Season 2001 Review

On paper, 2001 was a cake-walk for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Maranello comfortably secured its third constructor's title in a row, and Schumi almost doubled the number of points scored by his nearest rival, David Coulthard, in taking 11 poles, 9 wins, 3 fastest laps, and a record-shattering 123 points on his way to back-to-back crowns, and his 4th overall. Indeed, both the German and his team seemed to do it so easily, their titles were secured in Hungary, after only 13 of the season's 17 races. In hindsight, it was a clinical display by the men in red. But as the season progressed, never did it feel as though Ferrari were running away with things, Williams 1992-style. That Rubens Barrichello collected 3rd in the championship with no poles, no wins, no fastest laps, and 6 fewer points than he scored in 2000 is testimony to that. In the face of the under-performing McLaren challenge, and the ominously strengthening Williams onslaught, Ferrari simply won by being more competitive more consistently, over a more sustained period of time.

As F1 becomes ever more professional too, it's no surprise that the 2001 field was stratified like never before, right from the start. Unlike in 2000, when apart from McLaren and Ferrari the rest of the field was incredibly close, for most of 2001 there was the clear leading three teams, the trio in pursuit, the group of perennial midfielders, and the usual suspects at the back. But generally there were enough interlopers to keep things exciting, and the odd shower (or even a monsoon) could be guaranteed to upset the order sufficiently. Indeed, most races in 2001 were fairly interesting. We didn't get a Nurburgring 1999-style beauty, but we didn't get a series of processions either. Hungary was pathetic, while Melbourne and Silverstone weren't great either, but usually pit strategy racing produced as much excitement as we could have hoped for. Add to that an acceptable degree of passing, the odd last lap drama, some unexpected shock results, and a few spats between drivers and bosses, and it was enough to keep armchair enthusiasts entertained.

You could also mention the spectacle of a few decent crashes, but really in 2001 they were no laughing matter. Surely the increased speeds due to the renewed tyre war was a factor. Schumacher himself suffered two massive accidents, Luciano Burti and Kimi Raikkonen also had two big ones each, and Jacques Villeneuve's horror smash in Melbourne killed a marshal. That no driver was seriously hurt was a miracle. Suffice to say that F1 was relieved when Burti escaped from his Spa crash alive, let alone virtually uninjured. Finally, 2001 was a year of hellos and goodbyes. We bid farewell to the likes of Jean Alesi, Jo Ramirez, and of course Murray Walker, and perhaps also Mika Hakkinen. But we also discovered a remarkable trio in the form of Raikkonen, Juan-Pablo Montoya and Fernando Alonso that seems set to be the backbone of F1's next superstars, especially since Jenson Button disappointed badly this year. Add to that the resurgence of Williams, and the undoubted improvement of Renault, and 2002 can't roll around fast enough.

3. Luciano Burti
The master of disaster in 2001, with more big accidents than anyone else - a pity his results weren't anywhere near as spectacular. His original promotion to the Jag race seat always felt like stop-gap measure, and the fact was he was being used as a chess piece at Prost.

2. Enrique Bernoldi
Bernoldi didn't do that bad a job, it's just that he didn't do anything all that good either - the least impressive of the season-starting rookies. He outqualified team-mate Jos 10 times, but (unfairly?) gained a reputation as a mobile chicane in races, notably at Monaco and Monza.

1. Jenson Button
After a stunning debut season, Button had to do something he never faced at Williams: make a brute of a car work for him. Overall, he failed miserably. No driver was more soundly trounced by his team-mate than Jenson, with Fisichella having the upper hand all year.

Season 2001 gave us plenty of fascinating moments, both off the track and on it. To be honest, though, mostly off it! From designer coups, to driver swaps, lawsuits and appeals, speculation over drivers' futures - not to mention the spectre of a Grand Prix in Russia of all things! But here at F1 Rejects, we felt we could have asked for more - and so here are the Top 10 things we would have liked so see, but didn't, in 2001...

