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The GSOH - Round Two - 1980 vs 2004

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The next match of the GSOH bracket puts 1980 up against 2004.

Summaries from Wikipedia:

1980 - Round 1: Argentina
The 1980 Formula One season started in Argentina in January. This event, held at the Buenos Aires Municipal Autodrome located in the sprawling Argentine capital started off badly. After Friday's practice, due to the heat and the suction these ground-effect cars were creating, the track began to break up, and the drivers found conditions difficult and even dangerous. Led by Emerson Fittipaldi, the drivers staged a semi-unsuccessful protest – the organizers did actually fix the track, but not successfully – come race day, the track was still in a dreadful condition. The race went ahead anyway, and the Buenos Aires circuit, being one of the most varied and challenging circuits on the calendar, provided an ultra-exciting race, where many drivers were caught-out by the disintegration of the twisty arena infield section of the No.15 variant of the racing facility. After going off twice and dropping back to 4th after making a pit-stop to clean grass out of his car's radiators, Australian and title favorite Alan Jones took victory in his Williams-Ford/Cosworth. Brazilian Nelson Piquet, who also went off a few times finished 2nd, and Finn Keke Rosberg scored an excellent 3rd in his Fittipaldi. French rookie Alain Prost, in his first ever F1 race, finished 6th and scored his first ever World Championship point. Gilles Villeneuve, competitive throughout in his Ferrari, crashed heavily at the Toboggan left-right sequence of corners after his front suspension failed after possible damage caused to it after a number of off-track excursions the Canadian had during the race.

Round 2: Brazil
The other half of the South American January tour took place in Brazil. This meeting was also met with pre-race difficulties. The safety conditions of the very difficult, demanding and confined 5-mile Interlagos circuit located in the steel-making metropolis of São Paulo had been heavily protested by the drivers for some time, led by South African Ferrari driver Jody Scheckter. The original arrangement was that this Grand Prix was originally supposed to be held at the Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio de Janeiro, and then the drivers would return to Interlagos for 1981 after it would go through a complete resurfacing; but the Jacarepaguá circuit had problems with the tarmac sinking into the ground, so the only option was to return to São Paulo. The drivers protested that the Interlagos track's surface (already notorious for being very rough) was so bad that it was actually dangerous to race on. Also, the barriers and catch-fence arrangements were not adequate enough to protect the cars from the embankments and very rough and uneven-surface of the limited run-off areas there, even though the track was very wide in most places. But the race went ahead anyway, and the Renault of Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jabouille took pole and led for 25 of 40 laps. The Renaults proved to be dominant at Interlagos, which was 2,840 ft (850 m) above sea level, giving the turbocharged Renault engines a considerable horsepower advantage. But he retired with turbo failure and his teammate Rene Arnoux took the lead and won, followed by Italian new-boy Elio de Angelis in a Lotus and Jones in his Williams.

Round 3: South Africa
The F1 teams arrived in South Africa in March, at the fast Kyalami circuit between Johannesburg and Pretoria in the midst of an African summer. Alain Prost crashed his McLaren at the Esses and broke his wrist; he would miss this and the next race in Long Beach; while Marc Surer had it worse – he crashed heavily at Crowthorne and broke his leg; he missed the next 3 races. Like Interlagos before, the even higher altitude of Kyalami helped the Renaults even more so than in Brazil, and this proved to be an invaluable advantage, and the yellow French cars dominated the race. And as in São Paulo, Jabouille led for a while and retired, and Arnoux took the lead from 2nd place and won the race. However, this race effectively brought the FISA–FOCA war into the spotlight. FISA, the governing body of international motorsports (and the organization that the 3 big constructors – Renault, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo – were aligned to) led by Jean-Marie Balestre, argued that the ground effect cars of the time were too fast through corners, and FOCA (Formula One Constructors' Association, representing the mostly British independent constructors) led by Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, argued that the superior road-holding of the independent teams' cars equalized their cars to the power advantages that particularly the Renaults had.

