Mitchell

Mitchell are a British FF1M team founded by Joe Mitchell and have competed in FF1M since the 2003 season.

FF1M History[]

The Wurz Era (2003-2007)[]

2003[]

Mitchell were one of two new teams for the 2003 season, and they had recruited 2002 FF2M champion Alexander Wurz and former FJR race winner Jos Verstappen to drive their Mercedes-powered car. They caused a sensation by leading their in very first race after Wurz overtook Cristiano Da Matta for the lead going into turn 3 before being forced to make an early unscheduled pitstop. Nevertheless, Wurz recovered to finish 4th, an excellent result in Mitchell's first race. A scattering of other points finishes followed including the team's maiden podium finish at the final round in Japan, but Verstappen struggled to get to grips with the Mitchell car and was replaced by Sebastien Bourdais with three races to go. Mitchell finished their first season in 9th having had all 31 points scored by Wurz, although they did beat the other debutants, Shake 'n' Bake.

2004[]

Both Wurz and Bourdais were retained for 2004, where they opted by normally aspirated BMW V8 engines. Sadly for Mitchell, the season was a disaster as the turbos had a massive advantage, as did the Michelin runners. They were on course to finished 10th thanks to a few points finishes for both drivers, but Shake 'n' Bake almost fluked a double podium at Spa, sending Mitchell to the bottom of the championship.

2005[]

Changes were required, and so for 2005, Mitchell decided to team Wurz with Jacques Villeneuve, who had been absent during 2004 in order to explore his music endeavours. His return to the racing scene was swift after his acoustic version of Wiggle Wiggle by The Outhere Brothers was panned by critics. The team kept their BMW V8 engines, and changes to the engine regulations as well as a single tyre supplier brought Mitchell deep into the midfield. Although the engine was underpowered when the season began, the team developed it well and both drivers took a total of four podium finishes, although this should have been five but Wurz's transmission cruelly failed on the final lap at the final corner while in 2nd. Nevertheless, Mitchell achieved their best championship result with 7th.

2006[]

2006 saw just one change in the form of Anthony Davidson replacing the Ajay Motorsports bound Jacques Villeneuve. What's more, they had managed to attract two teams to run their BMW engine so that it could be developed quicker than before. Unfortunately, the season didn't quite work out how they'd hoped. While FJR went on the win both championships, Mitchell were struggling for race pace and could only manage a handful of points finishes with a best result of 6th, achieved by Davidson twice and Wurz once. Things didn't really improve when Kovalainen replaced Davidson with four races to go, although he did score a point in his first outing for the team at Singapore. Mitchell finished 10th in the championship having qualified for every race.

2007[]

Mitchell's struggles continued in 2007 as a change to Renault engines brought on a new problem, making it into races. After two failures to qualify in the first four races, Kovalainen was dropped in favour of Sebastien Buemi, but the car was still problematic as Mitchell failed to qualify for a further five races. Their best results was a lone 8th place in Monaco courtesy of Wurz, and the team were 11th come the season's end.

The Buemi Era (2008-2011)[]

2008[]

Due to Renault not delivering like they had hoped, Mitchell reverted back to BMW for 2008, but their main driver Alexander Wurz had announced his retirement at the end of the previous season and so they brought in Jarno Trulli to partner Buemi. Ironically, Wurz came out of retirement mid-season to replace the sacked Nico Rosberg at FJR. Although Mitchell qualified for every race, points finishes were still a rarity, and the team took back-to-back 11th places in the constructors championship, but one particular highlight was Buemi taking the team's first ever pole position at Singapore.

2009[]

Despite their difficulties, Mitchell kept the same driver line-up and engine going into the following season in the hope that stability was the answer to better results. With teams facing an aerodynamic reset, Mitchell's approach paid off as their drivers got to grips with disproportioned wings relatively well with Buemi being a regular visitor to the points. Although they failed to qualify for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Buemi took Mitchell's first podium finish since 2006, and the team finished a career best 6th in the constructors championship.

2010[]

With the departure of BMW, Mitchell were back with Renault for 2010, and Buemi was joined by an exciting young German in the form of Nico Hulkenberg. Right from the start, the partnership proved to be a very strong one with both drivers in the top five at Albert Park, but then both were involved in a very controversial incident at Interlagos. Having start from pole, Buemi was being caught up by the Tornado of Kimi Raikkonen and at the same time, being held up by Hulkenberg. The German eventually let him teammate through coming out of Junçao, but when Raikkonen tried to follow through, he collided with Hulkenberg sending the Mitchell driver airborne and both drivers hard into the wall. This left Buemi in the lead, but a late second stop dropped him behind Sebastian Vettel, only for Vettel to almost immediately suffer a gearbox failure, leaving Buemi to take Mitchell's first ever win.

