Talk:Daniel Melrose

Formula One Career

2004 - Minardi

In the 2003 off-season, Ferrari paid Minardi several million dollars (The actual amount was rumoured to be in the region of $30-40 million) to place Melrose in a race drive alongside Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner for 2004. Minardi put the money to good use, as immediately it became evident that the updated Minardi PS04B coupled with a new-spec Cosworth engine suited Melrose's naturally aggressive driving style, and as a result a smattering of points for the Minardi team was expected.

Melrose kept up his end of the deal, as in his very first qualifying session in Australia he put the Minardi a magnificent 12th on the grid before driving to a 6th place finish, although it could have been better as he was running 4th with a few laps to go before running wide, letting Ralf Schumacher and Fernando Alonso through. Round 2 was in Malaysia and Melrose made a mistake in qualifying which meant he was only 16th on the grid. However, he more than made up for it in the race by finishing third after a strategic gamble of making one stop less than everyone else, to score his first podium in only his second start. He went one better in the shortened race in the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix, before scoring three more podiums in the next 3 races, including a superb drive to second in the wet at his first visit to Monaco. The European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring was arguably Melrose's best drive in his career up to that point. Despite retiring after a collision whilst trying to lap Italian Giorgio Pantano, the Australian was consistently the fastest car on track and hounded eventual race winner Michael Schumacher for most of the race before the accident.

Melrose backed up the performance in Germany with his first race victory after a stellar drive at the Canadian Grand Prix, despite suffering an early puncture, before following it up with a burn from the stern effort at the United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his first trip to the World Famous facility, only to be denied his second victory on the trot through sheer bad luck alone when a red flag came out for Ralf Schumacher's enormous accident at the final corner. Eventual winner Michael Schumacher had run out of fuel the lap before the red flag came out, but was awarded the victory by less than a second over Melrose when the results were backdated to the second last lap before the red flag came out. More bad luck due to electronic gremlins denied Melrose another win two weeks later at the French Grand Prix. He scored his first pole position 6 days later in Silverstone, the first race since the death of Minardi's sporting director John Walton, only to be denied a win the next day by the resurgent McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen. The next 3 races were relatively quiet for the young Australian, but he did score yet another podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest. It was also during this time that he overtook early championship leader Rubens Barrichello to become the clear runner up in the championship behind runaway leader Michael Schumacher.

At the next race in Spa, he lost the chance to finish on the podium in the pouring rain when Barrichello collided with him whilst battling for third place, which meant Melrose had to settle for fourth. Melrose got his revenge a fortnight later in Italy when he held off Barrichello in the showers that hit the track late in the race to win his second Grand Prix in dramatic fashion. With Schumacher retiring early on in proceedings, Melrose suddenly found himself in with an outside shot of winning the championship in what had been an incredible debut season for the young Australian. That all ended two weeks later however when a late engine problem restricted him to an 11th place finish in China. With Schumacher winning the race, the championship was wrapped up in favour of the German. This didn't deter the young Australian however, as he closed the season on a high note with his third career win with a dominating drive at the Japanese Grand Prix and his 16th points finish of the year at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix. This secured an incredible second place in the championship for both himself and the Minardi team in one of the best season-long campaigns the world had ever seen, proving once and for all that he was a man to watch in the future.

2005 - Ferrari

Over the off season, Rubens Barrichello made some disparaging comments about his time in Ferrari which led to him being replaced by the 19 year old Melrose alongside reigning World Champion Michael Schumacher. Some thought that it was a risk for Ferrari to pick Melrose, as it was the first time the Maranello squad had signed on someone so inexperienced since Frenchman Jean Alesi after he spent just a season and a half at Tyrrell. However, encouraging pre-season testing pace from the Australian silenced some of the critics.

The pre-season form continued to Australia where Melrose became the third Australian to score a podium at his home race behind surprise winner Christian Klien and Mark Webber, who became the first Australian since Rhys Davies in 2002 to score that achievement, about half a minute before Melrose. However, the next two races were disasters for Melrose as he failed to score points in either as he struggled with understeer in the updated 2004 car. Another pointless race in Spain came after he scored his first win for Ferrari in front of the Tifosi at the Imola Circuit, which was the first win for the new Ferrari F2005. However it was his second win, by over a lap at Monaco no less, which really kicked off his championship campaign as he won 4 of the next 5 races, including Monaco, to catapult himself into a comfortable lead in the world championship, ahead of the likes of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso.