10. A real battle for the World Championship.
9. Replays from the Suzuka world-feed director.
8. Luca Badoer in the Ferrari at Indianapolis.
7. Jean Alesi on the Suzuka podium.
6. Nick Heidfeld getting the McLaren seat for 2002.
5. Minardi scoring some points.
4. Prost GP renamed "Diniz" for 2002.
3. Jenson Button sacked by Briatore in favour of Mark Webber.
2. Real fisticuffs between Ralf Schumacher and JPM.

And the Number 1 Thing We Didn't See In 2001 ...

1. A Rahal v Lauda drive-off in the R2 for control of Jaguar.

As we said in our opening comments, Ferrari dominated the 2001 World Championship, but they never ran away with it apart from on the points tables. Basically, they were the most all-round team, combining speed, reliability and consistency in a way which neither McLaren nor Williams could do. Speed-wise, apart from France where Rubens Barrichello started 8th, in their other 33 starts Ferraris never started from outside the top 6. The Rory Byrne-designed F2001 was easily the best looking chassis in the field, and its aerodynamic efficiency seemed to match its looks.

Reliability was not quite perfect, but it was close to being that. There were a few mishaps in practice, but in the race there was only a suspension failure each for Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, a fuel pressure problem for Schumi in Germany, and an engine failure for Rubens at Indy. It allowed Ferrari to build up its points tally relentlessly race by race, scoring 24 podium finishes from 34 starts. Imola, where the team made a mistake by going on the harder Bridgestones, was the only race where neither scarlet car was ever in the hunt for victory.

In other areas some minor criticism was also due. Ferrari pit work was occasionally a little slack, costing Barrichello the win at Monza, while at several races Ross Brawn got outdone in the strategy stakes. The Ferrari management was also outdone by McLaren in snatching Raikkonen from under Maranello's nose. Finally, the thorny issue of team orders raised its head again, but generally Ferrari utilised the team game better than anyone else, and always in a fair manner, even at the A1-Ring, where Rubens was given every chance to try to pass Coulthard before logically being asked to move over.

Prospects for 2002: There's no reason why Ferrari will not be hungry to continue their success in 2002. The key figures, namely Schumacher, Todt, Brawn and Byrne all remain. While Williams' improvement means they won't have it all their way, they will still be very hard to beat. But 2002 may also be time to start investing for the post-Schumi era.

We all expected improvement from Williams in 2001, especially with BMW coming out with their first lightweight new-generation engine, but never did we believe that the Grove team would topple McLaren by year's end and be the clear second-best team to Ferrari in everything but the points table. Gavin Fisher and Geoff Willis have earned a good reputation as a design pair, and their chassis was the only one not to dabble with a lowered-centre front wing all season, but there was never any reason to question the wisdom of their decision.

The BMW engine was also the most powerful in F1, and it made the Williams the fastest car in a straight line, although it remained a fragile unit. There were 5 race failures, four to the luckless Juan-Pablo Montoya, and several more in practice. At Spa the FW23s ran more wing than others to protect the motors, and yet Montoya's engine still blew up! There were of course other errors, such as Montoya stalling twice on the warm-up lap and the calamity of leaving Ralf Schumacher up on the jacks at Spa, while the car was certainly more comfortable on low downforce tracks than on the likes of Monaco and the Hungaroring.

Both drivers occasionally over-drove, a situation not helped by the weird performance characteristics of the Michelin tyres, which were variously a bonus and a serious hassle. Vastly improved pit work and pit strategy came to the fore, such as in Canada, although sometimes they were not quite daring enough in terms of strategy, like in France where they wasted Montoya's decision to go on hard tyres. Internal tension between Ralf and JPM was also a potential bugbear, although this has traditionally been something that Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head don't seem to mind.

