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2003 Drivers 13-24 Review
An in-depth look at the past season, team by team and driver by driver |
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| 13. Ralph Firman | ||||||
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It may come as a surprise that we have put Firman ahead of Fisichella. But we make no bones about the fact that our rankings are based partly on our expectations before the season began. And in Ralph's case those expectations weren't high, considering that he had only won the Formula Nippon championship - not the toughest series the world has known - and only after several seasons of trying. But in the end Firman met and perhaps even slightly exceeded what we had anticipated, keeping Fisichella within sight and proving himself deserving of a place in F1.
No one else looked so skittish and accident-prone, but it showed that Firman was always on the limit. He didn't always keep it on the track, nor did he always manage to avoid other cars. But several other highlights made up for that, such as a competitive showing in Malaysia, a brilliant 4th in wet Friday qualifying in Canada when Fisichella languished near the bottom, and a point for 8th in Spain after a great drive. His dramatic suspension failure in Brazil, his massive crash in Hungary and his subsequent enforced two-race absence could easily have dented his confidence. That it did not spoke volumes for him. Back to the top. |
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| 14. Giancarlo Fisichella | ||||||
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It confuses us why so many people think Fisi is the best thing since sliced bread. It is fair enough to attribute his lack of results that sees him with only 94 points from 123 starts to the quality of his machinery, but week in week out his performances fail to indicate greatness. In the right car he may indeed fly, but while on occasions in 2003 he did drag the Jordan higher than where it should have been (for example, by qualifying 9th in Austria, 12th twice and 13th four times in a bottom-four machine), he did not drive above the quality of his steed on a consistent basis.
Often he also squandered his grid position and could be found battling with his team-mates, who on paper were far inferior to him. It once again raised questions about his motivation, and there was no doubt that he was not enamoured by what Jordan were giving him. Eleven retirements, none his own fault, did little to raise his confidence. A review of his year, though, cannot pass without mention of Brazil, where from 8th on the grid he was due for a good race anyway, but his speed on the right tyres ensured that he was in the right place at the right time to claim the most popular victory of the season. Back to the top. |
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| 15. Justin Wilson | ||||||
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It was a tricky debut season for the tall Englishman, whom everyone perhaps unconsciously was comparing to Alonso and Webber, two of his predecessors who had shone with Minardi and had gone on to bigger and better things. Three things in particular made for a difficult baptism in F1. His height meant that he could never be in the most comfortable seating position. He was driving a Minardi that was even further from the pace than Alonso's and Webber's had been. And he encountered lamentable reliability, finishing only 5 out of 11 races for Minardi and two out of five for Jaguar.
On the plus side, he made some lightning starts in the first half of the season, often hauling his car into the top twelve by the end of lap one in a manner reminiscent of his Minardi team-mate, Jos Verstappen. But he usually proved unable to capitalise and maintain a solid race pace. Being defeated by Verstappen, usually a poor one-lapper, in the qualifying battle was not a great advertisement for his inherent speed. And, worst of all, he was no more impressive in the Jaguar than Pizzonia had been, although it was a tough ask to step into an unfamiliar car and be expected to perform straight away. Back to the top. |
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| 16. Jacques Villeneuve | ||||||
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If watching Heidfeld resign himself to mediocrity was painful enough, then watching Jacques Villeneuve in 2003 was a galling experience. Seeing him 3rd after Friday qualifying in Melbourne raised hopes that this might be the year he'd been waiting for at BAR, but from then on his season disintegrated into a woeful run of only seven finishes including only two 6ths and three 9ths, seven mechanical retirements, one failure even to get off the dummy grid in Malaysia, and a 6-8 loss to Jenson Button in their qualifying battles, before his bitter eleventh hour departure on the eve of the Japanese GP.
Admittedly, he tended to sacrifice qualifying speed to work on race set-up, but that was pointless if his car broke down. True, he suffered an appalling reliability record, and the team clearly loved Button more than him, but was that a cause or effect? His derision of his team-mate was uncalled for, and it backfired when Jenson out-performed him and when he was the one who made errors like pitting on the wrong lap in Australia. But it showed, as did his tepid race performances all year, that he was a man waiting for what he thought he was due rather than seizing opportunities, and that was to his discredit. Back to the top. |
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| 17. Nick Heidfeld | ||||||
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As fans who championed the young German's cause in 2001 and who felt gutted for him when McLaren chose Raikkonen ahead of him for 2002, it was with some horror that we watched Heidfeld descend into utter averageness this season. Out-qualifying an unimpressive Frentzen 9-7 only was nothing to write home about, and mostly his race performances were uninspiring. As we said throughout the season, great drivers show that they are capable of driving beyond the level of their car, whereas others resign themselves to only driving as well as their car. Heidfeld fell into the latter category this year.
Perhaps some of that was because he was still sulking over what happened two years ago, but if he can't cope with a disappointment like that, he doesn't have the mental strength to be in Formula One. He was only saved from the reject podium by a respectable run in the second half of the season - when he knew he wasn't staying with Sauber and needed to impress someone else - which saw eight-straight finishes, an 8th at the Nurburgring from the back of the grid, and a solid string of three 9ths and a 5th in the last four events of the year. Back to the top. |
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| 18. Heinz-Harald Frentzen | ||||||
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After wandering through Williams, Jordan, Prost and Arrows, returning to Sauber in 2003 should have been HHF's great homecoming, back to the team with which he started his F1 career. 4th on the grid in Melbourne thanks to a low-fuel qualifying run, a fortunate break with pit strategy and weather conditions, and a combative drive to 6th signalled what might have been a great last hurrah season for a man whom most people thought was in his last year of F1. But for the rest of the 2003, Frentzen recorded only two more top-ten starts with an average grid spot around 14th.
