A thrilling 2011 grid embellished with five world champions
After having embraced an amazing 2010 season, filled with thrill and drama, the Formula One caravan heads for another very exciting and entertaining round. The 2011 grid will be the first one after a period of four decades, to bring together no fewer than
five world champions.
The very thrilling and historical grid will be carrying the youngest world champion of the sports’ history, Sebastian Vettel (2010); the only racer ever in the history of the sport to have won 7 world championships, Michael Schumacher (1994-5 and 2000-4);
the only black racer and champion in 60 years of Formula One, Lewis Hamilton; the only man who beat Schumacher twice after his consecutive five title wins, Fernando Alonso (2005-6) and Jenson Button (2009), who helped his team Brawn GP in bagging both, the
drivers’ as well as the constructors’ championship, during its debut season. It surely calls for a dream grid and invites an unmatched season long fight.
It took forty years for the sport to come up with such a sizzling combination of super stars for the race fans. Last time when Formula One greeted such an array of starts on its circuits was in 1970, when five active world champions indulged in a brutal
battle. Jack Brabham, John Surtees, Denny Hulme, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart sparked at the race arenas, offering a very appealing and over whelming calendar.
However, there has never been any season in the sport’s history when the grid welcomed six active world champions all at the same time. The upcoming season was thought to make that mark, however, at the last moments Kimi Raikkonen decided not to show up.
The 2007 world champion, Raikkonen is currently driving for rally championship and there were rumours earlier this season that he will be returning to F1 for the 2011 season. However, after much controversy with RenaultF1 team, the driver finally announced
that he is not willing to return to Formula One.
Moreover, there were also reports earlier that Jacques Villeneuve is planning to form his own team, in collaboration with Durango. If this has happened, along with Raikkonen’s return to the series, the 2011 grid would have been embellished with 7 world champions,
bringing a record making season.
With 12 teams and 24 cars, this means that the season would have seen an almost 30 per cent of the entire field, filled with world champions.
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