This is the last in the second series of F1 People, seven short shows brought to you by Sidepodcast. We’ve looked at a few important names from the world of Formula 1 this series, and now it’s time for our final VIP. Today we’ll look at Juan Manuel Fangio.
Juan Manuel Fangio was born on the 24th June 1911 in Argentina, although his parents were Italian. He completed his military service and opened a garage to begin racing in Argentina during his 20s, and he became National Champion in 1940 and 41. The government then funded his career move to Europe, where he joined Formula 1. Fangio entered the sport aged 37, and although this was a time pre-world championships, where the emphasis was less on youth and fitness, Fangio was still sometimes the oldest driver taking part. His first race was in 1948, at the French Grand Prix, in which he retired, and that was his only race that year. The next year he won five out of seven races, and thus went into 1950 as a clear favourite to win the brand new Formula One World Driver’s Championship.
There are a few not very widely promoted suggestions that Ferrari’s win in Malaysia may have been one of those team order affairs. According to this story on Formula 1 Sport, Gary Anderson – a grand prix car designer – believes that Raikkonen being able to leapfrog Massa had been planned from the start.
Now, I don’t know who Gary Anderson is, whether he is a respected voice in the sport of not, but I can say I’m not a fan of this conspiracy theory. And I am a fan of a lot of conspiracy theories.
I believe that Kimi Raikkonen is just that good, and Massa is not. Given the evidence of previous GPs, this isn’t exactly a stretch to believe, is it?
The reason this story is getting my attention, however, is because when Stefano Domenicali was accepting his trophy on the Malaysian podium, I turned to “me” and said: “I don’t know when it happened, but I don’t feel the same animosity towards Ferrari. It doesn’t feel tainted.”
When I first started watching F1, and watching should be in quotes, because I couldn’t tell you a thing about it back then, it was Michael Schumacher this and Michael Schumacher that. Questionable wins here, dodgy tactics there.
Welcome to Days that Shook the F1 World, a Sidepodcast series dedicated to bringing you some of the important dates in F1 History. We’ve looked at races and at controversies so far, and in this sixth episode, we’ll look at the disappearance of a legendary name. The date, October 22nd 2006.
Whilst the final race of an engine manufacturer may not have as much hard-hitting foundation-rocking emphasis as other specific days in Formula 1, Cosworth bowing out after almost forty years in the sport is just as important as any other headline.
Their final race came in Brazil, 2006, where Fernando’s second championship success overshadowed the exit of a supplier who had been in F1 since 1966. Back then, they entered their first season supplying no less than three teams – Stebro, Lotus and Brabham – with engines. By 1967, they were on winning form with the Lotus-Ford.
From a company that began in 1958, with Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth at the helm, the reputation for building strong race engines with high performance levels and excellent support from engineers built very rapidly.
Once they started winning, they couldn’t stop, and these following two facts can only prove what a remarkable engine it really was. Between 1968 and 1974, Cosworth engines were running the cars of every World Champion. Between 69 and 73, Cosworth engines were inside the cars of every single race winner.
Many drivers and champions attribute their successes over the years to the power in their cars, names such as Sir Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, even Michael Schumacher.
However, as the decades wore on, the big name manufacturers began to enter and dominate the sport. Companies such as Honda, BMW and Toyota had bigger brands and bigger budgets, and teams switched allegiances all too easily.
When Jackie Stewart set up his own team in 1997, he decided to try and repay the favour to Cosworth, snapping them up as engine suppliers. The results didn’t follow, though, and after the team changed hands through Ford and Red Bull, Cosworth’s options within the sport began to run out.
In 2006, their final year, Cosworth supplied both Williams and Toro Rosso, but Williams were the first to admit it was their worst season in decades.However, not all of this can be blamed on Cosworth, as they were first on the grid to successfully make a modern V8 F1 engine rev all the way up to 20,000rpm.
Williams quickly signed Toyota as a supplier, and the fate of Cosworth appeared to be sealed. They announced that 2006 was the end for their name in the sport, and bowed out quietly in Brazil.
Afterwards, 200 staff were laid off. The company a lacked a bit of direction. The future looked bleak.
