Looking back on the 2003 F1 season it is hard not to admit it was one of the most exciting in recent memory. Multiple winners, topsy-turvy grids, fightbacks galore, daring moves. Some would argue it had everything that the sport needed on the back of the slumber inducing 2002 season. The FIA had mixed up the equation with some welcome rule changes and some unwelcome ones, and combined with BMW Williams, McLaren-Mercedes and Renault raising their collective games it made for a very potent mix. That was, however, until all the effort, all the new decisions made way for some familiar double-standards, dubious decisions and downright unfair rulings. Indeed it had all been going so well...
Despite what the most excitable F1 fan will say, the viewing public was robbed of a grandstand finish to the season (anyone who suggests the Schumacher - Raikkonen finale was more exciting than the prospect of Schu, Raikkonen and JPM going head-to-head at Suzuka is lying). Three top drivers, from three different teams should have gone to the land of the rising sun, close on points and with little between them but the combination of a downright unfair ruling on tyres, the Indianapolis fiasco and the subsequent rulings at Suzuka made the end of the 2003 season both infuriating and a serious anti-climax.
The FIA's decision to uphold Ferrari's complaints about the measurement of tyre grooves was controversial and represented a return to the bad decisions that started being made a couple of years ago. At that time there was much evidence that supported the 'conspiracy theory' that the FIA were in cahoots with Ferrari and would turn a blind eye to their indiscretions in order to return the sports most magical name to the top.
MOTORSPORTFORUM has said before that the FIA's decision to elevate Ferrari was both a success and a monumental failure - leading to a sparking of interest in the sport world-wide and then a subsequent mass exodus when the Prancing Horse galloped into the distance. But the decision to start measuring tyre groove widths after races as opposed to before, as had been the case for the whole season, was a dirty move. The damage to the momentum of Michelin shod teams was obvious.
It is becoming more and more difficult for any regular spectator of F1 to argue that there is not at least a trend in the way decisions fall for Scuderia Ferrari. Consider just a few episodes: the tread width ruling; the Ferrari team-orders fiasco in 2002; Schumacher's 'double-move' on Montoya that removed the Columbian's front wing in Brazil; Schumacher's demolition derby impersonation at Suzuka this year; Malaysia in '99 with the bargeboards; Ferrari's bendy rear wings. We could go on.
F1 lost a fantastic opportunity this year. After so much good work, the sport undid it all in the space of a few weeks and provided more tasty evidence for the conspiracy theorists to feed on for months to come. And what is perhaps the worst element of all is that the last great record in F1 was broken by Schumacher this year at the Suzuka anti-climax. Impressive though it is, would it not have been all the more amazing had that record breaking sixth title been clinched in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a three-way winner takes all tussle? We shall never know.
Back to F1 News & Discussion Page
Back to Main Page
Visit
Linksheaven! The Motor Racing Directory
© 2000 motorsportforum@yahoo.co.uk