The best F1 seasons of the 21st century

Racing events, drivers, cars or anything else from the past.
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The best F1 seasons of the 21st century

#1

Post by kals »

Some interesting inclusions and omissions on this list. What do people think, agree or disagree?
Autosport.com wrote:The 2000 Formula 1 season ushered in the 21st century with a straight fight for championship glory between two of the greats in Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen.

It also marked the start of the Schumacher/Ferrari era of dominance, which would not be broken until Fernando Alonso and Renault won the 2005 world titles.

But even in that five-year span at the start of the century, F1 had some memorable moments, so as Autosport celebrates the 2000 season this week, we take a look through the best seasons of the 21st century, starting with that Schumacher versus Hakkinen classic.

2000 - FERRARI ENDS ITS DROUGHT

After near-misses in 1997, '98 and '99, Ferrari claimed its long-awaited first drivers' world championship since 1979 with Michael Schumacher, but only after a hotly contested campaign against McLaren and Mika Hakkinen.

The highlights of the season involving Schumacher and Hakkinen were undoubtedly the Belgian and Japanese Grands Prix - Hakkinen pulling off a spectacular pass on Schumacher at Spa to move six points clear in the title race, while Schumacher chose the Japanese GP where he sealed the crown as his 'Race of my Life' for Autosport in 2009.

The epic championship fight overshadows the downsides to 2000: only two teams (Ferrari and McLaren) won races, claimed pole positions or fastest laps, and between them Schumacher and Hakkinen won 13 of 17 GPs. Seven drivers managed a podium finish, with Giancarlo Fisichella (Benetton), Ralf Schumacher (Williams) and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan) the only people outside the big two teams to spray the champagne.

That compares poorly to the previous year: in 1999 six drivers from four teams won races, with 11 different names getting onto the podium and Jordan joining the McLaren/Ferrari (Hakkinen/Irvine) championship fight as an outside contender.

2003 - SHAKING THINGS UP

In a theme that's now familiar to fans, F1 underwent significant changes for 2003 in response to Ferrari's dominance during the '02 season.

The most significant changes were a switch from the traditional qualifying hour to a one-shot format, featuring provisional runs on Friday that set the order for the grid-deciding attempts on Saturday.

It was also the beginning of the era of drivers having to qualify with a race-starting fuel load on board, with Renault the first to exploit that to lock out the front row with Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli for the second round in Malaysia.

The points system was also changed for the first time since 10 points for a win was introduced and dropped scores were abandoned in 1991, with the scoring positions extended from the top six to the top eight, and the gap between first and second reduced from four points to two - effectively to keep a runaway leader (Schumacher) in check.

While Schumacher won the championship despite all of those changes, they could still be deemed a success as the title race went all the way to the final race, having been decided in July the previous year. The German became a six-time world champion with a margin of just two points over a young Kimi Raikkonen for McLaren.

The season had eight race winners (up from four in 2002, when Ferrari won 15/17), and it effectively boiled down to a three-driver, three-team fight for the title between Schumacher, Raikkonen and Williams's Juan Pablo Montoya.

While the revised points system helped keep things close - and Ferrari's rivals were disadvantaged by a rule clarification that hurt Michelin late in the campaign - there would have been a sense of injustice had Schumacher (six wins) been defeated when the next-best drivers (Ralf Schumacher, Montoya and Rubens Barrichello) had two apiece, and runner-up Raikkonen only won once.

Stable technical regulations played their part too, enabling McLaren to fight for the championship despite never racing its planned 2003 car, the infamous MP4-18. The trusty MP4-17D, an updated '02 machine, almost got the job done.

2005 - RENAULT TOPPLES FERRARI

More major changes followed another year of Ferrari domination in 2004, with the standout alteration for '05 the banning of tyre changes at pitstops.

This played a huge role in shaping the season, with the previously dominant Ferrari/Bridgestone partnership caught out by the major shift in regulations, rendering Schumacher powerless to do anything about the coming force of Fernando Alonso, Renault and Michelin.

That has to go down as a black mark against 2005, as we had to wait until the following season to get a straight fight between Schumacher and Alonso - their late-race battle for victory at Imola aside. But the scrap that developed between Renault and McLaren once the Woking team got on top of early difficulties with its potent MP4-20 made a refreshing change after five years of Ferrari championships.

One of the most impressive statistics from the season was that 13 drivers stood on the podium, although that includes Tiago Monteiro taking Jordan's final top-three finish in F1 at the controversial US Grand Prix, where only the six Bridgestone-shod cars participated - and Schumacher took his only win of the year.

