Three cars share a lap in Barcelona for the first time

The 2020 Spanish Grand Prix will likely not be remembered as an exciting race: only three cars finished on the same lap, making for a rather dull spectacle. But this is not the first time this has happened; FanF1 reminds us why.

Fans are tired of seeing the same old scenario: one team raking in all the points while the others fight over the scraps. Yet this pattern is nothing new: it's the very rhythm of Formula 1, a sport that has constantly reinvented its own hierarchy to see a new dynasty take the lead.

The story begins in Barcelona in 1993, when the Spanish Grand Prix turned into a demonstration of glaring disparity. Of the 26 drivers at the start, Alain Prost crossed the finish line 16 seconds ahead of Ayrton Senna and 27 seconds ahead of the young Michael Schumacher. The field was a veritable procession: all the other cars were at least one lap behind, with Gerhard Berger languishing two laps back in sixth place. What prevented the race from being completely boring were the 12 retirements due to mechanical problems, which injected a fleeting dose of suspense into an otherwise lopsided competition. Five years later, the formula was the same, only the dominant name had changed. Adrian Newey's McLaren-Mercedes, driven by Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard, turned the early rounds of 1998 into a two-horse race. In Melbourne, the only cars in the lead lap were the two Silver Arrows, with Häkkinen just 0.7 seconds ahead of his teammate. Brazil offered a similar picture: only four drivers finished in the lead lap, with Michael Schumacher's Ferrari and Alexander Wurz's Benetton finishing more than a minute behind the Finnish winner. Reliability, always unpredictable, was the only factor that could upset the established order. The early 2000s amplified this trend. Between 2000 and 2004, Ferrari built a dominant engine that left its rivals powerless. The 2002 season opened with Schumacher's victory in Australia, and only three cars—Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Kimi Räikkönen—shared the lead. This pattern repeated itself race after race, culminating in a historic title win at the French Grand Prix, where Schumacher clinched his fifth title with six races still to go. That year, Ferrari accumulated as many points in the constructors' standings as all the other teams combined. Ten years later, Jenson Button's Brawn GP enjoyed a similar rise, winning six of the first seven races in 2009. These cycles of supremacy have become the hallmark of the sport. Mercedes has reigned supreme since 2014, while Red Bull held the reins from 2010 to 2013. Critics point to DRS and other “artificial” aids as the only sources of excitement, but history shows that reliability issues once played the same role. Today, cars finish races in a tight pack, but the spectacle remains bland without a tire war to force strategic bets. The 2012 season gave a brief glimpse of what Formula 1 can achieve when the field is truly open. Seven different winners took turns in the first seven rounds: Jenson Button (Australia), Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Pastor Maldonado, Mark Webber, and Lewis Hamilton, before Kimi Räikkönen added an eighth victory for Lotus. That year proved that when regulations, reliability, and competition align, the sport can deliver relentless suspense without artifice. As the next set of technical regulations looms for 2022, the hope is simple: to restore a balance where performance, sustainability, and genuine battles on the track coexist. Only then will Formula 1 regain the unpredictable thrill that keeps fans on the edge of their seats.