Jack Brabham, 1961 Monaco Grand Prix
Last race of his 1960 championship year: p2 in qualifying, p4 in race
First race of the 1961 championship: p16 in qualifying, retirement from the race
After securing the 1960 championship title in Portugal, Jack Brabham qualified 2nd for the last race of the season at the United States Grand Prix. After a good start, he was leading the race, until his fuel tanks started spilling fuel. Despite these problems, and two pitstops that failed to fix the problem, he was still able to finish his second championship year in fourth.
For 1961, Formula One switched from 2.5 liter engines to much smaller and less powerful 1.5 liter engines. While Ferrari was well-prepared for the new regulations, the Cooper team struggled all year; Brabham retired from 6 out of 8 races that year and scored only 3 points. Jack Brabham's year already started off bad at the first race of the season in Monaco: after qualifying 16th and last, he retired with ignition problems not even half-way through the race.
Damon Hill, 1997 Australian Grand Prix
Last race of his 1996 championship year: p2 in qualifying, race victory
First race of the 1997 championship: p20 in qualifying, did not start the race
After finishing second to Michael Schumacher in 1994 and 1995, Damon Hill finally saw his chance to build a strong title challenge in 1996, with Schumacher moving to Ferrari and rookie Jacques Villeneuve only occasionally troubling the Englishman. Nevertheless, as it later seemed, the Williams team had already decided in 1995 that Damon Hill was not the future of the team, and Hill was told so himself in the Summer of 1996, while leading the championship by 13 points. From that point on, Hill had just one goal: become world champion. He did so, and he did so in style, winning the last race of the year in Japan.
Hill had a couple of teams to choose from for 1997, but ended up signing for Arrows. Although Arrows was a backmarker team, the arrival of Tom Walkinshaw made Hill believe the team was about to make big steps forward. Unfortunately for Damon Hill, it was not to be; although he was close to victory in an inspiring race in Hungary, he spent most of 1997 in the back of the field. In his first race for the team, he only qualified 20th and didn't even make the start: during the warm-up lap, his throttle jammed and he was forced to retire before the lights even went green.
Michael Schumacher, 2005 Australian Grand Prix
Last race of his 2004 championship year: p18 in qualifying, p7 in race
First race of the 2005 championship: p18 in qualifying, retired from the race
Following an unprecedented run of 5 consecutive world championships, Michael Schumacher had an amazing 2004 season, winning 13 races and wrapping up the title fight 5 races before the end of the season. The last race of one of the most dominant championships in F1 history however did not go very smoothly for Schumacher though. After qualifying 8th, a penalty for an engine change meant he had to start from 18th on the grid. 71 laps later though, he did make it back to finish in 7th position.
2005 proved to be a difficult season for Ferrari and Michael Schumacher; the Michelin tires proved to be much better than the Bridgestones and Schumacher's only victory coming in the 6-car United States Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher's weekend didn't get off to a great start when circumstances in qualifying left him down in 18th place on the start grid. After making his way through the field, Schumacher emerged from his second pit stop just ahead of Nick Heidfeld. Unfortunately for the German drivers, a collision between the two not 3 corners later meant both were forced to retire.
Lewis Hamilton, 2009 Australian Grand Prix
Last race of his 2008 championship year: p4 in qualifying, p5 in race
First race of the 2009 championship: p18 in qualifying, disqualified from the race
After a year-long fight with Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton went into the Brazilian Grand Prix with a 7 point lead on Felipe Massa. What should have been a pretty straight-forward race however turned into a nightmare for the young Brit, who ended up having to fight for the required 5th place position for most of the race. When Torro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel passed him with just 2 laps to go, it meant the title was in Massa's hands now. Although Massa was champion when he crossed the line, an unexpected pass on Timo Glock in the last corner meant that Hamilton clinched the title with just 1 point in what is the closest championship finish in F1 history.
With radical new rule changes that were supposed to improve the spectacle of the sport, the pecking order of the teams during the winter testing surprised many, with Brawn GP team emerging from winter testing with a dominant car while Hamilton's McLaren team was badly struggling for speed. After failing to even make it to Q2 in the first race in Australia, Hamilton's weekend got even worse when a gearbox penalty demoted him to the last place on the starting grid. Lewis Hamilton's race didn't go half bad though, and he actually crossed the finish line in 4th position after some initial uncertainty over whether or not he should have overtaken Trulli behind the safety car. Unfortunately for Hamilton, the aftermath of the race, which has become known as 'liegate', saw him disqualified from the race for misleading the stewards about the circumstances of what happened in those last few laps.
Sebastian Vettel, 2014 Australian Grand Prix
Last race of his 2013 championship year: pole position and race victory
First race of the 2014 championship: p12 in qualifying, retired from the race
2013 was a record-breaking year for Sebastian Vettel, securing his 4th consecutive world title, taking home 13 victory trophies and winning an unprecedented 9 consecutive races. Prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix, it was said the only thing that could keep Vettel from winning the last race of the season was rain. Rain came, yet Vettel showed again he knows how to drive in wet conditions by taking pole position more than half a second clear of Nico Rosberg's Mercedes. Although a bad pitstop may have made Vettel sweat a little, he finished the season in style with a lights-to-flag victory.
With the new engines V6 turbo engines coming in for 2014, many speculated during the winter what the new pecking would look like. During winter testing, the Red Bull RB10 had already shown to be a handful, breaking down on all but 1 test day, and Vettel spending so much time on the sideline only Lotus and Jenson Button drove fewer laps. When Formula 1 arrived in Melbourne for the first race of the season, Vettel again spent most of the first practice stuck in the pitbox, but at least the RB10 showed some signs of speed this time. Although Vettel had a trouble-free FP2, the practice session on Saturday morning saw the return of mechanical issues, with the Renault V6 turbo engine misfiring. In qualifying, software issues meant that the engine was severely down on power, leaving him stranded in Q2 in 13th place. Any hope for a fight through the field on Sunday was quickly put to rest in the first seconds after the start, when one system after another started failing. After just 3 laps, and with only 4 cylinders still working, Vettel retired from the race. Out of the 6 sessions Vettel took part in this weekend, 5 of them were plagued by mechanical issues.