The race in the United States was one of the most controversial in Formula One history, with the Michelin teams pulling out due to safety concerns. The situation within the Ferrari theam after the race wasn't any better however, when Melrose broke team orders to return to the garage immediately after the trophy presentation. Instead, he returned to the podium to help longtime friend Dave Simpson celebrate his first ever podium finish in the latter's debut race for Melrose's former team Minardi. At the next race in France, Melrose had his first brush with officialdom when he got placed on probation for dangerous driving whilst trying to hold onto 6th place. That probation from France turned into a suspended one race ban at the very next race at Silverstone, after he was involved in a collision with Sauber's Jacques Villeneuve in the pit lane during the race thanks to a dangerous release at his second pitstop. Sauber then appealed the decision handed down against Melrose as they felt he should have been banned for one race.

Despite the setbacks, it seemed that the Australian was well on his way to his first world championship until the circus reached the Hockenheim circuit for the German Grand Prix. There, rain fell for most of the weekend and in the dreadful conditions on Friday, Melrose speared off the track at high speed at turn 1 head first into a concrete wall, breaking his right ankle. Ferrari's test driver Luca Badoer was drafted in for the weekend and the next race at the Hungaroring, where he scored his first world championship points for 7th place. Melrose was ready to return for the Turkish Grand Prix at the brand new Istanbul Park Circuit but Sauber had won their WMSC appeal which meant Melrose was forced to miss Turkey as well.

When Melrose returned for the Italian Grand Prix, his lead in the world championship had been cut down from 23 to just 3 points over Fernando Alonso, which became 1 point after the race had concluded. Determined to win the championship, Melrose put in an absolutely stonking drive on an three stop strategy from pole to win the Belgian Grand Prix. A similar strategy at the next race in Brazil took him one step closer to the championship as he finished second behind Kimi Raikkonen, with Alonso having a shocker by his standards. Another second place finish at the next race in the Japanese Grand Prix, despite lapping very slowly and lacking grip in the last few laps as he stayed out on inters as the track dried, meant that he became the youngest ever Formula One World Champion as Alonso had failed to finish the race. Melrose's 2005 season ended with a quiet drive to 5th in China, having spent most of the afternoon battling with the Saubers and Tiago Monteiro's Jordan.

2006-2009 - BMW Sauber

Despite the championship win, tensions between Melrose and the Ferrari team had built up considerably with two high-profile collisions with teammate Schumacher and the incident at Indianapolis. Eventually, tensions reached such a high point that his position in the Ferrari team became untenable and Melrose was on the market for 2006. Melrose received offers from Honda, who had just bought out the BAR team, and the new BMW Sauber team who he eventually signed for alongside German Nick Heidfeld. Pre-Season testing was again encouraging for the Australian, but nobody expected the domination that was to come as he won 9 of the first 11 races of the season. However, one of the races he didn't win in that period is considered by many as the best drive of his career. At the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix, Melrose got involved in two collisions with Honda's Jenson Button, which was a precursor to a very messy first few laps. After an unscheduled pit stop for a front wing change, Melrose found himself in 18th with his work cut out for him. However through pit strategy, other people's errors and sheer aggressive driving, Melrose eventually made his way back up to third, in much the same way he scored his first podium two years prior at the same track, but many believed that third was probably as high as he would have gotten regardless, as the Renaults were incredibly strong that day. Regardless, Melrose relentlessly piled on the points and wins and as a result won his second championship at the Hungarian Grand Prix with a second place finish. The last third of Melrose's season however left a lot to be desired, as he only scored 3 wins, 2 poles and 1 fastest lap in the last 7 races of the season, in relatively stark contrast to the peerless driving in the first two-thirds of the year. However, it was enough for him to record the highest ever points total scored by a single driver in a season, the second highest win total in one season, the highest podium count in one season, and the biggest ever points gap between first and second in the championship.

