The GSOH - Round Three - 2005 vs 1959

[crmalcolm]

The next match of the GSOH bracket puts 2005 up against 1959.

Summaries from Wikipedia:

2005 - Fernando Alonso and the Renault team won the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships, ending five years of dominance by Michael Schumacher and Ferrari since 2000 and also ending nine years of Ferrari, McLaren and Williams dominance triopoly since 1996. Alonso's success made him the youngest champion in the history of the sport, a title he held until Lewis Hamilton's 2008 title success. Renault's win was their first as a constructor. Alonso started the season off strongly, winning three of the first four races and his title success was in little doubt. He sealed the title in Brazil with two races left after a controlled third-place finish. Alonso's championship was also the first for a Renault-powered driver since Jacques Villeneuve's championship in 1997.

Alonso and Renault had to contend with the pace of the resurgent McLaren team with lead driver Kimi Räikkönen outshining teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, who came highly regarded from his time at Williams. Räikkönen won seven races like Alonso but would have won more if not for a series of reliability issues, resulting in qualifying engine change penalties and retirements from the lead on three occasions. Nevertheless, Räikkönen grabbed the headlines winning from near the back of the grid in Japan, passing Alonso's Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella on the final lap. Reigning champions Michael Schumacher and Ferrari had a poor season by their standards, with Bridgestone unable to compete with Michelin after the tyre-change ban that only affected the 2005 season. Their only win came when Michelin deemed their own tyres unsafe after several incidents in the oval turn at Indianapolis. As a result, only the six Bridgestone cars took part. Schumacher just held on for third in the Drivers' Championship, in spite of the superior pace of McLaren, underlining the disappointing season Montoya had. The Colombian missed two races early on due to a tennis injury. He then won three races, showing glimpses of pace, but was well beaten by his teammate Räikkönen in the championship.

The 2005 season was the last before the Minardi, BAR and Jordan teams were taken over by new owners and changed names to Toro Rosso, Honda, and Midland respectively in the 2006 season. The former Jaguar team was sold from Ford to Red Bull GmbH and made its debut as Red Bull Racing during the 2005 season.

The most-noted aspect of the season was Ferrari's lack of pace caused mainly by a new rule prohibiting tyre changes during the course of a race. The Bridgestone tyres used by Ferrari could not find the right balance between performance and reliability, leaving the Michelin runners to battle for race victories. Further rule changes emphasised the new focus on reliability, with engines required to last two Grands Prix without being changed.

Renault appeared the fastest team in pre-season testing and it was no surprise they dominated the early fly-away rounds. Giancarlo Fisichella won the season opener in Australia before teammate Alonso demonstrated his title credentials with a series of victories in Malaysia, Bahrain and San Marino. As the season progressed the McLarens of Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya became increasingly competitive and by the latter stages of the season the McLaren was generally considered the faster package. However, constant technical failures meant neither the team nor Räikkönen were able to translate their speed into championship success.

Alonso secured his Drivers' Championship with a third-place finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Despite both him and Räikkönen having six victories to their name at this point in the season, Alonso's greater consistency meant he was able to claim the championship with two rounds to spare. The Constructors' Championship was secured by Renault at the final race, with Alonso's seventh victory of the year. This gave Renault their first championship as a constructor (after only previously triumphing as an engine supplier) despite winning two fewer races than McLaren.

Ferrari finished third in the Constructors' Championship with only one win, at the United States Grand Prix, a race that was only contested by the six Bridgestone cars after Michelin declared their tyres unsafe to run in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's unique banked corner.

After a high-flying 2004 season the most conspicuous drop in performance after Ferrari was BAR-Honda, who were banned from two races after scrutineers in San Marino discovered a hidden fuel compartment that allowed their cars to run underweight. They were beaten in the championship by Williams, whose engine partner BMW had announced they were leaving to join Sauber in June, and Toyota, who achieved 5 podium finishes and were only beaten to third in the championship because of Ferrari's 1–2 in Indianapolis.

All the teams scored world championship points over the course of the season, Minardi scoring rare points in their final season courtesy of being able to run in the US race.



1959 - Jack Brabham won the World Championship of Drivers in a sport still reeling from the death of several drivers, including reigning champion Mike Hawthorn. The International Cup for F1 Manufacturers was awarded to Cooper–Climax. Vanwall's withdrawal, believed to have been a result of the high mortality rate of the 1958 season, left Ferrari as the only race-winning team in the championship. Similarly, Juan Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn's retirement meant that for the very first time, no world champion was on the grid. Cooper's revolutionary mid-engined cars, powered by the compact Coventry-Climax 2.5 litre engine, won five races with Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss and Bruce McLaren. BRM also landed its maiden victory in the hands of Jo Bonnier. Aston Martin appeared with a car that was outdated and overweight in the face of Cooper's rear mid-engined revolution.

The German Grand Prix was held for the second time on the very high speed AVUS circuit, where Ferrari's Jean Behra was killed during an unrelated sports car race at the wheel of a Porsche.

Ferrari's Tony Brooks took the fight to the Coopers, and going into the final race, he, Moss, or Brabham could win the title. Moss retired from the race, the inaugural United States Grand Prix, giving Brabham the lead. Brabham ran out of fuel on the last lap but pushed his car across the line to finish fourth. With Brooks unable to do better than third, Brabham became the first Australian World Champion, while Cooper won the constructors' crown.

There were three scheduled Grands Prix in 1959 that were cancelled:
The Argentine Grand Prix, scheduled to be held in January, was cancelled because with heroes such as Juan Manuel Fangio and José Froilán González having retired, there was no local interest, and the race was promptly cancelled.
The Belgian Grand Prix was scheduled to be held in June, but it was cancelled due to a dispute over start money.
The Moroccan Grand Prix was scheduled to be held in October at Ain-Diab, but it was cancelled for monetary reasons.
The Indianapolis 500 also counted towards the 1959 USAC Championship, and was run for USAC Championship cars, but did not count towards the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers.