The world championship 2001 officially started with the traditional appointment of Australian Grand Prix, still known today for having been, for years, the first stage of numerous world championships. This has been the case since, on the occasion of the 1996 season, the venue for the ocean event was moved from the Adelaide city circuit to that of Albert Park, in Melbourne. A weekend, that of 21 years ago exactly, that he was able to pass into history in a certain sense for some events that occurred for good, and others, unfortunately in a tragic way, for evil. More than for Michael Schumacher’s first race with the title of reigning champion at the wheel of Ferrari, Formula 1 fans were intrigued by the presence of four beginners on the starting grid. Most of them were destined to leave their mark on the Circus in a few years: a patrol of future champions who answered to the name of the Colombian Juan Pablo Montoyaof the Finnish Kimi Raikkonen and some Spanish Fernando Alonsothe latter the only one still active in Formula 1.
In fact, among those just mentioned, Montoya showed up behind the wheel of the Williams-BMW with a curriculum that is anything but devoid of awards among the greats of motorsport: between 1999 and 2000, in fact, the then 25-year-old had won, respectively, a Formula CART title and an Indianapolis 500 – in which he will participate also in 2022 – without excluding the previous success in the International F3000. Different speech, but certainly no less noble, for the couple formed by Raikkonen and Alonso, both coming from minor categories: while the Finn, hired in 2001 by the Sauberhad won a double in British Formula Renault – in 1999 and 2000 – the Spaniard of the Minardi instead he had triumphed in 1999, in turn in the Euro Open by Nissan. Results that had pushed Peter Sauber and Giancarlo Minardi to beat the competition to make the debut of these two new promises, who entered Formula 1 at the age of 21 and 19.
Of all the rookies – in a weekend that also saw the great return of Michelin among the tire suppliers – the one who showed up with the credentials to be able to occupy the high-ranking areas was Montoya, who instead disappointed the expectations in qualification: in a session dominated by the Ferraris of Schumacher and Barrichello, the Colombian did not go beyond 11th position, just 3 tenths ahead of Raikkonen, 13th. On the other hand, the one who surprised was Alonso, the current Alpine driver, who managed to place himself in 19th position on the grid even at the wheel of a Minardi in serious technical crisis, so much so that his teammate, Tarso Marques, could not even overcome the threshold of 107%, and therefore to qualify for the GP. Moreover, even in the race, the fate smiled once again at Alonso, but also at his future teammate in Ferrari Raikkonen: both, in fact, took advantage of the numerous retirements that took place during the GP – no less than nine – with the latter they ranked 12th and 7th respectively. The Finnish, however, found himself ex officio in sixth place due to the 25-second penalty imposed on Olivier Panis, guilty of having overtaken an opponent under a yellow flag. In this way, Raikkonen thus obtained the first point of his career, which ended last year, on its debut in the category. Worse went to Montoya who, despite having reached the podium area, was forced to retire with 18 laps to go due to a mechanical failure. The race, however, also saw a terrible episode take place during the 5th lap: Jacques Villeneuve, in an attempt to overtake Ralf Schumacher’s second Williams at the braking corner of the third corner, he collided with the latter, taking off and impacting violently against the barriers. In the crash, a wheel from the BAR hit a route commissioner, who could not survive to his injuries.
The race ended with Michael Schumacher’s victory, but opened a cycle for all three drivers: while Montoya stood out for determination and aggression, so much so as to question Schumacher’s title victory in 2003, Alonso and Raikkonen entered by right in the history of F1 in the mid-2000s: the Spaniard, who moved to Renault in 2002, won two world titles with the same team in the 2005 and 2006, definitively breaking the dominion of Ferrari and Schumacher. At the same time, however, Raikkonen was able to give the last world smile to the Scuderia di Maranello in 2007, a season that is still remembered today for being the last in which a Red driver was crowned world champion. These tales began in the distant Australian afternoon 21 years ago.
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