2000 Season

The 2000 FIA Formula One World Championship is the 54th season of Formula One motor racing. It begins on 12 March in Melbourne and runs for seventeen races. Mika Häkkinen is the defending Drivers’ Champion, having won back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999. Ferrari is the defending Constructors’ Champion. All teams compete on Bridgestone tyres, the sole supplier.

Driver changes

Rubens Barrichello moves from Stewart to Ferrari, replacing Eddie Irvine, who finished runner-up in 1999. Irvine joins the newly formed Jaguar team in what is essentially a straight swap with Barrichello. Ferrari’s objective is unambiguous: Michael Schumacher has won only one title at Maranello — Ferrari’s last championship was Jody Scheckter’s in 1979.

Damon Hill retires from Formula One after the 1999 season. Jarno Trulli moves from Prost to Jordan, filling Hill’s seat alongside Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The two Prost seats go to Jean Alesi, who crosses from Sauber, and Nick Heidfeld, the 1999 International Formula 3000 champion and former McLaren test driver. Mika Salo signs for Sauber after standing in for Zonta and Schumacher during the 1999 season. Olivier Panis leaves Prost to become McLaren’s test driver.

Jenson Button makes his Formula One debut at Williams, having beaten test driver Bruno Junqueira in a shoot-out for the seat. Button replaces Alessandro Zanardi. At the time of the season opener, Button is the youngest British driver ever to start a Formula One race.

Jos Verstappen returns to Formula One at Arrows, replacing Toranosuke Takagi, who has left for Formula Nippon. Gastón Mazzacane is promoted from Minardi test driver to race seat, replacing Luca Badoer, who opts to continue as Ferrari’s test driver.

Team changes

Stewart Grand Prix, having been purchased by Ford Motor Company, is renamed Jaguar Racing. The team’s engines are rebadged as Cosworth units. Ford’s name has been on the Formula One grid since the debut of the Ford Cosworth DFV in 1967; for the 2000 season it is absent for the first time.

Williams switches from Supertec to BMW engines. The contract was signed in 1998, marking BMW’s return to Formula One after more than a decade away. BAR also drops Supertec and signs with Honda for 2000, representing Honda’s first engine-supply role in Formula One since their partnership with McLaren ended in 1992.

Arrows switches from Hart to Supertec engines following the departure of engine designer Brian Hart. Minardi’s engines are rebadged as Fondmetal, reflecting Gabriele Rumi’s financial input to the team; the car’s colour scheme changes from blue and silver to fluorescent yellow.

Calendar

The season runs for seventeen races. The most significant addition is the return of the United States Grand Prix after a nine-year absence, held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The British Grand Prix at Silverstone is controversially moved from its traditional June/July slot to 23 April — Easter Sunday. The European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring moves from its recent autumn slot to 21 May, becoming the sixth round of the year rather than a late-season race.

Regulation changes

The V10 engine configuration is made fully mandatory for 2000 so that engine builders cannot experiment with alternative configurations. The V10 had been the dominant layout since turbo engines were banned in 1989, and no other configuration had been used since 1998.

A change to the red flag restart procedure is introduced. Races stopped after two but before three-quarters distance will restart with cars lined up in the order they held at the end of the penultimate lap before the red flag lap. Time gaps between cars are voided for the restart; the restarted race distance is the number of laps remaining from the original race, less three.