1995 Formula One World Championship (Alt)

This is a fictional account of an alternative version of the 1995 F1 season. For the real 1995 season, see the 1995 Formula One World Championship

The **1995 FIA Formula One World Championship** was the 49th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1995 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1995 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a seventeen-race series that commenced on 26 March and ended on 12 November. Michael Schumacher won his first Drivers' Championship, and Benetton won the Constructors' Championship, the first and only Constructors' title for the Benetton team.

## Drivers and constructors

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1995 FIA Formula One World Championship. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Goodyear.

### Team changes

**Benetton: Ford -> Renault, Sauber: Mercedes -> Ford, McLaren: Peugeot -> Mercedes, Jordan: Hart -> Peugeot.** The 1995 season saw major reshuffle among the engine suppliers. Benetton ended their 7-year association with Ford Motor Company by switching to the Renault RS7 engines which were the same used by the Williams F1 team which was Renault's works team. Sauber took the Ford customer deal after parting ways with long time partner Mercedes-Benz, who elected to supply engines to McLaren. McLaren ended their relationship with Peugeot after only one season, with Jordan taking on the Peugeot full-works engines deal, replacing Hart, who began supplying Footwork Arrows for the season. Pacific Racing replaced their 1993-spec Ilmor engines for customer Ford EDC engines.

**Lotus withdraws.** At the end of the 1994 season Team Lotus left F1 after 36 years in the sport winning 6 Drivers' and 7 Constructors' Championships with the team ceasing operations in January 1995. Shortly before the team closed doors, the team's assets were bought by David Hunt, brother of 1976 Formula One champion James Hunt, who later announced that the Lotus name will be used by Pacific Grand Prix under the name Pacific Team Lotus.

**Larrousse withdraws.** Following increased debts after the 1994 season Larrousse left Formula One. They were originally entered for the 1995 season under the name Larrousse Junior Team with drivers Christophe Bouchut and Éric Bernard, but did not appear at any of the races. Subsequent talks about merger with Formula 3000 team DAMS fell apart. The team was also supposed to be sponsored by the Malaysian oil company Petronas, but this deal also fell through.

**Forti debuts.** Formula 3000 team Forti entered Formula One for the 1995 season. Their Forti FG01 was the last F1 car to use a manual gearbox.

Ligier underwent an ownership change for the 1995 season. The status of the team and it owners came under scrutiny by the FIA. The news that Martin Brundle had signed with them for 1995 brought up rumours that Tom Walkinshaw was the new boss of the team. Walkinshaw's move to Ligier was part of the agreement the previous year by Flavio Briatore and FIA's Max Mosley regarding Benetton's use of an illegal fuel filter in the 1994 German Grand Prix. Ligier also secured a Mugen-Honda engine deal for the season. Originally Minardi were expected to use Mugen engines, but in the last minute, Ligier boss Flavio Briatore persuaded the Japanese engine supplier to supply Ligier, leaving Minardi being forced to use customer Ford EDM engines, which were tuned by Magneti Marelli.

### Driver changes

#### At the start of the season

* Mika Salo replaced Mark Blundell at Tyrrell, with Gabriele Tarquini now the team's test driver. Before being confirmed as race driver, Salo was involved in a contract dispute with the Pacific team. The Contract Recognition Board lawyers and Tyrrell representatives were astounded when Team Lotus owner David Hunt announced to them that the Lotus name would be in Formula One in 1995, having been leased to Pacific. However, the board announced on 13 February that it had ruled in favour of Tyrrell because the Team Lotus which Salo had signed for was not the same Team Lotus which now claimed his services. Salo was unveiled as Tyrrell driver later that evening when they unveiled their 1995 car.
* Williams retained Damon Hill and Ayrton Senna in their race seats, with Nigel Mansell leaving the team at the beginning of January, and David Coulthard staying as a test and reserve driver.
* Mark Blundell replaced fellow countryman Martin Brundle at McLaren. However, Nigel Mansell was in the McLaren seat from the San Marino Grand Prix. Mansell was reported to join McLaren ever since leaving Williams in January. However, Mansell said that the 1995 season will almost certainly be his last in Formula One. Mansell was confirmed as a McLaren driver at the end of January, but he could not fit in the car. His deal was also dropped from $15 million to $10 million because Marlboro refused to pay his asking price.
* Christian Fittipaldi left Footwork at the end of 1994 and was replaced by Taki Inoue.
* Simtek retained Roland Ratzenberger and brought in Jos Verstappen from Benetton with Hideki Noda the team's test driver. Noda was scheduled to be the team's first driver, but due to lack of funds due to the Great Hanshin earthquake was not able to race, and was therefore relegated to share the second drive with Ratzenberger. Noda ended up not driving for the team at all as they went bankrupt after the Monaco round.
* Pacific kept Bertrand Gachot as race driver, but Paul Belmondo was replaced by Andrea Montermini.
* New team Forti brought in veteran Roberto Moreno along with rookie Pedro Diniz. Diniz was partly selected as his family controls one of Brazil's largest food distribution companies.
* Pierluigi Martini was retained by Minardi, but Michele Alboreto was replaced by Luca Badoer.
* On 28 October 1994, Ligier issued a press release stating that Olivier Panis and Johnny Herbert were going to be their official drivers for all of the 1995 season. However, at the end of January, they announced that Herbert was no longer at the team, joining Benetton instead, and that Aguri Suzuki and Martin Brundle would share the second seat. The announcement came as a big shock to Suzuki and his Japanese backers, who believed he had secured the Ligier seat for the whole season. During his "off" races, Brundle joined veteran commentator Murray Walker in the BBC commentary box as well as Jonathan Palmer. Brundle and Walker later became commentators for ITV after Brundle retired from F1 at the end of the 1996 season. Brundle currently commentates for Sky Sports F1 alongside David Croft.

#### During the season

* Jan Magnussen was promoted from test driver at McLaren to replace Mika Häkkinen for the Pacific Grand Prix, due to Häkkinen suffering from appendicitis.
* Gabriele Tarquini filled in for Ukyo Katayama at the European Grand Prix as Katayama was still recovering from neck injuries and severe bruising sustained during a crash at the previous round in Portugal.

## Calendar

### Calendar changes

The Argentine Grand Prix returned after a 14-year absence, it had been originally scheduled in 1994 but it was cancelled as the Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez track was still undergoing work and the owners were not finished with the project. The project was completed in time for 1995 with the race held on 9 April.

The Pacific Grand Prix was originally scheduled for 16 April, but was moved to 22 October due to the effects of the Great Hanshin earthquake.

The Spanish Grand Prix and Monaco Grand Prix swapped places on the calendar so that the Monaco round follows the Spanish Grand Prix.

The European Grand Prix moved from the Circuito Permanente de Jerez to the Nürburgring, it was the first time since 1985 that a F1 race was held at the Nürburgring.

## Results and standings

### Points scoring system

Points were awarded to the top six finishers in each race as follows:

### Non-championship event results

The 1995 season also included a single event which did not count towards the World Championship, the Formula One Indoor Trophy at the Bologna Motor Show.