Ferrari And Drivers Fined

Ferrari and its drivers, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, were jointly fined $1 million by the FIA in Paris today for their antics on the victory podium after the Austrian Grand Prix. They must pay half of the money immediately but the other half has been suspended and they will only have to pay it if they are judged to have committed a similar offence in the following year.

As team orders are allowed under FIA rules if they are in pursuit of the championship the FIA could not penalize Ferrari for their on-track manipulation of the race result but FIA president Max Mosley said that what they did was bad for the sport and that they would have liked to have been able to do something about it.

Mosley criticized the Ferrari team more than the drivers who, he said, were simply doing as they were told.

In something of a cop-out the FIA said that it couldn’t figure out how to change the rules to prevent a similar occurrence in the future without also interfering with the teams’ best chances of winning the championship. Their solution is to set up a working group which will take public comments and suggestions.

Posted: Wednesday, June 26th, 2002

Rubens Barrichello Wins 2002 European Grand Prix

Rubens Barrichello won the second Grand Prix of his career at the Nurburgring in Germany today. Starting from fourth place the Brazilian passed his Ferrari teammate and both of the Williams drivers in the first three turns of the newly modified Mercedes Arena section of the track. After that there was no stopping him and he lead all the way to the chequered flag, not even giving up P1 during his pit stops.

Complete GP of Europe results.

Michael Schumacher looked strong in the early laps but fell in behind his teammate in another apparent stage-managed Ferrari 1-2 finish (see related opinion). The only difference was that this time instead of Barrichello being asked to move over it was Schumacher who was told to stay behind his teammate and not to try to overtake him. Maybe this was to appease the FIA who will be discussing Ferrari’s Austrian tactics in Paris on Wednesday and maybe it was just a case of giving Barrichello his due but either way it was not much of a race.

There was, however, plenty of excitement off-track as speculation ran rife over whether or not Jean Todt would again tell Barrichello to move over and let his teammate pass. The U.S. Speed Channel commentators and the German world feed director were obviously enthralled with the possibilities as the discussion and the camera kept focussing on the two buttons on Todt’s belt which allow him to talk to each of his drivers.

Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) made his second visit of the season to the podium in third with Ralf Schumacher (Williams) 20 seconds behind him in fourth. Jenson Button (Renault) was fifth with Felipe Massa barely holding off his Sauber teammate Nick Heidfeld for sixth place and the final championship point.

For the third GP in a row Juan Pablo Montoya qualified his Williams on the pole and then failed to finish. This time it was a collision with David Coulthard’s McLaren that put both of them out of the running rather than the mechanical failures which had ended his two previous outings. Montoya and Coulthard had been running fourth and fifth at the time and Montoya, who appeared to have handling problems, had been holding Coulthard up for several laps as third-placed Ralf Schumacher started to get away from them.

Coulthard tried to get around the outside of Montoya at Turn One but Montoya slid wide around the sharp hairpin and his left-rear wheel collected Coulthard’s right-front causing terminal suspension damage to both cars. The incident had important implications in the world championship : Montoya’s DNF allowed Ralf Schumacher to break their second place tie for points while Coulthard’s allowed Barrichello to move level with him in fourth place.

To everyone’s surprise the newly redesigned first few turns that make up the Mercedes Arena complex did not cause as many problems as expected and, apart from the two Jordans making contact and spinning slowly around, the field got through cleanly on the usually accident prone first lap.

Posted: Sunday, June 23rd, 2002

Opinion: Stage-Managed Is As Stage-Managed Does

In Austria Ferrari came in for plenty of criticism over the way in which it handled its team orders giving the race to points-leader Michael Schumacher. By waiting until the very last few yards of the race before giving Rubens Barrichello the order to move aside for his teammate they felt that they were being fairer to Barrichello by showing the world that he could easily have won if not for the orders. Of course it also showed the world exactly what was going on and quite a few people were outraged at the blatant way in which Ferrari manipulated the result.

Several people have suggested that Barrichello only led to the final lap because Schumacher had no need to challenge him as he already knew that he would eventually be given the win and, while that is another matter, it is well known that the two teammates are forbidden to race each other.

After the event Ferrari team boss Jean Todt was quite open about the fact that there were many less obvious ways in which the desired result could have been managed — such as an extra long pit-stop for some unnecessary fuel — but he felt that this way was more honest and better for Barrichello.

In fact team orders are quite acceptable by current FIA rules and the impending inquiry and possible punishment will have to, publicly at least, focus on the charade by which Schumacher pushed Barrichello onto the winner’s position on top of the podium during the prize giving ceremonies rather than their on-track tactics.

