[Career Mode Story] IN F1

[Danimal5981]

A CAREER MODE STORY: IN FORMULA 1

I have often wondered what it would be like to have a Formula One racing career that started as young as that of Max Verstappen (aged 17 in 2015, but first participation just before his 17th birthday, GP Japan 2014) and went on as long as that of Fernando Alonso (first test in 1999, still active in Formula One in 2026). So, that is exactly what we're gonna do!

As my avatar Danimal5981 already reveals, I am from 5th September 1981. So, in order to make my F1-debut at age 17, we'd have to go back to 1999. This is before a certain Michael Schumacher started to dominate in a Ferrari. These were the days of peak-Mika Häkkinen. People hadn't heard yet of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, or Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen was a toddler, Lando Norris would enter the world in late 1999, but Oscar Piastri or Kimi Antonelli weren't even born yet. Teams such as Mercedes and Red Bull don't exist yet. This is the V10 era, where it's usually between Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and the odd outsider such as Benetton or Jordan.

We will enter the world of Formula One as the youngest rookie until Verstappen would join in 2015. Can we rewrite the history books? Remember, at this point in time Juan Manuel Fangio (a driver from the 1950s) still holds the record amount of 5 F1-world titles, while Alain Prost is regarded as the most successful F1-driver, while Ayrton Senna was arguably the most gifted. Michael Schumacher is only a double world champion at this time, both of them won with Benetton. He moved to Ferrari in 1996, but was beaten by Damon Hill (1996), Jacques Villeneuve (1997) and Mika Häkkinen (1998). All these drivers

Thanks to some excellent mods on Codemasters / EA Sports F1 games, we can rewrite the whole F1-history of the 21st century with a little 1999 prologue.

Can we challenge Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari, or even break his dominant spell? Can we later go head-2-head with the likes of Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, or the current generation?

[Danimal5981]

SCHUMACHER RULED OUT FOR REST OF SEASON

July 12th 1999 - Michael Schumacher has suffered multiple fractures in both legs after crashing out in the opening lap of the 1999 British Grand Prix. The German Ferrari-driver was rushed to hospital where it became apparent the injuries were quite serious. The double world champion of 1994 and 1995 is at least ruled out for the remainder of this season, as recovery for these injuries are set at around six months, if ever.

Ferrari-boss Luca di Montezemolo now has two important decisions to make: who is going to drive the Ferrari for the remainder of 1999? If Di Montezemolo thinks the constructor's championship is most important, he might go for a more experienced driver. But if somebody needs to drive in support of sudden first driver Eddie Irvine, someone lesser known might be picked.

The second choice is about what happens after: can Michael Schumacher get fit again and back to top form, or not? And even if so, it is commonly known Di Montezemolo is somewhat disappointed in Schumacher for not (yet?) delivering a single world title and is carefully looking for a new driver line-up. But then there are team boss Jean Todt, Engineering genius Ross Brawn and designer Rory Byrne who essentially have tied their future to that of Michael Schumacher.

The first choice needs to taken quickly, as the next race is on July 25th on the A1-Ring near Spielberg, Austria. For this 9th round of the 1999 championship, Schumacher's injury has changed little for the other drivers. Mika Häkkinen is in the lead position with 40 points, but the runner-up Eddie Irvine still has 32 points like Michael Schumacher. Heinz-Harald Frentzen is surprisingly close in his Jordan, also because David Coulthard is experiencing many technical flaws in his McLaren-Mercedes.

Back in 1999, only the top 6 was rewarded with points: 1st - 10 pts, 2nd - 6 pts, 3rd - 4 pts, 4th - 3 pts, 5th - 2 pts, 6th - 1pt.

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[Danimal5981]

17 YEAR OLD FERRARI ACADEMY STAR TO REPLACE SCHUMACHER IN AUSTRIA

Ferrari has announced, 17 year old Daniel Marzec is to race for Ferrari during the weekend of the Austrian Grand Prix (23 July - 25 July). The Polish Ferrari Academy driver got the call after a succesfull test at Imola (pics below). If Marzec indeed is racing on Sunday, he'll be the youngest ever Formula One driver with 17 years, 10 months and 20 days.