Round 4: United States West
A stop-over in Long Beach, California right next to the Hollywood-dominated landscape of Los Angeles happened 4 weeks after the South African race. The typically pleasant and sunny weather there gave for a relaxed atmosphere at this tight, twisty and rough street circuit (1 of 2 on the calendar – the other being Monaco) which was in contrast to the previous 3 quick Southern Hemisphere circuits used thus far in the season. With its tight, slow layout being lined with unforgiving concrete walls, Long Beach was known then to be the toughest and most punishing race of the season on the car and driver. Nelson Piquet effectively dominated this race in his Brabham-Ford/Cosworth – he took pole, set fastest lap, led from start to finish and took his first of 23 race victories. But the race itself was littered with accidents – there was a pile-up at the Le Gasomet hairpin caused by Alfa Romeo driver Bruno Giacomelli and the 40-year-old Swiss Clay Regazzoni crashed appallingly at the end of the long, flat-out Shoreline Drive when the brakes on his Ensign failed and he crashed head on at 180 mph into Ricardo Zunino's parked Brabham, then through some tires and into a concrete wall. The Swiss was critically injured, but survived; he would be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life.

Round 5: Belgium
The cancellation of the Mexican Grand Prix, supposed to have taken place 2 weeks after Long Beach created a 5-week gap between Long Beach and the Belgian Grand Prix. The F1 circus started its 4-month long European tour at Zolder, where Frenchman Didier Pironi took his first ever victory in his Ligier-Ford/Cosworth ahead of Alan Jones and his Argentine teammate Carlos Reutemann.

Round 6: Monaco
The classic street race in Monaco provided some excitement: there was a big pile-up at the start, where Derek Daly went flying twice over a number of cars at the first corner. He took out Prost in a McLaren, his teammate Jean-Pierre Jarier and Bruno Giacomelli in an Alfa. Didier Pironi led and crashed, and Carlos Reutemann took the lead and won from Frenchman Jacques Laffite in a Ligier-Ford/Cosworth and Piquet in a Brabham.

Round 7: France
The abrupt non-championship status of the Spanish Grand Prix and the cancellation of the Swedish Grand Prix at the Anderstorp circuit meant there was a 6-week gap between the Monaco and French Grands Prix. The French Grand Prix took place while the Spanish Grand Prix debacle was still raging on 4 weeks afterwards. With their racing licenses given back to them, the drivers got on with their jobs, and at the Paul Ricard circuit on the southern French riviera near Marseille, Williams driver Jones beat the Ligiers of Jacques Laffite and Didier Pironi on home soil. Jones won the race by 4.52 seconds from a charging Pironi after he had been held up by teammate Laffite for a number of laps.

Round 8: Great Britain
The British Grand Prix in 1980 was at Brands Hatch, just outside London. This race on the challenging and bumpy southern English circuit saw the Ligiers of Pironi and Laffite lead and fall out; Pironi retired after a puncture and Laffite crashed at Hawthorn's. Alan Jones took advantage of the Ligier's problems and Jones managed to hold off a quick Nelson Piquet to win yet again in a Williams, the English team's second consecutive British GP win.

Round 9: West Germany
The German Grand Prix at the ultra-fast Hockenheimring was marred by the fatal pre-race testing accident of Patrick Depailler at the ultra-high speed, top gear, flat out Ost-Kurve 9 days before the race. Suspension failure on his Alfa caused him to crash massively after his car overturned and vaulted the barriers, causing fatal head injuries. Alan Jones took pole from Renault driver Jabouille by mere hundredths of a second, and he led the race until he had to come in with a puncture on the straight before the stadium. Laffite and Reutemann passed Jones, who finished 3rd. Laffite went on to win for Ligier, followed by the Williams duo of Reutemann and Jones.

Round 10: Austria
The European high-speed circuit tour kept coming, and the fastest circuit of the season – the spectacular Österreichring in the Styrian mountains enabled Jabouille to win by mere seconds from Alan Jones. Renault driver Jabouille, who had retired from every race he had participated in so far in the season, finally finished a race. His development work with Renault over the past 4 seasons gave him his 2nd and last F1 victory of his career.