Prospects for 2002: Williams' 2001 form was similar to what they did in 1991, and we all know what happened in 1992. The departure of Willis to go to BAR is a blow, but it can be compensated for. The Michelin tyres and BMW engine will continue improving, but will Ralf and JPM's feud have a detrimental effect as they challenge Ferrari for the titles?

At the end of last year, we were among the prophets of doom saying that Sauber risked being relegated to tail-end oblivion unless they made some bold decisions for the better. They did, and the end result was a brilliant 4th place in the constructors' title won through sheer consistency, a daring young drivers policy that paid rich dividends, a fantastic C20 chassis designed by Sergio Rhinland, a customer (but championship-winning) Ferrari engine that was as good as many works engines, and clever new commercial deals enforced through the gradual departure of Red Bull's sponsorship.

In the end, in just about every area, Sauber was the best of the rest after the leading trio of teams. They have always come up with fairly reliable cars, and this year was no exception, with only 6 mechanical retirements all year, 3 of them transmission failures, and two of them halfshaft problems. But on top of that, the C20 was a well-handling and balanced chassis, competitive on all circuit configurations. And for a team renowned for lack of development, they continued bringing out new parts well into the season, including two new front wing designs for medium and low downforce tracks.

The policy of going for youth in the drivers' seats provided us with two of the revelations of the year, and it was to Sauber's credit that they were being courted by both Ferrari and McLaren for Raikkonen's services. Consistent pace, reliability and points-scoring were the keys to Sauber's most successful season yet, but perhaps the best part was their attitude in nurturing their young drivers, forgiving their inevitable mistakes on the track, and never taking their fine results for granted, but instead treating their brace of minor points finishes as bonuses and reward for the team's undoubted hard work.

Prospects for 2002: Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that Sauber can keep it up in 2002. The engine will still be great, and in Felipe Massa they have signed another youngster, who off the shelf looks potentially better than Raikkonen. Will the chassis be another good one? And what will Sauber's finances be like now that Red Bull have left?

By their standards, McLaren had a shocker in 2001, and even if they took 4 wins and came 2nd to Ferrari in the constructors' title, they were a mammoth 77 points behind. But to be honest, it was not surprising either. After all, this was the sixth season where McLaren, Mercedes, David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen had all been together, and regardless of Ron Dennis' skills as a consummate professional and as a motivator, the fact is that nothing in F1 motivates like new people and new challenges. It was only in some areas that McLaren dropped the ball this year, but they were crucial enough.

For once, Ferrari's Rory Byrne trumped Adrian Newey when it came to interpreting the regulations. In a straight design swap, Ferrari went the low-nose route whilst McLaren went for a high nosecone. And while several teams clamoured to copy the Ferrari front wing, no-one was imitating McLaren's. Apart from that, the Mercedes engine was a little down on power compared to the Ferrari and BMW, and the result was only 2 poles all year, and none for pole king Hakkinen. The engine was not always bulletproof either, with three race failures seriously denting Coulthard's championship challenge.

Unexpectedly, no team had as much trouble getting off the line as McLaren. Five failures to get started, some due to driver error, some due to mechanical problems, some due to launch control gremlins, were distinctly un-McLaren. The suspension and the gearbox also proved recurrently troublesome, while Hakkinen's failure to win in Spain was due to a clutch mishap on the last lap. While it all contributed to the Finn's rather insipid driving for most of the year, in truth it was the whole McLaren team that seemed a touch flat and unenthusiastic by season's end.

Prospects for 2002: McLaren's long period of stability is a double-edged sword. It led to their drop in performance this year, but it also means difficulty in adjusting to changes for 2002, when they bring in Kimi Raikkonen and Michelin tyres. It will take a little while for them to recover, and they will stay behind Ferrari and Williams next year.