Nowadays, Cosworth say they have learnt a valuable lesson not to keep all their eggs in one motorsport basket. They are now concentrating more on the air industry with contracts including Airbus and Boeing. A return to Formula 1 is not impossible, especially as they have a homologated FIA engine sitting idle. Sadly with the wealthy domination from suppliers like Ferrari and Mercedes, that seems highly improbable.
Anyone with an affinity for Formula 1 through the years knows that Cosworth made history, and you can’t help but feel the sport isn’t the same without them.
Thanks for listening to this episode. You can leave comments about the show, or suggestions for future topics over at Sidepodcast.com. Tune in tomorrow for the last in this series of Days that Shook the F1 World.
Welcome to Sidepodcast’s Days that Shook the F1 World, a series sharing some of the more pivotal moments in F1 History. Today, the 27th May 2006.
Michael Schumacher had already won twice in 2006, but was still struggling for form against defending champion Fernando Alonso. In the back of his mind he might have known this would be his last season and therefore his last race in the principality.Desperation may be been starting to set in.
Qualifying began as it always did, with the first of the three sessions. Notably, Felipe Massa crashed out in the sister Ferrari, causing red flags and plenty of chaos. Whatever help Michael may have expected from Felipe was immediately out of the window, and Ferrari’s race strategy was further compromised because Massa would likely start last in Sunday’s Grand Prix.
The second session passed without event, and the majority of the third session evolved predictably.
As the session drew to a close, Schumacher began his last attempt at a flying lap, but he lost two tenths somewhere in the middle sector.Aware that he could not make up that kind of deficit in the remainder of the lap and aware that his closest rival was behind him on the track, he got out of shape around the hairpin at Rascasse, pulling to a stop inches from the barrier.
The Ferrari was stuck in a dangerous position, so marshals had to wave their yellow flags, ensuring that a following Fernando Alonso had no choice but to slow down and abort his lap. How convenient.
The big question was: did Schumacher do it deliberately or was it merely a mistake?
Ferrari absolutely denied the former. It was an accident, a pure racing incident with no malice intended.
The entire pit lane rallied against this claim. How could it be an accident? The man was a master at Monaco, he missed the barriers by inches, meaning Alonso’s lap was ruined while the Ferrari suffered no damage. Surely an act of evil genius?
The stewards investigated, ruled Schumacher had done wrong, and pushed him to the back of the grid meaning both Ferraris would start from the back row, making it the teams worst ever qualifying position. During the race, Schumacher wowed everyone by fighting his way through the traffic and ended up in the top eight. No one denied the man could drive.
But that didn’t matter. The event caused a reaction completely unprecedented in the F1 World.Previous attempts to disrupt the course of a GP weekend by Schumacher and/or his team were now viewed in a new light. How could you believe that his accidents with championship rivals Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in previous years, were simply mistakes? Fans were instantly reminded of his other misdemeanours, and now excuses were much less credible.
If he did do it on purpose, it revealed an enormous amount about Michael Schumacher’s character. Being a seven times world champion clearly wasn’t enough, and even though he claimed to always want to win everything fair and square, a little underhand technique every now and then wasn’t completely out of the question.
Prior to Monaco ‘06, when an incident occurred where questionable tactics had been used, the pit lane traditionally stayed quiet, had some time to think about it, and then responded via press releases and lawyers. After this event though, no one was backwards in coming forward. The entire pit lane erupted with scorn and derision, crying “cheat” and demanding action. Of course, they got what they wanted, and a new precedent was born. If you have an opinion on any subject, better to share it immediately, loudly, and to anyone who cares to listen.
Most importantly though, this event took place as fans were becoming more vocal too. Bloggers were just waiting for a controversial event to get their teeth into, and Michael Schumacher well and truly delivered. Everyone had an opinion, whether for or against the German, and now everyone could have their say.
Coverage of Formula 1 was changing, and this was the first major event to have everyone call it – cheater, evil genius or genuine mistake?
That’s all for our fifth important date. Join me tomorrow for another Day that Shook the F1 World.
Hello, and welcome to the fourth instalment of F1 People, a series from Sidepodcast bringing you a biography of the important names in Formula 1. Today, it’s Michael Schumacher’s turn.
Michael Schumacher was born January 3rd 1969 in Germany. At an early age, his father modified a pedal kart to include an engine, and at the age of six he had won his first karting club championship, despite being the youngest member.