But if Indianapolis 2005 represented one of F1's worst races, later that year fans were treated to one of the greatest grands prix of all time when stormy weather affected Japanese GP qualifying - giving F1 the closest thing to a reversed grid in modern memory. The result? A final-lap pass for the win by Raikkonen on Fisichella's Renault, after the Finn started 17th on the grid.

Had McLaren got its act together sooner and not suffered so many reliability gremlins it could have pushed Alonso harder for the title, but in the end it had to make do with the satisfaction of winning 10/17 races with Raikkonen and Montoya.

2008 - DECIDED AT THE FINAL CORNER

Will we see another championship decided in as dramatic a fashion as Lewis Hamilton's maiden success in 2008? Unlikely, but that was only part of the story of a gripping season where the balance of power ebbed and flowed between McLaren and Ferrari, with BMW playing a cameo role in the first part of the campaign.

In fact, so strong was Robert Kubica's challenge - and so mixed was the form of the McLaren and Ferrari drivers - that the Pole led the championship following his maiden victory in Canada. What could have happened if BMW had ploughed more resources into keeping its 2008 car competitive will remain one of F1's great 'What ifs' - just don't ask Kubica about it.

Just two races, later Hamilton vaulted from fourth to first in the standings with his sublime victory in the wet at Silverstone, and at that stage four drivers - Hamilton, Kubica, Massa and Raikkonen - were separated by two points, with the top three all tied.

The season boiled down to a straight fight between Hamilton and Massa, and as brilliant as the Brazilian was at times that year, the standout memories will be ones of heartbreak: an engine failure three laps from home while leading in Hungary, his fuel hose getting stuck while leading in Singapore, and the devastating call over the radio that Hamilton had snatched the title from him when he had just won his home grand prix.

Hamilton could point to his own hard luck, including coming off worse in a collision with Massa at Fuji, and the controversial finish to the Belgian Grand Prix where he was stripped of victory and Massa picked up the 10 points instead.

When you factor in that seven drivers won races for five teams - including Sebastian Vettel's remarkable maiden victory at Monza for Toro Rosso - and a whopping 14 drivers stood on the podium, 2008 deserves to be remembered as a classic season, arguably the most dramatic on this list.

2012 - WINNERS GALORE

When seven different drivers won the opening seven races of the 2012 season - representing five teams and including Williams's first victory since '04 with the polarising Pastor Maldonado - there were cries that Formula 1 had become too random.

But randomness had nothing to do with it. The second year of the Pirelli era created a set of circumstances where almost any team could get it right, or wrong, on a given weekend. But it was no lottery. It was about which team and driver could get dialled-in early in the weekend and reap the rewards on race day.

It wasn't even a case of not knowing who was going to win on a Friday; most of the time you still didn't have a clue who was going to win by the time the lights went out on the Sunday.

While later iterations of Pirelli tyres have primarily been temperature sensitive, in 2012 wear of the rubber was a bigger problem, meaning a driver could have a bigger influence over the performance and life of his tyres than is often the case today.

The mixed-up nature of the season allowed Alonso to showcase his brilliance in a Ferrari that started the year as a shed of a car, but the Spaniard came within three points of denying Vettel a third-straight title in a dramatic finale in Brazil.

The year ended with eight winners (Raikkonen joining the initial seven-from-seven with the first win of his comeback in Abu Dhabi) and 13 drivers stepping onto the podium. And how about this: Sauber scored more podiums (four) than Mercedes.

To some this era of F1 will never be accepted as great - the tyre management required since Pirelli came in for 2011 is often complained about, and some will never accept the addition of DRS to increase overtaking in a grand prix. But there's little doubt '12 was the best season produced by the modern F1 'package'.

NOT FORGETTING...

While some seasons (2002 and '04 spring to mind) were never going to be under consideration for this list, a case can be made for others.

The 2006 season produced the Alonso versus Schumacher fight that was missing from '05, but it missed the cut for us because it didn't feature many eye-catching races on Sunday afternoons.

Another year that could easily have made the list is 2007. While it is often most remembered for controversy off-track thanks to the McLaren spy scandal, it also featured a thrilling battle between McLaren and Ferrari, culminating in Raikkonen's shock victory from behind in a three-way title showdown with Hamilton and Alonso.

For us, that one was edged out by 2008 because more teams were competitive the following year. Only McLaren and Ferrari won races in '07.

