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The Paddock
2 0 0 0 t e a m s
11 + 12  |
 Mild Seven Benetton |
| Formula One record: [1-1-2000] |
| Starts |
451 |
| Poles |
16 |
| Wins |
27 |
| Constructors' titles |
one in 1995 |
| Drivers' titles |
2 (1994 and 1995 M. Schumacher) |
| 1999 season: |
| Sixth overall, 16 points (Giancarlo Fisichella/Alexander Wurz). |
second x1, fourth x1, fifth x3, sixth x1, seventh x4, eighth x1, ninth x1, 10th x3, 11th x2, 12th x1, 14th x2, retired x12. |
| History: |
| 1983 |
Benetton enters grand prix racing with one-year sponsorship deal with Tyrrell. |
| 1986 |
Benetton Formula Limited established as team based on Toleman set-up. Maiden victory by Gerhard Berger in Mexico. |
| 1990 |
First one-two finish at Japanese Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet leading fellow-Brazilian Roberto Moreno. |
| 1991 |
Benetton sign Michael Schumacher after his impressive grand prix debut from Jordan. |
| 1994 |
Michael Schumacher wins team's first drivers' title. Team second in constructors' championship. |
| 1995 |
Benetton wins first constructors' title with Schumacher claiming second drivers' title. |
| 1996 |
Schumacher joins Ferrari |
| Season by season: (year, standing, points, wins, drivers) |
| 1986 |
sixth, 19, 1 (Gerhard Berger/Teo Fabi) |
| 1987 |
fifth, 28, 0 (Thierry Boutsen/Fabi) |
| 1988 |
third, 39, 0 (Boutsen/Alessandro Nannini) |
| 1989 |
fourth, 39, 1 (Nannini/Johnny Herbert/Emanuele Pirro) |
| 1990 |
third, 71, 2 (Nannini/Nelson Piquet/Roberto Moreno) |
| 1991 |
fourth, 38.5, 1 (Piquet/Moreno/Michael Schumacher) |
| 1992 |
third, 91, 1 (Schumacher/Martin Brundle) |
| 1993 |
third, 72, 1 (Schumacher/Riccardo Patrese) |
| 1994 |
second, 103, 8 (Schumacher/Jos Verstappen/JJ Lehto/Herbert) |
| 1995 |
first, 137, 11 (Schumacher/Herbert) |
| 1996 |
third, 68, 0 (Berger/Jean Alesi) |
| 1997 |
third, 67, 1 (Berger/Alesi/Alexander Wurz) |
| 1998 |
fifth, 33, 0 (Wurz/Giancarlo Fisichella) |
| Prospects for the 2000 season: |
 Benetton B200, Renault-based Playlife (Supertec) V10 engine. |
| After sliding to their worst finish since their first season in 1986, Benetton are hoping to turn things around with a new, lighter car but an unchanged driver line-up. Chief designer Nick Wirth resigned in November, replaced by Tim Densham who was formerly with Honda. The Supertec engine is basically the same as that provided to the Arrows team. |
| Drivers: |
Giancarlo Fisichella  |
| Aged 27, Italian. |
| Races 57, 1 pole, no wins, points to date: 49 |
| 1999 record |
Benetton, ninth. 13 points - second x1, fourth x1, fifth x2, seventh x1, ninth x1, 11th x2, 12th x1, 14th x1, retired x6. |
Giancarlo was runner up in karts before joining his first car racing team in Formula Alfa Boxer, in 1991.
He then competed for three seasons in the Italian Formula Three series, racing for RC Motorsport. He was runner up in 1993, but he clinched the title in 94, the same year he won the Monaco Formula Three race, as well as one of the two heats of the international invitation race at Macau.
Switching to the International Touring Car Championship as a driver for Alfa Romeo in 95 and 96 didn't mean that his love for open wheelers had diminished, and he made his Formula One debut in 1996, with Minardi, until he was replaced with Giovanni Lavaggi.
Giancarlo thrived when he moved to Jordan in 1997, taking a second place in the Belgian Grand Prix, even leading the German Grand Prix before retiring with mechanical problems. Finishing the 97 season, 8th place overall, he moved to the Benetton team for the 98 season.
Here he achieved the first pole position of his career, as well as two second places, finishing the season 9th overall, with 16 points.
Giancarlo Fisichella appeared to be one of Formula Ones rising new stars, but the 99 season did not turn out the way the young Italian had hoped. Finishing the season in ninth with only thirteen points, he is hoping for a turn around in 2000. He remains at Benetton for the third year in a row, alongside Alexander Wurz.
