Over the past ten years, we saw the Formula 1 landscape change dramatically, on-track and off-track as new owners Liberty Media took over the sport from dictator Bernie Ecclestone with the background of Mercedes going about their incredible journey.
Invariably there were winners and losers, we take a look at the unfortunate ones of the past decade:
Michele Lupini: Fernando Alonso
A double world champion driving a Ferrari at the beginning of the decade, Alonso starts the next one behind the wheel of a Hilux. Pretty well sums it up, but that’s a tragedy in itself. Many say it is all of his own doing, that he is too hot to handle, but in reality, his inability to meld with a top F1 team has cost us witnessing among the finest talents against the greats of the modern era.
Ben Stevens: Williams
How far the mighty have fallen. Once the best team on the grid, they are now indisputably the worst, and that’s a reality made even more bizarre given they took back-to-back thirds in the constructor’s championship in 2014 and 2015.
Even if they were never competing on an even playing field financially, there’s still no excuse to see them put out cars as rubbish as they have the past few years. Here’s hoping they turn it around with the introduction of the cost-cap, but with the way they’re being managed, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Paul Velasco: Ron Dennis
The Formula 2 mechanic who turned McLaren into a Formula 1 superpower is a tale well told. Ron Dennis was McLaren for many years. He built the second most successful team in the history of the sport.
Under his watch most of the recent greats drove cars built at Woking, and with it came titles and victories on a regular basis. But it started going pear-shaped (coincidentally or not) when Lewis Hamilton left the team. Around the same time, Dennis hooked Honda for a return to the top flight.
But greed led to stupidity when he went solo with the Japanese auto giant only to find his car was about as a good as an F2 car and his ace driver Fernando Alonso was not shy to call it that. What transpired thereafter is well documented. Now that the dust has settled Dennis is no longer the McLaren supremo, no longer a power player in the paddock instead, like most, he watches F1 on TV. Big Loser.