French Grand Prix Review

Perhaps in hindsight we should have seen in practice that Coulthard was going to have a special weekend. Though it seemed as though this would be another metronomic Michael Schumacher victory, especially considering that he only made one run in qualifying that landed him on pole, Coulthard overcame a succession of problems and still put his car on the front row, only a tenth off Schumacher. Relatively speaking, neither Rubens Barrichello or Mika Hakkinen were any threat at all.

Though time-wise from first to last qualifying was pretty close, the times were more evenly spread than we have become accustomed to this year. A top effort from Eddie Irvine, responding brilliantly to his midweek lambasting from Jackie Stewart to qualify 6th, within 0.8s of pole. Johnny Herbert was also fairly well up, pointing to a possible Jaguar revival. Or so some hoped.

When Barrichello got the jump on Coulthard at the start, and Schumacher began pulling away, I got the pillows out and prepared to fall asleep. Once again, another dynamite start from Jacques Villeneuve, whose jump up from 7th to 5th would eventually secure his 4th place finish. On the other hand, a shocker for Eddie Irvine, who began to progressively fall down the field. What's new?

The most interesting battle in the early stages, since Coulthard seemed content to stay behind Barrichello, was between the Jordans and Ralf Schumacher's Williams. It was a shame that Jarno Trulli's move inside Ralf at the last corner couldn't stick. That particular spot is a passing place if you're brave and skilful enough, and Trulli made it his party trick throughout the afternoon. The same couldn't be said of others.

I don't know where Jenson passed Irvine, but he passed Mika Salo's Sauber there, and then proceeded to lap as fast as the leaders. The Prost disaster continued, with Nick Heidfeld actually pulling a successful move at the hairpin on Fisichella's languishing Benetton (though not quite as languishing as the ever-diminishing Alexander Wurz, who was only just staying ahead of both Minardis), but in the process tapping team-mate Jean Alesi into a spin.

Interesting how the Prost team then blamed Fisichella for bumping Alesi, with France playing Italy later that night in the Euro 2000 final. I also liked how Alesi successfully did a mindless spin turn right in front of other cars. Shades of his wild youth back in the early 1990s. Good one Jean!

I was a little surprised by the fact that Coulthard managed to cut the gap to Schumacher by 4.2 seconds by the time the leaders made their first of two stops. Needless to say I was even more surprised when Coulthard started carving into Schumi's lead and the German was powerless to respond. This was very much like the infamous Jerez race in 1997, when Villeneuve's Williams managed to close relentlessly on Schumacher's Ferrari on fresh rubber.

I'm not sure if Michael would have had too many qualms about pushing Coulthard off the track as he tried to do against Villeneuve, and when Coulthard tried the outside line at the hairpin, Schumi did indeed try to push Coulthard wide. Fairly, though, which is why I thought Coulthard's reaction was a touch unwarranted. But David finally got the last laugh, managing to dive down the inside at the hairpin, fooling Schumacher completely into thinking that he had a big enough gap to take his normal racing line instead of defending the inside. And the way Coulthard got his revenge in the tyre-rubbing stakes was refreshing. For once, Schumacher had been outfoxed, outdriven, and out-psyched.

But at the same corner where Trulli had been so effective, no points at all to Alexander Wurz for his move on Alesi, described by Martin Brundle as "pathetic", ending up with the Benetton parked nicely in the gravel and the red-faced driver probably facing the sack very soon. If Coulthard's move on Barrichello was the best in a long time, Wurz's shocker was one of the worst in a long time, even going beyond Villeneuve's brain fade in Canada. In the Austrian's honour we have decided to initiate the 'Reject of the Race' award, and Wurz wins this one hands down.

The second round of pit stops were an anti-climax in hindsight. Coulthard always had a big enough gap. Since Schumacher and Hakkinen came in together, it was hard to imagine the McLaren team being that superior to get the Finn out ahead. Barrichello was never really going to figure anyway, so I don't really think his delayed stop cost him anything.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Alexander Wurz
(as viewed from Jean Alesi's car)

Now the top three were effectively settled, but the minor points were not. Ralf Schumacher went down the inside of Trulli at the hairpin in a brave move, and then had a good go at Villeneuve's 4th place. But, if Ferraris and McLarens have struggled to pass the BAR this year, what chance a Williams?

