Rubens Barrichello won his first ever Grand Prix today due to some excellent driving and a fair amount of good fortune. This was all the more surprising as a poor qualifying performance in the rain on Saturday had meant that Barrichello would have to start his Ferrari from 18th position on the grid.
There was the usual jostling for position at the start, polesitter David Coulthard — who had this week criticized Michael Schumacher for the way he veered across the track in front of his competition — veered across the track in front of Schumacher which balked him and allowed Mika Hakkinen to sweep through into the lead from fourth place.
Schumacher moved to the left in front of the Benetton of Giancarlo Fisichella who was already breaking for the corner and could not avoid running into the back of him. This took both of them out of the race and for the second race in succession Schumacher failed to complete a single lap.
The McLarens of Hakkinen and Coulthard pulled away from the rest of the field and were building up a decent lead when on lap 26 a Frenchman, protesting his recent firing by Mercedes, climbed over the barrier and walked across the track in front of some approaching cars. He was not hit but obviously the race could not continue safely with him there so the safety car was sent out to slow the cars until he could be removed. This caused the cars to bunch up and the McLaren lead was gone.
Four laps later the safety car was brought out again when Jean Alesi (Prost) and Pedro Diniz (Sauber) collided heavily sending Alesi spinning along the track and into the barrier. Several of their wheels became detached and went rolling along the road.
On lap 33 the rain clouds which had been approaching finally arrived and the rain started. Several cars started to slide and spin including Eddie Irvine (Jaguar) and Jacques Villeneuve who had a push from Ricardo Zonta, his BAR teammate.
Hakkinen pitted for wet tyres on lap 35 and Coulthard two laps later but the Ferrari management decided that, as it was only raining on part of the circuit, Barrichello should stay out on his slick tyres and thus he won the race in front of Hakkinen and Coulthard.
Jenson Button (Williams) was fourth, Mika Salo (Sauber) fifth and Pedro de La Rosa (Arrows) sixth.
After the race Barrichello got a hug from Schumacher, as well he might, because had he not scored maximum points for Ferrari, Hakkinen and McLaren would have moved past Schumacher and Ferrari in the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship tables, as it is the massive 22 point lead that Schumacher once had is now down to just two points.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen drove a strong race for Jordan and was headed for a possible podium finish when he retired with engine problems a few laps from the end.
German GP results.
Posted: Sunday, July 30th, 2000
Jacques Villeneuve has signed a contract which will keep him with the British American Racing team for another three years. The fact that Craig Pollock — Managing Director and his boss at BAR — is also his agent, his close friend and his childhood tutor must have made for some tense negotiations.
There are apparently strict performance clauses in the contract — for the team, not Villeneuve — that will let him walk away from the deal if his car is not up to his standards.
Posted: Thursday, July 27th, 2000
Johnny Herbert has announced that he will not be staying in Formula 1 next year and that he intends to drive in the CART series in America instead. This has confirmed what many people had been thinking, as rumours of his departure or retirement have been circulating all year.
Herbert has not signed with any of the CART teams yet but he was spotted talking to several team owners at the Michigan 500 last weekend. He may have been hoping to do a seat-swap with Team KOOL Green driver Dario Franchitti — who has already tested with Jaguar — but it now appears that Franchitti may be staying in CART for a while longer. Nonetheless, there should still be several other openings with leading teams including four time defending CART Championship winners Team Ganassi if Juan Montoya returns to drive for Williams in F1.
Herbert has won three GP’s during his F1 career, two for Benetton in 1995 and one last year for Stewart. He was also on the Le Mans winning Mazda team in 1991.
Posted: Thursday, July 27th, 2000
After their meeting in London today the FIA announced that Mika Hakkinen’s win in the Austrian Grand Prix would stand.
The McLaren team were not so lucky as they were fined $50,000 and they also had 10 points deducted from their Constructors’ Championship total which drops them from first to second in the title chase, four points behind Ferrari.
The penalty seemed a little severe as the FIA has stated that, even though their seal was missing, they were confident that no illegal tampering with either the engine control unit or its programming had occurred. It is also quite likely that they (the FIA) had failed to install it in the first place which would only make McLaren guilty of failing to notice the FIA’s mistake.
Posted: Tuesday, July 25th, 2000
Mika Hakkinen’s win at the Austrian Grand Prix may not stand as it was discovered that the electronic black box in his car was missing one of the FIA seals.
The FIA checks the programming of each team’s engine management devices to make sure that no illegal driver aids such as traction control have been programmed into them. Once they are satisfied with the program the FIA installs a seal that prevents the device from being reprogrammed and it is this seal that was missing from the box in Hakkinen’s McLaren.