Qualifying was Mitchell's strongest point throughout the season with 12 pole positions in all; seven for Hulkenberg and five for Buemi. Like most teams however, reliability was a bit of an issue with both drivers failing to finish ten times each. Despite this, Buemi took a further two wins at Spielberg and Silverstone, while Hulkenberg dominated his home race at Hockenheim by taking pole, fastest lap, and his first FF1M win. Mitchell took 3rd in the constructors championship after their best season yet.

2011[]

Stability was once again Mitchell's philosophy heading into 2011 as the line-up remained the same, although they were slightly annoyed that FJR had managed to obtain works Renault engines considering they were comfortably outperformed by Mitchell through the previous season. Mitchell's target therefore was to beat FJR, and they did so convincingly, although Buemi was comprehensively outperformed by Hulkenberg, so much so that the German found himself in with a shout of challenging for the drivers championship. Back-to-back wins at Hockenheim and the Hungaroring put him within striking distance of Fernando Alonso, but the Spaniard grimly held on despite a rough end to the season.

The Alguersuari Era (2012-2014)[]

2012[]

For 2012, Mitchell replaced Buemi with another young driver in the form of aspiring disc jockey Jaime Alguersuari. Having experienced the highs of two win-filled seasons, Mitchell were brought back down to earth, mostly due to their works Toyota engine lacking power. This led to a war of words with team boss Joe Mitchell having reportedly told FF1M that their car would be quicker with a lawnmower engine. Of course, the natural response from Toyota was to petulantly announce their departure by the end of the season. In response to this, Mitchell announced a sponsorship deal with lawnmower company Flymo, and just to rain on Toyota parade, a special livery was debuted at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The political wranglings affected the drivers in an adverse way, as Hulkenberg's best result of the season was a 4th at Barcelona, while despite a 5th in Monaco, Alguersuari was replaced mid-season by Nick Heidfeld, who managed a 7th place at the Hungaroring. Despite a season full of turmoil, Mitchell still finished 8th ahead of Ajay, Horizon, and GRM.

2013[]

It was back to Renault for 2013, although this time, they shared a works deal with AndrewF1. Alguersuari was back as well having spent a bit of time in FF2M as it was widely viewed that he was promoted to FF1M too soon. The first race at Melbourne showed that he was definitely ready as he scored a fine 4th place, although an abnormally high attrition race skewed his performance somewhat, particularly as his teammate finished an even better 2nd. Very briefly, Mtichell were 2nd in the constructors, and their first half was solid with Hulkenberg finishing all races bar one in the points during the first half of the season. The second half the season was a completely different story as increasing the Renault's power output reduced its reliability. In the final nine races, Hulkenberg only finished three of them, once in the points. This included an engine failure and a petulant smash in the armco at Hockenheim, which resulted in his car being stranded in the middle of circuit, causing problems for his teammate. Mitchell's season of two halves saw them finish exactly halfway in the final championship standings.

2014[]

The driver line-up remained the same for 2014, although new engine regulations saw them running Mugen engines, one of three customers of Gojira's powerplant. They had also signed promising young Australian driver Cooper Lee as one of their test drivers, and he nearly caused a sensation during pre-season testing when he was on course to top the timesheets at Barcelona, but was held up in the final sector. The car was expected by some to be competitive, but despite a 4th for Hulkenberg in the opening race at Melbourne, it didn't quite come together. Alguersuari in particular disappointed and not for the first time, he was dropped before the season's end and replaced by Sebastien Buemi, the driver who took the team's first win in 2010. Improvements weren't immediate, but Hulkenberg put in arguably the drive of the season at Spa by winning from 15th on the grid. This was partly thanks to his two-stop strategy being the correct one, but mostly because he gained 11 places on the first lap after outbraking most of the field going into La Source. Mitchell were close to winning at Singapore courtesy of Buemi, despite the Swiss driver nearly being tipped onto his side on the first lap, but an engine failure with only four laps to go prevented another surprise result. Further unreliability in the remaining races meant that Mitchell finished 8th in the constructors championship, just three points behind Tornado.

