The operation planned by David Richards and Rocco Benetton in '97, which began in '98 with the intention of relaunching the Italian-British team at the top of Formula 1, completely collapsed at the end of the disappointing '99 season when, at the end of the championship, the points scored by the Enstone cars were only 16, which were worth sixth place in the Constructors' Championship, the worst result for the team up to that point. Tim Densham was hired, to replace the resigning Nick Wirth, to design the new Benetton B200, presented in January 2000 at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona in Spain, at the same time as the new team website was launched.
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| BENETTON B200, Alexander Wurz Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 2000 |
Densham is an English engineer with a good past in Formula 1 behind him, having worked at Lotus alongside Colin Chapman, at Brabham and at Tyrrell with Harvey Postlethwaite. It was with the latter that he was called, together with the English aerodynamicist Ben Agathangelou, to design the Honda RA099, a project then aborted by Honda itself after the death of Postlethwaite. Once called to Benetton his career took off until he won two world titles with the single-seaters driven by Alonso in 2005 and 2006. Agathangelou was also hired by Benetton to fill the role of Chief Aerodynamicist, vacated by James Allison at the end of '99 and so, under the guidance of Technical Director Pat Symonds, the new B200 was born, a simple and basic single-seater after the complex B199 of the previous season had often suffered from poor reliability.
BENETTON B200, Giancarlo Fisichella
Melbourne, Australian GP 2000
While maintaining practically the same shape as the previous car, the B200 represents a change of philosophy, as pronounced by technical director Pat Symonds, with a notable saving in weight, greater rigidity of the chassis and a decidedly improved aerodynamic stability. The most important novelty is undoubtedly represented by the engine which is still a Playlife produced by Supertec, a branch of the Dutch company Super Performance Competition Engineering which in May 1998 signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Mecachrome for the V10 GC37 (the former Renault RS9), but which from this season benefits from the FB02 updates which allow it to develop a power of around 780hp at 15800 rpm, while Renault itself provides a staff of technicians to adapt the engine following the specifications of the B200 chassis. The longitudinal sequential semi-automatic gearbox has also been revised, although it still has six speeds, while the new suspension features carbon double wishbones with inboard shock absorbers and torsion bar springs at the front and coil over shock absorbers at the rear.
BENETTON B200, Giancarlo Fisichella
Montréal, Canadian GP 2000
The livery of the new Benetton changes slightly compared to '99, maintaining the sky blue as the main color but losing the blue, white and green that characterized the '99 single-seater. The cigarette brand Mild Seven is still the main sponsor with the addition of Marconi, D2 and Korean Air as secondary partners. Despite the new sponsors, for the new season almost all the economic effort falls on the Benetton family who, after the first Grand Prix of the Championship, closes a 120 million dollar agreement to sell part of the company capital to Renault. The transalpine company thus returns to Formula 1 no longer only as an engine supplier but also as a team, even if until the end of 2001 the team will continue to be called Benetton and Renault's role will be only marginal. The first move of the French company is to recall Flavio Briatore, who takes the place of Richards and Benetton in the role of Team Principal. As for the drivers, the Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and the Austrian Alexander Wurz were confirmed for the third consecutive year, while the Japanese Hidetoshi Mitsusada was hired as test driver even though his lack of experience led to his dismissal in May, replaced by the Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia.
BENETTON B200, Giancarlo Fisichella
Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 2000
The single-seater proved to be fairly fast but above all reliable, allowing the two drivers to reach the end of the race with a certain continuity. As in the previous season, the Championship started well, especially for Fisichella, who was able to obtain 3 podium finishes in the first 8 races as well as 2 points finishes, earning 18 points. Unfortunately for him, the second half of the Championship was stingy with results and the reliability of his B200 also dropped significantly, forcing him to retire 5 times with only 2 ninth places as his best finishes. Wurz, on the other hand, no longer seemed to possess the qualities he had shown in previous years and his season was very disappointing with only one points finish in Monza, in the Italian Grand Prix. At the end of the Championship, the Mild Seven Benetton Playlife team, with 20 points, obtained fourth place in the Constructors' Standings, tied with BAR. At the end of the season at the Estoril circuit in Portugal, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Jenson Button tested the B200, with the latter signing as race driver for 2001 and Webber hired as test driver.
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