The 1999 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 53rd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1999 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1999 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 7 March and ended on 31 October.
Defending champion Mika Häkkinen was again awarded the World Drivers' Championship. His team McLaren just missed out: it was Ferrari that clinched the World Constructors' Championship by a margin of four points. It would be the last Drivers' title for a McLaren driver until Lewis Hamilton in . It was Ferrari's first Constructors' title since , but would also mark the first of six successive titles up to . Away from the frontrunners, the season proved to be a disastrous one for the new British American Racing (BAR) team with their star driver and 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who despite high pre-season expectations failed to score a single point during the season, being the only one of the eleven teams entered not to score.
It was also the final season for world champion Damon Hill.
Drivers and constructors The following teams and drivers competed in the 1999 FIA Formula One World Championship. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Bridgestone.
Entrant Constructor Chassis Engine† Driver Rounds West McLaren Mercedes McLaren-Mercedes MP4/14 Mercedes FO110H 1 Mika Häkkinen All 2 David Coulthard All Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Ferrari F399 Ferrari Tipo 048 3 Michael Schumacher 1–8, 15–16 Mika Salo 9–14 4 Eddie Irvine All Winfield Williams Williams-Supertec FW21 Supertec FB01 5 Alessandro Zanardi All 6 Ralf Schumacher All Benson and Hedges Jordan Jordan-Mugen-Honda 199 Mugen-Honda MF-301HD 7 Damon Hill All 8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen All Mild Seven Benetton Playlife Benetton-Playlife B199 Playlife FB01 9 Giancarlo Fisichella All 10 Alexander Wurz All Red Bull Sauber Petronas Sauber-Petronas C18 Petronas SPE-03A 11 Jean Alesi All 12 Pedro Diniz All Repsol Arrows F1 Team Arrows A20 Arrows A20E 14 Pedro de la Rosa All 15 Toranosuke Takagi All HSBC Stewart Ford Stewart-Ford SF3 Ford CR-1 16 Rubens Barrichello All 17 Johnny Herbert All Gauloises Prost Peugeot Prost-Peugeot AP02 Peugeot A18 18 Olivier Panis All 19 Jarno Trulli All Fondmetal Minardi Team Minardi-Ford M01 Ford VJM1 Zetec-RFord VJM2 Zetec-R 20 Luca Badoer 1, 3–16 Stéphane Sarrazin 2 21 Marc Gené All British American Racing BAR-Supertec 01 Supertec FB01 22 Jacques Villeneuve All 23 Ricardo Zonta 1–2, 6–16 Mika Salo 3–5Sources: † All engines were 3.0 litre, V10 configuration.
Team changes
After three decades in the sport, the Tyrrell team was sold to British American Tobacco and its entry was used by the new British American Racing (BAR) team, with Renault-based Supertec engines replacing the Ford-Cosworth units of the previous season.
In 1998, Goodyear supplied tires to five teams, but when the company withdrew from the sport after 34 years, it left Bridgestone as the sole tire supplier.
The Mecachrome engines used by Williams in were rebadged as Supertec units.
Driver changes Williams entered the season with an all-new driver pairing: Ralf Schumacher (driving for Jordan in ) and Alessandro Zanardi. The Italian had last driven in F1 for Lotus in . In the years between, he had won the 1997 and 1998 CART championships for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen completed a straight swap with the younger Schumacher, taking the vacant seat at Jordan alongside champion Damon Hill. Frentzen's 1998 teammate, the champion Jacques Villeneuve, moved to the newly founded British American Racing (BAR) team. He was partnered with McLaren test driver and FIA GT1 champion Ricardo Zonta, one of three F1 rookies on the grid at the beginning of the season.
1998 Tyrrell driver Ricardo Rosset had retired from racing, while his teammate Toranosuke Takagi moved to Arrows. He was joined by Jordan's test driver from last year, Pedro de la Rosa, who also made his debut as a Grand Prix driver. Pedro Diniz left Arrows for Sauber.
Johnny Herbert, whose Sauber seat was taken by Diniz, joined Rubens Barrichello at Stewart. Stewart's drivers from 1998 were both absent from the Formula One grid this year: Jan Magnussen moved to the American Le Mans Series, while Jos Verstappen became the test driver for the Honda F1 project, which was later aborted.
Finally, Minardi also fielded a completely new driver pairing: Luca Badoer (who had last driven for Forti in but became Ferrari test driver in the following years) and the third rookie driver, reigning Open Fortuna by Nissan champion Marc Gené. Their previous drivers Shinji Nakano and Esteban Tuero became a test driver for Jordan and driver in the Argentinian TC 2000 Championship, respectively.
Mid-season changes A wrist injury to Luca Badoer led to Prost test driver Stéphane Sarrazin making his F1 debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix. It would end up being the Frenchman's only ever race in the series.
Mika Salo, driving for Arrows in , was left without a full-time drive for 1999, but he later served as an injury replacement for both Ricardo Zonta for three races (after his accident during practice of the Brazilian Grand Prix), and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher for six races after the latter broke his leg at Silverstone. He scored one second place and one third for Ferrari.