Last year was a disappointing reality check for Eddie Jordan's team. The fact that 2001 should have seen a marked upturn in fortunes made this year's haul of 20 points and no podium finishes perhaps even more of a disappointment. Just like last year's EJ10 chassis, clearly the EJ11 was quick over a single lap, evidenced by the statistic that both Jarno Trulli and Heinz-Harald Frentzen only qualified outside the top 10 three times in their combined 27 starts. But the team's continual inability to translate good grid spots into points-scoring results was one of the more baffling phenomena in 2001.

Why it was so confusing was because you could pinpoint problems everywhere, but not anywhere in particular. The efforts of the drivers were questionable from time to time; Jordans got caught up in 6 race crashes or collisions throughout the year; the Honda engine was not as great as expected; no mechanical problem was recurring maybe except for some hydraulic woes; they were the only team to suffer disqualifications all year and Trulli was lucky to be reinstated at Indianapolis; and the jury was still out as to whether the EJ11's radical front-end aerodynamics had been a help or a hindrance.

Inconsistency was also a factor. In mid-season Frentzen chained four DNFs in a row, while late in the year Trulli recorded 5 in succession. The general lack of results produced an uncharacteristic volatility in Eddie Jordan that saw him perhaps unwisely sack Frentzen, give test driver Ricardo Zonta two one-off races, and bring in a waning Jean Alesi at year's end, before signing Fisichella and Takuma Sato for next year! Had Jordan's race pace matched their qualifying pace, and had they shown race consistency, they should have had a decent year, but their raw speed simply flattered to deceive.

Prospects for 2002: Next year's car will be the first to fully have Eghbal Hamidy's input, and it should be a lean and mean machine. Honda can be expected to throw out all the stops with Sato on board, and with a determined Fisichella coming off his best ever year, Jordan should be back up to 4th in next year's constructors' championship.

Just as Jaguar's lowered expectations made them look better than what they really were, the heightened expectations surrounding BAR after their much-improved 2000 meant that they did not get quite the credit they deserved. OK, so in general they were not as good as they were last year, and they came nowhere near Craig Pollock's hopes for 3rd in the constructors' championship, but they did score two podium finishes and only three fewer points than the year before. Only in the last three races, after development on the 03 chassis had completely stopped, did BAR clearly drop out of the top half of the field.

From the outset, the chassis once again did not quite hit the spot, leaving question marks over Malcolm Oastler's design capabilities. The 03 gave the impression of being a bulky and difficult-to-handle car all season, lacking mechanical grip in corners. The Honda engine was also not quite as advanced or as powerful as the Ferrari, Mercedes and BMW motors. But only 8 mechanical retirements from both cars all year with rarely a problem repeated suggests that it was simply a matter of the BAR Honda package being just that little bit off the cutting edge.

In qualifying trim one could consistently find the BARs in around the 10th to 12th bracket, although both Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis could occasionally make a foray further up the field. In races, both cars would more often than not have dependable but unspectacular runs. Neither driver had a very inspired season, though, and perhaps part of the blame for that lay at the team's door, for giving both of them a decent but fairly uninspiring package to work with in the first place.

Prospects for 2002: The signing of Williams man Geoff Willis to join Oastler is a smart move, although too late to contribute to the new 04. That next year's car will be ready early is a plus. There's no reason why BAR can't hit the ground running in 2002. They'll need to in order to bring the best out of their drivers anyway.

Officially, Minardi came bottom of the 2001 pile, but Paul Stoddart's men have absolutely nothing to be ashamed about. Considering that they used a generic PS01 chassis designed by Gustav Brunner well before they had an engine deal, considering that the engine they ended up with was essentially three years old, and considering that for most of the year the team was without a main sponsor, the fact that the team was genuinely competitive and could keep up a full testing program with even some car development was, simply, a very respectable effort.

Minardi were generally short on chassis, which created some awkward moments in qualifying for its drivers (notably in Australia and Italy), and also at times seemingly a little short on parts. This contributed to rather average reliability, especially with the gearbox and transmission, which proved troublesome all season. And while Stoddart's airline business allowed them to save substantially on freight costs, generally the team remained short on cash too, such that by year's end their strong Malaysian ties, through Magnum and Alex Yoong, were purely money-driven.

