So most of us will describe Pastor Maldonado’s win for Williams in Spain as a shock victory right? But should we really be that surprised? On top of which 5 winners, 5 constructors? Blimey this F1 year is so amazingly different from anything we’ve seen before! Is it really? If you take a closer look at who the constructors are though you may see its not that surprising and maybe we all should have expected it.
Between 1970 and 2008 only 7 teams have carried a driver to the world drivers championship. 2 of those teams, Brabahm and Lotus(lets not get into the name thing), met an untimely death in the early 90’s. The other 5, although with a few name changes, still exist and whilst all of them go up and down in cycles until 2009 they were always pretty much the top 5 teams. When I started watching F1 in 1990 they were literally the top 5 teams. Mclaren and Ferrari lead the way, Williams and Benneton were close behind and Tyrell with Jean Alesi at the wheel played the interloper. After 1990 Ferrari fell into a dip they didn’t really recover from until 1997 whilst Williams went on a surge of dominance . After 1993 Mclaren went on a dip they didn’t really recover from until 1998. Benneton came to the fore in 1994 but floundered again by 1998. Williams lost their Renault engines in 1998 and drifted towards the back again only to return as front runners by 2001 time. Benetton became Renault and came back to being the top team again as we reach 2005 and at the same time a Mclaren resurgence began as a Williams dip started. For 18 years it pretty much went in a cycle and I’m sure those who know the 80’s period better than me will see the pattern their as well.
Tyrell are the only oddity in this as they had a dip that started in 1992 and it looked like no recovery would happen and interlopers like Sauber and Jordan mixed it up with the other 4. The team were bought out in 1998 and it still took time for a rebuild although by 2000 they were F1’s 5th team again. 2003 saw them claim that title again and in 2004 they took 2nd in the constructors and the Tyrell team, all be it named differently were back on an up turn and whilst they dipped again when Honda took over they still earned their place in the top 5.
The 2009 was a watershed year as we had the biggest regulation changes the sport had seen in a massive amount of time and it really did course a shake up as the big teams didn’t anticipate it. The team originally known as Tyrell, Brawn dealt with it best and hit the front but its main challenges were 2 interlopers Red Bull and Toyota and whilst Toyota slipped away Red Bull very much decided it was here to stay. Mclaren and Ferrari made very quick recoveries from the early 2009 set backs but its fellow big 4 teams Williams and Renault really didn’t. Their seemed to be a new world order of Red Bull, Ferrari, Mclaren and Mercedes (another Tyrell name change!) but this season is starting to show that we were all very early in predicting their demise.
Williams went 7 season without a victory which is a long period but lets remember both Ferrari and Mclaren had a period of 3 seasons without a win and Benneton went 6. Lets remember that the guys at the Tyrell factory in Surrey waited 20 season’s between victories! Should we really be shocked that once Williams established a stable backstaff, stable finances and, most importantly, finally got themselves the first reliable engine supplier since BMW that they should be able to build themselves a competitive car? On top of that should we really be surprised that now the newly named Lotus team have sorted out their management and ownership issues that they suddenly have a driver line up and a car thats at the front? Both of these teams have been consistently at the front of F1 racing for 20 years and the structure in the teams have always been there for them to continue to do so. If you look at all the ‘dip’ periods for the top teams I listed earlier you will see something that happened to the team that unsettled them, either a loss of an engine, driver or staff member that has taken them a few seasons to recover from. Williams and the now Lotus team just happened to be in rebuild when 2009 struck hence why its taken them slightly longer to recover than it usually did.
So is it me or is this brand new open ‘anyone can win’ F1 actually just the status quo reasserting itself?
Between 1970 and 2008 only 7 teams have carried a driver to the world drivers championship. 2 of those teams, Brabahm and Lotus(lets not get into the name thing), met an untimely death in the early 90’s. The other 5, although with a few name changes, still exist and whilst all of them go up and down in cycles until 2009 they were always pretty much the top 5 teams. When I started watching F1 in 1990 they were literally the top 5 teams. Mclaren and Ferrari lead the way, Williams and Benneton were close behind and Tyrell with Jean Alesi at the wheel played the interloper. After 1990 Ferrari fell into a dip they didn’t really recover from until 1997 whilst Williams went on a surge of dominance . After 1993 Mclaren went on a dip they didn’t really recover from until 1998. Benneton came to the fore in 1994 but floundered again by 1998. Williams lost their Renault engines in 1998 and drifted towards the back again only to return as front runners by 2001 time. Benetton became Renault and came back to being the top team again as we reach 2005 and at the same time a Mclaren resurgence began as a Williams dip started. For 18 years it pretty much went in a cycle and I’m sure those who know the 80’s period better than me will see the pattern their as well.
Tyrell are the only oddity in this as they had a dip that started in 1992 and it looked like no recovery would happen and interlopers like Sauber and Jordan mixed it up with the other 4. The team were bought out in 1998 and it still took time for a rebuild although by 2000 they were F1’s 5th team again. 2003 saw them claim that title again and in 2004 they took 2nd in the constructors and the Tyrell team, all be it named differently were back on an up turn and whilst they dipped again when Honda took over they still earned their place in the top 5.
The 2009 was a watershed year as we had the biggest regulation changes the sport had seen in a massive amount of time and it really did course a shake up as the big teams didn’t anticipate it. The team originally known as Tyrell, Brawn dealt with it best and hit the front but its main challenges were 2 interlopers Red Bull and Toyota and whilst Toyota slipped away Red Bull very much decided it was here to stay. Mclaren and Ferrari made very quick recoveries from the early 2009 set backs but its fellow big 4 teams Williams and Renault really didn’t. Their seemed to be a new world order of Red Bull, Ferrari, Mclaren and Mercedes (another Tyrell name change!) but this season is starting to show that we were all very early in predicting their demise.
Williams went 7 season without a victory which is a long period but lets remember both Ferrari and Mclaren had a period of 3 seasons without a win and Benneton went 6. Lets remember that the guys at the Tyrell factory in Surrey waited 20 season’s between victories! Should we really be shocked that once Williams established a stable backstaff, stable finances and, most importantly, finally got themselves the first reliable engine supplier since BMW that they should be able to build themselves a competitive car? On top of that should we really be surprised that now the newly named Lotus team have sorted out their management and ownership issues that they suddenly have a driver line up and a car thats at the front? Both of these teams have been consistently at the front of F1 racing for 20 years and the structure in the teams have always been there for them to continue to do so. If you look at all the ‘dip’ periods for the top teams I listed earlier you will see something that happened to the team that unsettled them, either a loss of an engine, driver or staff member that has taken them a few seasons to recover from. Williams and the now Lotus team just happened to be in rebuild when 2009 struck hence why its taken them slightly longer to recover than it usually did.
So is it me or is this brand new open ‘anyone can win’ F1 actually just the status quo reasserting itself?
Thanks much The Artist...