The Lee Era (2015-Present)[]

2015[]

For 2015, Hulkenberg remained with the team for a sixth consecutive season, but he had a brand new teammate in the form of Cooper Lee, who had shown potential in the 2014 FF2M season. Mitchell also switched to a customer Climax engine in a bid to return to the front. Much like the previous season, many were expecting Mitchell to perform well, but history repeated itself, mostly thanks to the drivers struggling to get to grips with the tyres. Both drivers would often use the Climax ERS system to qualify well only to become involved in incidents in the races, such as Lee crashing out at his home race and unnecessarily putting Lewis Hamilton into a spin at Monza. Ironically, the two would become teammates for the 2016 season.

The main highlight for Mitchell came at Estoril, where Hulkenberg put in a solid drive to finish 3rd, but the incidents and unusually poor reliability put the team under threat of finishing last in the constructors championship, but two 5th place finishes at Sepang and Suzuka meant that they avoided the feat, and they were just a single point off of 7th-placed Andrew Racing.

2016[]

Relations had soured between Mitchell and Hulkenberg to the point where the German left the team for 2016. Lee's contract had already been renewed before the silly season, and his new teammate was Hamilton, an irony considering their incident at Monza during the previous season. Another change came in the engine department as Mitchell went back to Mugen after an unsuccessful season with Climax.

Pre-season testing showed a lot of promise with Hamilton and Lee topping the timesheets despite a relatively low lap count, and this was carried across into the first race at Melbourne where both drivers finished on the podium behind Rosberg, and then a 1-2 finish at the Nurburgring with Hamilton taking his first win of the season. He nearly made it a second win at Aragon but collided with Tomas Gonzalez. Then at Monaco, it was Lee's turn to win with a crushing display over the field. Although Lee never reached those heights again for the rest of the season, Hamilton kept it consistent with frequent podium finishes and two more wins at the Hungaroring and Portimao. He should've had another at Hockenheim but spun off on the final lap and handed the win to Kevin Magnussen. Two mechanical failures at Sepang and Sakhir created a championship showdown at Macau between himself and Sergio Perez, but the Mexican ended his hopes in the early laps and Hamilton duly became the first ever four time FF1M champion. As for the teams championship, despite Lee's inconsistency rooting them to 2nd in the championship behind Tornado, it was a career best 2nd for Mitchell.

2017

Almost nothing changed to the driver line-up for 2017 as Hamilton, Lee, and Mugen engines remained with Mitchell. The only difference was the tyre war, and with Pirelli leaving, the Somerset team went for Goodyear tyres.

Classic History[]

1987[]

Mitchell have also raced in the Classic FF1M series under Zack Mitchell Racing for the 1987 season. They recruited Derek Warwick and Jonathan Palmer to race the MPS-TAG combination. Points finishes weren't common for the team unfortunately with a best result of 3rd for Warwick at Monza, and 9th in the teams championship.

1988[]

1988 saw Warwick stay with the team and be partnered by Stefan Johansson to drive the Ligier-Judd chassis and engine combination. Although Johansson managed a podium finish at Suzuka, it was a challenging season for the briefly named Chaspenc team as they finished 9th.

1990[]

Mitchell were absent for the 1989 season, but came back in 1990 with another new team name, Flint Tropics Racing. A new name brought a new look with Johnny Herbert and J.J. Lehto driving for the Honda-powered team. The main highlight came in Monaco, where Herbert surprised many with pole position and finish 2nd behind Ayrton Senna. Lehto also had a strong race and joined his teammate on the podium, but the team couldn't maintain the momentum and finished 8th.

1991[]

1991 saw a complete makeover for the Mitchell team as they dropped the Flint Tropics name for the more conventional set-up, and they recruited two very different drivers in Gerhard Berger and Aguri Suzuki. The team got off to a strong start with Berger finishing 3rd at the opening race, although Suzuki lost 5th due to a blown engine, but the team struggled for consistency throughout the season and finished 7th in the constructors championship.

1992[]

Mitchell went completely French for 1992 as they maintained their Renault engine with works support, and the potentially explosive line-up of Jean Alesi and Erik Comas. While the engine was fairly reliable in 1991, efforts to improve its power output resulted in a few blow ups, although the car was uncompetitive as well due to the team favouring financial gain in preparation for the 1993 season. Even after Derek Warwick replaced Alesi with three races remaining, the team ended the season with no points and last in the championship on countback against JGR Meister.

