Valtteri Bottas Mercedes’ Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas clinched the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix. Photo: AFP
Image: AFP
The start of a Formula 1 race is by far the most important part of the race, especially in tight-knit courses like Monaco, Baku and Singapore.
That means the entire pack is trying to make their move as soon as the lights drop which are the makings of chaos.
Imagine the first race of the season, when the anticipation from the winter break bubbles over for all 20 drivers on the grid?
Here are five season-opening races to remember, following last week’s Australian Grand Prix, which was won by McLaren’s Lando Norris, as we await Sunday’s Chinese GP in Shanghai:
Kyalami was once home to the South African GP, and when the grandest race of them all came to town, it was more than a spectacle. The start of the 1993 season saw a battle of three generations fold out before fans: past, present and the future.
A seasoned Alain Prost returned with Williams after a year-long break to battle an old rival and Brazil’s finest, Aryton Senna. But the two drivers had to deal with the arrival of F1’s greatest driver, a young and cocky Michael Schumacher.
But a thunderstorm at Kyalami in the dying stages would cause Schumacher to lose his nerve and car. Prost showed his experience and took P1 ahead of Senna and Mark Blundell in P3.
For the first time in the sport, a ‘One lap qualifying’ system was introduced at the Australian season opener in 2003. Dominating the sport in his Ferrari, Schumacher secured pole position.
Second-placed Rubens Barrichello jumped the start and got penalised for it, ultimately crashing in a soggy Albert Park and joining numerous drivers in early retirement.
McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen held his nerve and showed his class in the rain to come up the pack from P15 to battle for the lead with Schumacher and Williams Juan Pablo Montoya.
Raikkonen ended up receiving a penalty for speeding in the pits, while Schumacher was forced to make a pit stop because he damaged his car.
This left Montoya in the lead, but with less than 10 laps to go, he handed the win to Coulthard with a spinout.
The success of Brawn GP’s debut year in F1 should be watched by young racers during orientation before entering the sport.
After Honda announced their withdrawal from the sport in 2008 over the global financial crisis, former employee Ross Brawn decided to venture out on his own.
Honda backed Brawn with a $100 million piggy bank with an agreement with Mercedes for their power plants.
Veteran drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello donned the white Brawn GP suits and steered their team to a drivers and constructors’ championship that year.
Brawn GP remained the only team to have 100 percent success in their debut year.
Button and Barrichello secured pole and second in Australia, but the latter suffered a poor start and had to fight back.
A young and hungry Sebastian Vettel was chasing Button down, but he collided with BMW’s Robert Kubica and ruined his chances of victory.
Barrichello managed to claw his way back up the pack and finish where he started in superb style for a 1-2 Brawn GP finish.
The Finnish driver with F1’s most ridiculously cool hairstyles took the win in Austria during the season opener despite the destruction behind him from the get-go.
Bare in mind, this was F1 during the Covid pandemic, so there was an added bit of tension in the atmosphere.
Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes secured pole position, but he was hunted down by Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Verstappen’s car suffered a power loss, which forced him to retire early in the race.
Bottas’ world champion teammate Lewis Hamilton had a crash with Alex Albon, and was penalised for it. Another crash between Vettel and Carlos Sainz sent car parts flying around Spa.
The young guns at the time, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, battled out for podium finishes, but none could catch Bottas in the Mercedes.
Red Bull and Mercedes spent the better part of the decade from 2010, going into the next decade, but the F1 world was shaken up once again when Ferrari built a competitive car for Leclerc and Sainz.
Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton would fight for the top, with Verstappen retiring early due to car failures, and so too his teammate Sergio Perez.
The now dominant McLaren finished at the back-end, while Ferrari took P1 and P2, with Leclerc in front.
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