The major rule changes for 2009 refreshed F1's competitive order and created the fairytale story of Brawn GP winning both world championships following Honda's withdrawal the previous winter, but the title fight was effectively a season of two halves.

Jenson Button dominated the first part for Brawn, and Red Bull came on strong later in the year to set the scene for four years of Vettel domination. A straight fight between those two all year would have propelled '09 onto our list.

A notable omission is 2010 - regularly cited as a classic season, but that was down to a tense championship fight between multiple drivers rather than because of great racing. Rain-affected GPs or the thrilling Montreal and Spa races aside, let's not forget this was the year that effectively led to the birth of the DRS/Pirelli-tyre era that's so unpopular with some today.
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#2

Post by Antonov »

most nostalgia - 2000
finest - the three way battle in 2003
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#3

Post by LaraCroft2016 »

If you're Kimi fan and one of those that says, he could win in 2003 and 2005, then 2007 is one of the favorite seasons, when he became champion finally :happy:
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#4

Post by caneparo »

The best seasons were 2003 2007 and 2008. Also the one where schumacher coste alonso the world championship in abu dhabi was good (2009?)
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#5

Post by PTRACER »

2003 was Formula 1's best modern-era season by far.
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#6

Post by kals »

caneparo wrote:The best seasons were 2003 2007 and 2008. Also the one where schumacher coste alonso the world championship in abu dhabi was good (2009?)
It was Petrov who got in Alonso's way at the 2010 Abu Dhabi finale. At Brazil in 2012 Schumacher gifted Vettel a couple of points by not fighting for the 6th place finish.
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#7

Post by caneparo »

I mean that the crucial Safety car was called in for a crash caused by schumi
I almost forgot how bad was 2009
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#8

Post by kals »

Ok I see. How did that cost Alonso the championship?
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#9

Post by LaraCroft2016 »

PTRACER wrote:2003 was Formula 1's best modern-era season by far.
Really? why? the battle for the championship (drivers title) ended in USA gp.
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#10

Post by kals »

LaraCroft2016 wrote:
PTRACER wrote:2003 was Formula 1's best modern-era season by far.
Really? why? the battle for the championship (drivers title) ended in USA gp.
Points wise yes, with that dubious penalty given to Montoya.

But in reality the title fight was over post-Hungary with Bridgestone and Ferrari campaigning the FIA to have Michelin alter their tyre construction ahead of Italian GP. After that point, Ferrari were no longer at a competitive disadvantage to Williams and McLaren (and Renault).



I loved the 2003 season because it threw up multiple race winners, and new race winners. The title fight was also pretty open across the entire season. The only thing that lets the season down is that there weren't many great races. The ones that were great, were really great... Albert Park, Interlagos and Silverstone, Indy wasn't too bad either.
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#11

Post by NooDle »

2008 (because literally decided at the last corner of the last race) and 2012 because at first it looked like we would have 18 different winners ...
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#12

Post by PTRACER »

LaraCroft2016 wrote:
PTRACER wrote:2003 was Formula 1's best modern-era season by far.
Really? why? the battle for the championship (drivers title) ended in USA gp.
I'm not sure what kals is talking about when he says "There weren't many great races" in 2003. I'd completely disagree and say some races were the best I have ever seen. Interlagos, Silverstone and Suzuka stand out in particular.

Perhaps one reason I enjoyed it so much was because I'd just suffered my way through the 2002 season, but I watched 2003 again a few years ago and still felt the same.
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#13

Post by Andy »

There has not been one good F1 season in 21st century, so why ask for the best of crap?
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#14

Post by LaraCroft2016 »

PTRACER wrote:
LaraCroft2016 wrote:
PTRACER wrote:2003 was Formula 1's best modern-era season by far.
Really? why? the battle for the championship (drivers title) ended in USA gp.
I'm not sure what kals is talking about when he says "There weren't many great races" in 2003. I'd completely disagree and say some races were the best I have ever seen. Interlagos, Silverstone and Suzuka stand out in particular.

Perhaps one reason I enjoyed it so much was because I'd just suffered my way through the 2002 season, but I watched 2003 again a few years ago and still felt the same.
Well, I enjoyed 2003 season because Montoya had chances to win, and I'm like a Montoya's fan
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#15

Post by kals »

Well there weren't too many great races in 2003. I'm glad you loved them Paul. What 2003 offered was variety, something very different to the previous year.
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