of how wrong or right it goes. Actually the more wrong it goes, the more exciting it is.

And other thing is that perhaps it is not so much "prediction", but "expectation"

Jens, that is a good way of saying it. I was trying to find another word for prediction, which I think sounds like taking it too seriously and being too mechanical and unable to enjoy. "Expectations" is a better word.

5 (championship contender): McLaren, Ferrari
4 (front-runner threat): Jordan
3 (should get regular points): Williams, Benetton, Sauber
2 (struggle): Jaguar, Prost, BAR, Arrows
1 (backmarker): Minardi.

I have to say this is a surprise to me too. Around Dec/Jan 1999/2000 I would have said this:

5 - McLaren, Ferrari
4 - Jordan, Jaguar
3 - BAR, Williams, Benetton, Prost (just)
2 - Sauber, Arrows
1 - Minardi

I had a small wish for 2000, but I guess I didn't believe it could come true. Jean Alesi to win a messy wet race in the Prost Peugeot. A bit like Hill in 1998 and Herbert in 1999. Based on that evidence I expected each season to have one such race, which is complete chaos.

Yes, early on, in my immature expectations that year on year the field HAD to get closer and be more crazy than the year before, I had Salo on pole for Sauber in wet Brazil, and then during the season, Button winning a wet/dry USA (there was a good chance of him doing well as it turned out). Incidentally there was a small feature in F1 Racing where an actual fortune teller was asked to make predictions! This was after the season started. I remember him saying Jenson would win a race soon. As it happened, Jenson didn't win a race until 2006, and didn't win his 2nd til 2009... D'oh.

I too always expected one crazy race with 8 or less finishers. Sadly, I think we will never ever have one again, or anything like it at this rate. I still can't believe only 2 cars retired in China the other week. That is it for me, and it looks like unfortunately, the days of getting the occasional Monaco 96 or Nurburgring 1999 are truly gone forever.

Also thought Irvine would get at least podiums somewhere. Rjbetty, I can understand, why did you project Irvine to do so well.

It was mostly because I believed the hype Ford were making, with Jac Nasser and Wolfgang Reitzle talking about a sea of green at Silverstone (meaning the crowd wearing Jaguar gear like all the tifosi wear red). I remember in hindsight some magazine said basically "Ford's attitude was pretty much 'Ferrari had better watch out'". I expected Jaguar would make good progress after Stewart's 1999 and have a strong car, though unreliable; almost as strong as the Ferrari, with a more powerful engine. Also, 3 race wins for Irvine and more podiums, but not much more points in a very win-or-bust season, because I just thought the season had to be even more crazy than 99.

[rjbetty]

I will now share my memories of 2001.

2000 was the biggest pre-season for me, and my motor racing passion peaked around the 2000-2002 period, though survived a battering in 2002 with the most rubbish F1 season ever (though at least that season was "real") - can't believe a more boring season than 98 happened - at least that had Spa! This was the start of the traction control/driver aids dark ages. It was little better anywhere else: Formula 3000 was rubbish and declining, with increased gaps and more predictable results, CART was also suffering badly, with less than 20 drivers, and the WRC was boring too since I wasn't supporting Gronholm. The cars were more reliable and the results less varied, but 2002 WRC not even a drop in the ocean compare to how cr@p it is now.



Pre-season 2001, it was still good times, and this season was another one of great interest to me - another of my favourites for expectations. I remember when I started college in late 2000, sometimes I would be playing GP2, running a "pre-2001" season I made with the editor. I had heard Benetton were going to incorporate more dark blue into their design for 2001 so I created a Benetton with more dark blue and white, looking more like the 97 livery which I liked.

I also designed a Minardi which based on what evidence and rumours I could gather, incorporated white and blue, with some telefonica lime green remaining. I really liked it! The liveries weren't revealed at the time so I had to do my own.

The other teams in my GP2 season (to make 26 cars) were Toyota and Fondmetal, who had talked of having their own team at the time. Telefonica also talked about their own team.