Prost's humiliation was also effectively sealed when Alesi got tapped into a spin for the second time at the hairpin, of all cars by Marc Gene's Minardi in a battle for position. While throughout the coverage we had an abundance of shots of Jean Todt's forehead, and too little of Alain Prost, right at this moment I would have loved to have seen the Professor's reaction. Or better still, hear it. A French word beginning with 'm', perhaps?

And no-one would begrudge him of the benefit of McLaren team orders as well, not that Coulthard will be likely to prise that out of Ron Dennis for some races yet. There is no doubt that Hakkinen is Dennis' darling, but Ron has enough sense, and business sense especially, to know that as long as a McLaren is winning, he'll have to support the guy driving it. Coulthard is top value at the moment, and Hakkinen has really gone off the boil. Right now, even Barrichello seems tougher than Mika. The Finn has brought home the bacon in the past two years, so Dennis will be prepared to cut him some slack, and to be honest I get the impression that Mika has almost lethargically given up on 2000.

Once again Ferrari mechanical gremlins have struck again. It's not a good sign. It's an even worse sign when the scarlet cars weren't even on par with the McLarens performance-wise. Perhaps it had something to do with the race set-up, but either way, the constant talk from Ferrari people about how they must not be complacent seems well founded.

Williams put in their best weekend since Spain, and definitely had the edge over Jordan. In terms of raw race pace I even think Button had it over Ralf Schumacher, but he just didn't have track position. Either way, an impressive performance from both drivers.

Jordan can also take heart from both cars finishing, and with a works Honda engine deal to look forward to next year, everyone involved can be more relaxed about the lacklustre results this year. Ironically, if they take the pressure off themselves for the remainder of the season, they could well do even better.

Villeneuve is the only man for BAR at the moment, with Ricardo Zonta nowhere. Zonta has not lived up to the hype and I can't see him in F1 next year. Their reliability is OK, and I can see Villeneuve continuing to score points throughout the rest of the season. He has 8 points so far, and I think he can double that tally.

All of Benetton, Arrows, Sauber and Minardi had decidedly low-key weekends, although Benetton gave Fisichella a nice leg-up via pit strategy once again. I still can't quite believe the Wurz off, and I can't for the life of me fathom all the Naomi Campbell ads around the track either. With Flavio Briatore besotted by the model, what price replacing Wurz with Campbell for Austria?!

I'm sure Prost is simply embarrassed by itself at present, but it's nothing new, and this season seems a write-off. Alain will get a better and more committed engine supply next year, and with a better chassis Jean Alesi seems prepared to take the knocks this year. But Prost has been publicly critical of Nick Heidfeld, who like Zonta simply hasn't impressed. Stalling in the pits in this race won't have helped his cause. This is an unhappy team where all the parts don't gel, but it's not too much of a bickering team.

A bickering team, though, is what Jaguar sadly is. This is a team that's not just highly embarrassed, but is also highly annoyed with itself. Whereas Prost realises his team is just consistently crappy, Jaguar is dead-set inconsistent, and yet there are many more troughs than peaks. And when you look at the individual ingredients, such as Ford's money, the abilities of Irvine and Herbert, the skill of Gary Anderson and the determination of Jackie Stewart, everyone's smarting. In some ways it's even worse than BAR last year, since BAR was all hype and everyone was predicting a tough initiation. No-one foresaw Jaguar's struggles this year.

For what it's worth, here's what I think. Herbert is winding down his career, and Irvine's come off the comforts of Ferrari expecting big things. Neither have the hunger of a younger driver. For all his ability Gary Anderson can occasionally get his designs wrong, such as the Jordan 196. This team isn't a group of Tartan underdogs anymore, but operationally it hasn't adjusted. Jaguar desperately needs to immediately evaluate what it stands for, and come up with a racing philosophy apart from the marketing exercise. Then they must strive for that, instead of pressing on directionlessly as they're doing at the moment.

For the rest of the paddock, next stop is Austria - and a crucial stop it will be for the World Championship. Further McLaren dominance will see the title race anything but a forgone conclusion, while it will be essential to Schumacher's campaign to return to his winning ways ASAP, before Coulthard gets too close.