1993[]

Healthy finances for 1993 enabled Mitchell to sign the two drivers who battled for the 1992 championship, Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill. However, the team were in catch-up mode as a legacy of their underdeveloped 1992 machine. It took until Barcelona to score points with Schumacher inheriting 6th from Alessandro Zanardi in the closing stages. As the season progressed, the car was able to give Willows Racing a run for their money with Monza nearly resulting in a brilliant podium for Schumacher, but his engine heartbreakingly broke on the final lap, plus Hill lost 6th after a mistake at Ascari. The team finished 6th in the championship after Hill's 5th at Adelaide overhauled them ahead of Andrew Racing.

1950[]

Mitchell also took part in the 1950 FF1M race where they recruited Italian ace Giuseppe Farini and Frenchman Robert Manzon to drive a Maserati. Farini had a great meeting with 2nd on the grid before finishing 3rd, less than a second behind the two Andy Racing drivers.

Results and Statistics[]

**Canon Results (1950-Present)**
Year	Engine	Ch. Pos	Races	Points	Wins	Drivers	Ch. Pos	Races	Points	Wins
1950	Maserati	2nd	1	4		Giuseppe Farina	3rd	1	4
						Robert Manzon	11th	1	0
1987 (C2)	Team MPS-Porsche	9th	10	9		Derek Warwick	11th	10	8
						Jonathan Palmer	18th	10	1
1988 (C3)	Ligier-Judd	9th	16	8		Derek Warwick	18th	16	1
						Stefan Johansson	12th	16	7
1990 (C5)	Team MPS-Honda	8th	10	13		Johnny Herbert	12th	10	6
						JJ Lehto	10th	10	7
1991 (C6)	Team MPS-Renault	7th	10	11		Gerhard Berger	15th	10	6
						Aguri Suzuki	16th	10	5
1992 (C7)	Team MPS-Renault (W)	11th	12	0		Jean Alesi	23rd	9/12	0/0
						Derek Warwick	12th	3/12	0/6
						Erik Comas	21st	12	0
1993 (C8)	Team MPS-Renault (C)	6th	14	9		Michael Schumacher	11th	14	7
						Damon Hill	14th	14	2
2003	Mercedes	9th	16	31		Alexander Wurz	9th	16	31
						Jos Verstappen	22nd	13	0
						Sebastien Bourdais	23rd	3	0
2004	BMW V8	11th	17	15		Alexander Wurz	21st	17	7
						Sebastien Bourdais	17th	17	8
2005	BMW V8	7th	17	50		Alexander Wurz	13th	17	23
						Jacques Villeneuve	11th	17	27
2006	BMW V8	10th	17	13		Alexander Wurz	21st	17	5
						Anthony Davidson	19th	13	7
						Heikki Kovalainen	16th	4/13	1/13
2007	Renault V8	11th	10/17	1		Alexander Wurz	20th	10	1
						Sebastien Buemi	31st	8	0
						Heikki Kovalainen	25th	2	0
2008	BMW V8	11th	17	5		Jarno Trulli	22nd	17	1
						Sebastien Buemi	21st	17	4
2009	BMW V8	6th	17/18	40		Jarno Trulli	13th	17	13
						Sebastien Buemi	9th	17	27
2010	Renault	3rd	18	105	4	Sebastien Buemi	4th	18	62	3
						Nico Hulkenberg	6th	18	41	1
2011	Renault	4th	17	97	2	Sebastien Buemi	13th	17	17
						Nico Hülkenberg	2nd	17	80	2
2012	Toyota (W)	8th	17	15		Nico Hülkenberg	14th	17	9
						Jaime Alguersuari	18th	9	4
						Nick Heidfeld	21st	8	2
2013	Renault (W)	6th	18	44		Nico Hülkenberg	9th	18	35
						Jaime Alguersuari	13th	18	9
2014	Mugen (C)	8th	18	35	1	Nico Hülkenberg	9th	18	26	1
						Jaime Alguersuari	23rd	10	2
						Sébastien Buemi	20th	8/17	7/7
2015	Climax (C)	8th	18	31		Nico Hülkenberg	12th	18	21
						Cooper Lee	18th	18	10
2016	Mugen (C)	2nd	19	159	4	Lewis Hamilton	1st	19	109	3
						Cooper Lee	7th	19	50	1
2017	Mugen (C)					Lewis Hamilton
						Cooper Lee

FF2M[]

Main article: OLM Racing

AFIA Indycar Series[]

Main article: YDD Racing