Season 1994
The season of 1994 started with a new world champion, in the shape of Guido Cappellini, a new promoter, in the shape of Nicolo di San Germano and a new constructors championship. All these novelties brought influence to bear as the year progressed.
Twenty-five boats from nine countries arrived on the Danube at Dunaujvaros for the first round and after three re-starts and nine lead changes, Sweden's Anders Andersson secured only his second F1 victory to head the championship points and give Molgaard first blood in the constructors race.
With ex-F3 champion, Danny Bertels, and S.2000 champion Colin JeIf moving up to F1, Cappellini's newest Laserline/DAC looked good for pole position, but was beaten by Andrew Elliot in his new Abu Dhabi Airport Duty Free/Burgess. After the race had been led by Michael Werner in the Liqui Moly-Singha Beer/Burgess, Elliot and Jonathan Jones in his S4C CableTel/ Burgess, Andersson worked his way to the front in the Standex/Molgaard and was never headed.
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| Belgian's multiple F3 champion,
Danny Bertels, took a while to establish himself in F1 but once
there began to make life very difficult for more established drivers
in his Valvoline/Burgess Photo: EyeSea |
Round two of the championship saw the fleet move to Porto Cervo on Sardinia and saw the race postponed for a day as the mistral blew through the islands. When the boats did eventually get afloat, it was Elliot again who took pole with a magnificently controlled piece of aggression in the Abu Dhabi Airport Duty Free/Burgess, while Cappellini flipped in his attempt to be fastest.
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| Sweden's Anders Andersson stormed
to victory in Dunaujvaros over Werner and Bocca to put down an early
marker in the 1994 season. Photo: Chris davies |
Elliot led the twenty boats off the line while Cappellini executed a 360° barrel roll but kept racing, knocking bits off Stallard's RIPS-Seiko/Lynx in the process and on the re-start, it was Jones who took the S4C CableTel/Burgess to the front from Japan's Yutaka Sugihara in the Laserline/DAC and Elliot.
Werner took over from Jones before the positions reversed again and the Welshman lapped the entire fleet including the vigorous mid-field battle between Kerton, Peter Eriksson and Fabrizio Bocca, to establish himself as the best driver in the rougher water.
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| Sardinia's F1 round was delayed by the mistral
before Jones could demonstrate his superiority. Photo: Chris Davies |
Following a protest after the Porto Cervo race which gave Cappellini second and Sugihara third positions, a record thirty-one boats arrived to do battle in Chalon-sur-Sa6ne and while Werner took his first pole position of the year, it was Jones again who dominated the venue to record his second successive victory and lead the championship.
In the fast and often furious process to reduce thirty-one boats to twenty starters, Stallard won the qualifying race in which ten of the fifteen starters destroyed themselves but when the real action started it was Werner who looked fastest and ran from the front.
Jean Vital Deguisne became entangled with Ron Koch on Lap 2, while Bernard Sebbah and Bocca broke down on the racing line on Lap 24 and from the re-start it was Kerton's Lynx which took the lead briefly before suffering mechanical difficulties. It was at this point that Jones grabbed his chance and rocketed away from Cappellini and Werner, setting the scene for the racing ahead.
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| Unluckiest driver of the year was Andy Elliott,
who took pole positions and led races only to be excluded from any
points by a succession of unforced errors. He was rescued by the
Ospreys at Cardiff. Photo: Chris Davies |
lf Jones thought that he might make it a hat-trick of wins on his own home waters in Cardiff then the fates had something much different in mind. He submarined in practice and having had the boat and engine re-built over night, failed in the qualifying heat and having come through the repecharge to start the race, he failed again within minutes to end a bad weekend.
Danny Bertels began to show his capabilities in Cardiff by winning his qualifying heat in the Valvoline-Mini Flat/Burgess/ Mercury while the second qualifier was taken by Elliot, who's performances this season had been textbook demonstrations of how to go quickly in practice but not finish a race and the talented Englishman had threatened at every venue but had yet to put points on the board.
Elliot led the smaller than average fifteen boat field, brought about by the size of the dockland circuit, from Bertels, Werner, Stallard and Bocca and with Jones out of the way he stormed around to lead by half a lap but on Lap 44 of sixty, the unluckiest driver in El. ripped a sponson off and was out again.
Werner inherited the lead from Bertels, Kerton, Cappellini, and Goran Karlof in the International Paints/Burgess so when Kerton and Cappellini came together on Lap 55, the race was stopped with the German in control.
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| High points of Michael Werner's
season was his victory in Cardiff. He finally took third position
in the championship. Photo: Chris Davies |
Moving to the new venue of Campione d'Italia on Lake Lugano, for the Italian Grand Prix, thirty-three drivers presented themselves and eleven of them were local so true to form, Cappellini dominated pole position from his compatriot and ex-world champion, Fabrizio Bocca. New drivers included Mark Wilson in his Seebold, Finnish speed skier and ex-F4. driver, Pertti Leppala and South Africa's Mark Shepherd.