Round 11: The Netherlands
The beach-side Zandvoort circuit near Amsterdam, modified from the previous year saw Brazilian Nelson Piquet win from Frenchmen Arnoux and Laffite. The Renaults dominated qualifying, although Jabouille retired and Jones went out after accident damage.

Round 12: Italy
The European tour concluded with the Italian Grand Prix being held at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari near the town of Imola, rather than Monza. The Dino Ferrari circuit, located near the Ferrari factory and just outside Bologna had signed a deal to alternate the Italian GP with Monza, on the condition Monza improve its track safety and facilities. Although the Monza track owners had already made safety upgrades a year before, the deal had been signed before Monza made changes; so for the first time since 1948 the Italian GP was not held at Monza. The Renaults dominated qualifying at this fast Italian circuit, although they fell out with mechanical problems; and Piquet won yet again and overtook Jones in the championship, who finished 2nd in front of his teammate Carlos Reutemann.

Round 13: Canada
The final leg of the 1980 Formula One season was a 2-part tour in North America, starting in Canada, at the Ile-Notre Dame circuit in Montreal. This race had to be restarted after a multiple pile-up involving Piquet and Jones at the start, when Jones shut the door at the very first corner after the start. Piquet jumped into the spare car, which had a short-lasting qualifying Ford/Cosworth engine in it – and although Piquet was clearly faster than anyone else, the engine in his Brabham blew up early on, and Jones won the race, which effectively gave the gritty Australian his only ever Formula One Drivers' Championship, and Williams's first ever Constructors' Championship. Unfortunately, Jabouille's weekend was much worse than Piquet's: he crashed head on into a tire-wall and broke both his legs.

Round 14: United States East
The other half of the North American visit and the last round of the 1980 Formula One season was the second round in the United States at the fast, dauntingly challenging Watkins Glen circuit in New York State, four hours from New York City and only 5 hours from Montreal. This race had been in doubt for almost the whole season, but on this quick, bumpy, demanding and elevated circuit located in the rolling vineyard hills above Seneca Lake, it did go ahead after a loan was given by FOCA to the organizers. French rising star Alain Prost crashed heavily on Saturday morning practice due to suspension failure at the very fast left-handed Turn 10, the second-to-last corner on the track. Prost received a concussion after hitting his head on his car's steering wheel; he had to miss the race but was at the circuit on race day; he felt he could not trust the car's mechanical strength after a season's worth of component failures on his car, which often led to accidents; this happened to Prost a week earlier in Montreal. Bruno Giacomelli took pole in his Alfa, the first time an Alfa Romeo had been on pole since 1951. Giacomelli made a perfect start and led for most of this exciting race up until Lap 32, when the electrics in his Alfa failed in the Boot section of the course. Jones, however, produced a storming drive, when he went off at the first corner at the start and dropped to 16th; he stormed through and took 2nd from his Argentine teammate Carlos Reutemann, and then inherited the lead from Giacomelli after the Italian retired. The Australian Jones won his 5th race of the year (6 if Spain is counted) ahead of Reutemann and Didier Pironi in a Ligier. 1978 champion Mario Andretti scored his only point of the 1980 season at Watkins Glen, close to his hometown in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, this was to be the last championship Formula One race at the rather isolated Watkins Glen circuit. The corporation running the circuit was heavily in debt and went bankrupt after it could not meet Bernie Ecclestone and FOCA's increased demands, and the circuit was struck from the 1981 season calendar in May of that year and although there were other Grands Prix that would be run in the United States during the 1980s aside from Long Beach, the United States Grand Prix would not be run again until 1989 on a street circuit in Phoenix, Arizona- and not one of those venues saw the success and longevity that this event had at Watkins Glen.




2004 - Opening rounds

The Bahrain Grand Prix was Formula One's inaugural visit to the Middle East.
Ferrari dominated the opening weekend at Albert Park in Australia, comfortably locking out the front row in qualifying and earning a 1–2 in the race. Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap of the race on his way to a lights-to-flag victory, with teammate Rubens Barrichello and Renault's Fernando Alonso joining him on the podium. Schumacher followed that up with another pole and victory at Sepang, finishing ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and Jenson Button, the British driver scoring his first career podium and the BAR Honda team's best result since the 2001 German Grand Prix. Mark Webber, who split the Ferraris in qualifying in his unfancied Jaguar, suffered a poor start before colliding with Ralf Schumacher and spinning out.