For 2001, I again naively expected the field to close up from 2000, and make the season more interesting, though had improved somewhat from having to have everything be even more crazy because the previous year was. I still had plenty of unusual stuff though.

My average qualifying times were this:

1.M.Schumacher (Ferrari)
2.Hakkinen (McLaren) +0.11
3.Barrichello (Ferrari) +0.28
4.Coulthard (McLaren) +0.28
5.Frentzen (Jordan) +0.50
6.Trulli (Jordan) +0.56
7.R.Schumacher (Williams) +0.60
8.Villeneuve (BAR) +0.74
9.Fisichella (Benetton) +0.78
10.Irvine (Jaguar) +0.90
11.Montoya (Williams) +0.92
12.Button (Benetton) +0.98
13.Panis (BAR) +1.16
14.Heidfeld (Sauber) +1.30
15.Alesi (Prost) +1.40
16.Verstappen (Arrows) +1.50
17.Burti (Jaguar) +1.60
18.Bernoldi (Arrows) +1.78
19.Raikkonen (Sauber) +1.81
20.Alonso (Minardi) +2.20
21.Mazzacane (Prost) +2.40
22.Marques (Minardi) +2.81

As you can see, again FAR too optimistic! I knew about the new wings for 2001 etc, but didn't want to believe the field would spread out as in 98. I was wary of McLaren bouncing back, and still maybe overrated Rubens a bit, believing he would close the gap having now won a race, and settled in at Ferrari.


MY FINAL STANDINGS (ROUGH PTS)
1.M.Schumacher 82pts
2.Hakkinen 71pts
3.Barrichello 60pts
4.Coulthard 58pts (unreliability)
5.Frentzen 33pts (1 win)
6.R.Schumacher 31pts (1 win)
7.Fisichella 28pts (winning at Spa)
8.Trulli 22pts (probably 1 win)
9.Villeneuve 21pts (possibly a win here too! Certainly a 2nd somewhere)
10.Montoya 15pts
11.Button 14pts (2nd at Silverstone)
12.Irvine 12pts (a 2nd somewhere)
13.Panis 8pts (including 1 3rd somewhere)
14.Heidfeld 8pts
15.Alesi 5pts
16.Verstappen 4pts
17.Raikkonen 3pts
18.Burti 2pts (a 5th somewhere, maybe Canada as he did well there in my GP2 season)
19.Bernoldi 2pts
20.Alonso
21.Mazzacane
22.Marques

1.Ferrari 143pts
2.McLaren 128pts
3.Jordan 54pts
4.Williams 46pts
5.Benetton 42pts
6.BAR 29pts
7.Jaguar 14pts
8.Sauber 11pts
9.Arrows 6pts
10.Prost 5pts
11.Minardi


FERRARI
I had Schumacher winning the title, Rubens improving.

MCLAREN
An unknown. A real danger to bounce back, especially for Hakkinen who underperformed somewhat in 2000 at times.


JORDAN
At the time, I rated Jordan very highly and was surprised as early as Hungary 2000, Tony Jardine tipping Williams to be the 3rd best team in 2001. I always felt Jordan, when they got works Honda engines would bounce back, though not at my expected 2000 levels, or even 1999, but a return to respectability, though pushed very close by Williams. My expectations were gradually becoming more realistic, and I felt it was more realistic to have Jordan winning just 1 race, with maybe a 2nd. I was a fan of Frentzen for his 1999, and couldn't face him being beaten by Trulli, though all the evidence was that that would happen, so I really clutched at straws to keep Frentzen in front, just.




WILLIAMS
I expected them to push Williams very close, Montoya to grab a podium and be exciting. Generally definitely stronger than 2000 and able to mix with the top 2 on occasion. Some respected journalists tipped Montoya to beat Ralf in year one, which surprised me - you gotta gain experience first!!




