2018 Preview : FJR

The most experienced team on the grid in terms of race starts have had a varied time in FF1M of late, ranging from one good season immediately followed by a bad one. 2017 sat somewhere in the middle with two pole positions, two podiums, two fastest laps, and not much else as Tornado dominated the season. The car’s excellent downforce levels were cancelled out by excessive drag on the straights, and trying to compensate for that with extra ERS in the races often resulted in their Judd engines exploding before the races finished. In a way, FJR were fortunate hold off the resurgent Pedersen and Gojira for 6th in the Teams Championship.

Best Season: 2004

FJR’s best season can be traced back as far as 2002 where they were the only team to choose the ‘Own Car’ technology. It took a whole season to develop and with other teams choosing more short-term technologies, FJR went from winning races to struggling to score points as they faded. Much of 2003 was then spent developing the aerodynamics in preparation for 2004, but a turbo was also being developed at the same time and when this arrived at the Hungaroring, FJR were comparable with frontrunners Dark Wolf and Pedersen in terms of speed and won at Monza. 2004 then arrived with two-time champion Jarno Trulli replacing Kimi Raikkonen to partner Nick Heidfeld, whose FJR stint had been rather disappointing after the blistering speed he showed during the 2001 season with Pedersen.

FJR got off to a very strong start in 2004 with five podiums in the first three races plus two wins for Trulli at Sepang and Sakhir, the latter race as part of a dominant lights-to-flag victory. Dark Wolf then responded with five podiums of their own in the next three races before FJR fought back with back-to-back wins for Trulli at the Nurburgring and Montreal. Things then seemed to fall into place for the Italian as main championship rival, Cristiano Da Matta, was taken out by Olivier Panis at the Hungaroring, and then he suffered an engine failure at Spa. In the latter race, Trulli was on course to finish 2nd but inherited the win from Michael Schumacher in the closing stages, and then he won the Drivers Championship at Monza thanks to a brilliant charge in the closing laps to overtake David Coulthard for the lead on the final lap. As for the Teams Championship, this was secured at the next race at Shanghai. All of this was achieved despite the belief that their Bridgestone tyres were considered to be inferior to Michelin.

Worst Season: 2013

There are a few candidates for FJR’s worst season. 2015 resulted in their lowest championship finish, although there were still moments of competitiveness with Kevin Magnussen taking an unexpected podium finish at Montreal, plus Benjamin Pryor’s gutsy drive to 7th at Monza. 1990 was a particularly poor season with one of the more unreliable cars on the grid wreaking havoc, but team boss James Brickles describes 2013 as his worst season. There was a lot of promise going into 2013 with reigning champion at the time, Lewis Hamilton, taking the number 1 to FJR alongside Esteban Gutierrez. The team had also developed some of the car during the previous season in preparation, and some within the paddock were tipping Hamilton to win the Drivers Championship. What followed was a cataclysm.

Right from the first race, reliability was a major problem with Hamilton losing a possible win at Melbourne due to a failed wheel bearing, and then a failed engine cost him 3rd at Sepang before reliability glitches affected him at Shanghai and Monaco, leading to a very clumsy performance uncharacteristic of a champion in the former. Once the car became more reliable by Montreal, the speed had vanished with the advantage of the Ferrari-powered teams proving insurmountable. The nadir came at the Hungaroring with Hamilton choosing the wrong tyres at the start, smashing his rear wing off on lap 6 having already switched to intermediates, and then crashing out for good at half-distance. Teammate Esteban Gutierrez’s performance in that race was similarly woeful. The rest of the season was largely anonymous as FJR had already shifted development onto their 2014 car, and to date, this is Hamilton’s only season where he failed to finish on the podium.

Present day

Having retained their driver line-up of Kevin Magnussen and Catharina Caracciola, FJR have cleaned the slate with their car and are starting afresh with the new JB-18 chassis. The rumours are that they have once again concentrated on aerodynamic downforce which will hinder their straight line speed, and that the Judd engine is still lagging in terms of power. A different approach may have to be considered during pre-season testing, otherwise FJR could find themselves in a bit of trouble and failing to qualify for some races at the start of the season.

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