Leppalla won the qualifier from Bertels and as the twenty-four boats went away at the start, Cappellini swung into the lead and stayed there to take the winner's flag 55 laps later. Pelle Brolin retired the Seiko-RIPS/Lynx after a massive clash with Owen JeIf, Bocca and Ishikawa retired with mechanical problems whilst lying well up the order and Shepherd delaminated his DAC.
Having been left at the start, Wilson got the Seebold back into contention behind Werner and Jones but it was Cappellini's day and he led Werner in the points as the fleet moved into Asia.
It was at Johore Bahru, Malaysia in October that the championship began to change shape, a change influenced by the arrival of the wild cards in the pack, the first of which was Mike Seebold in his Team Ziggy-Bud Light/Seebold.
High humidity and ambient temperatures in excess of 400 greeted the twenty-seven teams from eleven nations and it was Cappellini in the Laserline/ DAC who captured pole from Jones and Elliot, while the other major title contender, Werner, could only qualify in fourteenth position.
Jones took an early lead while Elliot and Sugihara did not start but it was Seebold who worked his way through the mid-field battle amongst Kerton, Cappellini, Bertels, Bocca and Karlof to challenge for the lead. The last ten laps were breathtaking as Seebold first pressurised and then passed Jones while he kept ahead of Cappellini, Bocca, Bertels and the first of the Thai drivers, Kunjeng Suchart.
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| Mike Seebold entered thr fray in Malaysia and
instantly won for Team Ziggy in one of his own boats. Photo: Chris Davies |
Three weeks later in Sattahip Bay, Thailand, it was the turn of Bill Seebold to come and conquer, while leaving Cappellini, Werner and Jones to foster their championship title hopes with high points finishes. Twenty-nine boats, including eleven local Thai teams, gave the Castrol sponsored Grand Prix a cutting edge and it was Seebold who took pole from Kerton in the dying seconds of qualifying.
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| The grinning shark on Cappellini's
Laserline/DAC appeared with regularity in the rear view mirrors
of the F1 fleet, on his way to a second title. Photo: Chris Davies |
With Jones off in the lead, Thomas Ericsson destroyed his Singha Beer/ Molgaard on Lap 8 and from the re-start it was Cappellini who challenged hardest while Bocca and Kerton showed best of the rest. After an accident involving Ogruang Satit, it was Bertels who ran from the front until electrical problems set him back to seventh and Jones who took over until he was slowed by a trim pump failure.
By now, Seebold had hit the front and won as he pleased from Cappellini, an improving Werner and Peter Eriksson in the Private/Burgess, leaving the championship wide open amongst Cappellini, Werner and Jones with only the Abu Dhabi race remaining.
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| Peter Eriksson tied up a lucrative
sponsorship deal with one of Sweden's biggest publishing houses
and got amongst the points in Hungary, Sardinia and Thailand. Photo: EyeSea |
When it came, the finale to the 1994 El. World Championship was every-thing that might have been expected of it with thirty-one drivers from a record twelve nations gathered on the corniche in Abu Dhabi. Mike Seebold from the USA was joined by Felix Serralles from Puerto Rico, both driving Seebold hulls and a group of three South Africans arrived, led by Peter Lindenberg.
Pole position was hotly contested and eventually fell to Serralles in the Victory Team/Seebold from Cappellini and Seebold but in his enthusiasm to get back in front, the Italian blew over and that left the Puerto Rican firmly in charge, while Werner had a bad session and had to race in the qualifier.
In the race itself, Seebold and Serralles ran side by side and while Australia's Kay Marshall, Sweden's Pelle Brolin, France's Remy Louvel and Japan's Tadaaki Ishikawa all retired early it was Jones and Bertels who ran hardest in their charge to keep in touch with the Americans.
Yet again, Andrew Elliot was well up the pack and running as fast as ever for his Abu Dhabi Airport Duty Free sponsors when he suffered engine failure just four laps from the finish to complete a promising season with no points at all and with the fleet well strung out astern of them, Serralles took the flag by a mere 1/200ths. of a second from Seebold, Bertels and Jones.
Cappellini's careful ninth position gave him his second world title running and Burgess took the first ever F1 constructors championship as the Formula One competitors look forward to races in Russia and China to add to their existing calendar in 1995. Both Cappellini and Nicolo di San Germano have done enough in 1994 to keep their interest alight for what looks to be a brighter future for the formula.
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| Italy's Guido Cappellini always
looked good and finally retained his F1 title in Abu Dhabi by eleven
points from Jones. Photo: Chris Davies |
| Season 1995 | Season 1993 |
