2003 Formula One season

The 2003 Formula One season was the 54th 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 Ferrari and Michael Schumacher, the 2003 season proved to be the most closely contested in decades. For a great part of the season several drivers from several teams had mathematical chances of competing for the world championship. Eight different drivers won a Grand Prix, amongst them three first time winners. Ferrari's defense of the constructor's title was challenged throughout the year by Williams and McLaren, one of the few seasons in which there were three frontrunning teams.

Notable races include the chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix which was hampered by monsoon conditions, and the British Grand Prix where the track was invaded by the now-defrocked priest Neil Horan, who ran onto the Hangar straight, running towards the 250 km/h train of cars, wearing a green kilt and waving religious banners. Kimi Räikkönen, driving for McLaren-Mercedes, and Juan Pablo Montoya, driving for BMW Williams, had a chance of claiming the 2003 championship right until the end of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix. Another notable race was the Hungarian Grand Prix, which saw a young Fernando Alonso winning his first Formula One race.

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.

Another feature of the season was the introduction of rules and regulations to improve F1's excitement and to help the financial difficulties of the smaller teams. One-lap qualifying was introduced as a way for smaller teams to get more TV time. Optional Friday testing was introduced to help reduce testing costs and to give smaller teams a cheaper alternative to testing in exchange for less testing miles on test days (which were banned in 2004). The scoring system was changed to 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 in an attempt to make the constructors' and drivers' title races closer, and only one type of wet weather tyre was allowed to be used in wet weather races.

Drivers and constructors

The following teams and drivers competed in the 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Drivers

Qualifying results

References

Notes

#Pizzonia was offered a test driving role at Jaguar but turned it down, and would later resurface as a test driver at BMW-Williams.
#Williams driver Marc Gené replaced Ralf Schumacher, in Italy.
#Ralph Firman suffered injuries as a result of a crash during practice in Hungary. He was replaced by Zsolt Baumgartner for two races before returning to finish the season in the EJ13.
#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.
#Denmark's Nicolas Kiesa took over Wilson's vacated seat in the Minardi.
#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 (though he was replaced in 2006).
#Renault took part in the Friday testing session. People thought it was not only odd, because not only were they a manufacturer, but also they would get less testing miles. However, Mike Gascoyne the technical director for Renault in 2003 said that not only did Renault save money, Renault also got MORE testing mileage out of their cars.