Maestro Motorsport were a team in FF1M. They was founded by Mini Maestro and was one of the founder members of the FF1M series.
History
The team were one of the initial 11 entrants to the series. In Season 1, they lined up with Thierry Boutsen and Kimi Raikkonen using Mercedes engines with Raikkonen winning the teams first grand prix at the British Grand Prix. The team won again in Hungary and finished the season 2nd in the championship.
In Season 2, the team brought in Ayrton Senna alongside Raikkonen and switched to Honda engines. Raikkonen won the opening round of the season at Melbourne, but the team would not win again until the penultimate grand prix of the season when Senna clinched victory at Indianapolis. The team ended the season down in 4th place despite numerous podium finishes.
The team faced changes again in Season 3, Raikkonen remained at the team but he was joined by Mika Hakkinen, and the team once again switched engines, this time to a Ferrari powerplant. Hakkinen won on his debut for the team and remained in contention for the championship throughout the season but once again the team didn't have the outright pace to clinch the title and ended the season in 3rd place.
Domination
In Season 4, the FF1M rules changed. Pre and Mid Season testing was brought in, as well as Works and Customer engines. Maestro Motorsport were the team that adapted to the new rules the best. They signed a Works deal with Honda to supply engines and they signed the Season 3 World Champion Alain Prost alongside youngster Lewis Hamilton. The season started slowly while Exolite dominated with their powerful Ferrari engines, but the Ferrari engines were massively unreliable, and Maestro's Honda engines were consistent, reliable and gradually getting more powerful as the season went on. They ended up winning five races in that season, the biggest one being the final grand prix in Australia, where Alain Prost sealed both world titles with a stunning victory.
Prost was to leave at the end of the season, but Maestro reacted quickly by snapping up the driver who he had beaten to the World Title in Season 4, that driver was Fernando Alonso. Season 5 saw the team dominate the sport in emphatic style, scoring 200 points over the season, a record unsurpassed to this day. Whilst Alonso struggled initially for reliability Lewis Hamilton stepped up to the plate with 2 vital wins in Brazil and San Marino whilst Alonso had won the opening race of the season in South Africa. After the Monaco Grand Prix the team lay 2nd in the championship, a point behind leaders FJR. From that point on the team didn't look back and would win 9 out of the remaining 10 races in the season. Those 9 wins included 7 for Alonso and 2 for Hamilton, with 3 one-two's and 3 one-three's. They won the championship by 65 points with 12 wins. What was more, there was a fantastic fight for the drivers championship between the teams two drivers with the consistent and reliable Hamilton leading the quicker but more unreliable Alonso with three races to go. There was a feeling that it would go down to the wire, but it was not to be. Suddenly the teams unreliability of the early part of the season returned, the team suffered a double retirement in Portugal, and Hamilton didn't finish either of the last two races, which Alonso won comfortably sealing the world title by a huge margin not thought possible just three races before. As the champagne flowed there was a bitter aftertaste to the success, engine partners Honda announced that after the perfect season they were to leave the sport at the end of the season.
For Season 6 therefore, the team moved back to Ferrari. The season was much closer with a fantastic fight between Alonso and Ayrton Senna for the victory. It came down to the last Grand Prix with Alonso doing just enough in 3rd place to take a hard fought title despite not having won since the Monaco Grand Prix at the start of the season. The team also won the Teams Championship although this victory was much more straightforward with consistent points finishing keeping them well ahead of rivals Gui Racing.
Decline
Retirement
At the start of the 2001 FF1M Season hopes were high at Maestro Motorsport: They had re-signed Fernando Alonso, the driver who had given them their drivers titles in the early nineties and would be using engines supplied by Honda, another element in that period of domination. The season started badly however, Honda's eight season absence from the sport was showing, with the engine woefully underpowered compared to its rivals. What was more was that they were using Bridgestone tyres which hadn't been developed during pre-season and were also lagging behind their rival manufacturer Michelin. After qualifying 14th and 16th on the grid and finishing the race over a lap behind the leaders in 10th and 12th places, boss Mini Maestro made a shock announcement that he was considering leaving the series.
The team's fortunes did not improve over the first half of the season with the team getting into the top ten in qualifying only three times, with Alonso not managing to score a single point. Sick of seeing his once great team struggling, Maestro, during the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix, formally announced the teams withdrawal at the end of the season.
Results
FF1M
Year | Engine | Ch. Pos | Races | Points | Wins | Drivers | Ch. Pos | Races | Points | Wins |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season 1 | Mercedes | 2nd | 16 | 64 | 2 | Thierry Boutsen | 12th | 16 | 3 | |
Kimi Raikkonen | 2nd | 16 | 61 | 2 | ||||||
Season 2 | Honda | 4th | 16 | 66 | 2 | Ayrton Senna | 4th | 16 | 37 | 1 |
Kimi Raikkonen | 7th | 16 | 29 | 1 | ||||||
Season 3 | Ferrari | 3rd | 17 | 74 | 2 | Mika Hakkinen | 4th | 17 | 38 | 1 |
Kimi Raikkonen | 5th | 17 | 36 | 1 | ||||||
Season 4 | Honda | 1st | 17 | 136 | 5 | Alain Prost | 1st | 17 | 91 | 5 |
Lewis Hamilton | 7th | 17 | 45 | |||||||
Season 5 | Honda (Works) | 1st | 16 | 200 | 12 | Fernando Alonso | 1st | 16 | 111 | 8 |
Lewis Hamilton | 2nd | 16 | 89 | 4 | ||||||
Season 6 | Ferrari (Works) | 1st | 16 | 125 | 4 | Fernando Alonso | 1st | 16 | 68 | 3 |
Lewis Hamilton | 4th | 16 | 57 | 1 | ||||||
Season 7 | Renault (Works) | 3rd | 16 | 93 | 1 | Kimi Raikkonen | 6th | 16 | 51 | 1 |
Lewis Hamilton | 9th | 16 | 42 | |||||||
Season 8 | Renault (Works) | 2nd | 17 | 143 | 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | 2nd | 17 | 78 | 3 |
Lewis Hamilton | 4th | 17 | 65 | 2 | ||||||
1996 | Renault (Works) | 2nd | 16 | 102 | 4 | Mika Hakkinen | 2nd | 16 | 82 | 4 |
Mika Salo | 14th | 11 | 18 | |||||||
Kenny Brack | 21st | 5 | 2 | |||||||
1997 | Ford (Works) | 4th | 17 | 78 | 1 | Mika Hakkinen | 7th | 17 | 44 | 1 |
Johnny Herbert | 9th | 17 | 34 | |||||||
1998 | Peugeot (Works) | 11th | 17 | 3 | Bruno Junqueira | 20th | 17 | 1 | ||
Marc Gene | 19th | 17 | 2 | |||||||
1999 | Ferrari | 4th | 17 | 120 | 3 | David Coulthard | 7th | 17 | 36 | |
Juan Pablo Montoya | 3rd | 17 | 84 | 3 | ||||||
2000 | Peugeot (Works) | 4th | 16 | 80 | 1 | Jenson Button | 11th | 16 | 24 | |
Juan Pablo Montoya | 5th | 16 | 56 | 1 | ||||||
2001 | Honda | 9th | 17 | 24 | Fernando Alonso | 12th | 17 | 16 | ||
Jenson Button | 17th | 17 | 8 |
FF2M
Main Article: Maestro FF2M