Formula 1: Teammates And Their Impact On The World Title Hunt
The World Championship in Formula 1 is considered the crowning achievement of any driver in the sport. It’s a dedicated run throughout the season that needs to be backed by great team performance. But it seems that the most crucial aspect of a competing team depends on whether the driver has a reliable teammate or not. Let’s take a look at the past ten years and see who ended up in the top spot and who missed out and the roles that the drivers team mates have played in securing their wins.
It seems that picking the right teammate is one of the most important parts of winning a World Championship. Having the best car on the grid means that one more person will have the same advantage. That person is your teammate and has the potential to bring the race to you or against you. In most of the closely fought battles in the past decade, it’s when teams have a pecking order defined in the team that one driver is able to rightfully challenge for the title.
The first half of the decade was dominated by five back to back championship wins for Michael Schumacher. From the year 2000 to 2004 Schumacher was the king of the sport and he wasn’t just winning, he was dominating.
Having moved to Ferrari, the start of his career there was very slow but as he built a car around himself, he became an unstoppable force. He broke all kinds of records on his way to the titles, including the most wins by a driver in a season, as well as the most career wins ever. But there was one constant throughout his time of dominance: Rubens Barrichello. Barrichello was the person driving the number two Ferrari and acted mostly as a buffer between Schumi and the rest of the field.
The preference given to the first driver was so obvious that it actually became quite embarrassing. In the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix at the A1 ring, Rubens Barrichello had dominated the race from pole. As he was on his final lap, it seemed that Rubens pace was slowing down. On the last straight at the finish line Ruben’s car all but came to a halt as he was seen waiting for Michael Schumacher to come and overtake him, quite literally handing him the race win. This was one of the most unsportsmen acts ever to take place in the history of the sport. Later, this led to the end of team orders, since it was clear that Barrichello had been instructed to do this over the team radio by his race engineer as per the instructions of the team.
Although the controversies regarding team orders have died down in the past few years, the person that has won the Championship has had to rely on his teammate to be supportive of the cause. It is easier to pick a number one driver in the team if one of the two is the World Champion. In the rest of the cases, it is often decided within the first few races based on the performance of the drivers or their history in the team.
Alonso was the one who ended Schumacher’s domination in 2005 when he won the title. That year, the title challenge came from Kimi Raikkonen as the Ferraris were lacking the pace to compete at the front. But once again, it was Alonso who came up trumps because the order was clear within the team. The McLaren team had Montoya and Raikkonen paired up. Although it was a superstar line-up, it played against them as the two started picking points from each other, eventually handing the Championship to Alonso who was partnered with Fisichella.
In 2007 it seemed that Kimi Raikkonen was to benefit from a similar scenario. Having shifted to Ferrari, he was partnered with Massa. But the trouble came from the McLaren camp where both Alonso and Hamilton were in with a shot at the title. But the team crumbled mid-season after they had a comfortable advantage eventually handing Kimi the title by only a single point. Next year, Hamilton seemed to have the edge as he took the title with Hiekki Kovalainen in a clear number two driver role.
As we cross the halfway mark of the season, it’s clear that the two teams at the top have both seats filled, by potential championship winners. One team seems to have kept it's cool, while the other is crumbling left right and center. But will the McLaren’s be able to hold it together when the margins get closer, only time will tell.
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