The decision comes from Luca di Montezemolo. The Ferrari boss explains: 'Marzec is a mega talent. Obviously we wanted to bring him more gradually. He was currently fighting in the World Series with guys like Fernando Alonso, Tomas Scheckter and Giorgio Pantano; other talents we undoubtebly will see in F1 in the future. Then we wanted to progress him to Formula 3, Formula 3000 and maybe some time at Minardi in Formula One. But exceptional times call for exceptional decsions about exceptional talents. I have all confidence that he will do a fine job.'

Marzec has for now been only been confirmed for the race in Austria: if things turn out bad, Ferrari can always change course and opt for a third driver by the time the German Grand Prix is due. But should the move with this youngster turn out to become a success, Ferrari will have a hard nut to crack about its 2000 line-up.

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[djp73]

Intrigued and following

[Captain Canada]

Looking forward to how this goes. I like the premise.

[Danimal5981]

ROOKIE ENDS 8th IN FIRST OFFICIAL SESSION

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SPIELBERG, JULY 23rd 1999 -

Free Practice in Austria was all about 17-year old rookie Daniel Marzec, who made his first miles in the Ferrari F399 in an official Formula One session. The Dutch/Polish youngster (who has chosen to drive on a Polish racing license) finished in 8th place, a second down on his team mate Eddie Irvine, while being 1.3 seconds behind on the sessions fastest, reigning world champion and championship leader Mika Häkkinen from McLaren-Mercedes.

Jean Todt explained that the plan for Marzec was to do many laps: "He needs to gain on track experience, which is why this weekend we focus on the race more than qualifying. That's actually what we did with Irvine: less laps, more push laps. With Dani, we went for duration and longevity. So, if you observe it through that lense, I think they're pretty close."

That indicates qualifying and the race will see a duel between McLaren and Ferrari. Only Damon Hill in his Jordan was able to keep up with the top two team's drivers.

[Danimal5981]

IRVINE ON POLE, ROOKIE TEAM MATE IN 4th

SPIELBERG, JULY 24th 1999 -
Eddie Irvine of Ferrari has secured pole position for tomorrow's Austrian Grand Prix. In the 3rd and desicive qualifying session, the so-called Top Ten Shootout, the Ferrari driver turned team leader held an advantage of less than 0.05s over championship leader and reigning champion Mika Häkkinen. His time was identical to his team mate's, but David Coulthard clocked his time later.

At respectable distance but still a noteworthy 4th place: Daniel Marzec. The 17-year old rookie, replacement of Michael Schumacher, steered his Ferrari F399 to the second starting row, in front of title outsider Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Ger) of Jordan. Marzec himself was not satisfied: "In my second run, I overdid it when braking for turn 3 (see photo) and that costed me the lap. I'm not saying I would've immediately put it on pole position, but I would have been closer for sure."

Further down the grid, veteran Damon Hill was unable to get his Jordan out of Q1. The Brititish world champion of 1996 appeared to be at the front end in free practice, but couldn't make a dent during qualifying. The man who managed to win in a Jordan less than a year ago, now starts in 21st (or, second-to-last).

In Q2, the drivers placed between 7th (Alex Zanardi) and 12th (Pedro Diniz) were separated by less than a tenth. Alongside Pedro Diniz, Giancarlo Fisichella also didn't manage to make the cut. Out of this group of drivers, Johnny Herbert of Stewart came out fastest in Q3. He locks out row number three, next to Frentzen but directly behind Polish rookie Daniel Marzec.

[Danimal5981]

ROOKIE TAKES DEBUT PODIUM, FERRARI SCORES DOUBLE

SPIELBERG, JULY 25th 1999 -

If anybody thought the absence of Michael Schumacher would've dulled this championship, think again. During the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari and McLaren fought a titanic battle with the Italian team coming out on top. Eddie Irvine won the race from pole position. The man from Belfast had Mika Häkkinen on his tail for a long time, but due to a braking error the Finnish defending world champion fell back to fourth. Rookie Daniel Marzec took advantage and claimed second place in his first outing, handing Ferrari a magnificent 1-2 at the A1 Ring in Spielberg.

