Reviewing Maserati's Season of Victory

The four-month hiatus between the final race of 2005 and the first race of 2006 is an ideal time to take a look back at the season just ended. This saw the Maserati MC12, the Italian marque's stunning interpretation of the modern supercar, competing in the FIA GT Championship - it had previously raced in the last four rounds of the 2004 series as a factory-backed 'invitation' entry.

For 2005, two customer teams each raced MC12 cars in the full FIA GT Championship; the German team, Vitaphone Racing, ran two cars in their distinctive black and green livery, while Monaco-based JMB Racing also had two cars, in dark blue. The races were designed to be a true test of man and machinery; most races were three hours in length, with a 24-hour race thrown in at mid-season.

Right from the beginning of the season, at the historic Monza circuit in Italy, the MC12 proved itself the perfect car for the series. It claimed four of the top five places in the season opener, and followed that up with a clean sweep of the podium at Magny-Cours, in France, three weeks later. These two races set the pattern for the season; the MC12 was fast and consistent, and at least one Maserati finished on the podium at each of the eleven races.

Part of the consistency came from the driver pairings. Vitaphone had the German pairing of Michael Bartels and Timo Scheider, with Thomas Biagi and Fabio Babini in the second car, while JMB's lead duo were Karl Wendlinger and Andrea Bertolini. All three crews were well-matched; in fact, after three races all six were tied at the top of the Drivers' standings.

The finest result of the season came at the longest, most arduous race - the 24 Hours of Spa. Weather conditions were constantly changing around the challenging Belgian circuit, demanding both reliability and precision - and the Maserati teams proved up to the challenge; Bartels, Scheider and 'guest' driver Eric van de Poele took the win ahead of Wendlinger, Bertolini and Philipp Peter.

After three race wins in succession for Maserati, the FIA hit the teams with 110 lbs of additional penalty weight in an attempt to rein in the majestic MC12; added to the 'success ballast' demanded by the rules, that meant running with up to 330 lbs lead strapped into the car. The extra weight took the edge off the car's stunning performance, setting up a thrilling finale to the season.

Going into the final race, in Bahrain, seven racers had a shot at the Drivers' title, six of them Maserati drivers. At the end of an incident-filled race, it seemed that Gabriele Gardel had claimed the title, but then the Ferrari he shared with Pedro Lamy was excluded when it failed post-race examination. That made Bartels and Scheider champions, which would have been a fitting end to the season for the Maserati teams.

But it was not to be; the exclusion of Gardel and Lamy was overturned on appeal due to procedural mistakes made by the stewards. As a result Gardel claimed the Drivers' Championship, just one point ahead of Bartels and Scheider, robbed of a title they could justifiably feel was theirs. Wendlinger and Bertolini were next in the table, a further three points back, with Biagi and Babini next in the list - six out of the top seven drivers, just missing out on the top spot.

Missing out on the Drivers' title should not detract from the huge achievements made by teams, drivers and car. In their first 'official' season of competition since 1957, Maserati took the Manufacturers' Cup, and Vitaphone claimed the Teams' Championship from JMB - in both competitions, Maserati racked up more points than the rest of the competitors combined. The MC12 took four wins, eight second places and six thirds - eighteen podium finishes from 44 starts, a remarkable rate of success.