Helencbradshaw is entering Sports Journalism with a bang to celebrate the start of the Formula One Motor Racing season, beginning in Melbourne Australia. The date – 9th March 2003.
The circuit is Albert Park, Melbourne; a circuit which is partly a road circuit, as well as having the setting of the park itself. The back drop is Melbourne’s CBD and St Kilda Road area. The Grand Prix Australia has been at the Melbourne circuit for several years now, and is also the date that most F1 fans wait for, from the previous October, as we can look forward to motor racing approximately every two weeks throughout the summer.
Over the last couple of years, and last year in particular, Formula 1 has been slated for being boring, predictable, fixed, lacking in excitement, dominated by Ferrari, etc. So over the winter months, the executives have been reconsidering some of the rules that govern the sport. Viewers of the sport were drifting away and Bernie Ecclestone’s digital TV channel was not very successful either, although £12 to watch a badly commented race could have been the reason for that.
Now I have to admit, as an avid F1 spectator (I even managed to make it to the Albert Park race in 1999 and 2000) I get a little cheesed off with people who slate Ferrari for their domination of their sport. So B****y what? They worked hard to get where they are. Indeed, when Michael Schumacher joined them a few years back they were nowhere to be seen in the winners circle. In fact, I think there had been a twenty year break in their success, which hardly qualifies as long standing sporting dominance now does it? McLaren Mercedes were dominating everything for the couple of years before that. What goes around comes around. Williams dominated for a while too, from the mid nineties. So that is three major teams all having their spell of leadership in the last eight to ten years that I have followed the sport. People seem to have short term memories only when they make these statements. Granted the alleged race-fixing that was blatant and was going on between the drivers for the Ferrari team is enough to hack people off, as despite this being a “team” event too, most people think of it as an individual competition.
As a result of this negative press the rules have changed. In the past, drivers had twelve qualifying laps to try and post their fastest score, now they get only two. Previously, the car would have been filled with barely enough fuel for three laps (The Out-lap, the flying lap, and the In-lap). Now there is an added twist – the car must be filled with the fuel that the driver will start the race with the following day. This gives the team strategists a real dilemma. Do they attempt the qualifying lap with a light fuel load, which makes the car lighter, and means they will be able to go quicker; or do they fill the car up with a heavier fuel load, which will mean they will post a slower time, but will possibly gain an advantage on the day of the race, when the drivers with the lighter fuel load will have to pit first. There is no right answer to this- it depends very much on the factors on the day, as we have seen from today’s Melbourne race.
The other main changes are that the tyres used for qualifying must be the tyres which the driver starts the race with, and once the car has qualified on the Saturday afternoon, it must be parked in the Parc Ferme until the time of the race, meaning that the mechanics are not able to adjust its settings i.e. tinker with it.
There used to be two tyre manufacturers – Bridgestone and Michelin, with their standard product – wet tyres or slicks. The number of manufacturers is the same but now the tyre manufacturers are making tyres specifically to each team’s requirements.
The new rules were perhaps rushed through, and this left a loophole which Minardi exploited. Minardi are not one of the top teams, and have a much smaller budget than the big names. On the 2nd qualifying session, they did not post a time, but drove into the pit garage instead. Because they did not “qualify” they would start from the back of the grid – i.e. the pit lane. Minardi are used to this anyway. What it gave them was the rest of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to work on their cars as they saw fit.
Now to the race. The front row was once again dominated by Ferrari, with M Schumacher in pole position and his team mate Barrichello in 2nd place. Montoya, a relative newcomer who has entered the sport with a storm took up 3rd place beside Heinz Harald Frentzen, who has left Jordan and now races with Sauber. Olivier Panis was in 5th position and Jacques Villeneuve completed the top six in his BAR; a car which has not exactly performed that well over the last few years since its inaugural race. Jensen Button, the young brit who sits alongside Villeneuve for BAR took up 8th place, while David Coulthard (DC), the man from Twynham, Scotland took up an unimpressive 11th place. This is a long way down the pack for a man who has won the GP 12 times in the past, and drove for a team which has led the pack in the late nineties. His team mate Raikkonen, from Finland, fared even worse at 15th position. Was this a poor car, poor performance by the drivers or simply a heavy car with a fewer pit stop strategy?
Now the obvious challenge to the team strategist once again, is deciding which tyres to put on the car. Should they be wet weather tyres, slicks, or intermediates? For most of the last few days, Melbourne was sunny, but weather in Melbourne is notoriously changeable (the four seasons in one day rule applies there too). On the morning of the race the skies were overcast, and immediately prior to the race the circuit contained damp patches although the weather was dry for the warm up lap. Clearly all the teams would be reviewing the weather forecasts and would have made their most educated decision.
Surprisingly, after the warm up lap, Raikkonen drove straight into the pit lane for a pit stop. This meant he gave up his position as starting from 15th place, and had to start from the back of the field. What was Ron Dennis’ team doing?
The race got underway, and unlike so many starts, there was no real incident to speak of in the first corner and the first three positions were unchanged. Ralf Schumacher, who started ninth, ended up 11th after only a couple of laps, and so he did not get the greatest start of his life. DC took a very early pit stop, and changed his tyres over to slicks. Heidfeld was one of the drivers that had a good start and had jumped two places to fifth after three laps, and after lap four the Ferrari boys had a 9.5 second lead over Montoya, the 3rd place driver. Were Ferrari simply going to run away with this race after all?
