2000 Japanese Grand Prix: Schumacher Ends Ferrari's Wait

On October 8, 2000, Michael Schumacher crossed the line at Suzuka 1.837 seconds ahead of Mika Häkkinen and ended the longest wait in Ferrari’s Formula 1 history. Victory at the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix made him world champion with a race to spare, and made him Ferrari’s first drivers’ champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979, a gap of 21 years.

He did not win it at the start, and he did not win it by passing anyone on track. Häkkinen led away from the line. The race was settled during the second round of pit stops, where Ferrari ran Schumacher a few laps longer and got him out in front. Schumacher later called it the best moment of his racing career.

Michael Schumacher's red helmet worn at the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka — The helmet Schumacher wore at Suzuka in 2000, now part of his private collection. Photo: Morio / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ferrari’s Suzuka Problem

Schumacher joined Ferrari in 1996 as a two-time champion with Benetton. The team had not won a drivers’ title since Scheckter, and by the late 1990s it had become very good at getting close. In 1998 the title went to the final round at Suzuka, and Schumacher stalled on the grid from pole, started from the back and retired with a tyre failure. Häkkinen won the race and the championship. In 1999, with Schumacher sidelined for much of the season by a broken leg from Silverstone, Eddie Irvine took Ferrari to Suzuka with a title chance. Häkkinen won again and took his second crown.

Ferrari did win the 1999 constructors’ championship, its first since 1983. But the drivers’ title is the one that counted for Maranello and its fans, and Ferrari’s own history of that era notes that the team had lost it at Suzuka by a narrow margin in each of the two previous years.

How the 2000 Title Came Down to Japan

The 2000 season was a straight fight between Schumacher’s Ferrari F1-2000 and Häkkinen’s McLaren-Mercedes MP4/15. Schumacher won the first three races. McLaren pulled back through the summer, and Häkkinen’s pass on Schumacher at Spa, using Ricardo Zonta’s BAR as cover, put the Finn in the lead of the championship in late August.

Schumacher answered with wins at Monza and Indianapolis. At Indianapolis, Häkkinen’s Mercedes engine failed, and that swing gave Schumacher an eight-point lead with two rounds left: 88 points to 80. Under the 10-6-4-3-2-1 scoring of the time, a win at Suzuka would settle the title whatever Häkkinen did.

Mika Hakkinen driving his silver West McLaren Mercedes MP4/15 during the 2000 Formula 1 season — Mika Häkkinen in the McLaren-Mercedes MP4/15 at Indianapolis in 2000, two weeks before Suzuka. Photo: Rick Dikeman / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The 2000 Japanese Grand Prix: Lost at the Start, Won in the Pits

Qualifying could hardly have been closer. Schumacher took pole with a 1:35.825, and Häkkinen was 0.009 seconds slower. At the start the McLaren got away better, Schumacher moved to cover the inside and Häkkinen led into the first corner.

After that, for most of the 53 laps the two were separated by a few seconds, well clear of everyone else. David Coulthard, in the second McLaren, finished more than a minute behind. The first stops came and went without changing the order. A light drizzle had fallen early on, and light rain returned from around half-distance, enough to make the track slippery but not enough for wet tyres.

The Second Stops Decide It

Häkkinen made his second stop on lap 37. Ferrari, however, kept Schumacher out. With a lighter car and clear track, he needed to find enough time over the next laps to come out of his own stop ahead, and he had to do it on a damp track, in traffic, without seeing the car he was racing. Technical director Ross Brawn fed him the gap over the radio. Finally, Schumacher pitted around lap 40 and rejoined in the lead.

The last laps were tense rather than dramatic. The rain picked up slightly, both drivers backed off a little, and Häkkinen closed the gap without ever getting close enough to attack. Schumacher won by 1.837 seconds. Coulthard was third, Rubens Barrichello fourth in the other Ferrari, Jenson Button fifth for Williams and Jacques Villeneuve sixth for BAR.

Pos	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:29:53.435
2	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	+1.837s
3	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	+1:09.914
4	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	+1:19.191
5	Jenson Button	Williams-BMW	+1:25.694
6	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	+1 lap

2000 Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka, 53 laps. Points went 10-6-4-3-2-1.

As a result, the race left Schumacher on 98 points and Häkkinen on 86, with only 10 available at the final round in Malaysia. It was Schumacher’s third world title and his first with Ferrari.

Why It Mattered

Ferrari had spent most of two decades as F1’s most famous team and not its most successful one. Team principal Jean Todt, Brawn, chief designer Rory Byrne and Schumacher had been rebuilding it since the mid-1990s, and Suzuka was the result that showed the project had worked. Schumacher described it as the culmination of five years of work.

The way the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix was won also mattered. Ferrari did not have a car that could pass the McLaren on track at Suzuka. It won with strategy, timing and a driver who could deliver a run of qualifying-pace laps on a slippery track at the moment it counted. That combination of Brawn’s strategy and Schumacher’s in-laps would decide a lot of races over the next four years.

The pit building and main grandstand straight at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, Japan — Suzuka’s pit building. Ferrari had lost the title here in 1998 and 1999 before getting it right in 2000. Photo: Tokumeigakarinoaoshima / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Lasting Effect

Suzuka 2000 was the start of the most dominant run in Ferrari’s history. Schumacher won the next race in Malaysia, where Ferrari also clinched its second consecutive constructors’ title, and went on to win the drivers’ championship every year from 2000 to 2004. Ferrari took six straight constructors’ titles from 1999 to 2004. Ferrari’s own history calls 2000 the start of one of the most successful cycles in Formula 1, and credits the F1-2000’s new 90-degree V10 with setting the standard for the cars that followed.

However, that dominance had side effects. By 2002 Ferrari was strong enough to manage its own finishing order, which led to the Austria controversy and the botched dead heat at Indianapolis, and then to the FIA’s ban on team orders. The rule changes of 2003, including the new points system and single-lap qualifying, were also widely seen as attempts to make Ferrari’s advantage harder to keep.

For McLaren and Häkkinen, Suzuka 2000 was the end of something. Häkkinen won two more races in 2001 and then took a sabbatical that became a retirement from F1. McLaren would not win another drivers’ title until Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

The people behind the title went on to shape the sport long after it. Brawn won both championships with his own team in 2009 and later ran F1’s sporting side. Todt became FIA president the same year. Ferrari has not had a drivers’ champion since Kimi Räikkönen in 2007, so the team is now in another long wait, one that its current pairing of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton is trying to end. Read more about how Ferrari is handling Hamilton and Leclerc without naming a number one.