Pre-season testing for 2007 was a different story, as Melrose was struggling for balance in the new BMW F1.07 and looked like he would lose out to the Ferraris, McLarens, and even his new teammate Robert Kubica in the title race that year. However, normal service quickly resumed, as he went on to win 10 of the first 11 races, including a record 8 on the trot spanning from the Spanish Grand Prix to the Hungarian Grand Prix, which included a complete whitewash of the Monaco Grand Prix where he finished a mammoth three laps ahead of second place Mark Webber. His 11th win of the season at the Italian Grand Prix sealed the deal on his third world championship, but his late season form slumped even lower than the previous season as he won only 2 of the last 6 races, including Italy. The 3 races between those 2 wins though were all out of the top drawer in a car that was losing its iron grip on the top of the tree. In Belgium, a brilliant start catapulted the Australian from 8th to 5th before another one of his aggressive drives hauled him all the way to 2nd, capped off with a typically agressive move on McLaren's Sammy Jones into La Source with a handful of laps to go. The next race was at Japan, where he qualified a relatively mediocre 7th on the grid. Rain the next day and a mid-race strategy change by the Australian however hauled him into podium contention before he was passed by Sebastian Vettel with 10 laps to go, which relegated him to a 4th place finish behind first time winner Kubica, Lewis Hamilton and Vettel. A mid-race puncture in China put him out of podium and, seemingly, points contention before a textbook comeback drive hauled him up to 7th before the race was red flagged for a massive accident between Kubica and Spyker's Phoenix McAllister ended the race early. Melrose was adamant that had the race not been red flagged he could have finished higher than 7th, as he was only 7 seconds behind 4th placed Mark Webber when the race was stopped. Melrose's season ended with an emphatic victory from pole at the Brazilian Grand Prix, securing BMW their second constructor's title on the trot.

2008's pre-season tests spelled even more trouble for Melrose, as he was miles off the pace being set up the front, to the point where he was simply embarrassing at the Barcelona test. Despite all the struggles with the new car, Melrose still managed several brilliant performances, including two solid strategic drives in Australia and Great Britain, and a streak of 4 wins from Monaco to Britain, which meant that as the first half of the season came to a close, Melrose was only 3 points away from the championship leader Felipe Massa, and in with a shot of winning a historic 4th world championship crown in unquestionably inferior machinery. However, with the team stopping development on the F1.08 to focus on developing the 2009 car and Melrose's second half blues kicking in yet again meant he only scored a grand total of 17 points in the back 9 of the season, which meant he finished a lonely 5th in the championship, a long way behind the top 4 and a significant margin ahead of Vettel and Kubica. Despite the car's relative pace falling down the pecking order, he still managed to take it to a podium in Belgium and a pole position at the next race in Italy. The last three races of the year were some of the worst in Melrose's career as the car continued its slide down the pecking order, with two pointless finishes in Japan and Brazil, along with an embarrassing first lap collision with McAllister at the Chinese Grand Prix, all of which brought Melrose's season to a disappointing close.

BMW and Melrose redoubled their efforts over the off season after the disappointing 08 campaign, which resulted in a car which was both incredibly quick and consistent in the hands of Melrose, much to the credit of test driver Dave Simpson who had done much of the development work on the car. This resulted in Melrose dominating all of the pre-season tests, as well as the first 4 flyaway races to start the year. Whilst he was running away with proceedings on track, it didn't result in a big lead in the World Championship from second placed Jenson Button, as the Brit was the only driver able to consistently hold a candle to the Australian. Melrose was involved in a controversial incident at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix, as he crossed the finish line with the entire front-right corner of the car an absolute mess after a last lap collision with Scott Speed in the USF1 car. At the next Grand Prix at Monaco, he scored a historic 5th win which put him equal with Graham Hill on the all-time Monaco wins list and broke Nigel Mansell's 17 year old record of the longest winning streak from the first race of the season with 6 victories at that point. Melrose eventually dragged that streak up to 10 races until a puncture at the European Grand Prix denied him the win, and a shot of the incredible honour of being the first driver ever to win every single race in a season. On July 10, Melrose made an announcement that shocked the motorsport world when he announced that he was joining the Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series, the breakaway series to the Formula 1 Championship, for 2010. Whilst he was dominating the season on track, it wasn't until Singapore that he officially wrapped up his fourth world championship crown ahead of Button. Melrose overtook Alain Prost for second in the all-time wins tally at the Japanese Grand Prix after a vicious chop on Button at race start, having broken Nigel Mansell's pole record the day before. Melrose then dominated the last two races to beat his points record from 2006 as well as former world champion Chris Dagnall's 18 year old record for the most fastest laps in a single season.

2010 - Mercedes GP

Due to BMW pulling out of Formula One, citing that they've achieved all their goals in F1, Melrose became the biggest free agent on the market during the off season. Teams up and down the grid and even around the world in other categories were clamouring for his signature for 2010. In the end he moved to the Brawn team which had just been bought out by German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. While some teams did offer higher salaries than what Mercedes eventually paid for the superstar, Melrose reportedly accepted their offer because the contract allowed him to drive in both F1 and the F1RWRS for 2010 before making his decision for 2011 and beyond.