His parents took on extra jobs at the karting circuit to be able to afford their son’s hobby, but when the expenses got to much, Schumacher found investment from several businesses. In Germany, you have to be 14 to get a karting licence, so a 12 year old Schumacher obtained his from Luxemburg instead. A few years later he was legal in Germany, and winning karting championships easily.
He left school in 1987 to work as a mechanic, and graduated to single seater racing the next year. Of course he was brilliant at it, and spotted by Willi Weber’s Formula 3 team.
Weber financed him for a couple of years, and was rewarded when Schumacher won in 1990. His next move would usually have been to progress to Formula 3000, but Schumacher decided to join the junior Mercedes team in the World Sportscar Championship. He did take part in one Formula 3000 race, in 1991 and won it. He won several races in the Sportscar Championship. People were beginning to sit up and take notice.
Schumacher’s Formula 1 debut came with the Jordan-Ford team in 1991, as a one off replacement driver. Mercedes paid Eddie Jordan to let Schumacher drive, and Jordan immediately signed him up, because he showed promise. He qualified brilliantly, but retired from the race. Despite the potential deal, and subsequent court injunctions by Jordan, Schumacher was snatched up by Bennetton for the rest of the season.
His first podium came in 1992, at the Mexican Grand Prix, and his first victory was the same year in Belgium.
1994 was Schumacher’s year and despite the death of Ayrton Senna at Imola, Schumacher proved himself to be a worthy, if controversial, rival. He won six out of the first seven races, but endured a three race ban for ignoring a black flag, and completed the title race by pushing Damon Hill off the road.
He retained his title the next year, and then switched allegiance to the Ferrari team. He continued to fight to clear up his damaged reputation, only to lose it again with a similar “run off the road” incident with Villeneuve.
A heavy accident early on in 1999, resulted in a broken leg for Schumacher that sidelined him for much of the season, but he returned to championship winning form in 2000. Thus began the Ferrari dominance, and the record breaking that continued until 2004.
Most driver titles. Longest reign as champion. Most wins. Most pole positions. Most podiums. The list is endless.
In 2005, the pairing of Fernando Alonso and Renault brought Schumacher and Ferrari’s winning streak to an end. Schumacher’s only win that year came at the tarnished US GP, when only six of the twenty cars took part.
2006 was better, but Alonso took the championship again. The controversial moments were back, with a parking incident at Monaco and some conveniently placed penalties for other teams.
Schumacher confirmed his retirement at the Italian Grand Prix post-race press conference. There had been much speculation and continued to be so for his next move, but Ferrari retained his services as an advisor on the pit wall for some races in the 2007 season.
Schumacher has received many awards for his achievements, most notably the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year. He has won twice, and been nominated four times – another record he holds.
Michael lives in Switzerland with his wife Corinna and children Gina-Maria and Mick. His younger brother Ralf is also a racing driver, although much less successful in Formula 1. That is hardly surprising though, when the fans and the statistics proclaim Schumacher to be the greatest driver in the world.
Thank you for listening to F1 People, and don’t forget to join me tomorrow for another famous face.
Welcome to the third episode of F1 People, a short series from Sidepodcast chronicling the lives of important figures in Formula 1. Today, we look at Enzo Ferrari.
Enzo Ferrari was born on February 20th 1898, in Italy. At the age of ten, he attended his first motor race with his father and brother, and after a few more visits to the racetrack, he decided he wanted to be a racing driver as well. His formal education was not particularly strong, and he joined the army. In 1916, his father and brother died, and two years later, Ferrari was struck down with a flu bad enough to cause his discharge from the army. Returning home, he found the family business – a metal fabrication firm – in ruins, and started applying for jobs at car companies. After being turned down by Fiat, he found work at a small firm turning used trucks into cars. He joined the company’s racing team CMN in 1919 but was not very successful.
He moved on to work and race at Alfa Romeo, having slightly more success, and at one race in 1923, he picked up the Prancing Horse badge. The badge came from the wreckage of the fuselage of Francesco Barracca’s plane, being a primary figure in Italy during World War 1. Ferrari was presented the badge by the pilot’s family, in recognition of his courage and audacity. After several more wins and successes, Alfa Romeo offered Ferrari a chance to enter higher competitions, but he refused, racing only a couple of times more before giving up the wheel.