BENETTON
With works Renault Engines returning, and staff joining who helped make Jordan successful, I was expecting bigger things from Benetton, still some way off Jordan and Williams, but bigger nevertheless - a much stronger team.

After his stellar debut year, Jenson Button was smugly predicted by Nigel Roebuck thus: "And so he moves to Benetton, where one rather expects he will get the better of Giancarlo Fisichella". That raised my eyebrows in an upwardly direction, for though I expected Jenson to push Fisi pretty close-ish, there was no way he seemed ready to be that good. Though I think Nigel just very much underestimated Fisi, as I'm aware he never thought much of him, always belittling him whenever mentioned, either in fifth column or elsewhere. I didn't understand for some time just what Nigel's beef was with Fisichella, until years later I stumbled across a likely reason. I know he always loved Alesi, and since Alesi was kicked out of Benetton and replace with Fisichella, maybe that's where some bad feeling comes from. I can imagine the Benetton management saying some things about how much better Fisi would be etc which would put an Alesi fan's nose out of joint.

He also talked about Fisi being "singularly overrated" which is a bit rich by half coming from a man who most weeks, worshipped Montoya like a god, blurting out some things which in hindsight, could be embarrassingly cringeworthy.

I am still proud of myself for not having a smug attitude when that prediction was utterly blown out of the water, and wasn't even bothered when Nigel did not even once acknowledge the very good season Fisi had, even if it wasn't quite an Alonso-2012.

I was believing in Fisi to pull his socks up a little, as I knew he knew his career was at stake if he kept underperforming with Jenson alongside, but he exceeded my expectations. After 2001 I was convinced that on balance Fisi had done the 2nd best job that year, despite strong competition. I have now downgraded that to being a serious contender or very close to being the 2nd best of 2001.

[rjbetty]

BAR - HONDA
I never quite understood the hype around BAR for 2001. They were expected to beat Jordan quite easily, which I couldn't work out, and be at least 4th in the WCC. This sat wrong with me, though I did predict a definite improvement from a leaner, meaner BAR, with a possible win, and certainly a 3rd for Panis, and probably a 2nd for Jacques. I was excited to see how Panis would do; his stock had soared after a good season testing for McLaren. In fact, he did do well for the firt half of the season. Panis amazed me actually, leading me to overrate him a bit. I was really like "WOW" during 2001 for Olivier, though he did tail off when the McLaren drive became available and he realised he missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a McLaren race driver. The way he matched and beat JV caused me to re-evaluate opinions.




JAGUAR
Now I knew they weren't going to make a big leap and they would have to contend against other improving teams, but I still expected Jaguar to be more respectable and get more points. I had Irvine 10th in qualifying as I couldn't conceive a Jaguar being out of the 10 best qualifiers. So Jaguar to improve, but others improving more. Luciano Burti was never really going to be a long term bet, and I guess he beat Dario Franchitti to the drive as the team were worried he'd be another Zanardi.




SAUBER
I well remember how Heidfeld was maligned after 2000 where he struggled and little was expected. This was always so wrong to me. Yes he did qualify last twice I think, but this was down to struggling with a terrible car. Few seemed to notice after the first 6 or so races, that for the rest of the season he matched Alesi - I certainly did, and this was a truer barometer of his ability. People judged Nick far too harshly and made their minds up after the first half of the season. I though, thought he would quietly be more impressive and perform at a higher level generally than Alesi this year.

As for Raikkonen, I so clearly remember like it was last year how Kimi was a shock signing to RACE for Sauber after a single test. At the time, Red Bull were pushing for Enrique Bernoldi and I think Mateschitz (or maybe Dr Marko but I think the former) called Peter Sauber crazy for choosing Raikkonen. There had also been a rumour around Spa 2000 that Johnny Herbert could rejoin (since no-one better was available), but that was immediately rubbished by Martin Brundle.