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The opening of the race saw an incident at the back of the field. Spanish compatriots Marc Gené (Minard) and Pedro de la Rosa (Arrows) hit each other and saw their race at an end after turn 1. Giancarlo Fisichella of Benetton did not get much further with his car suffering gearbox failure in the first lap.

Up front at the start, Daniel Marzec passed through the inside of David Coulthard in turn 3 of the first lap, taking third. A lap later at the same place, the rookie showed no fear against world champion Mika Häkkinen as he pulled the same move on the championship leader.

In the opening stages, Marzec was able to keep up with his team mate Irvine, as both Ferraris pulled a gap to the McLarens behind them. However, closer to the first series of pit stops Marzec had to let go of his team mate as the McLarens started pulling the rookie in. Where McLaren opted for a split strategy with Häkkinen going for another set of softs and Coulthard bolting on the hards, Ferrari decided to go for hards for both drivers. 'We thought we could keep Marzec in front of the McLarens after the pit stops. Häkkinen would then be stuck behind Marzec for a while, allowing Irvine to pull a gap', Ferrari-team race tactician Ross Brawn explained.

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The theory was sound, but in practice McLaren made better pit stops. Suddenly, Mika Häkkinen was five seconds ahead of Marzec and in the hunt for Irvine. David Coulthard now had the Ferrari-newcomer in his sights. The Scot made desperate attempts to get passed, but the stoic Polish youngster (17) defended his third place with the calm of a very experienced driver.

It was here that Ferrari turned things around. Brawn: 'We have Irvine now going for the driver's championship and Marzec is in support of that goal. Together, we must secure the constructor's championship. The question thus becomes: 'How can we keep Irvine up front, without Marzec losing his third place?' Ferrari opted to wait with the second pit stop for as long as possible: 'We knew Irvine and Marzec would switch to softs and we knew Häkkinen had to move to hards. Häkkinen would have to stop first. We saw the lap times and we thought: Marzec isn't losing a lot to Häkkinen, who now of course was on fresher tyres.'

With Marzec in second with the McLarens hunting him 19 seconds behind Irvine, the Ferrari-rookie was given the instruction to make his car as wide as possible. 'Another two, three seconds and Irvine had a free pit stop.' This time it went exactly as Ferrari calculated. Irvine stopped in lap 50 and came out still leading the race. Marzec now saw his podium in peril as David Coulthard stopped in the same lap, while Marzec was still busy buying his team mate time against Häkkinen on track. However, the second pit stop went flawlessly and Marzec made it out on track in front of Coulthard in lap 52. Now it was a dash towards the finish line.

Irvine in the lead, Häkkinen at respectable distance, while behind that Marzec and Coulthard were still battling for third. Behind them, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher crashed into one another. This allowed home hero Alexander Würz to move up to fifth and essentially becoming 'best of the rest'. Brazilians Rubens Barrichello (Stewart) and Pedro Diniz (Sauber) were battling for sixth place and the final point.

But the race had one more twist: Mika Häkkinen couldn't get much heat into his tyres and that caused the Finn to outbreak himself in the penultimate lap, allowing Daniel Marzec and David Coulthard to come through, knocking the world champion off the podium. Eddie Irvine claimed the race in dominant style, 24 seconds ahead of team mate Daniel Marzec who had Coulthard only 0.232 seconds behind him. Ferrari score their 43rd 1-2 finish in Formula One history, with Daniel Marzec becoming the first driver since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996 to score a podium at his debut; the 1997 world champion also ended in second during his maiden race.

Meanwhile, Eddie Irvine has almost closed the gap to Mika Häkkinen, with the two separated by a single point in favour of the latter. The next race is in one week time at the Hockenheimring in Germany

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