If pre-season testing was anything to go by however, it looked like the Australian and his team would struggle through the year to fight for the world title, as the times suggested a mammoth four-way fight for both titles between Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, with Sammy Jones and F1 returnee Rhys Davies playing the role of interloper. Those predictions were confirmed in Bahrain with a relatively subdued 6th place from a mediocre 8th on the grid for the Australian. Some more Melrose magic followed in his home race with pole and a podium finish after hounding the clearly superior Red Bull cars all weekend. Three more relatively quiet drives followed in Malaysia, China and Spain as he kept consistently racking up the points whilst not being able to fight at the sharp end of the grid.

By the time the circus came to Monaco however, Melrose had finally managed to figure out how to get the car working for him and took his sixth Monaco Grand Prix win as a result, equaling Aryton Senna's 17 year record at the same track. Two more wins followed as the reigning champion suddenly found himself solidly in the lead of the world championship having been seemingly an outsider for the title at most a few weeks before. While a quiet European Grand Prix followed, the defending champ was back on form at the very next race at the recently renovated Silverstone Circuit. After a late steering wheel issue, Melrose drove like a bat out of hell in the dying stages which led to one of his greatest victories after a last-lap pass on race leader and hometown hero Sammy Jones at Copse. After the Grand Prix, Melrose finally revealed to the world what his plans for 2011 would be. Many had speculated that he would try to balance a Formula 1 season alongside the F1RWRS for a second year in a row but he defied all expectations and announced that 2010 would be his last year in Formula 1, despite being close to dead-last in the F1RWRS standings.

The Formula One championship was still far from over however with as many as half a dozen drivers still in realistic contention for the championship, Melrose decided to focus solely on trying to win the F1 title over the rest of the year, with former F1 champion Chris Dagnall taking over Melrose's driving duties in the F1RWRS. Over the course of the next five races, two more victories for Melrose along with two third places, including a comeback drive in Singapore after an early strategic blunder, whilst all his major rivals failed to score any meaningful points as consistently as the Australian, meant Melrose was firmly in the box seat for his fifth, and possibly final, World Championship. He clinched that fifth world title at the very next race in Japan after a dominant showing to claim his 7th Grand Prix win of the season. He finished off the season with a gritty drive to 8th place in Korea before win number 8 of the year from pole in Brazil.

He started his final race from pole at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. However, a loose front wing bolt demoted him to last after just two laps as he pitted for a replacement wing. He then proceeded to pull out what was arguably the best drive of his career as he broke the lap record set by him the previous year a dozen or so times during the course of the event and passed up to 20 cars on track for position to claw all the way back into 2nd place by race end, behind eventual winner Lewis Hamilton. His fastest lap ended up beating his pole time by half a second, and the old lap record by a mammoth 1.7 seconds set in the all conquering BMW of the previous year.

Complete Formula One Grand Prix results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2004	Minardi Cosworth	Minardi PS04B	Cosworth CR-3 L	AUS 6	MAL 3	BHR‡ 2	SME 3	ESP 3	MON 2	EUR Ret	CAN 1	USA 2	FRA 2	GBR 2	GER 4	HUN 3	BEL 4	ITA 1	CHN 11	JPN 1	BRA 8		2nd	104
2005	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F2004M	Ferrari 053	AUS 3	MAL 16																		1st	100
		Ferrari F2005	Ferrari 055			BHR 13	SME 1	ESP 10	MON 1	EUR 1	CAN 1	USA 1	FRA 6	GBR 1	GER PO	HUN INJ	TUR EX	ITA 8	BEL 1	BRA 2	JPN 2	CHN 5
2006	BMW Sauber F1 Team	BMW Sauber F1.06	BMW P86	BHR 1	MAL 3	AUS 1	SME 1	EUR 2	ESP 1	MON 1	GBR 1	CAN 1	USA 1	FRA 1	GER 3	HUN 2	TUR 1	ITA 2	CHN 2	JPN 1	BRA 1		1st	164
2007	BMW Sauber F1 Team	BMW Sauber F1.07	BMW P86/7	AUS 1	MAL 1	BHR Ret	ESP 1	MON 1	CAN 1	USA 1	FRA 1	GBR 1	EUR 1	HUN 1	TUR 4	ITA 1	BEL 2	JPN 4	CHN 7	BRA 1			1st	140
2008	BMW Sauber F1 Team	BMW Sauber F1.08	BMW P86/8	AUS 3	MAL 4	BHR 10	ESP 20	TUR 4	MON 1	CAN 1	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 6	HUN 6	EUR 17	BEL 3	ITA Ret	SIN 4	JPN 9	CHN Ret	BRA 12		5th	73
2009	BMW Sauber F1 Team	BMW Sauber F1.09	BMW P86/9	AUS 1	MAL 1	CHN 1	BHR 1	ESP 1	MON 1	TUR 1	GBR 1	GER 1	HUN 1	EUR 3	BEL 1	ITA 1	SIN 1	JPN 1	BRA 1	ABU 1			1st	166
2010	Mercedes GP Petronas	Mercedes MGP W01	Mercedes FO 108X	BHR 6	AUS 3	MAL 6	CHN 7	ESP 5	MON 1	TUR 1	CAN 1	EUR 7	GBR 1	GER 5	HUN 1	BEL 3	ITA 1	SIN 3	JPN 1	KOR 8	BRA 1	ABU 2	1st	315

