The first 'cycle' of the new Millennium
Over the last 15 years Formula 1 has accustomed us to several eras of unchallenged dominance: first the Red Bull cycle with Sebastian Vettel, then that of Mercedes marked by the triumphs of Lewis Hamilton and finally the one currently underway, still branded Red Bull, with the undisputed supremacy of Max Verstappen. In all these years only three titles – 2010, 2012 and 2021 – have been awarded at the last race with drivers from at least two different teams still in contention. But the first great cycle of the 2000s speaks Italian since it was there Ferrari to win the first 10 world titles – between Drivers and Constructors – of the new millennium. However, the winning epic of Michael Schumacher, Jean Todt and Ross Brawn, led by president Luca di Montezemolo, had already begun a year earlier, in 1999. In that season, despite the dramatic injury suffered by Schumacher at Silverstone, Ferrari managed to win the Constructors' championship, competing with Eddie Irvine for success in the Drivers' championship until the last GP.
The strange season 1999
However, it was what prevailed in the end Mika Hakkinenwho thus repeated the triumph of 1998. However, the run-up to the second World Championship for the McLaren Finn was very troubled between driving errors, clashes with teammate David Coulthard and MP4/14 reliability issues, which proved to be as fast as it was fragile. Regarding the many events that characterized that championship, Hakkinen gave a long series of interviews to the site PlanetF1, who wanted to celebrate the 25 years that have passed since the Finnish champion's second title. In one of these chats the former McLaren star launched a little dig at Ferrariunderlining that having its own track available to carry out private tests – which at the time were obviously permitted by the regulations – made life a lot easier for the Cavallino.
McLaren and the problems with reliability
In fact, the McLarens of those years often suffered – especially at the beginning of the season – from significant reliability issues. Hakkinen's belief, however, is that those problems would have been solved much more quickly by the Woking team if they too had had access to proprietary track on which to carry out the tests. “The analysis and meetings and studying the data and understanding how to solve those problems was very difficult – explained Hakkinen, referring to the technical problems of the first races of the 1999 season – everyone worked very hard. The pilot can only do a certain amount of things. I can easily say how we would have fared without the problems in the first races of 1999.”.
Hakkinen 'against' Fiorano
“If we had had our own track and a test driver who drove from seven in the morning to seven at night – underlined Hakkinen, I was referring to the great work done in those seasons by Luca Badoer – testing and developing a different gearbox that didn't break, I think I would have been world champion ten times! But, because we didn't have this luxury, we didn't have the opportunity to solve problems as quickly. Ferrari, obviously, had Fiorano, a test driver, and unlimited time to do track tests.”. The 55-year-old champion from Vantaa, who remained in the history of F1 as one of the greatest opponents faced by Michael Schumacher during his career, once again underlined how the possibility of winning was vital for the Prancing Horse. use the Fiorano track without any type of restriction.
“When they had a problem, while racing on a track, they had another car that went around Fiorano and solved the problems. We had the test bench to test the components, but a test bench is not as precise as a track test. I don't think it was a question of money: the money was there. There were enough people in our system to solve problems. But you need to make these things work and test them. You have to have a track and Ferrari had a test track in Fiorano.”concluded Hakkinen.
#Hakkinen #stings #Ferrari #Fiorano..