At this stage it has not been suggested that there was anything illegal about the device but even if they don’t find anything wrong the FIA could still impose a penalty because the seal was missing.
The FIA have taken the box to be checked out early next week and they do not plan to make any further announcements until after then.
If Hakkinen was disqualified his teammate David Coulthard would inherit the win and an extra four Championship points which would put him just two points behind Michael Schumacher so Ferrari may not have as much to say about this matter as they usually would.
Posted: Monday, July 17th, 2000
Mika Hakkinen, obviously rejuvenated by his recent vacation, led today’s Austrian Grand Prix from start to finish apart from a couple of laps while he and the other front runners made their pit stops. David Coulthard finished second to make it another one-two finish for McLaren.
Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari was hit from behind by Ricardo Zonta’s BAR at the first corner which caused it to veer off the track into a gravel trap. This was the third DNF in four races for Schumacher and his formidable early season lead in the Drivers’ Championship is now down to just six points.
In the confusion behind Schumacher and Zonta the rest of the field bunched up and several other collisions took place, most notably one which involved Ralf Schumacher (Williams), Jarno Trulli (Jordan) and Giancarlo Fisichella (Benetton). Trulli and Fisichella went out on the spot and Ralf Schumacher made his way to the pits for repairs and then rejoined the race seven laps down in what must have been just a test session at that point as he was so far behind the leaders. He finally retired a few laps from the end after spinning off the track.
Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari was also rear-ended at the first corner and, although the bump he received from Trulli was not enough to put him out of the race, the handling of his car was affected and he was unable to catch Pedro de la Rosa’s Arrows which was in third place. On the 33rd lap the Arrows retired and Barrichello collected third place where he stayed until the end.
Jacques Villeneuve (BAR) was fourth followed by Jenson Button (Williams) and Mika Salo (Sauber). Villeneuve and everyone behind him having been lapped at least once by Hakkinen.
Johnny Herbert finished seventh in the Jaguar and his temporary teammate Luciano Burti was 11th in his first ever Grand Prix start. Burti, normally the Jaguar test driver, was filling in for Eddie Irvine who was rushed back to England with stomach pains that were thought to be appendicitis.
Marc Gene was eighth in his Minardi and his teammate Gaston Mazzacane was two laps behind in 12th place.
After another poor showing the Prost team was eliminated when Jean Alesi tried to squeeze inside Nick Heidfeld, his Prost teammate, and they both spun off in a shower of broken carbon fiber.
Despite neither of their cars finishing this was a better than average weekend for the Arrows team which at one point had both of their cars in points paying positions. If they can improve their reliability as much as they have their performance they could become a force to be reckoned with.
Austrian GP results.
Posted: Sunday, July 16th, 2000
David Coulthard narrowed the gap on Championship leader Michael Schumacher and edged slightly further away from defending World Champion Mika Hakkinen today by winning the French Grand Prix.
The race started out looking like a Ferrari sweep as pole sitter Michael Schumacher led from the start and Rubens Barrichello moved into second place in his wake. David Coulthard in the lead McLaren showed great patience as he followed Barrichello for 22 laps before passing him but when he caught up with Schumacher his patience seemed to run out as he showed his versatility with both American and British abusive gestures as Schumacher veered wide to avoid being passed. Coulthard later apologized for his gestures in the post-race press conference.
Coulthard overtook Schumacher with another aggressive move soon after and started to pull away. Schumacher held onto second place until the 60th lap when, in a rare moment of unreliability, his engine expired in a cloud of smoke and he had to park his Ferrari at the side of the track, handing the place to Hakkinen who had been unable to pass him.
Barrichello’s day was not much better than his teammate’s with a slow first pitstop and a wheel-changing problem on his second dropping him to third place and out of contention with the leaders.
Jacques Villeneuve made another good start, gaining two places by the first corner, and finished fourth equaling his best result of the year. This result comes amidst rumours that he will be moving to Benetton next year, although this has yet to be confirmed and a statement from BAR team boss Craig Pollock said that there was a good chance that he would remain with BAR for another year.
Ralf Schumacher finished fifth for Williams with the Jordan of Jarno Trulli in sixth. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was seventh in the second Jordan and was annoyed with teammate Trulli’s passing tactics which had damaged his already poor handling car when they banged wheels.
Jenson Button was eighth in the second Williams. Rumour has it that Button will be out of a job next year when Sir Frank (Williams) exercises his option on CART Champion Juan Montoya.
Jean Alesi’s race in front of his French countrymen was fairly eventful as he was twice hit from behind and spun out, once by his teammate Nick Heidfeld which caused team owner Alain Prost to bury his head in his hands.
French GP results.
Posted: Sunday, July 2nd, 2000
