1995 : The Commentator’s Predictions

The abolishment of the two season technological race resulted in one of the most one-sided championship battles in FF1M’s history with Ayrton Senna signing off his FF1M career in fine style, winning his fourth drivers championship and accruing nearly thrice as many points as runner-up Olivier Panis. The Brazilian’s points total alone was more than enough for Gojira AutoSport to seal the teams championship, but the team have been forced to search for a new talisman thanks to Senna’s retirement, and this could throw the title battle wide open with many other teams boasting reasons to be confident in one of the most balanced line-ups in FF1M history. As a result, the upcoming pre-season predictions could be way off!

11th: Mitchell-Ford (W)

Mitchell’s 1994 season was a strange one with their underpowered customer Ford engines hamstringing the team in qualifying with only two top 10 starts courtesy of Roland Ratzenberger, but making up for it in the races with four podium finishes for Ratzenberger and Damon Hill, whose performance at Suzuka was exemplary as he went from the back row to finish on the podium. For 1995, Ford have upgraded Mitchell’s engine status from customer to works, which should give them the qualifying boost they’ve been craving. However, early indications from pre-season testing show that the power deficit is severe with the team comfortably at the bottom of the timesheets. It may take a miracle or some good quiz knowledge to rescue something for the inexperienced Jos Verstappen and the 1993 drivers champion Alessandro Zanardi, who returns to FF1M full time after a mixed time in North America whilst racing in the 1994 FART Championship.

10th: Tildesley GP-Ferrari (W)

After two tough seasons where they went pointless, 1995 looks to be more promising for Tildesley GP as they’ve manage to obtain the powerful works Ferrari engines that took Rubens Barrichello to his Monza win last season. As for the driver line-up, Tildesley have gone all British as Essex lad Johnny Herbert is joined by Ulsterman Eddie Irvine, who previously drove for the team in 1993. He’ll be hoping for a better run with them in 1995, particularly after becoming a race winner in 1994 where he used a clever two-stop strategy at Aida. The previous two seasons saw Tildesley miss out on development from the pre and mid-season quizzes, so their progression from backmarker to midfield could be stilted if this trend continues.

9th: Shake ‘n’ Bake-Mugen Honda (C)

Someone within Shake ‘n’ Bake’s financial department clearly misunderstood the brief as one of their driver bids exceeded their total budget. Their engine choice and first driver however appeared to be part of the plan with Taki Inoue bringing in free customer Mugen Honda engines, although the word in the paddock is that the Japanese engine supplier didn’t have the facilities to bring works support to the team after a woeful 1994 campaign where just a single point was scored at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix left them underfunded. A difficult campaign should probably be expected for Shake ‘n’ Bake, although a relatively healthy leftover budget for aerodynamic development should help to an extent, and Jean Alesi, who returns to the team for a third stint, almost seemed to be enjoying the handling of the car during pre-season testing.

8th: Pedersen-Yamaha (W)

The other Japanese engine supplier had a similarly terrible time in 1994 with a less than 50% reliability rate for Goomba Engineering with their only non-mechanical retirement occurring at Jerez where Mark Blundell ran out of fuel. Despite this, they were able to provide works support for Pedersen, who themselves have the dependable line-up of Gerhard Berger and Martin Brundle. Theoretically, this line-up should perform solidly, and indeed in 1994, they exceeded expectations with 3rd in the teams championship including a win at Monza for Rubens Barrichello, but they’ll do well to repeat this result for 1995 thanks to a lack of leftover aerodynamic budget and Yamaha’s atrocious reliability.

7th: Gojira AutoSport-Renault (W)

After narrowly missing out in 1993, Gojira AutoSport aced the following season as the combination of the best engine and the fastest driver yielded an impeccable season for Ayrton Senna, as he took his fourth championship before retiring from FF1M. The second driver situation was a little less rosy as Erik Comas was forced to step down before the final race of the season after a nasty collision with Eddie Irvine at Suzuka left him with concussion. His replacement, Roberto Moreno, immediately impressed on his return as he followed Senna home for a 1-2 finish at Adelaide. He remains with the team for 1995 with Rubens Barrichello keeping it all Brazilian, while the dominant works Renault engines have also been maintained. However, a repeat of the 1994 dominance may not be on the cards as Gojira had no leftover aerodynamic budget (Apparently, the team misread some of the regulations having made their entry in a hurry), and it showed during pre-season testing which went “significantly way worse than expected” with both drivers struggling at Jerez and Sebring.

6th: CBA Racing-Renault (W)

On paper, CBA Racing appear to have the most balanced line-up with the powerful and largely dependable Renault engines and two solid drivers. Indeed, Olivier Panis was one of the stars of 1994 as he finished runner-up in the drivers championship with two wins including a perfect lights-to-flag performance at Jerez, while Jean Alesi performed just as admirably. With the French-Sicilian on the move, CBA have recruited David Coulthard, who has a point to prove after being dismissed prior to the final race last season due to a series of mistakes and not quite having the pace compared to teammate Eddie Irvine. An advantage CBA have over the other Renault user is that they have some aerodynamic budget remaining which could give them an edge, but pre-season testing has indicated that Renault might not be the most powerful engine on the grid anymore with Peugeot and Mercedes performing strongly.

