1994-2005: Glenn Freeman
This spell of Formula 1 is defined by Michael Schumacher. It opened with him stepping into the breach left by the death of Ayrton Senna as the dominant force on the grid, and ended with him being dethroned by Fernando Alonso.
Schumacher moved the goalposts for F1 drivers, both on track and off. His preparation was second to none, and the standards he set in the gym and the debrief room are accepted as the norm today. On track, his relentless ability to rattle off entire stints of ‘qualifying laps’ played perfectly with the reintroduction of refuelling for 1994, which turned grands prix into short sprints between pitstops. His ruthlessness in battle with others, and the amount he got away with, set a new, arguably low, bar for what was acceptable in wheel-to-wheel combat.
The sprints between fuel stops are looked back on fondly in the current era of fuel and tyre saving in F1. While the amount of on-track overtaking during a race went down with the change, it at least allowed drivers to push closer to the limit throughout
a GP. And it gave teams an extra tactical element to play with, as race strategy became a decisive weapon in races. F1 became more of a team effort than ever – with a driver like Schumacher at its disposal, a clever team could effectively win a race from the pitwall.
The majority of the era featured a tyre war, which gave F1 a performance variable it no longer has. Bridgestone came in for
1997 and, despite initially only taking on teams further down the order, its performance spooked Goodyear out of F1 after just two years. In 2001 Michelin rejoined the fray, providing the Schumacher/ferrari/bridgestone combination with some stern competition that would eventually topple the red empire.
The great thing about a tyre war was that it could alter the competitive order from race to race without any interference that could be considered artificial. The 1998, 2003 and ’05 championships were particularly influenced by tyres: Goodyear and Bridgestone fought with Ferrari and Mclaren respectively in ’98, Michelin thrust Williams and Mclaren into contention with Ferrari and Bridgestone in ’03, and the banning of in-race tyre changes for ’05 caught Bridgestone out, finally ending Schumacher’s run of consecutive titles.
The significance of 1994 in shaping F1’s history will never be forgotten, although its ultimate legacy became safety following the deaths of Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at Imola. Car and circuit designs changed significantly in a matter of months.
The year started with the reintroduction of cars devoid of driver aids, which were banned after the 1993 season. The idea was to bring driver skill back to the fore, although by the early 2000s basic assists such as traction control returned as the FIA struggled to police workarounds the teams were coming up with. Also in ’94, F1 still boasted V8 engines racing against V10s and Ferrari’s screaming V12s – a form of variety fans still call for today. By ’96 the whole field was using V10s, the sound of which became more spectacular as the revs they were capable of grew rapidly around the turn of the century. Today there are regular calls to go back to the V8s that were introduced for 2006, but in comparison to their howling predecessors they sounded flat.
While Schumacher set new standards for drivers, the make-up of F1 teams was transformed during this era too. Minnows such as Pacific, Simtek and Forti all lasted no more than two years in the mid-1990s, and the 107% qualifying rule was introduced to rid F1 of off-the-pace chancers trying to sneak onto the back of the grid. Staffing levels in teams boomed into the hundreds as more money sloshed into F1 and manufacturer involvement increased. By 2005, Renault, Mercedes, Ferrari, Toyota, BMW and Honda all had a major presence on the grid that went beyond simply supplying engines.
Schumacher’s dominance with Ferrari also spurred F1’s decision makers into tinkering with the sacred F1 weekend format. The changes were sparked in 2003 with the introduction of one-shot qualifying and using race-start fuel loads for those laps and, while such changes went down poorly with purists, there’s no disputing that it shook things up. Six drivers took pole positions that year, and eight won races.
Despite the success of those bold changes, subsequent failed alterations to the format have spooked F1 into being far more cautious than it was with decisions that made a real difference to F1 in 1994, 2003 and ’05.
F1 saw out this era with one of the greatest races of all-time at the Japanese GP. The penultimate race of 2005 at Suzuka is remembered for Alonso’s pass around the outside of Schumacher at 130R and Kimi Raikkonen stealing victory on the final lap. The scene was set when rain mixed up the grid for qualifying – now there’s a change F1 will probably always be too afraid to implement on a full-time basis.