He continued to work for the company and in 1929, he founded the Scuderia Ferrari as the racing team for Alfa Romeo. He managed the development of the cars and built up a team of over 50 drivers, but although they had some success, other racing manufacturers dominated the period. Alfa Romeo were forced to withdraw their financial support. When they decided to return, they wanted to reduce Ferrari’s role, so he left, but was under contract not to race or design anything for four years. To pass the time, he built up a company to supply parts to other racing teams. During World War II, the company was involved in war production and relocated to Maranello. After that, Ferrari decided the time had come to race cars bearing his name.
Ferrari have participated in the Formula 1 World Championship since it’s very beginning in the 1950s, winning their first race in 1951, and the championship for the next two years. To finance the racing side of things, Ferrari sold sports cars, and made enough to participate in the endurance events such as Le Mans, as well. Many of the cars sold were previous years cars, and if he couldn’t sell them on the market, Ferrari would recycle or sell them as scrap.
In the late 1960s, Ferrari suffered financial difficulties, and Fiat invested – a small share to start with and then 50% in 1969.
Enzo Ferrari continued to manage the firm until 1971, and even when he stepped out of the managing director role, he still had a place within the team. The Fiat run company had success in 1975 with Niki Lauda winning the championship, but then struggled through some difficult years, culminating with Gilles Villeneuve’s death, and Didier Pironi’s accident in 1982.
Enzo Ferrari died in 1988 at the age of 90. The Ferrari team won only one race that year, and it was a fitting tribute to finish 1-2 at the Italian Grand Prix.
In 1993, Jean Todt was drafted in to turn the team’s fortunes around and 1996 saw the beginning of the Michael Schumacher dominance, with 97 seeing Ross Brawn join. As we all know, major success for the Prancing Horse has followed.
Enzo Ferrari did marry and have a son, Alfredo Ferrari, known as Dino, but the boy died at a young age, and as a tribute, Ferrari apparently wore sunglasses every single day.
Thank you for listening to F1 People, and be sure to join me tomorrow for our 4th VIP.
Welcome to Sidepodcast’s History of F1. We’ve covered the entire history of Formula 1 from the early beginnings in the 1900s, through the inaugural championship in the 1950s, and the safety fears of later decades. Now we’re catching up with modern F1, the 21st century, and where it might be headed in the future.
We left 1999 with a new championship winning pairing of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Between 1999 and 2004, they won 5 consecutive driver and 6 consecutive constructor championships. Michael Schumacher could not be stopped. He made records and broke them, overtaking many famous names to grab most Grand Prix wins, most driver championships, most wins in a single season, and many other titles.
It wasn’t until 2005 that it looked like Ferrari’s dominance might be under threat.
The rules of the championship kept being changed. The FIA couldn’t settle on a way forward to improve the racing and make it more of a show. They wanted to cut costs but keep the fans happy, and they could not decide how to do it. So, instead of picking a course of action and sticking with it, they tried any number of things. One of the changes for 2005 was that the teams could only use one set of tyres through an entire race.
Ferrari struggled with this new ruling, and it allowed Renault to dominate the season, and Fernando Alonso to become the youngest champion. They repeated the feat in 2006, although it was a much tighter contest.
Other rule changes include constant revamps of the qualifying format. It started as an hour long session where everyone bundled out on track to get the best time they could. Except they didn’t bundle on track until the very end, and viewers were left bored. They switched to a one lap format, where each driver took his turn, and this allowed for very interesting grids, but the action was slow. The current format of three knockout sessions seems to be a compromise between action and strategy, but there are still complaints floating around.
Team orders were banned in 2002. There were several incidents that were questionable in terms of race manipulation, but the one that turned most people off was the Austrian Grand Prix of that year. Barrichello led the race and was a clear winner, until he was asked to let Michael Schumacher through for championship reasons. Needless to say the negative impact this had on the sport rustled the FIA into action.
