The 2000 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 54th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It commenced on 12 March and ended on 22 October after seventeen races. Michael Schumacher became Ferrari's first World Drivers' Champion in 21 years, having clinched the Drivers' title at the penultimate race of the season. Ferrari successfully defended its Constructors' title. This season marked the first for future world champion Jenson Button.
For the third year in succession, the season featured a close battle between Ferrari and McLaren. Schumacher won the first three races and dominated the first part of the season as McLaren had reliability issues. Then misfortune struck Schumacher, who retired from three consecutive races with both Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard scoring big. Häkkinen then surged to win two races in a row, leaving him six points clear of Schumacher who faced a fifth consecutive season at Ferrari without titles since 1996. Schumacher fought back winning the final four races of the season in convincing fashion, recording pole position on all those occasions. The title was sealed in Japan on 8 October, after a classic straight fight between Schumacher and Häkkinen, with Schumacher passing Häkkinen at the final pit stop and then holding out in front.
The season held the record for the smallest number of drivers competing in a single season with only one driver change (Luciano Burti deputising for an ill Eddie Irvine in Austria) putting the total at 23 (similar to 2002 season). This record stood until 2008, where there were no driver changes, although the Super Aguri F1 team withdrew in the middle of that season. Away from the front runners, following a largely unsuccessful foray into Formula One, Peugeot officially ended their involvement in the sport as an engine supplier at the end of 2000, having failed to win a Grand Prix since they entered F1 in an engine supply capacity in 1994 having supplied McLaren, Jordan and Prost. Their final season in 2000 as an official manufacturer in partnership with Prost would vindicate this withdrawal decision with the Prost-Peugeot combination failing to muster a single point all season. However, their engine assets would be purchased by Asia Motor Technologies France and continue to be used under the Asiatech name for the 2001 and 2002 seasons.
Teams and drivers The following teams and drivers competed in the 2000 FIA Formula One World Championship. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Bridgestone.
Entrant Constructor Chassis Engine† Driver Rounds West McLaren Mercedes McLaren-Mercedes MP4/15 Mercedes FO110J 1 Mika Häkkinen All 2 David Coulthard All Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Ferrari F1-2000 Ferrari Tipo 049 3 Michael Schumacher All 4 Rubens Barrichello All Benson & Hedges Jordan Jordan-Mugen-Honda EJ10EJ10B Mugen-Honda MF-301 HE 5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen All 6 Jarno Trulli All HSBC Jaguar Racing F1 Team Jaguar-Cosworth R1 Cosworth CR-2 7 Eddie Irvine All Luciano Burti 10 8 Johnny Herbert All BMW WilliamsF1 Team Williams-BMW FW22 BMW E41/4 9 Ralf Schumacher All 10 Jenson Button All Mild Seven Benetton Playlife Benetton-Playlife B200 Playlife FB02 11 Giancarlo Fisichella All 12 Alexander Wurz All Gauloises Prost Peugeot Prost-Peugeot AP03 Peugeot A20 14 Jean Alesi All 15 Nick Heidfeld All Red Bull Sauber Petronas Sauber-Petronas C19 Petronas SPE 04A 16 Pedro Diniz All 17 Mika Salo All Arrows F1 Team Arrows-Supertec A21 Supertec FB02 18 Pedro de la Rosa All 19 Jos Verstappen All Telefónica Minardi Fondmetal Minardi-Fondmetal M02 Fondmetal RV10 20 Marc Gené All 21 Gastón Mazzacane All Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda BAR-Honda 002 Honda RA000E 22 Jacques Villeneuve All 23 Ricardo Zonta AllSources: † All engines were 3.0 litre, V10 configuration.
Team changes
After being bought by Ford, the Stewart team was renamed Jaguar Racing, with the team's engines rebadged as Cosworths. The Ford V10s used by Minardi in 1998 were rebadged as Fondmetal engines, in deference to Gabriele Rumi's financial input to the team, and the car's main colour was changed from blue and silver to a fluorescent yellow. The Ford name, present on the Formula One grid since the debut of the Ford Cosworth DFV in 1967, was therefore absent for the 2000 season, although it made a brief return in 2003 and 2004. Williams switched to BMW engines, replacing the Supertec units of the previous season. The contract, which had been signed back in 1998, marked BMW's return to Formula One after over a decade of absence. BAR, who had also used Supertecs in 1999, signed a deal with Honda to use their engines for the 2000 season. Honda's previous stint as an engine supplier had ended in 1992, when their highly successful collaboration with McLaren came to a conclusion. Following the departure of engine designer Brian Hart, who had been responsible for the team's Hart, Yamaha and Arrows engines, the Arrows team switched to Supertec engines for 2000.