Formula One's first visit to the Arab world since the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix took place at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Ferrari duo of Schumacher and Barrichello once again finished 1–2 in both qualifying and the race, with Button's second consecutive podium elevating him to third in the Drivers' Championship as the series headed for Europe.

European rounds
Jenson Button scored his and BAR's maiden pole at the San Marino Grand Prix, but Michael Schumacher overtook him on the eighth lap and finished nearly ten seconds ahead. Button and Juan Pablo Montoya completed the rostrum—the latter beating Fernando Alonso to the line by just two seconds—while Kimi Räikkönen recorded his first finish of the season in eighth, using a two-stop strategy to claim the final point from last on the grid. Despite suffering from a defective exhaust, Schumacher dominated the Spanish Grand Prix as well, as front-row starter Montoya retired with brake problems and early leader Jarno Trulli took third behind Rubens Barrichello.

At the Monaco Grand Prix, Trulli scored his first career victory from pole after surviving intense pressure from Jenson Button. Rubens Barrichello in third was the only other driver on the lead lap, albeit more than a minute behind the leaders. Teammate Schumacher was one of several front-runners who retired, the championship leader's five-win streak ending after a collision with Juan Pablo Montoya under the safety car. That safety car period was necessitated by Fernando Alonso, who slammed the barrier on lap 42 while attempting to lap the Williams of Ralf Schumacher in the tunnel. Earlier in the race, a fast-starting Takuma Sato suffered a spectacular engine failure on the third lap at the Tabac corner; the smoke from the rear of his BAR machine blinded the queue behind him, causing Giancarlo Fisichella to mount the back of David Coulthard's McLaren and flip over. Olivier Panis stalled as the race was due to begin, shortening the race to 77 laps as the remaining drivers completed a second formation lap. Panis later recovered to eighth place as he and sixth-placed Cristiano da Matta scored Toyota's first points of the season.

Michael Schumacher returned to his winning ways by leading the majority of the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, with Barrichello and Button following him home in second and third. Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile, collided with da Matta at the start, causing both cars to retire from the race. Front-row starter and one-time leader Sato joined the list of retirements with a late engine failure, as did the McLaren duo of Räikkönen and Coulthard, both of whose Mercedes engines expired at the manufacturer's home race.

North American doubleheader and return to Europe
At the Canadian Grand Prix, Timo Glock replaced Giorgio Pantano at Jordan for financial reasons. Ralf Schumacher qualified on pole position, joined by Jenson Button on the front row, with Michael Schumacher only starting from sixth. After a series of lead changes, the elder Schumacher ultimately crossed the line first, followed by his brother and Rubens Barrichello. But the Williams of Ralf Schumacher—along with his fifth-placed teammate Juan Pablo Montoya and the Toyotas of Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis in eighth and tenth—would later be excluded from the results due to an irregularity in the brake ducts, promoting Barrichello to second and Button to third. The McLaren and Jordan teams were also beneficiaries of the four disqualifications, with Glock—in his Formula One début—and Nick Heidfeld both scoring points.

Barrichello qualified on pole for the United States Grand Prix, with Michael Schumacher alongside him. Schumacher would go on to win once more as Barrichello and Takuma Sato—scoring his first and only Formula One podium—completed the top three. It was a race dominated by accidents, however, beginning with a first-lap incident that eliminated Gianmaria Bruni, Giorgio Pantano, Felipe Massa és Christian Klien. On the ninth lap, Fernando Alonso suffered a puncture and crashed at the end of the start-finish straight, with Ralf Schumacher crashing at the oval section for the same reason on the following lap. Schumacher suffered a concussion and fractured vertebrae in that final-corner accident, which kept him out of the following six races. Thanks to the high attrition rate, only eight cars crossed the line; the final finisher was Zsolt Baumgartner, who became Hungary's first points scorer and earned the Minardi team their first point since 2002.

