1995 was the follow up season after all the drama and changes from 1994. It was really a new era for Formula 1, smaller engines, smaller rear wings, the beginning of cockpit safety and the end final season where you had V10's, V12's and V8's all running on the same grid.
It was also the final year of the older numbering system for drivers, where the Championship team would swap numbers with the team that they won it from - so Benetton would take the number 1 and 2 cars, and Williams would inherit the 5 and 6 cars from Benetton - the rest of the grid stuck with their old team numbers.
Williams, on the whole, probably had the better car over the course of the season, but their drivers were sub-par or terribly inconsistent throughout the season, as Schumacher's Benetton looked dominant with their new supply of Renault engines. If the Williams drivers were sub-par and inconsistent, then spare a thought for the Ferrari drivers, flashes of genuine brilliance intersperesed with wondering if they were even bothered.
McLaren, Ligier, Jordan and Sauber made up the midfield. McLaren had the ugly mid-wing, the Ligier looked like a Benetton, Jordan ran works Peugeot engines that McLaren ditched after a season and Sauber donned a new sponsor in Red Bull.
Moving the the backmarkers and the signs of lack of money were all too apparent. Whilst Morbidelli looked decent in one of the Footworks, even earning a late season podium, but he had to share the seast with Max Papis. The other car was fielded by Taki Inoue... with whom they managed to persevere with for a whole season. The Tyrrell of Salo managed a couple of points finishes, as did Minardi. Simtek ran pretty well with Verstappen but they also ran out of money after four races. Pacific, who had technically merged with Team Lotus, ran some dubious pay drivers alongside regulars Gachot and Montermini. Forti debuted with a hastily constructed F3000 car, before the debut of their FG01 car, which didn't fare much better... they were so slow at San Marino, they were still running albeit 7 laps down and weren't even classified as finishers, so far behind were they. These mobile chicanes gave birth to the 107% qualifying rule which would be introduced the following year.
This really was the final days of your amateurish teams, as F1 became much more professional. Teams would begin booming in size and capabilities, leaving the smaller teams to go bust or sell up.
Despite the lack of competition, there were quite a few good stories to tell from this season.
|
Team |
Chassis |
Other |
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Benetton
Renault |
* |
|
* |
* |
|
|
Tyrrell
Yamaha |
023 |
* |
* |
|
|
|
Williams
Renault |
FW17 |
* |
* |
|
|
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McLaren
Mercedes |
MP4/10 |
* |
|
|
|
|
Footwork Hart |
FA16 |
|
* |
|
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|
Simtek Ford |
S951 |
* |
|
* |
|
|
Jordan
Peugeot |
195 |
* |
|
|
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Pacific Ford |
PR02 |
|
* |
|
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Forti Ford |
FG01 |
|
|
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Minardi Ford |
M195 |
|
* |
|
|
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Ligier Mugen-Honda |
JS41 |
* |
|
* |
|
|
Ferrari |
412T2 |
* |
* |
|
* |
|
Sauber Ford |
C14 |
* |
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