

To come up empty-handed again didn’t bear thinking about. The biggest team in racing had been completely restructured around Schumacher’s recruitment, at enormous cost.
#Guso drop painful violent driver
Could Schumacher bring a driver’s world title to Ferrari for the first time in 21 years? Could the immense burden on both driver and team survive a fifth year without the ultimate success (1999’s winning of the constructors’ championship notwithstanding)? The desire at Ferrari, fresh off the back of consecutive Schumacher victories at Monza and Indianapolis, was very much to get the job done here, to avoid the nerve-wracking final round showdowns of the previous three years, none of which had gone its way. Even if he won and Schumacher non-scored, it would only put Hakkinen two points ahead with a race still to go. Realistically, Mika had to win here just to keep the contest open until the final round at Sepang. With 10 points for a win and six for second, a victory in Japan would give him the title regardless of what Hakkinen did. Schumacher, eight points clear coming in, could seal it here. Here’s Mark Hughes’ fresh look at the 2000 Japanese GP and the factors that allowed Michael Schumacher and Ferrari to finally defeat Mika Hakkinen and McLaren.Ĭoming to Suzuka for the penultimate race of a see-sawing seasonal battle between Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher and McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen in 2000, it all still hung in the balance. There’s a good chance the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix will be the race where Ferrari’s latest bid to end a Formula 1 title drought officially ends for another year, assuming Max Verstappen puts the championship beyond Charles Leclerc’s mathematical reach at Suzuka.īack in 2000 – in a title fight as close as this season’s briefly looked like it would be – Suzuka was the track where Ferrari’s years of hurt finally came to an end.ĭuring the 2020 lockdown, our writers chose classic grands prix for detailed reappraisals.