Villeneuve also elects for an early pit stop and changes to slicks at lap four. The gamble had paid off for those drivers who had started on the slicks. Montoya, one of those drivers gained 2 seconds a sector by lap four, and top marks to the teams which quickly saw that this could only be the tyre suitability and pulled their drivers in.
Barrichello got a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Unfortunately for him his race soon ended as he hit the wall, without even managing to make it back to take his penalty. So the Ferrari team were down to one man.
Frentzen pits by Lap Six, and newcomer Firman (Jordan) crashes out soon after. He seemed to come unstuck in the same place as Michael Schumacher has a spin. Schumacher pits and had a poor stop at 14.2 seconds. This puts Montoya as the new leader. The safety car is brought out and this hampers Montoya’s ability to break away from the back, as the rear runners are able to catch up.
The safety car is off again by Lap twelve and Williams are 1st and 3rd with Montoya and R Schumacher respectively. Michael Schumacher is 3 seconds behind Montoya, and this gap increases to 4.5 seconds by lap thirteen. Schumacher is in 5th place. By lap 15, Montoya has increased the gap to 7.8 seconds.
Unfortunately for the 100,000 plus Australian crowd, their man Webber drops out of the Grand Prix from 6th place with a suspension failure at the RHS rear, and DC enters the top six for the first time. More pits stops, with Trulli, R Schumacher and Montoya entering the pit lane during the same lap. This was possibly a mistake for the Williams team as they could hold up Ralf in the pit lane whilst attending to Montoya. They just about got away with it, but poor Ralf has a delay due to a problem with the Right Rear tyre. He leaves the pit lane, presumably fired up inside and spins almost immediately. He recovers quickly with no lasting damage. Another newcomer, Wilson, who drives for Minardi has a problem and pulls into the garage. The team did try and fix the problem so he could re-join the race, mainly to get some laps under their belt than to make any real impact on the race result. However this was not to be.
Due to Webber's little incident the Safety Car comes out yet again. By this stage Raikkonen is leading the race and Michael Schumacher in second place. The race restarts at lap 21. With regards to the Brits, DC is now in 3rd place and Button in 5th. Heidfeld goes out at this point, but not before forcing Ralf into the gravel trap. Michael Schumacher puts the pressure on Raikkonen and attempts to overtake him. Raikkonen is having none of that and emerges from the corner retaining his lead. Raikkonen is having a great race, for someone who was 15th on the grid, and actually started last due to his pit stop after the warm up lap. By the end of lap 24 there are only 2.5 seconds between the first three runners.
A mistake by BAR causes them to bring both their drivers in at the same time for pit stops. Unfortunately there was insufficient distance between them to be able to pull this off successfully, with the net result that Button has to wait while Villeneuve takes his pit stop. This costs Button at least six places in the race. Has this effectively ended any chance for him to win points?
Lap 30, and we now have a McLaren 1,2 with Michael Schumacher having pitted at lap twenty nine, having been unable to overtake Raikkonen. This is the opportunity for Raikkonen to push as hard as he can, before going in for his own pit stop in a few laps. Raikkonen was nearly 12 seconds ahead of Michael when he took his stop and manages to emerge ahead of him, while Montoya now has the lead.
Olivier Panis receives a Stop and Go penalty for crossing the yellow line when emerging from the pit lane.
When Frentzen pits from 3rd place, this leaves only fresh air between Raikkonen and Michael once again, but Raikkonen is now under investigation and also seems to be slowing slightly. Raikkonen receives a Stop and Go penalty too; his is for speeding in the pit lane, and he has to come in within three laps. This takes the pressure off Michael, and Raikkonen loses several places. By lap 42, Montoya takes his pit stop and ends up behind Michael but ahead of Coulthard. Now Michael runs into trouble as not one but both of his Barge boards are practically falling off. If he doesn’t come in, he could possibly be black flagged and that would end his race. We are also not sure whether he needs fuel to get to the end. Michael receives the Black and Orange flag and comes in for fuel, the barge boards having already detached themselves. He emerges in fourth place, behind Montoya, Coulthard and Raikkonen. This effectively looks like Michael will not make it to the leaders’ podium for this race, and amazingly, will be the first time since September 01, that he has not led the Championship. Surely Montoya will take the ten points, with only ten laps to go?
Alas for Montoya, in his determination he spins, and while he remains in the race he loses the lead to DC. By Lap 49, DC is 11 seconds ahead of Montoya, and victory looks imminent. DC manages to hold the lead for the remaining part of the 58 lap race to take the chequered flag and his first podium finish since Monaco 2002.
THE RESULT
1st Coulthard – McLaren – 10 points 2nd Montoya – Williams BMW 8 points 3rd Raikkonnen McLaren 6 points 4th M Schumacher – Ferrari 5 points 5th Trulli – Renault 4 points 6th Frentzen – Sauber 3 points 7th Alonso – Renault 2 points 8th R Schumacher – Williams BMW 1 point
So DC started the day with the worst qualifying position in his last 74 races and takes the chequered flag. Steve Bracks, the Premier of Victoria, awards him his winner’s trophy.
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st McLaren 16 points 2 Williams BMW 9 points 3rd Renault 6 points 4th Ferrari 5 points 5th Sauber 3 points
SUMMARY
Well was it the new rules or is Ferrari really down on their luck? I think the uncertainty and changeability of the weather has had a lot to do with the result, but the new rules combined with the weather factors certainly made it a race worth watching, with lots of potential winners who had the race taken away from them for one reason or another. Well done DC!
Helen Bradshaw
March 2003
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