With the engine they had, that the striking black cars were roughly only three seconds off the pace spoke volumes for the sophistication of the chassis, and for the efforts of Fernando Alonso in particular. At the start of the year, we feared that both Minardis would regularly struggle to qualify, but on the contrary, most of the time they were well within the qualifying limit, and Alonso was inside the top 20 no less than ten times. Remembering that some of the Spaniard's best races were towards the end of the season, it is hard not to be impressed with how Minardi utilised their resources in 2001.

Prospects for 2002: European Minardi goes Asian in 2002, with continued backing from Magnum, pay-driver Yoong safe in his seat, and free Asiatech engines, which is a step up, if only a small step. With no Gustav Brunner, the chassis could be a worry though, Had Alonso stayed, Minardi may have been capable of a point or two - it remains to be seen who his replacement will be.

Whether or not Jaguar did well in 2001 depends on your frame of reference. After last year, expectations were low, and in that regard you could say that Jaguar achieved the respectability Bobby Rahal hoped for at the start of the season, and created a midfield platform from which to build, scoring five points more than in 2000. But if you look at it objectively, the R2 was a car that wasn't as reliable, nor as quick over a single lap, as the R1. Only because we weren't anticipating very much did Jaguar give a semblance of improvement in 2001 when in fact it hadn't risen up the ranks that much at all.

True, the team had corrected some of the glaring deficiencies from last year, but the R2 still wasn't much good aerodynamically, although new arrival Mark Handford was able to effect some changes for the better. The Cosworth engine did not appear to be as competitive as it was last season, either, and an average qualifying position of between 13th and 14th for both cars combined confirmed their genuinely midfield credentials. Five race engine failures didn't reflect too well on Cosworth either, while various other mechanical problems and too many collisions left the team with a poor finishing record.

Off-track problems were also a major part of the problem. Eddie Irvine's 'I've been at Ferrari and I know how it's done but all you guys don't' demeanour caused team disharmony, while Rahal's 'softly softly' approach didn't fit in with Ford's bureaucratic management, and in particular Niki Lauda's straight talking. Things started going sour after Bobby's failed attempt to lure Adrian Newey, and his ill-considered joke about selling Irvine to Jordan was the final nail in the coffin. In the end, it was a more solid, consistent and less enigmatic year from Jaguar, but still a long way from challenging the frontrunners, and still far from justifying Ford's massive investment.

Prospects for 2002: Rahal failed to get Newey, and now Lauda can't get the Williams design duo. So it's down to Steve Nichols and Mark Handford to get the R3 chassis right, while Cosworth need to improve power and reliability from its engine. Jac Nasser's departure from Ford adds further instability, and Jaguar's road to the top seems as hard as ever.

2001 should have been an OK year for Benetton. It should have represented Benetton's last hurrah, and a solid return for Renault from which to launch their full assault in 2002 and beyond. Instead, Flavio Briatore's men spent the year recovering from a starting point so horrendously bad that it was simply unbelievable. But even though it was much too late, to their credit by the end of the season the team had shown the improvement it was promising all along, and they have some reason to go into the full Renault era with some confidence.

The main problem was, surprisingly, the Renault engine. The French concern didn't follow BMW's 2000 conservatism, going for innovation right away with their 111-degree idea. Whether it was a problem with the concept, or a fault in the engine's manufacture, the motor was simply too gutless for much of the season, although with only 5 engine failures in races all year it was generally reliable enough. But as was expected from an engine-maker of Renault's pedigree, towards the end of the season it had got its act together, and at Spa, Monza and Suzuka it showed a decent amount of grunt.

