The was the fifty-fourth
FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on
March 9 ,
2003 , and ended on
October 12 after sixteen races.
After a dominant two years from
Scuderia Ferrari and
Michael Schumacher the 2003 world championship proved to be the most closely contested in decades as for great part of the season several drivers from several team had mathematical changes of fighting for the title.
Some of the best races in the decade happened in this season as special notes there are: The chaotic
Brazilian GP which hampered by monsoon conditions and at the light of 1 rain tyre rule, saw 7 Formula 1 cars retirements most notable 5 in ''Curva do Sol'' and two heavy and high speed shunts in arribancadas. The, as well chaotic,
British GP saw on fans invading the track which lead to a neutralization and consequently an amazing performance from
Rubens Barrichello . Overtaking manoeuvres was not uncommon feature in this exciting season.
The stories of the season were very much those of
Juan Pablo Montoya who became a strong title contender until the final stages of the season as he delivered consistent performances as an addition of his very well known and acclaimed passings; As well as of
Kimi Räikkönen being able to fight for the title until the very end with his previous year's car, the MP4-17, as the MP4-18 was not granted by the
FIA to compete; And of course
Michael Schumacher who once again showed as the victorious World Champion by a mere 2 points of difference.
The following
Teams and
Drivers competed in the
2003 FIA Formula One World Championship .
There were several driver lineup changes prior to and during the 2003 season.
Prior to the season commencing, the following lineup changes occurred:
- Toyota announced midway through the 2002 season that both drivers (Mika Salo and Allan McNish) would be replaced. Consequently Olivier Panis left the BAR team to drive for Toyota, and Cristiano da Matta was signed on from the Newman Haas team in the CART series.
- After being replaced at Toyota, Allan McNish signed with Renault as a test driver.
- Jenson Button left Renault to take Panis' seat at BAR.
- Fernando Alonso moved up from the Renault test driving slot to a full time drive and replaced Button in that lineup.
- Jaguar Racing also featured an all new driver lineup for 2003. Neither Eddie Irvine's or Pedro de la Rosa's contract were renewed, and they were replaced by Mark Webber and Antônio Pizzonia.
- Webber's vacated seat at Minardi was filled by Justin Wilson.
- Alex Yoong's Minardi contract from 2002 was not renewed and he was replaced in that team by Jos Verstappen.
- Felipe Massa left his Sauber drive to assume the duties of test driver for Ferrari.
- Heinz Harald Frentzen joined Sauber to take over from Massa. Frentzen had driven for the Arrows team for part of the 2002 season, but left after the 2002 German GP . (The Arrows team folded several days later without contesting another GP.)
- Takuma Sato left the Jordan team to take the place of several others (Davidson, Manning, Fukuda and Lemarie) as the sole test driver for BAR.
During the season, several more changes took place:
- Ralph Firman suffered injuries as a result of a crash during practice for the Hungarian GP . He was replaced by Zsolt Baumgartner for several races before returning to finish the season in the EJ15.
- Having started the season driving for Minardi, Justin Wilson later joined the Jaguar team and filled in for the under-performing Antônio Pizzonia for the last 5 races of the season. Pizzonia was offered a test driving role at Jaguar but turned it down, and would later resurface as a test driver at BMW-Williams.
- Denmark 's Nicolas Kiesa took over Justin Wilson's vacated seat in the Minardi when Wilson left to go to Jaguar.
- After a string of disappointing results in 2003, Jacques Villeneuve was replaced at BAR by test driver Takuma Sato for the Japanese GP. Villeneuve would later drive for Renault in 2004 as a replacement driver, and sign a multi-year contract at Sauber for 2005.
After failing to complete the
2002 season due to financial difficulties, the
Arrows team had their application for admission to the 2003 season rejected by the
FIA prior to the season start date. No reason was publicly given by the FIA, and Arrows subsequently folded after 25 years in Formula One.
