Drivers and constructors in F1

Drivers and constructors

The Formula One Drivers' Trophy.

Michael Schumacher and Scuderia Ferrari have each won their respective World Championships a record number of times.

Since 1984 Formula One teams have been required to build the chassis in which they compete, and consequently the terms "team" and "constructor" are more or less interchangeable. This requirement distinguishes the sport from series such as IndyCar Series, Champ Car World Series, and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, which allow teams to purchase chassis, and "spec series" such as GP2, which require all cars be kept to an identical specification. In its early years, Formula One teams sometimes also built their engines, though this became less common with the increased involvement of major car manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Toyota, and Honda, whose large budgets rendered privately built engines less competitive (and redundant).

In the 2007 season, for the first time since the 1984 rule, two teams used chassis built by other teams. Super Aguri started the season using a modified Honda Racing's RA106 chassis (used by Honda on the 2006 season), while Toro Rosso used a modified Red Bull Racing RB3 chassis (same as the one used by Red Bull on the 2007 season). Such a decision did not come as a surprise because of spiraling costs and the fact that Super Aguri is partially owned by Honda and Toro Rosso is owned by Red Bull. Formula One team Spyker has raised a complaint against this decision, and other teams such as McLaren and Ferrari have officially confirmed to support the campaign. The 2006 season could have been the last one where the terms "team" and "constructor" were truly interchangeable, although the FIA has not made a final decision about this issue and it will be most likely resolve with arbitration proceedings through the 2007 season.

Early manufacturer involvement came in the form of a "factory team" (that is, one owned and staffed by a major car company), such as those of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari (Fiat) or Renault. Companies such as Climax, Repco, Cosworth, Hart, Judd and Supertec, which had no direct team affiliation, often sold engines to teams who could not afford to manufacture them. As the manufacturers' deep pockets and engineering ability took over, almost all engines are now produced by major manufacturers.

After having virtually disappeared by the early 1980s, factory teams made a comeback in the 1990s and 2000s, and now form half the grid with Toyota, Ferrari (Fiat), Honda, Renault and BMW either setting up their own teams or buying out existing ones. Mercedes-Benz (DaimlerChrysler) owns 40% of the McLaren team and manufactures the team's engines. Commercial engine supplier Cosworth exited the sport at the end of 2006. Thus all the teams will run on factory supplied engines from 2007.

The sport's 1950 debut season saw eighteen teams compete, but due to high costs many dropped out quickly. In fact, such was the scarcity of competitive cars for much of the first decade of Formula One that Formula Two cars were admitted to fill the grids. Ferrari is the only still-active team which competed in 1950, and as of 2006 eleven teams remain on the grid, each fielding two cars. Although teams rarely disclose information about their budgets, it is estimated that they range from US$66 million to US$400 million each.^[10]

Entering a new team in the Formula One World Championship requires a £25 million (about US$47 million) up-front payment to the FIA, which is then repaid to the team over the course of the season. As a consequence, constructors desiring to enter Formula One often prefer to buy an existing team: B.A.R.'s purchase of Tyrrell and Midland's purchase of Jordan allowed both of these teams to sidestep the large deposit and have the benefit that the team already had, such as TV revenue.

Each car is assigned a number. The previous season's World Drivers' Champion is designated number 1, with his teammate given number 2. Numbers are then assigned according to each team's position in the previous season's World Constructors' Championship. There have been exceptions to this rule, such as in 1993 and 1994, when the current World Drivers' Champion (Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost, respectively) was no longer competing in Formula One. In this case the drivers for the team of the previous year's champion are given numbers 0 (Damon Hill, on both occasions) and 2 (Prost himself and Ayrton Senna - replaced after his death by David Coulthard and occasionally Nigel Mansell - respectively). The number 13 has not been used since 1974, before which it was occasionally assigned at the discretion of individual race organizers. Before 1996, only the world championship winning driver and his team generally swapped numbers with the previous champion – the remainder held their numbers from prior years, as they had been originally set at the start of the 1974 season. For many years, for example, Ferrari held numbers 27 & 28, regardless of their finishing position in the world championship. As privateer teams quickly folded in the early 1990s, numbers were frequently shuffled around, until the current system was adopted in 1996.

Michael Schumacher holds the record for having won the most Drivers' Championships (seven) and Ferrari holds the record for having won the most Constructors' Championships (fifteen). Jochen Rindt became the only posthumous World Champion after a fatal accident at the 1970 Italian Grand Prix.

Feeder series

For the most part, F1 drivers come up through the traditional European single seater series' - Karting, Formula Ford, Formula Renault, Formula 3, and finally GP2. The GP2 series is two years old and both champions have gone on to race in F1. Before GP2 existed, Formula 3000 was the last major "stepping stone" into F1, counting among its alumni Juan-Pablo Montoya and Jean Alesi. However, drivers do not have to have raced in GP2/F3000. British F3 has long been considered one of the best places to spot F1 talent, with David Coulthard, Ayrton Senna and Rubens Barrichello having raced there. Again though, it is possible to be picked earlier, as was the case with Kimi Räikkönen, who went straight from Formula Renault to an F1 drive.

The Champ Car World Series has also contributed to the Formula One grid, with Juan-Pablo Montoya, Alex Zanardi, Cristiano da Matta and Sebastian Bourdais (starting in 2008) migrating to F1 from Champ Car.

Other drivers have taken different paths to F1 - Jacques Villeneuve came through two of the American single-seater series immediately before F1; Damon Hill raced motorbikes, and Michael Schumacher raced in sports cars (albeit after climbing through the junior single seater ranks). However, to race, the driver must hold an FIA Super Licence - assuring that the driver has the requisite skills, and will not therefore be a danger to others. (Some drivers haven't had the licence when first assigned to a F1 team)

Beyond F1

Most F1 drivers retire before their mid-30s, however, many keep racing in disciplines that are less physically demanding. The DTM is popular category, and some F1 drivers "crossed the pond" to race in America - Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fittipaldi duelled for the 1993 IndyCar title, while Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve have moved to NASCAR. Some drivers have gone to A1GP; and some, such as Gerhard Berger and Alain Prost returned to F1 as team owners. In 2005 though, a new series appeared, Grand Prix Masters, pitting retired grand prix drivers against each other, with the requirement that the drivers be over 40 and have been retired at least two years.