So, great rejoicing at Sauber having signed an exciting mega-rookie. But what's this? Max Mosley and the FIA have immediately refused Raikkonen a superlicence saying he was too young and inexperienced, and potentially very dangerous. Even at the time I found this ridiculous and unjust. The way I see it, if a person can do the job, regardless of age, gender, anything else, then they can do the job - no argument! This row raged on for ages until Max finally got his way.

The really bad thing about this was that Raikkonen had turned down a good drive at either Manor Motorsport in British F3 or for Dr Marko's Red Bull Jr F3000 team for 2001, I can't quite remember which one. But by the time the FIA finally demanded no, the drive had been filled and it looked like Raikkonen would be out of a proper drive altogether.

The F1 seat was essentially confirmed for Luca Badoer, so much so that I ran him in my GP2 seasons, 19th and marginally ahead of Alonso.

Thankfully, weeks or even months later, Raikkonen was reinstated but given a stern probation for 4 races - one slip and you're out. So Kimi, with 23 British Formula Renault races behind him, went into his first F1 season with many burning eyes practically willing him to fail.

Those eyes were soon filled with tears as their doomsday prophecies turned out to be so much trash, as Raikkonen came 6th on debut. His season amazed me so much, I never imagined anything like it.

You have to remember I only really got into F1 in time for 1998, so I had never witnessed an amazing debut season. I only knew of Takagi, Tuero, de la Rosa, Zonta etc. So when Jenson Button came and had the season he had in 2000, I found this utterly amazing, to the point where at the time I thought he could go on to be the best driver ever, ahead of Moss, Fangio etc...

In 2001 I was even more shocked as Kimi, imo, had an even more impressive debut season. He didn't have the overall 3rd best car after all and only scored 3pts less than Jenson.

Full credit to Michael Schumacher, who always believed Raikkonen should have a chance. And shame on Mika Salo, who with his usual swearing negative style railed against Raikkonen, then had to sit and watch as Kimi put in a first season which imo was at least at the level, probably higher than any season Salo had had.



PROST
Like everyone else, I expected some improvement here with Ferrari engines. However, I was one of the few who never bought the testing times and the hype. Autosport tipped Alesi as an outsider for victory at Melbourne, as at the time, there were concerns about the reliability of both the McLaren and the Ferrari. I never accepted any of this, and instead tipped Prost for a season garnering about 5pts, with Alesi a little behind Heidfeld, not matching the lofty expectations, but nevertheless having a much more respectable season. I tipped Mazzacane to average 1sec off Alesi.

For a long time, the drive looked like going to Spanish CART driver Oriol Servia, who I rooted for, or Bernoldi, with Mazzacane in the mix too. For much of my GP2 seasons I had Servia in the 2nd Prost.



ARROWS
At the time I rated Peugeot fairly highly, believing their figure of 792bhp the year before. Therefore, this seemed like an increase over the Supertec, so I thought Arrows would make a slight improvement, though others would improve more. I didn't know that Asiatech would only achieve reliability by detuning the ex-Peugeot engine so it had only 750bhp iirc.

There was an uproar when Pedro de la Rosa was dumped for Bernoldi, who was placed by Red Bull. A real shame for Pedro but Enrique was unfairly maligned and didn't deserve that. I liked Enrique as his 2000 F3000 season impressed me. He was pretty much the best and most consistent qualifier of all, against more experienced and highly rated drivers, though he only scored 5pts through a mix of poor racing and terrible, terrible misfortune mechanically. He turned out closer to Verstappen than expected though I think Jos underperformed.

So a slightly weaker season than 2000, but still good I thought it would be.



MINARDI
Unknown and to me, surprisingly unheralded Spaniard Fernando Alonso was signed for Minardi in late 2000, having only recently turned 19. He would bring sponsorship that could save Minardi, who suddenly and inexplicably had gone from having a good year with one of THE best chassis in F1(!) and a Supertec deal in their pocket, to being about to close down.