• * Season in Progress.
• ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
• † Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Career Summary

Year	Series	Team	Position
1994	NSW Midget Karting	Independent	1st
1995	Australian Midget Karting	Independent	2nd
1996	Australian Rookie Karting	Independent	4th
1997	Formula C Championship	Precision Motorsports	2nd
1998	Formula C Championship	Precision Motorsports	1st
1999	Australian Formula Ford Championship	Fastlane Racing	4th
2000	Australian Formula Ford Championship	Fastlane Racing	1st
2001	Australian Formula Three Championship	Piccola Scuderia	1st
	Macau Grand Prix		4th
2002	British Formula Three Championship	Fortec Motorsport	1st
	Macau Grand Prix		1st
2003	International F3000 Championship	Super Nova Racing	1st
2004	Formula One	Minardi Cosworth	2nd
2005	Formula One	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1st
2006	Formula One	BMW Sauber	1st
2007	Formula One	BMW Sauber	1st
2008	Formula One	BMW Sauber	5th
2009	Formula One	BMW Sauber	1st
2010	Formula One	Mercedes GP	1st
	F1RWRS	JLD Motorsport	17th
	F1 Rejects World Championship	Qantas Melrose Racing Team	1st
2011	F1RWRS	Qantas JLD Motorsport	2nd
2012	F1RWRS	Qantas Melrose Racing Team	7th
2013	F1RWRS	ArrowTech ART	=8th
		Castrol Jones Racing
2014	F1RWRS	Castrol Jones Racing	6th
2015	F1RWRS	Simpson Motorsports	=26th
		Holden F1RWRS Racing Team
	RoLFS	Red Bull World Race Team	20th
	F1RICS	McDoggle Racing Team	39th

F1 Records Held

• Youngest Driver to score a point: 18 years, 255 days (2004 Australian Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to score a podium: 18 years, 269 days (2004 Malaysian Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to start on the front row: 18 years, 330 days (2004 Monaco Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to lead a lap: 18 years, 338 days (2004 European Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to score a fastest lap: 18 years, 338 days (2004 European Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to win a Grand Prix: 18 years, 352 days (2004 Canadian Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to score a pole position: 19 years, 15 days (2004 British Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to win a Grand Prix from pole position: 19 years, 302 days (2005 San Marino Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to score a Hat Trick: 19 years, 330 days (2005 Monaco Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to score a Grand Chelem: 19 years 330 days (2005 Monaco Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to lead the World Championship: 19 years, 337 days (2005 European Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to win the World Championship: 20 years, 101 days (2005 Japanese Grand Prix)
• Youngest Driver to win 2 World Championships: 21 years, 41 days (2006 Hungarian Grand Prix)
• Most podium finishes in a season: 18 (2006)
• Most consecutive podium finishes from the first race in a season: 18 (2006 Bahrain Grand Prix - Brazilian Grand Prix)
• Most consecutive podium finishes: 20 (2006 Bahrain Grand Prix - 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix)
• Race winner with largest margin to 2nd: 3 laps (Mark Webber - 2007 Monaco Grand Prix)
• Race winner from furthest back on the grid: 22nd (2007 United States Grand Prix)*
• Youngest Driver to win 3 World Championships: 22 years, 75 days (2007 Italian Grand Prix)
• Most consecutive races leading the World Championship: 48 (2005 European Grand Prix - 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix)
• Most consecutive races won: 10 (2009 Australian Grand Prix - 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix)
• Most consecutive wins from the first race of the season: 10 (2009 Australian Grand Prix - 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix)
• Most consecutive pole positions: 17 (2009 Australian Grand Prix - Abu Dhabi Grand Prix)
• Most wins in a season: 16 (2009)
• Most pole positions in a season: 17 (2009)
• Most fastest laps in a season: 14 (2009)
• Most wins from pole position in a season: 16 (2009)
• Most Hat Tricks in a season: 14 (2009)
• Most consecutive points finishes: 36 (2009 Australian Grand Prix - 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix)
• Most Grand Chelems: 20
• Most wins from pole position: 48
• Most Hat Tricks: 36

* Joint record holder