The grid these days consists of many manufacturer teams. Road-car makers such as Honda, Toyota, BMW and Renault are firm favourites on the grid. Independent teams such as Williams are struggling to keep up with the ever-changing and ever-expensive world of F1. Red Bull Racing are an independent team but backed by a fortune of money, so it will be interesting to see how long Williams can hold off the giant companies taking over the sport.
The FIA are determined that we should go green, so the future of F1 looks set to include many more regulation changes to try and save both the planet and money at the same time. Making F1 technology more relevant to road cars is something they’re going to be pushing for.
In terms of the drivers, they continue to get younger and younger, fitter and stronger, but there is still room for old favourites like Coulthard and Barrichello, who could still be successful if only they had the right car beneath them. But then, they all say that, don’t they?
That’s all for this series. I hope you’ve enjoyed Sidepodcast’s History of F1, I’ve certainly learnt a lot about where it all started, and tried to share the important points with you. Don’t forget to leave your feedback, opinions and comments over at Sidepodcast.com, and check out our other audio and video podcasts while you are there.
Welcome to Sidepodcast’s History of F1. So far, the development of the Formula 1 World Championships has been pretty much about the cars, with a few squabbles between drivers along the way. The 1990s saw some real star talent emerging, with personalities both loveable and not so much.
The 1990s were a year of change, innovation, tragedy and triumph. Team Williams introduced the first car, designed by Patrick Head, to have a semi-automatic gearbox and traction control, but reliability was still a major problem. Eventually, Williams managed to conquer their mechanical troubles, and added more computer-control to the car, leading to success in the next couple of years. Williams took the championship in ‘92 and ‘93, with Nigel Mansell and then Alain Prost, who had just returned from a season off.
Michael Schumacher joined the Formula 1 circuit in 1991, qualifying 7th on his debut for Team Jordan, although he didn’t get past the first lap. Just one race later, he defected to Benetton. With the major players of previous seasons now retired, Schumacher was the main rival for Ayrton Senna, but it was not going to be easy.
The points system changed in 1990 so that all Formula 1 races were included in the championship and a win would gain you 10 points rather than 9 points. The FIA also declared that the driver aids, such as traction control, were having a negative impact on the impression of F1. Where was the driver skill? So, the aids were banned, despite Formula 1 getting more and more exciting. With the rule changes having a huge impact on car specifications, it was always going to be a risky few years.
Ayrton Senna was in fine form in 1993, when he won the European GP at Donington Park, making up five places in the first lap, in the rain. But, the 1990’s are not dominated by Ayrton Senna for his victories, but for his tragic death. The San Marino GP, 1994, saw too many accidents. First Roland Ratzenberger was killed - the first death for 12 years in the sport - and then Rubens Barrichello was hospitalised. Senna sat at Barrichello’s bedside and decided to withdraw from qualifying. He did not want to race. But a racing driver lives to be out on the track, and Senna changed his mind. He took pole position and raced for seven laps, before his car missed the corner and struck the wall at more than 180mph. He was pulled from the wreckage, taken to hospital by helicopter, and later died from massive head injuries.
The accident shook the entire F1 community, but the racing did not stop. The FIA passed immediate rules to step up safety, including pit speed limits, and easier access to the cars. Damon Hill replaced Senna at Williams, but Michael Schumacher took his role as champion.
Nigel Mansell returned to McLaren after retiring and perhaps gaining a little weight. The car was redesigned so that he could fit, but it didn’t make the impact they had hoped for. Jacques Villeneuve joined Williams, and hoped to continue the legacy of his father, Gilles. Schumacher transferred to Ferrari for the largest paycheck of the time and the team was rewarded with victory after victory.
Schumacher was not without controversy, being shown a black flag at Silverstone in 1994 for ignoring a penalty for overtaking on the parade lap. He also ignored the flag and gaining a two race ban. He was disqualified later in the season for an illegal car floor, but in all races he showed the twinkle of genius that would gain him many more driver titles.
The later seasons of the ’90s were dominated by rivalries from a new David Coulthard, Villeneuve, Eddie Irvine and Mika Hakkinen. But really, it was all about Michael Schumacher, as he took win after win to lead him into the new century as one of the most successful drivers to ever race.
That’s all for this episode of Sidepodcast’s History of F1, and really that’s all of the history. The next and last episode will be about the first few years of the 21st century and what can be expected in the future.
