1999 FF1M Season

1999 FF1M Season
Info
Drivers Champion	Jarno Trulli
Teams Champion	Gui Racing-Ford
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Previous	1998 FF1M Season
Next	2000 FF1M Season
Support Series
FF2M	1999 FF2M Season

MRD Racing replaced AquinoPlus in the series

Olivier Panis rejoined Ajay Motorsports

Mika Hakkinen joined FJR

Jos Verstappen left FJR for Pedersen

Mason became Talent Racing

The 1999 FF1M Season was the 12th Season of FF1M. It loosely followed the 1999 Formula One Season and was supported by the 1999 FF2M Season on the first day of all European Race Weekends.

Rule Changes

This season will be the first where driver contracts have been signed during the previous season's silly season. Also the Rookie Driver rules have been changed, with only drivers of ages 30 years and younger allowed to be classified as Rookie Drivers.

Teams and Drivers

Team	Title Sponsor	Engine	Tyre	No.	Race Drivers	Test Drivers
Gui Racing	Winfield	Ford (Works)		1	Michael Schumacher	Enrique Bernoldi
				2	Ralf Schumacher
Dodgem	B&H	Ferrari		3	Jacques Villeneuve	Luca Badoer
				4	Rubens Barrichello
Pedersen	Q-Park	Mercedes (Works)		5	Jos Verstappen (1-4)
					Jan Magnussen (5-17)
				6	Giancarlo Fisichella (1-4)
					Mika Salo (5-17)
FJR	Mild Seven	Peugeot (Works)		7	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Pedro de la Rosa
				8	Mika Hakkinen
VTR	Red Bull	Supertec		9	Allan McNish
				10	Johnny Herbert
Willow Images	Gauloises	Mugen Honda		11	Alessandro Zanardi
				12	Jorg Muller
Talent Racing	Telefonica	Ilmor		14	Pedro Diniz
				15	Ricardo Rosset
Dark Wolf	555	Peugeot (Works)		16	Eddie Irvine
				17	Alexander Wurz
Maestro Motorsport	West	Ferrari		18	Juan Pablo Montoya	Franck Montagny
				19	David Coulthard
MRD Racing	Repsol	Ferrari (Works)		20	Bruno Junqueira (1)	Jarno Trulli Bruno Junqueira
					Jarno Trulli (2-17)
				21	Nick Heidfeld
Ajay Motorsports	Music4	Supertec		22	Olivier Panis (1-14)	Justin Wilson
					Justin Wilson (15-17)
				23	Alex Yoong (1-14)
					Ricardo Zonta (15-17)

Team Changes

At the end of the 1998 FF1M Season AquinoPlus announced that they were withdrawing from FF1M with immediate effect[1]. The AFIA immediately announced that new team MRD Racing would be replacing them. During the Pre Season Entry Period doubts were also raised about J Racings continued participation in the series [2]. These doubts proved correct and as a result Ajay Motorsports took their place.

Driver Changes (During the season)

• After impressing in pre-season testing Jarno Trulli was promoted to a race driver at MRD Racing from round two of the championship onwards replacing Bruno Junqueira.
• A poor start to the season led MPR to fire Jos Verstappen and Giancarlo Fisichella after just four races. They were replaced by Mika Salo and Jan Magnussen.
• It was announced after the Hungarian Grand Prix that Alex Yoong would be replaced at Ajay Motorsports by the winner of feeder series FF2M following the Italian Grand Prix. Whilst Olivier Panis was also replaced to give team test driver Justin Wilson his chance.

Pre-season Predictions

1. FJR
2. Gui Racing
3. Maestro Motorsport
4. MRD Racing
5. Dodgem
6. VTR
7. Willow Images
8. Dark Wolf
9. Pedersen
10. Ajay Motorsports
11. Talent Racing

Season Calendar

Round	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix	Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne	7 March
2	Brazilian Grand Prix	Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, Sao Paulo	28 March
3	San Marino Grand Prix	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola	11 April
4	Monaco Grand Prix	Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo	25 April
5	Spanish Grand Prix	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmelo	9 May
6	Portuguese Grand Prix	Circuito do Estoril, Estoril	16 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal	6 June
8	European Grand Prix	Nurburgring, Nurburg	27 June
9	British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	11 July
10	Austrian Grand Prix	A1-Ring, Spielberg	25 July
11	German Grand Prix	Hockenheimring, Hockenheim	1 August
12	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hungaroring, Mogyorod	15 August
13	Belgian Grand Prix	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot	29 August
14	Italian Grand Prix	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza	12 September
15	Singapore Grand Prix	Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore	10 October
16	Malaysian Grand Prix	Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur	17 October
17	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	31 October

Testing Calendar

Test	Country	Circuit	Date	Fastest Driver	Team
Pre Season
1	Great Britain	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	30 January	Michael Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford
			31 January	Juan Pablo Montoya	Maestro-Ferrari
2	Italy	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza	6 February	Juan Pablo Montoya	Maestro-Ferrari
			7 February	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari
3	Portugal	Circuito do Estoril, Estoril	13 February	Michael Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford
			14 February	Mika Hakkinen	FJR-Peugeot
4	Japan	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	27 February	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari
			28 February	Michael Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford
Mid Season
1	France	Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet	1 May	Michael Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford
			2 May	Ralf Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford
2	USA	Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway	12 June	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	FJR-Peugeot
			13 June	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari
3	Germany	Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Oschersleben	8 August	Michael Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford
4	Spain	Circuito de Jerez, Jerez de la Frontera	25 September	Michael Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford
			26 September	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari

Season Review

The season began as 1998 had finished with FJR's Heinz Harald Frentzen winning the first two back to back fly away events and he looked set to dominate the season. But as the teams returned to Europe he was struck by reliability gremlins and would not win again until the British Grand Prix midway through the season. Another German struggling with reliability was reigning world champion Michael Schumacher, now driving for Gui Racing who failed to finish five of the first seven events, winning the two that he finished in Imola and Barcelona. His brother and team mate Ralf Schumacher meanwhile did not suffered the same unreliability and was able to build his points tally and took a fortunate win in Canada to put him in a championship challenging position by mid-season.