Thanfully Stoddy saved the day. The Minardi seat was the final seat to be resolved. Enrique Bernoldi was such a shoe-in for a drive at one point, I had him in my GP2 season. Then since due to money, Alonso couldn't be confirmed, he was set to be announced alongside Mark Webber at Super Nova for a 2nd season of F3000.

At the time, strangely now, Giorgio Pantano was THE next big name, and McLaren and Ferrari (the dominant teams of 2000) engaged in a battle to secure him on a long-term contract, joined by Flavio Briatore at Benetton too! At one point, he was 99.99% for a race seat at Minardi (who I had given a blue/white/Telefonica lime green (and maybe an extra colour or two) livery) so Pantano and Bernoldi were my drivers in Grand Prix 2.

By late January though I think I'd realised the cars were going to be black(?) Now with Alonso confirmed, there was a new twist regarding 2nd seat, the last to be filled in F1. The seat would go to a mystery experienced driver who has driven in F1 before! Wooooooo who would it be? The 2 drivers in contention were eventually revealed to be Tarso Marques and Gianni Morbidelli!! I was begging for Morbidelli who was dreaming of a comeback, but was still happy to see Marques back! It really felt like a strange good dream somehow, a strange good feel about it.

Back then, Marques was highly rated, for driving his appaling Swift chassis in CART and for qualifying 14th ahead of Martin Brundle at Argentina '96. He was regarded as a driver with potential. I thought he could even match or beat Alonso after settling back in. He was one of the biggest unknowns to me in terms of potential. At the time, despite witnessing Alonso in F3000 I didn't realise how good he was. As it turned out, Marques "couldn't drive a nail into a piece of wood" (lol).



That's about that then. *Checks Post* Wow I got carried away. I just love living in the past.

[steveaki13]

I didnt predict back then but in for 2001, but I remember hoping to see Arrows, Prost and Minardi doing better in 2001.

I mean Arrows had scored a few points in 2000 with the lovely looking Orange Arrows livery, and after seeing Jos da Boss running 2nd in Malaysia in the early stages. I hoped and thought Arrows might often run the light fuel and even get regular 5ths and 6th and maybe the odd podium.
Alas that never happened. Bernoldi seemed alot better in 2002 and Verstappen despite that incredible drive in Sepang 2nd & 3rd then battling for points with Hakkinen and Frentzen finished 7th there and again in Austria he ran in the top 3, and did I think score a 6th then.

Prost - As you stated Rj, they had set stunning lap records at Barcelona in Pre Season, but come the season it was soon clear they were poor (Comparatively). Although a step forward from 2000 and the Yahoo Prost. In 2001 Mazzacane (who I loved at the time) showed really how out of his depth he was. Despite matching Gene at times in 2000, he was in a better car for 2001 and was still racing Minardi's. Although I think he deserved a bit more time. He retired without us seeing him on TV in Australia, then ran at the back racing Marques in Malaysia who actually was ahead of Alonso at times there. Then in Brazil in retired from the back and in San Marino he started 19th and ran 21st on lap 1 after a poor start (bearing in mind Marques failed to Qualify). He then retired with engine failure or something. So 4 races and 3 retirements and he gets fired for underperforming which seems a little unfair. Burti didnt do much better. Or Enge one of the most forgotten about F1 drivers. Anyway Alesi score a few points which was nice and I always wonder what could have happened in Spa had Frentzen started from his 4th on the Grid, bearing in mind Fisi finished 3rd and both Williams retired.However the team never looked like back in the 1997-1999 days.

Minardi - I always supported Minardi since I was wee in the mid 90s and followed F1. For 2000 they had a great little car but rubbish 'hamster', but for 2001 I was all new and seemed a bit on a rushed job which was sad. I believed Alonso would win out, just because he was being raved about in the press. Marques showed why he was sacked by seasons end, failing to qualify two or three times? Replaced by Yoong who was hardly a step forward.

I am quite enhoying this thinking back and giving thoughts on past seasons. I might do some more if no body minds.