In France, Michael Schumacher beat Alonso with a clever four-stop strategy. Barrichello overtook the second Renault of Jarno Trulli on the final corner of the race to snatch third place, while Marc Gené, who replaced the injured Ralf Schumacher at Williams for the French and British Grands Prix, finished tenth. Michael Schumacher overpowered polesitter Kimi Räikkönen to take his tenth win of the season at Silverstone. Räikkönen, who finished second, bagged McLaren's first podium in 2004, ahead of Barrichello in third. The race was notable for Jarno Trulli's massive accident, the Italian losing control of his car at Bridge and hitting the tyre barrier before rolling in the gravel trap.

Schumacher won from pole at the German Grand Prix, beating Jenson Button—who started thirteenth after a ten-place penalty for an engine change—and Fernando Alonso. Front-row starter Juan Pablo Montoya could only manage a fifth-place finish, while his new teammate Antônio Pizzonia finished seventh. After setting the fastest lap of the race, Kimi Räikkönen suffered a high-speed rear wing failure at the end of the start-finish straight on lap 14 and crashed into the tyre wall.

A string of disappointing results from Toyota's Cristiano da Matta led to his replacement by test driver Ricardo Zonta from the Hungarian Grand Prix onward. There, Schumacher led another Ferrari 1–2 in both qualifying and the race to secure Ferrari the Constructors' trophy, with the race's 2003 winner Alonso completing the podium.

The Belgian Grand Prix also included numerous accidents and safety car periods. A first-lap collision between Mark Webber and Takuma Sato eliminated both of them; Zsolt Baumgartner avoided the initial wreckage but knocked teammate Gianmaria Bruni's car into the wall, which then bounced back and collected Giorgio Pantano. On the thirtieth lap, Jenson Button suffered a right-rear puncture and lost control of his car, crashing into the Minardi of Zsolt Baumgartner that he was attempting to lap. Kimi Räikkönen eventually won the race, his first of the year, from a lowly 10th place on the grid. Michael Schumacher finished second and thus secured himself the world title, as his forty-point gap to Rubens Barrichello—who finished the race third—was by that point insurmountable.

Concluding rounds
At the Italian Grand Prix, Barrichello led a Ferrari 1–2 in front of the loyal Tifosi, although Schumacher, who started third, spun off on the first lap and had to rejoin the race at the back of the field. Following the race, Jarno Trulli parted ways with Renault, with 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve returning to Formula One as his replacement. Immediately before the Chinese Grand Prix, fellow Italian Giorgio Pantano was dropped by the Jordan team and replaced once more by Timo Glock for the last three races. That race was also won by Barrichello from pole, with Button and Räikkönen less than 2 seconds behind. Michael Schumacher started from the pit lane and could only make it to 12th place following several mistakes and a puncture, while a returning Ralf Schumacher retired with suspension damage.

The Japanese Grand Prix weekend was affected by Typhoon Ma-on, which caused widespread damage to parts of Japan and saw the postponement of qualifying to the morning of race day. With the rain dying down in time for the race, Michael Schumacher took his 13th win from pole, with his brother Ralf starting and finishing second and Jenson Button completing the podium. A collision between David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello—who set the fastest lap of the race—eliminated both of them from the Grand Prix. Following his acrimonious split from Renault, Jarno Trulli finished eleventh in his first race for Toyota, while his teammate Olivier Panis retired from the sport after the race.

The Brazilian Grand Prix was won by Juan Pablo Montoya—who also set the fastest lap—from second on the grid, with his soon-to-be McLaren teammate Kimi Räikkönen and polesitter Barrichello finishing behind him. It was Montoya's last outing for Williams and the team's last victory until the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. It was also the final race for Minardi duo Zsolt Baumgartner and Gianmaria Bruni and the Jaguar team's last entry before they were bought by Red Bull. David Coulthard finished his last season with McLaren (the team he had been with since 1996) without a podium finish during the season.

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