Meanwhile a resurgent Maestro Motorsport team led by Columbian Juan Pablo Montoya quietly and consistently took points and a couple of wins with the Columbian taking over the championship lead from Frentzen. Meanwhile new team MRD Racing had shown pace beyond its years and was quickly scoring points, pole positions and even wins but was severely hampered by several key mistakes by their drivers, one such mistake coming at the Spanish Grand Prix when Jarno Trulli, looking certain for his maiden victory in FF1M, ran into the back of a backmarker. The same thing also happened in Canada leading to the Italian being given a ten second post race penalty, but inbetween the two races Trulli was able to capitalise on Schumachers reliability woes and snatch that first win at the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril.

After Canada the teams returned to Europe following a week of testing and whilst Gui Racing dominated qualifying at the Nurburgring, Maestro Motorsport's Montoya dominated the race. Up to this point Montoya had finished every race, all but one of them in the points but disaster struck at Silverstone when an Engine problem ruined his record three laps from the finish. Montoya would fail to finish the next two races after a collision with team-mate David Coulthard in Austria and another collision this time with Alessandro Zanardi at Hockenheim. Jarno Trulli was also about to embark on a run of unreliability failing to finish four consecutive races from the European Grand Prix to the German Grand Prix, Trulli's team-mate Nick Heidfeld ensured that there was some cheer in the MRD Racing camp however, capitalising on Trulli's late retirement at the A1 Ring to win his first race. Meanwhile FJR had quietly returned to the front after a difficult second quarter of the season, Frentzen won brilliantly in Britain and Hakkinen followed this up with victory at the German Grand Prix.

In Hungary Jarno Trulli put his bad reliability behind him to dominate a race which saw many accidents on the dusty twisty track, he then followed it up by winning the Belgian and Singapore Grands Prix putting himself in contention for a surprise title. Mid season leaders Montoya and Ralf Schumacher had both inherited Trulli's bad luck and bad driving when dealing with backmarkers and soon the championship became a six horse race when Mika Hakkinen won the Italian Grand Prix after a race long battle with Ralf.

Montoya's bad luck continued in Singapore and Malaysia, both races he had led before retiring with mechanical problems and allowing Jarno Trulli to win both races putting him in prime position for the title. Montoya would go on to win the final race of the season in Japan, but it was too little too late as Trulli finished 2nd doing enough to win the title.

Results and Standings

Scoring system

Points are awarded to the top 8 classified finishers in race.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
Points	12	8	6	5	4	3	2	1

Race by Race

Round	Grand Prix	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning Driver	Winning Team
1	Australian Grand Prix	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Juan Pablo Montoya	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	FJR-Peugeot	Qualifying
						Race
2	Brazilian Grand Prix	Ralf Schumacher	Ralf Schumacher	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	FJR-Peugeot	Highlights
3	San Marino Grand Prix	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Michael Schumacher	Michael Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford	Qualifying
						Race
4	Monaco Grand Prix	Mika Hakkinen	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Juan Pablo Montoya	Maestro-Ferrari	Qualifying
						Race
5	Spanish Grand Prix	Jacques Villeneuve	Jarno Trulli	Michael Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford	Qualifying
						Race
6	Portuguese Grand Prix	Michael Schumacher	Michael Schumacher	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari	Highlights
7	Canadian Grand Prix	Jarno Trulli	Jarno Trulli	Ralf Schumacher	Gui Racing-Ford	Qualifying
						Race
8	European Grand Prix	Ralf Schumacher	Juan Pablo Montoya	Juan Pablo Montoya	Maestro-Ferrari	Qualifying
						Race
9	British Grand Prix	Jacques Villeneuve	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	FJR-Peugeot	Qualifying
						Race
10	Austrian Grand Prix	David Coulthard	Jarno Trulli	Nick Heidfeld	MRD-Ferrari	Highlights
11	German Grand Prix	Jarno Trulli	Nick Heidfeld	Mika Hakkinen	FJR-Peugeot	Highlights
12	Hungarian Grand Prix	Jarno Trulli	Michael Schumacher	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari	Highlights
13	Belgian Grand Prix	Nick Heidfeld	Jarno Trulli	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari	Highlights
14	Italian Grand Prix	Nick Heidfeld	Nick Heidfeld	Mika Hakkinen	FJR-Peugeot	Highlights
15	Singapore Grand Prix	Juan Pablo Montoya	Juan Pablo Montoya	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari	Highlights
16	Malaysian Grand Prix	Jarno Trulli	Jarno Trulli	Jarno Trulli	MRD-Ferrari	Highlights
17	Japanese Grand Prix	Jarno Trulli	Jacques Villeneuve	Juan Pablo Montoya	Maestro-Ferrari	Highlights

Championship Standings

*The original displayed results revealed that MRD had 1 extra point from the Canadian GP. Additionally, Maestro Motorsport were missing 5 points from the Spanish GP and 1 point from the Canadian GP. The audit has now taken effect.

Qualifying Results