[steveaki13]

My other impressions that I had going in 2001 from what I can remember is of how I was sure Jordan would improve on 2000 and get back to 1999 form. (How wrong was I).

Jordan - I saw the opening gird of 2001 and saw Frentzen 3rd and Trulli 5th and thought Jordan may well be in for loads of Podiums in 2001, however by San Marino and Spain it was clear 3rd in the WCC was not on and 4th would be a good achievement. Which they failed in. I always liked Frentzen and hoped he would win a race or two in 2001, Trulli was just getting his Trulli Train reputation at that time from what I remember. All in all I was sad at their season, but it would only get worse from there, apart from the lucky win in 2003.

Ferrari - I thought they would win the title again and they did. However after Barrichello's first win in 2000, I thought he would be closer to Schumacher in 2001 and win some more races. He never did though. In fact we was rarely even 2nd. I cant add much more.

Mclaren - I dont think anyone saw Hakkinen only having 9 points after 7 or 8 races in 2001 and Coulthard being so far ahead. Although Hakkinen won a couple of races in the second half of the season, I believed we would see him back in 2003, but it never happened. I was a fan of DC at the time and was so happy that he was a title contdender, but the fact was Ferrari were unbeatable in 2001, I hoped 2002 would be DC's year but Ferrari just got better.

Williams - I cant really remember but it was like a new dawn in 2001. Williams were back and fast, but at the price of reliability. I believed after winning some races Williams would win a Championship with BMW and maybe with Montoya. Clearly far from right. I loved the fact that BMW's engine was massively powerful but would explode alot. It made every race they lead exciting. Wondering if the could make it. As it was Montoya underachieved in 2001.

Sauber - What a season they had. 4th in the WCC and a podium to boot. I remember not thinking much about them and how Heidfeld would go and yet after that season looking back. Heidfeld did a great job. He was often best of the midfield and along with Kimi who I remember first being amazed by at Austria where he ran 3rd for a while and held Schumacher off for a few laps and then ran all race 4th and finished there. At the time though I thought Heidfeld should have been given the Mclaren drive.

Jaguar - I always loved the Jaguar cars. The 2001 car looked sweeeet....., however they were nearly always slow. I remember in 2000 I fantasied about Jaguar winning races and being a front runner and I believed Murray Walkers hype I guess that despite it taking time they would get it right. (If only Red Bull now were still Jaguars)
Anyway I remember enjoying Irvines podium in Monaco, but other than that I dont remember much about them in 2001.

BAR - I never really had any feelings for BAR until 2003 when the car looked nicer and JB had a decent season. I always thought Villeneuve was over rated. He was a world Champion in a decent Williams, but in 98-his career end he rarely looked great. He may have been fast at times, but often spun or made contact. Panis I was happy to see back, and was thrilled to see his 4th in Australia before it was taken away.

Finally Benetton which holds a special place in 2001 for me for two reasons.

The first starts with my father working for English Electric Valve, which around 99-2000 was taken over by Marconi, they then began sponsoring Benneton in 2000 and into 2001. I was excited that a company my father worked for was involved in F1, however he said Marconi were ruining his company he worked for and thus when the 2001 Benetton was such a pig, we laughed and said it was just like the EEV company he worked for. Ever since we joke about how Marconi killed Benetton in that 2001 season, so it just always makes me chuckle.

Anyway the second reason actually makes my annoyed and sad. With the above in mind, one weekend Marconi factory in Chelmsford (where Dad worked) were going to have a fun day and a full 2000 Benetton from the season before was was going to appear at the factory and Dad as he worked there was able to get me a change to sit in it and have a real close look at it. However the date was up in the air and as it turned out we were going on a family holiday the day before and so I never got my chance to see up close and sit in an F1 car.

I still regret it until this day.

