2001 Formula 1 Season
17 races · Champion: Michael Schumacher
Driver Standings
| Pos | Driver | Team | Pts | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 123 | 9 |
| 2 | David Coulthard | McLaren | 65 | 2 |
| 3 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | 56 | 0 |
| 4 | Ralf Schumacher | Williams | 49 | 3 |
| 5 | Mika Häkkinen | McLaren | 37 | 2 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Williams | 31 | 1 |
| 7 | Jacques Villeneuve | BAR | 12 | 0 |
| 8 | Nick Heidfeld | Sauber | 12 | 0 |
| 9 | Jarno Trulli | Jordan | 12 | 0 |
| 10 | Kimi Räikkönen | Sauber | 9 | 0 |
| 11 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Benetton | 8 | 0 |
| 12 | Eddie Irvine | Jaguar | 6 | 0 |
| 13 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Jordan | 6 | 0 |
| 14 | Olivier Panis | BAR | 5 | 0 |
| 15 | Jean Alesi | Prost | 5 | 0 |
| 16 | Pedro de la Rosa | Jaguar | 3 | 0 |
| 17 | Jenson Button | Benetton | 2 | 0 |
| 18 | Jos Verstappen | Arrows | 1 | 0 |
| Ricardo Zonta | Jordan | 0 | 0 | |
| Luciano Burti | Jaguar | 0 | 0 | |
| Enrique Bernoldi | Arrows | 0 | 0 | |
| Tarso Marques | Minardi | 0 | 0 | |
| Fernando Alonso | Minardi | 0 | 0 | |
| Tomáš Enge | Prost | 0 | 0 | |
| Gastón Mazzacane | Prost | 0 | 0 | |
| Alex Yoong | Minardi | 0 | 0 |
Races
The 2001 Season
The 2001 season saw Michael Schumacher and Ferrari extend their grip on Formula One, the German claiming his fourth World Championship in a campaign of crushing efficiency. Building on the breakthrough of 2000, the Ferrari F2001 was a superb all-round package, fast and reliable, and Schumacher exploited it relentlessly, winning nine races and wrapping up the title with four rounds still to run, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, equalling Alain Prost's then-record of 51 career victories in the process.
Schumacher's principal rivals, the McLaren-Mercedes pairing of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, were unable to mount a sustained challenge as their car proved less competitive and less reliable than the dominant Ferrari. Coulthard emerged as the closest pursuer in the standings, taking two victories, but the gap to Schumacher was vast, and the championship was effectively over long before the season's end. Hakkinen endured a difficult final full season and would announce a sabbatical from which he never returned, bringing his great rivalry with Schumacher to a quiet close.
The season was notable for the emergence of new talent, most strikingly the rookie Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who made his debut with the Minardi team, and Juan Pablo Montoya, who arrived at Williams-BMW from American racing and immediately took the fight to Schumacher, memorably passing him around the outside at Brazil before retiring. Williams, now powered by BMW, returned to winning ways with the young and aggressive Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, signalling a resurgence that promised to challenge the Ferrari hegemony in seasons to come.
Ferrari again dominated the constructors' championship, sealing back-to-back doubles and underlining the comprehensive superiority of its technical operation. The season also carried a sombre note, with the death of Ferrari's beloved technical figure and the broader continuing efforts to improve safety, while a more controversial talking point was the increasingly evident use of team orders within Ferrari to manage Schumacher's championship campaigns. The 2001 season confirmed that Formula One had entered an era of Ferrari and Schumacher supremacy that the rest of the grid was struggling to interrupt.