At today’s European GP in Germany the two Ferraris were easily the class of the field and, for most of the race, they were at least 30 seconds in front of their nearest rival. The dilemma for Ferrari must have been that it was Barrichello and not Schumacher who got the better start, passed both of the Williams on the first lap, and then led the rest of the race.

At one point when Schumacher had been following Barrichello for a while he appeared to lose concentration and spun out. He had no difficulty in erasing the over nine second gap that opened up between him and his teammate but then he seemed quite content to just fall back into place behind him again.

The race was one of the most exciting in years but unfortunately the excitement wasn’t on the track it was over whether or not Jean Todt would again tell Barrichello to move over and let his teammate pass. The TV commentators in the U.S. and the world feed director in Germany were obviously enthralled with the possibilities as the discussion and the camera kept focussing on the two buttons on Todt’s belt which allow him to talk to each of his drivers. One point of view was that, with their appearance before the F1 ruling body in Paris on Wednesday just days away, Ferrari would have to be consistent to show that they did not believe they had done anything wrong in Austria. The other view, of course, was that they would not dare to repeat the offense right before the inquiry and would do something to appease the FIA. Not lost on anybody was the fact that at the midway point in the season they were dozens of points ahead of everyone else and apparently unstoppable.

In the end for whatever reason Barrichello was allowed to win the second Grand Prix of his career with Schumacher less than three-tenths of a second behind him.

Now Rubens Barrichello is a very amiable and popular driver and there is certainly a feeling that he was “owed” a win so there probably won’t be as much of an outcry this time but this result, while more popular, was no more genuine than the one in Austria and the German fans who had come to see their beloved “Schumi” win his 60th Grand Prix on home ground will be the ones who feel cheated.

When the widely touted best driver of his time can make up a ten second deficit in a few laps just to meekly fall into single file like he was driving to a Sunday school picnic it is obvious that he is not trying very hard. Not once in the following laps did Schumacher pressure Barrichello or even move out of line to take a look at a passing opportunity.

Obviously when a team is looking at a certain 1-2 finish and 16 more championship points it must tell its drivers to be careful and not take any unnecessary risks which might throw it all away by wrecking both cars but it would still be nice to see at least a little hint of a challenge.

In other racing series where teams are allowed to have different sponsors for each of their cars this problem couldn’t arise as each sponsor would demand that their driver do the best that he could to win and team orders to the contrary wouldn’t even be an issue.

Perhaps the problem is that Formula One racing is just too much of a team sport with too many of the principals more concerned with securing the Constructors’ Championship than they are with providing their paying fans with something worth watching.

Ferrari principals and drivers have said that when the championships are decided the racing will begin and so, as much as I hate to say it, I am looking forward to the day that Michael Schumacher wins his fifth World Championship and we finally get to see some real competition. Thankfully since Schumacher already has 76 out of a possible 90 points and a 46 point lead over his closest rival we may not have long to wait.

Posted: Sunday, June 23rd, 2002

Michael Schumacher Wins 2002 GP of Canada

Once again Michael Schumacher won the Canadian Grand Prix for Ferrari in Montreal today. It was his fifth win in this event and his sixth win in eight races so far this season. David Coulthard was second for McLaren and Rubens Barrichello in the other Ferrari was third.

Complete GP of Canada results.

Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) was fourth followed by Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan) and Jarno Trulli (Renault).

Ralf Schumacher was pressing hard to get past Trulli and into the points but couldn’t quite make it. The exertion was apparently too much for his Williams which sputtered to a smoky stop on the track just as the race finished. Ralf had spent much of the race in fourth place but a problem with his fuel rig on his only planned pit stop forced the team to call him back in again for a second time.

Juan Pablo Montoya was just as unlucky in the second Williams. For the second race in a row he had qualified on the pole and, just like in Monaco two weeks ago, his engine blew up in a cloud of smoke as he was chasing down the race leader.

Rubens Barrichello, starting with a lighter car on a two-stop strategy, made an excellent start and had passed pole sitter Montoya for the lead by the end of the first lap. Unfortunately for him — and Villeneuve — Jacques Villeneuve’s BAR stopped by the side of the track on the eighth lap and the race stewards brought out the safety car to slow the field so that it could be moved to safety. This bunched up the field and ruined Barrichello’s chances of getting far enough into the lead that he could make two stops and still be in front of the pack.

After the race Barrichello was adamant that the safety car was not necessary but it was too late to do anything about it by then. It is unlikely that his strategy — or his team — would have put him in front of Michael Schumacher anyway so in effect he only lost one position.

Villeneuve’s BAR teammate Olivier Panis finished a respectable eighth — his first finish of the year — but BAR remains the only team not to have scored a single championship point all year.

Posted: Sunday, June 9th, 2002