[More] |
 Alexander Wurz |
| Aged 26, Austrian. |
| Races 35, no wins, no poles, points to date 24 |
| 1999 record |
Benetton, 13th. Three points - fifth x1, sixth x1, seventh x3, eighth x1, 10th x3, 14th x1, retired x6. |
Alexander was World champion at the age of 12 in BMX racing before he turned to karts in 1986, and as soon as he was old enough, he entered the world of Formula Ford.
In 1992 he won the Austrian and German titles before advancing to Formula Three in 1993, and was runner up to Jorg Muller in the German series in 1994.
In 1996, he partnered with Davy Jones and Manuel Reuter winning the Le Mans 24 Hour for the Joest Porsche team, as well as racing in the International Touring Car Championship.
He took victory at Donnington Park in the 1997 FIA GT Championship, partnered with the eventual champion, Bernard Schneider, while also test driving for Benetton.
His Formula One debut eventuated at the Canadian Grand Prix when regular Benetton driver, Gerhard Berger became ill. He qualified in 11th, but retired with transmission failure on lap 35.
Only driving three races in the 97 season, he outqualified his teammate, Jean Alesi on two of the three, and followed him home for the first podium finish of his career, a third at Silverstone.
Following Berger's retirement from Formula One at the end of the 97 season, Benetton signed Alexander to drive for them full time in 98.
Although he didn't finish above 4th position during the 98 season, he finished 7th overall, equal to Heinz-Harald Frentzen, with 17 points.
He remained with the Benetton team in 1999, alongside Giancarlo Fisichella. Two apparent rising young stars, yet he has failed to really impress, only securing one world champion point by the 9th race and only adding two more to that total by seasons end, finishing way down in thirteenth. 1999 was a disaster for the entire Benetton team and they all hope that the year 2000 will see a turn in the teams fortune and they will recapture victory again.
[More] |
| Benetton in 2000: |
| Every team starts a new season saying that good results are crucial. And they are. But for some teams, they are more crucial than for others. And for Benetton, they are more crucial than most. It was only five years ago that the Italian-owned, British-based team was celebrating its second consecutive world drivers' championship - Michael Schumacher clinched his first crown amid controversy in Adelaide in 1994, when he crashed into Damon Hill; and his second in rather more orthodox fashion in 1995.
Benetton also grabbed the constructors' title in 1995, having finished second the previous year. Those were heady days indeed. But then Schumacher left for Ferrari, lured by huge financial rewards and the historical challenge of trying to win a drivers' title for the most famous team in Grand Prix racing. Since then Benetton has been in decline. It has won only one race (the 1997 German Grand Prix, with Gerhard Berger) and last year managed only one podium finish, Giancarlo Fisichella's second place in the Canadian Grand Prix.
The decline has, of course, brought out the doomsayers and had the vultures circling. With spots on the Formula One grid limited to a maximum of 12 teams (Toyota is set to enter next year having grabbed the last available ticket) there has been talk of a possible Benetton team sale at some point in the future, with the team's former engine supplier, Renault, among those tipped as likely buyers. Whether that will happen only time will tell.
However, even if it is to only increase its value as a tradeable commodity, the team has to lift its game this year and get better results from its two drivers, the Italian Fisichella, who scored 13 of the team's points last year, and the Austrian Alexander Wurz, who managed only three. Fisichella could, with any luck, have done even better as he was leading at Nurburgring in an incident-packed European Grand Prix when he made a mistake and went out of the race.
This season's car is a manifestation of a new "back-to-basics" philosophy aimed at making things more simple and effective, according to team officials. Code-named B200, it will run once more in the blue livery of sponsor Mild Seven. It is said to be "significantly lighter" than the 1999 car, and has a lower centre of gravity.
There has been significant input from a new design team, notably from the new chief designer, Tim Densham, who worked through much of this decade for the now-defunct Tyrrell team. He came to Benetton via the embryonic Honda Research and Development team, which Honda established in Britain to develop its F1 team.
Honda scrapped its plan in favor of a partnership with British American Racing, for which it will supply engines. Densham and his team have improved the car's stiffness and given priority to its aerodynamic stability and efficiency. It will use a revised version of the Supertec Renault customer engine that it used last year, although this has an entirely new block and a modified cylinder head design and promises significant power increases.
Benetton will be hoping that this season it can be near the front of the battle for the title of "Best of the Rest", which will be contested by Jordan, Jaguar, Williams, Prost, BAR and Sauber. Last year's sixth place in the constructors' championship was its lowest since it first raced under its own name in 1986, having come into Grand Prix racing three years earlier via a sponsorship deal with the Tyrrell team.
Fisichella, 27, is in his fourth season in F1, and his fourth place in Melbourne last year was his best Australian Grand Prix result. Wurz, 26, is, at 186cm, one of F1's tallest drivers, and the youngest ever winner of the Le Mans 24-hour sports car classic (in 1996). His best result at Albert Park was seventh in 1998. |
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