Calendar The 1999 FIA Formula One World Championship comprised the following 16 races. Round Grand Prix Circuit Date 1 Australian Grand Prix Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne 7 March 2 Brazilian Grand Prix Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo 11 April 3 San Marino Grand Prix Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola 2 May 4 Monaco Grand Prix Circuit de Monaco, Monte-Carlo 16 May 5 Spanish Grand Prix Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló 30 May 6 Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal 13 June 7 French Grand Prix Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours 27 June 8 British Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone 11 July 9 Austrian Grand Prix A1-Ring, Spielberg 25 July 10 German Grand Prix Hockenheimring, Hockenheim 1 August 11 Hungarian Grand Prix Hungaroring, Mogyoród 15 August 12 Belgian Grand Prix Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot 29 August 13 Italian Grand Prix Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza 12 September 14 European Grand Prix Nürburgring, Nürburg 26 September 15 Malaysian Grand Prix Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur 17 October 16 Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka 31 October Source:
Calendar changes and proposed races The Malaysian Grand Prix was added to the calendar, held at a newly built circuit in Sepang. There were proposals for a Chinese Grand Prix to be held at the Zhuhai International Circuit. The race was included on the provisional calendar, with 21 March as its date, released on 15 October 1998. The race was removed from the calendar on 20 December 1998, due to unspecified problems. The race was proposed to be moved to the autumn but this did not occur. The Chinese Grand Prix ultimately joined the calendar in 2004, with the event held at the Shanghai International Circuit. The Argentine Grand Prix was added to the calendar on 20 December 1998 as a replacement for the cancelled Chinese Grand Prix, to be held at the Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez as the second round of the season on 28 March, but was cancelled as well because of disagreements between the organizer and the commercial rights holder. This resulted in a five-week gap between the year's opening two races. The race at the Nurburgring was held under the European Grand Prix title once more, having been held under the Luxembourg Grand Prix title in the and season.
Regulation changes For 1999, there were only minor changes to the technical regulations.De Groote Steven (23 March 2013). "Wheel rims and tethers". f1technical.net. Retrieved 2016-03-10.Tanaka, Hiromasa. Transition of Regulation and Technology in Formula One. Honda R&D Technical Review 2009 - F1 Special (The Third Era Activities), 2009, p. 8.
The grooved tyres introduced in 1998 now had four grooves on all tyres; the front tyres previously had three. The front tyres were made a bit narrower: maximum instead of . The maximum width of the rear tyres remained at . Wheels also were required to be tethered to the chassis in order to prevent them flying off in a crash. Frontal crash tests would be conducted at , up from .
Season summary
Rounds 1 to 4 The first round of the championship was in Australia and, unsurprisingly, the two McLarens of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard started on the front row. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher qualified in third. Just like last year's final race, however, Schumacher stalled on the warm-up lap and had to start at the back of the grid. So the McLarens were first and second into the first corner and pulled away, until both suddenly broke down: Coulthard when his gearbox failed and Häkkinen with electrical trouble. This left Eddie Irvine in the second Ferrari to take his first ever win ahead of Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher in the Williams.
After the cancellation of two proposed races left an unusual five-week gap in the calendar, the Grand Prix circus struck down in Brazil. Häkkinen and Coulthard started 1–2 again, with home hero Rubens Barrichello in third for Stewart. This time, Coulthard faltered at the start and he had to be pushed into the pitlane. He rejoined three laps down on the rest of the field. Häkkinen looked dominant, but when he got stuck in third gear, he was passed by Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. Barrichello was on a two-stopper and pitted early, leaving Schumacher in first, only to be jumped by a recovering Häkkinen during the pit stops. Häkkinen won ahead of Schumacher, and Frentzen took third after Barrichello's engine blew up.
The first European race of the season took place at Imola, and even though the tifosi were out in full force for Ferrari, McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for the third successive race. Schumacher and Irvine were confined to the second row. Häkkinen, who was on a two-stopper, raced away from the field early on, only to lose control and crash on the 18th lap. This left Coulthard and Schumacher to battle it out, and the German jumped his rival in the stops to win, sending the tifosi wild. Coulthard came home in second and Barrichello took third after Irvine retired with an engine failure.
Häkkinen took pole again at Monaco, but this time, Schumacher prevented a lockout of the front row. Schumacher actually beat Häkkinen on the run to the first corner and then pulled away. Both Irvine and Coulthard gained a place when Häkkinen went up an escape road at Mirabeau, but soon after, Coulthard retired from third with a mechanical failure. Schumacher won by half a minute, with Irvine making it a Ferrari 1–2, and Häkkinen had to be content with the last podium spot.
With a quarter of the season gone, Schumacher led the championship with 26 points and teammate Irvine was second with 18. Häkkinen was third with 14, 12 points behind Schumacher, and only one point ahead of fourth-placed Frentzen. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari with 44 points had a big lead over McLaren with 20, and Jordan with 16.
Rounds 5 to 8 For the next race in Spain, Mika Häkkinen took pole position as usual ahead of Eddie Irvine, teammate David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher. Both Ferraris got away poorly, Irvine was passed by Coulthard and both were passed by Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR. The McLarens disappeared into the distance and cruised to a 1–2 finish (Häkkinen before Coulthard), while the Ferraris finally got by Villeneuve at the pit stops, Schumacher finishing third.