All this meant that, for much of the year, the Benettons were stuck embarrassingly in the low-teens on the grid. By all accounts, the originally ugly B201 chassis didn't help much either, Jenson Button in particular finding it difficult to establish a good set-up. But aerodynamic changes also were made, notably a Ferrari-style front section in Hungary, and at year's end their smart and creative launch control was the envy of pit lane, so good that it was subsequently banned by the FIA!

Prospects for 2002: Benetton's late-season form, and Renault's reputation mean that 2002 should see more improvement, more points, and more podium finishes. They won't quite be on giant-killing form just yet, but they'll do enough to give the big teams a scare from time to time, and some real headaches for 2003.

We originally predicted great things from Prost this year, going by testing results, but as it turned out, with the tyre war decreasing everyone's lap times, Prost had simply shown his hand too early. Yet, compared to their disastrous 2000, Prost took a giant stride forward this year, with the AP04 and the Ferrari customer engine achieving its main aim of being reliable. Even if the whole package was at best a midfield proposition, only 7 mechanically-induced retirements all year represented a massive improvement, although Luciano Burti in particular caused a few too many expensive repair jobs.

It should have been a platform for stability, but in 2001 Prost was anything but stable. Off the track, the team faced as many crises as it did the year before. Maybe it was something about Alain's management style. Being a competitive man, and an ex-World Champion, he was never going to prostitute his team fully to the interests of pragmatism, nor was he ever going to give too much influence to his shareholders, namely the Diniz family. But he could never avoid the fact that his car spent the season without a main sponsor, and that his Ferrari engines were costing a fortune.

Perhaps in the end that fine compromise caught up with The Professor. He fell out with his pay-driver Gaston Mazzacane, but also his star performer Jean Alesi. He then lost the support of the Diniz family. In picking up Luciano Burti and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, it was like he was feeding off other teams' scraps. His ambitious impatience left his team in a lurch, and undid a lot of the positive things that took place on the track, where the blue cars actually scored 4 points and, with luck, may have had more.

Prospects for 2002: In the current economic climate, things are not looking good for Alain, and he may not even make the grid in 2002. But let's hope that he does, and that he can find designers, engineers, drivers and most importantly sponsors who are prepared to hang in there for the long haul, so that Prost can get some long-term stability.

After being perhaps the most improved team of season 2000, Arrows took a big step backwards this year. As much as Tom Walkinshaw believes he can turn them into a top team, the fact remains that Arrows are still one of the smaller outfits in pit lane, and as a result expediency rules. Which is why Arrows lost the arm-wrestle with Jordan for Eghbal Hamidy's services, why they plumped for the dubious Asiatechs instead of the expensive Supertecs, and why they sacked the proven Pedro de la Rosa when Enrique Bernoldi and Red Bull's money came knocking.

So even if Hamidy had much input into the A22, the truth is that things were looking grim right from the outset. In Melbourne the Asiatechs sounded horrible, and there's no reason to believe that they didn't perform just as badly throughout the season. They had a desperate shortage of grunt, and only good aerodynamics and ultra-light fuel loads propelled both Verstappen and Bernoldi up the field especially at the start of races, notably in Malaysia and in particular Austria.

But really some of those sparkling performances were false dawns. Last year the Arrows already suffered from a small fuel tank; this disadvantage was never corrected for 2001. Reliability was generally good, although in the first half Verstappen had a distinctly more reliable machine. Add to that Jos' disparaging comments about Bernoldi, and one wonders if there was blatant favouritism going on at Leafield. Either way, in 2001 Arrows vainly persisted with problems which never looked like being solved. For that, they deserved to languish in Minardi territory.

Prospects for 2002: Arrows do get a sizeable boost by switching to the same Cosworths as Jaguar, but they need a good chassis from new designer Sergio Rhinland. Heinz-Harald Frentzen would be a good partner for Verstappen, but with Red Bull stepping up its involvement Bernoldi looks like staying, despite his relationship with Jos being so awful.

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