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Thread: My Past F1 Predictions
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8th May 2014, 08:37 #11
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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.Last edited by rjbetty; 8th May 2014 at 08:53.
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