Before that freakish 3rd at Indianapolis thanks to the weather, his best was 5th in Brazil, also due to rain, but otherwise had a best of 9th, 11th and 12th. Most of the time he was driving like he was already in retirement dreamland in a car that didn't inspire him to do his best. The best example was in Hungary, where he qualified 17th, only ahead of Baumgartner and the two Minardis, then languished near the back on Sunday and retired when he ran out of fuel, before telling the press that he had enjoyed his race! If he liked that kind of mediocrity, then he was better off vacating his seat for a hungry young gun. Back to the top. |
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| 19. Jos Verstappen | ||||||
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In a year when there wasn't much between most of the drivers in the field, it was a very difficult decision to award Jos the Boss the silver medal in our 'Reject of the Year' rankings (sorry, Leiden!). Undoubtedly his recalcitrant Minardi did not encourage him to show what he was capable of, but throughout the season it did seem that the Dutchman was not at the sort of top form that we have seen from him in previous seasons. He always did what he had to do to perform diligently, but no more. Whilst previously he was chosen by teams as a talent, now he was promoting himself as a pay-driver, and that said it all.
The first-lap demon when driving for Arrows in 2001, it was his team-mate Justin Wilson who performed the opening lap heroics for Minardi this year. Canada was his best weekend, where he qualified a superb 15th and came home 9th, but such efforts were few and far between. There was admittedly a lack of wet weather conditions in which he has tended to thrive, and putting aside that freakish provisional pole in France, his moment came in Brazil when he was running and staying ahead of Fisichella, both with one stop to go. Cometh the moment, cometh the man, they say. Jos spun off and stalled. Back to the top. |
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| 20. Antonio Pizzonia | ||||||
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Most journalists are no mugs. In Melbourne, F1 Rejects' webmaster asked renowned scribe Simon Arron if Pizzonia was the "real deal", and the answer was a decisive "You bet." For someone hyped to the stars as a genuine talent, and highly rated by no less than Williams, Jungle Boy's inability to come up to speed was genuinely mystifying. In his eleven races before he was replaced, he was out-qualified by team-mate Webber 8-3, with particular embarrassments being in Brazil (Webber 3rd, Pizzonia 17th), San Marino (5th versus 15th) and Canada (6th versus 13th).
Admittedly, his team did him no favours by taking a shine to Webber early and seriously thinking about replacing him after only a few races, and his eventual sacking proved that the guarantees given to him after Spain were never as solid as they seemed. But the fact was that Antonio simply failed to live up to expectations, didn't work as hard as Webber, and then did daft things like run into the back of Montoya at turn two in Malaysia. Perhaps his poor F3000 results was really a sign that he lacked the application to succeed in the tough environment of F1. A clear choice for 'Reject of the Year'. Back to the top. |
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| Takuma Sato | ||||||
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Sato spent most of the year testing for BAR with the confidence of knowing he was Honda's favourite son, and duly got his chance at home when Villeneuve pulled out at the eleventh hour. He emulated his sparkling Suzuka form from 2002, which was mightily impressive since his last-minute call-up would have done little for his mental preparation. However, questions remain over whether or not he is just a one-track driver, and whether he has matured from the ragged, over-trying, car-destroying Taku we saw in early 2002. We will gain a better insight into his true ability in 2004.
Back to the top. |
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| Nicola Kiesa | ||||||
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Kiesa came into F1 to replace Justin Wilson at Minardi for the last five races of the year with a reputation for being a hard charger, and with an F3000 win under his belt. He drove a conservative race on debut that marked him as impressively intelligent, but thereafter he disappointed acutely. Way off the pace of team-mate Jos Verstappen, he was often slower even than Gianmaria Bruni had been in the same car in Friday testing. He often had trouble getting to grips with set-up and/or the track, and this not-so-great Dane probably didn't deserve a second chance in 2004.
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| Marc Gené | ||||||
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The long-time Williams tester got his race opportunity when Ralf Schumacher pulled out at Monza. Qualified 5th and finished 5th in a race where the top five on the grid came home in the same order, but in the final stint he was amongst the fastest on the track. For someone derided as a mere pay-driver when he joined Minardi in 1999, he showed that while he may not be one of the greatest drivers in the world, in the right car he is able to keep up with the best. His work ethic fits Williams perfectly, which is why they value him. A Jaguar race seat was a possibilty, but with the Leaping Cat choosing a rookie, Gené will remain at Williams.
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| Zsolt Baumgartner | ||||||
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Baumgartner became the first Hungarian to race in the World Championship when he subbed for Ralph Firman at the Hungaroring and Monza. Far from disgracing himself, he proved himself capable of doing a respectable job, especially on his debut when he went out in Saturday qualifying with no free practice and only Friday testing under his belt. But at no stage did he show signs of being anything other than the pay-driver he was, and inexperience saw him hold up Montoya at Monza. Was seemingly on Jordan's shopping list for 2004, but he now seems to be out of the frame.
Back to the top. |
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