520racer's Alternate F1 Universe 1994 Rounds 1-8 recap - 520racer's Blog

520racer's Blog

520racer's Alternate F1 Universe 1994 Rounds 1-8 recap

Posted on June 1, 2018 at 01:05 PM.

Hello folks, welcome to the recap of the first half of the 1994 F1 season. If you have been following this dynasty, you already knew that Ukyo Katayama wins at Interlagos for Minardi-Honda and Michael Schumacher wins at TI Aida for Ferrari. Instead of posting individual race results on the dynasty page, I have changed the format slightly. I will include the race winners and other relevant stuff that happened in these posts instead. So without any further delay, here's what happened for rounds 3-8.

Round 3 Imola

Schumacher takes his third straight pole position and wins his second straight race with Katayama finishing second and JJ Lehto getting his second straight 3rd place finish.

Round 4 Monaco

Schumacher starts from Pole Position again but failed to finish the race. Instead, it was Damon Hill that wins the Monaco GP for McLaren-Mercedes. JJ Lehto held off a bunch of drivers for 2nd and Pierluigi Martini finishes 3rd for Piquet-BMW.

Between Rounds 4 and 5

The Pre-Q Lists have been recalculated, Lotus-Ford, Footwork-Ford, and Larrousse-Ilmor are being demoted to the Pre-Q lottery for the next four races. It also means Jordan-Hart, Piquet-BMW, and Tyrrell-Yamaha are being promoted out of the Pre-Q lottery for the next four races.

Round 5 Spain

Schumacher got his fifth straight pole position but for the second race in a row, Damon Hill ends up winning the race. On this occasion though, Schumacher finishes 2nd and Martini finishes 3rd.

Round 6 Canada

Schumacher got pole position number six of the season and in a snooze-fest manages to win his third race of the season. Damon Hill finishes second but over a minute behind the race winner and Gerhard Berger finishes 3rd for Benetton-Renault.

Round 7 France

Schumacher made it seven for seven pole positions for the season. Likewise, he was able to convert this feat into a fourth win this season. Furthermore, he was able to lap the entire field! JJ Lehto and Ukyo Katayama rounds off the podium. However, the bigger story is that the Forti-Lamborghini of Franck Lagroce finishes 4th and scores the first-ever points for the small Italian based team.

Round 8 Great Britain

It took this long for someone other than Schumacher to get pole position. It happened to be Ukyo Katayama who barely got the pole position from Michael Schumacher. Also in a surprise was Mika Hakkinen starting third, and Nigel Mansell starting 8th in the Lotus-Ford. For the race, however, it was JJ Lehto finally grabbing his first ever win for Benetton-Renault with Katayama taking 2nd and Mark Blundell driving the Tyrrell-Yamaha finishing 3rd. As for Nigel Mansell, he finally scored two points for Lotus-Ford by finishing 5th.

With the first half of the season in the books here are the driver and teams standings coming into the second half of the season

Driver Standings after Round 8 of 16

Schumacher 46
Hill 35
Katayama 32
Lehto 32
Martini 15
Wendlinger 9
Blundell 8
Berger 8
Coulthard 7
Verstappen 6
Lagroce 3
Barrichello 3
Mansell 2
Zanardi 1
Brundle 1

Team Standings after Round 8 of 16

1 Ferrari 46
2 Benetton-Renault 40
3 Minardi-Honda 38
4 McLaren-Mercedes 36
5 Piquet-BMW 16
6 Sauber-Ferrari 9
7 Tyrrell-Yamaha 8
8 Williams-Cosworth 7
9 Forti-Lamborghini 3
10 Jordan-Hart 3
11 Lotus-Ford 2
12 Ligier-Mugen 0 best finish 7th x2
13 Footwork-Ford 0 best finish 7th
14 Lola-Ford Zetec 0 best finish 7th
15 DAMS-Renault 0 best finish 13th
16 Pacific-Rolls Royce 0 Best finish 14th
17 Larrousse-Ilmor 0 best finish 16th
18 Dome-Nissan 0 best finish 23rd
19 Peugeot 0 best pre-q result 29th x1
20 Simtek-Cosworth 0 best pre-q result 30th x1

So, the second half of the 1994 season will be posted in a few days. In the meantime, here are some other things to consider.

Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes still haven't scored a single point from their #2 drivers. Nicola Larini and Martin Brundle respectfully.

Other Notable drivers that still haven't scored a point yet include Mika Hakkinen for Williams-Cosworth, Jean Alesi for Ligier-Mugen, Oliver Panis for Jordan-Hart, and Andrea De Cesaris for Tyrrell-Yamaha

After the British GP, the FIA also introduced a regulation system when teams that did not make a qualifying appearance, they will be automatically demoted to F3000. As it stands right now, Peugeot (who is a factory team) and Simtek-Cosworth are going to be demoted, if the season ended today. The good news for them is that they have eight more races to do something about it.