Driver changes
Rubens Barrichello, who scored three podiums for Stewart in 1999, signed for Ferrari, replacing Eddie Irvine. The previous season's runner-up joined the newly established Jaguar team, in what was essentially a straight swap with Barrichello. 1996 champion Damon Hill retired from Formula One at the end of the 1999 season. Jarno Trulli moved from Prost to Jordan, filling Hill's vacant seat. Prost's other driver Olivier Panis left the team to become the test driver for McLaren. The two seats at the French team were taken by Jean Alesi, who moved from Sauber, and 1999 International Formula 3000 champion Nick Heidfeld, who had previously been a test driver at McLaren. Mika Salo signed for Sauber after short spells as an injury replacement for Ricardo Zonta for three races and Michael Schumacher for six races in 1999. Jenson Button made his debut for Williams after beating the team's test driver Bruno Junqueira in a 'shoot-out' test.Jenson Button: F1 driver profile – retrieved 16 January 2011. Button replaced Alessandro Zanardi at the team. The Italian returned to motor racing in 2001, when he rejoined the CART championship. Toranosuke Takagi left Formula One to drive for Nakajima Racing in Formula Nippon, where he won the 2000 title. His place at Arrows was taken by Jos Verstappen, whose previous Formula One race had been the 1998 Japanese Grand Prix, when he was driving for Stewart. Gastón Mazzacane was promoted to a Minardi race drive for 2000, after spending the previous season as their test driver. The Argentine driver took the place of Luca Badoer, who was unable to find a race seat, and so focused on his role as test driver for Ferrari. Stéphane Sarrazin, who had driven for Minardi at the 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix, became the test driver for Prost.
Mid-season changes Jaguar test driver Luciano Burti made his racing debut at Austria, replacing the ill Eddie Irvine.
Regulation changes To keep costs down, the V10 engine configuration was made fully mandatory in 2000 so that engine builders would not develop and experiment with other configurations but the V engine bank angle remained varied. The V10 configuration had been the most popular since the banning of turbocharged engines in 1989, and no other configuration had been used since 1998. A change to red flag procedure was introduced, where races stopped after two laps but before three-quarters race distance had been completed would be restarted with the cars lining up on the grid in the order they were at the end of the penultimate lap before the lap during which the red flag was shown. Only the race order and number of laps completed were taken into account for the restarted race, with time differences between the cars voided; as such, the distance of the restarted race became the number of laps remaining from the original races, deducted by three. On 7 September, the FIA announced that using cooled fuel during a Grand Prix would be banned "with immediate effect". This was the last full season for cars competing without traction control, launch control, and fully-automatic gearboxes, until the and seasons, respectively. (Note: Traction control was reintroduced five races into the season, at the Spanish Grand Prix.)
Calendar Round Grand Prix Circuit Date 1 Australian Grand Prix Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne 12 March 2 Brazilian Grand Prix Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo 26 March 3 San Marino Grand Prix Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola 9 April 4 British Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone 23 April 5 Spanish Grand Prix Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló 7 May 6 European Grand Prix Nürburgring, Nürburg 21 May 7 Monaco Grand Prix Circuit de Monaco, Monaco 4 June 8 Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal 18 June 9 French Grand Prix Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours 2 July 10 Austrian Grand Prix A1-Ring, Spielberg 16 July 11 German Grand Prix Hockenheimring, Hockenheim 30 July 12 Hungarian Grand Prix Hungaroring, Mogyoród 13 August 13 Belgian Grand Prix Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot 27 August 14 Italian Grand Prix Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza 10 September 15 United States Grand Prix Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway 24 September 16 Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka 8 October 17 Malaysian Grand Prix Sepang International Circuit, Sepang 22 OctoberSources:
Calendar changes The United States Grand Prix returned for 2000 after a nine-year absence being held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In a controversial move the FIA moved the British Grand Prix at Silverstone from its normal June/July date to 23 April. This was despite F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone trying to move French Grand Prix at Magny Cours to the same date. For 2000, the European Grand Prix at Nürburgring was moved from the autumn and a late season September date it had held in 1999 to a spring/summer date on the 21st of May, making it the sixth round of the year. The Nürburgring race had continuously been held with an autumn date over the previous three seasons, the Nürburgring round having been known as the Luxembourg Grand Prix during the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
Report
Rounds 1 to 4 The main changes among the top teams were that Eddie Irvine was replaced by Rubens Barrichello at Ferrari and at Jordan, former world champion Damon Hill had retired, and was replaced by Jarno Trulli.
The first race of the season was in Australia, and the top five placings were similar to the previous year. The McLaren pair of world champion Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard started 1–2 ahead of the Ferrari pair of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. The Jordans of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli were fifth and sixth. During the race, the McLarens kept their positions at the start, while Barrichello lost out to Frentzen. The McLarens pulled away from Michael Schumacher, but on lap ten, Coulthard retired with a misfire. Häkkinen's engine blew up nine laps later, giving the lead to Schumacher. Neither Jordan also lasted the race, Frentzen retiring with a hydraulic failure from second, and Trulli with an engine failure from fourth. All this gave Ferrari an easy 1–2 with Schumacher winning from Barrichello, with Ralf Schumacher, driving for Williams completing the podium.