[jens]

It was mostly because I believed the hype Ford were making, with Jac Nasser and Wolfgang Reitzle talking about a sea of green at Silverstone (meaning the crowd wearing Jaguar gear like all the tifosi wear red). I remember in hindsight some magazine said basically "Ford's attitude was pretty much 'Ferrari had better watch out'". I expected Jaguar would make good progress after Stewart's 1999 and have a strong car, though unreliable; almost as strong as the Ferrari, with a more powerful engine. Also, 3 race wins for Irvine and more podiums, but not much more points in a very win-or-bust season, because I just thought the season had to be even more crazy than 99.

I wanted to make one more comment on Irvine-Jaguar stuff. I think one problem was that even Irvine got a bit overrated in 1999/2000, even people in the know got a bit carried away! Basically he was treated like a top driver, who is going to take Jaguar to the heights. If we recall his salary, it was huge. Eddie was one of the best paid drivers on the grid after M.Schumacher.

Irvine had been a title contender in 1999 as a result of various circumstances, which made him look good. The reality was that Irvine was most probably actually a step back from Stewart/Jaguar's previos driver Barrichello, who was younger and proved to be closer to M.Schumacher than Irvine had been.

Other one was Salo. Two very good drives and podiums for Ferrari raised his stock and was subsequently hired by Sauber. His stock was never before or after as high as after Germany in 1999, when it was discussed that perhaps Salo could replace Irvine himself to become second driver to M.Schumacher in 2000!

[jens]

By the way, what about past driver ratings?

Once I happened to read my mid-2001 driver ratings. It was an interesting list: My top 6 drivers at the time were: M.Schumacher, Häkkinen, Villeneuve, R.Schumacher, Trulli, Alesi.

Interesting I left out Fisichella, because I rated him very highly at the time. Maybe I forgot since he was so far back on the grid. And certainly I knew he had beaten R.Schumacher in the Jordan in 1997.

I wasn't impressed with Barrichello and Coulthard, viewing them as underperforming in top teams.

Montoya, Heidfeld, Räikkönen, Alonso weren't "experienced enough" yet in my view, needing more to prove before getting rated high.

I wasn't really fond of Button at the time with his a bit of a playboy image and considered him overrated.

[rjbetty]

Despite that incredible drive in Sepang 2nd & 3rd then battling for points with Hakkinen and Frentzen finished 7th there and again in Austria he ran in the top 3, and did I think score a 6th then.

Yeah Jos grabbed the only point at A1 ring. That Malaysia drive was amazing and it was sad he just missed out in the end. That race was amazing. It would never be allowed to run now. All those cars going off track would be considered far too dangerous. There looked to be a chance Verstappen could even win, certainly a good chance of a podium. The 2001 Arrows was dog slow with a very basic front wing just stuck on last years car, and a weak engine, though much more reliable.

Prost - Although a step forward from 2000 and the Yahoo Prost. In 2001 Mazzacane (who I loved at the time) showed really how out of his depth he was. Despite matching Gene at times in 2000, he was in a better car for 2001 and was still racing Minardi's. Although I think he deserved a bit more time.

Yeah I really liked him too and was sad to see him lose his drive. But frankly and sadly, his gulf to Alesi kinda showed that maybe Gené was quite poor, as though Gaston only outqualified Marc 3 times, he averaged 0.6-0.7off which for a rookie isn't too bad. Alain Prost said Gaston had to qualify within 0.5sec off Alesi in at least 1 of the first 4 races. I knew that was unlikely... Frankly, I think Alesi was quite poor by 2001, outqualified by Burti 3 times in 8 races, starting 20th in Austria. But most telling was his gulf to Trulli in his final races for Jordan. Even more telling was that Frentzen was noticeably quicker in the Prost, and almost as quick in the Prost as Alesi was in he Jordan, though his race pace was lacking.

I am quite enhoying this thinking back and giving thoughts on past seasons. I might do some more if no body minds.

I wouldn't be surprised if dj has some problem with it, but I don't. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I liked it.