5th: Andrew Racing-Ferrari (C)

One of the surprises of 1994 was the performance of Andrew Racing with Gianni Morbidelli impressing with podium finishes and a win at Monaco after capitalising on Ayrton Senna crashing out. Their approach had been concentrating most of their budget on aerodynamic development and keeping their engine and driver expenditure low with customer Ferrari engines and cheap Italian drivers, and for 1995, they have repeated this ethos with the only difference being Nicola Larini joining the team alongside Morbidelli. It will be Larini’s first race since 1988 and may well be out of practice, but Andrew Racing have by far the largest leftover aerodynamic budget out of all teams, so it would be foolish to fully underestimate this team.

4th: Willows Racing-Peugeot (W)

After an awful 1994 with an underpowered Mugen Honda engine that couldn’t power a washing machine, Willows Racing look to be in much better shape for 1995 after securing promising but unproven works Peugeot engines and two very good drivers who made immediate impacts on their FF1M debuts. Damon Hill’s debut in 1992 saw him challenge for the drivers championship while Mika Salo was immediately on the pace after replacing Nigel Mansell at FJR, qualifying 3rd on his debut and finishing 2nd at Suzuka. Willows can feel optimistic for the season ahead, especially after some of the performances Hill put in last season, and pre-season testing showed a lot of promise with both drivers performing well. Their works advantage should also give them an edge in qualifying, but a lack of aerodynamic budget might affect their overall race pace on the twistier circuits.

3rd: Monolith-Mercedes (C)

Making their FF1M debut (canonically) for 1995 is Monolith Racing System, who replace the short-lived Goomba Engineering. The Liechtensteiner team will be hoping for better results compared to their Italian neighbours, and they have a very promising line-up of Mika Hakkinen and Heinz-Harald Frentzen at their disposal. Furthermore, Frentzen was able to bring in free customer Mercedes engines which has given them a decent leftover aerodynamic budget to play with. Whether this will be enough to offset the lack of extra qualifying power is less of a certainty, but if Michael Schumacher was able to score podiums with a customer Mercedes engine, then there’s every reason Hakkinen can do the same. Furthermore, Hakkinen was extremely quick during pre-season testing, consistently setting some fast laptimes at Jerez and Sebring and could be a dark horse for the drivers championship.

2nd: FJR-Mercedes (W)

1994 was a difficult season for FJR with their car proving to be highly inconsistent and difficult to drive. Some races saw Nigel Mansell at his very best, such as at Barcelona where he beat Ayrton Senna fair and square, but other races saw Mansell struggle for pace and frustrated the team to the point where he was dismissed after the Portuguese Grand Prix for squandering a points finish. Heading into 1995, FJR have arguably their best chance at winning their first drivers championship (canonically) as much of the team’s budget was spent on Michael Schumacher, who brought in the added bonus of works Mercedes engines. According to team boss James Brickles, signing Schumacher wasn’t Plan A with Heinz-Harald Frentzen being his first choice, but the Mönchengladbach native chose not to rejoin FJR after being sacked mid-season. Schumacher’s new teammate Jan Magnussen is the only debutant for this season and may take some time to get up to speed, particularly as there wasn’t much budget leftover for aerodynamic development, so any chance of the teams championship for FJR is likely to rest solely in Schumacher’s hands.

1st: Tornado Motorsport-Peugeot (C)

Tornado experienced a turbulent pre-season where they found themselves with unproven customer Peugeot engines and a less than ideal driver line-up. FF1M’s elder statesperson Nigel Mansell returned to the team for the final race of last season after being dropped by FJR and remains with Tornado for what will be his final season in FF1M. He is joined by fellow Brit Mark Blundell, who was far from Tornado’s first choice, but two advantages they have are plenty of leftover aerodynamic budget and knowledge in the pre and mid season quizzes. Pre-season testing showed that their difficult entry period was a blessing in disguise with both Mansell and Blundell revelling in a very balanced and drivable car, consistently setting very fast times at Jerez and Sebring. The Peugeot engine, although unraced, appears to have plenty of grunt, so a fairytale ending for Mansell could be on the cards if reliability holds out.

Paddock News

Pre-season for the 1995 FF1M season has revealed that there were 12 entries for the 1995 season, and with the AFIA imposing a maximum of 11 teams, one of the entries was therefore rejected. The rumour going round the paddock at the moment is that this particular team have been working on their plans for 1996 with a press conference due to be held before the Argentine Grand Prix.

Coverage

The 1995 FF1M Season begins tonight at 8:00pm BST with the Brazilian Grand Prix from Interlagos with Qualifying available at 4:00pm for Paddock Club Patreons.

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