Spanish Grand Prix Review

There was nothing unusual about qualifying, nothing that we're not expecting these days. Ferrari and McLaren are so tightly matched that there's no reason not to expect them to fill the top four spots at each race. Similarly, there's nothing much between all the other teams (except for Minardi) in terms of lap times, with 6th to 18th (counting Pedro de la Rosa as 9th) at Barcelona covered by a second.

Ralf Schumacher and Williams BMW have a lot to be encouraged about in qualifying 5th, a good distance ahead of the rest and only a few tenths behind Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard. With more development and speed, it's not totally impossible that the current top 4 will become a top 5.

To the race, then. Regardless of the fact that Michael Schumacher jumped out to an early lead and was reeled back in by Hakkinen, I think Schumi had this one under control. But this ended up being a very harried performance from the boys in red. For me, it all started to unravel when Schumi stayed out when he should have made his first stop and was balked by Eddie Irvine coming out of the pits.

It seemed like a nice 'up yours' gesture from the Jaguar man to his ex-team mate. I feel the Ferrari crew was under more pressure because Schumacher's lead had been reduced to nothing, and it got to them at the first stop.

A Pacific refueller was run over at the Nurburgring in 1995 when Andrea Montermini was let out when the mechanics weren't fully clear of the car. At Imola in 1996, Jos Verstappen was let out when the fuel rig was still attached to his Arrows, tearing the whole thing out and spewing fuel into the pit lane.

You could have predicted (as James Allen virtually did) what happened at Schumacher's second stop, when he and Hakkinen came in together and the pressure was really on. OK, so it didn't matter anyway since Schuey ended up having a slow puncture, but by that stage the race was already lost. He would never have caught back up to Hakkinen, let alone pass the Finn.

But on the whole, Ferrari are ominously beginning to emulate McLaren's operational mishaps from last year. Barrichello has retired twice, and drove one race with his belts loose. Now there's been a communication mishap with Michael, leading to major pit stop blunders. McLaren, on the other hand, have finished both cars in all of the last three events.

Ferrari must not be complacent and take reliability and clockwork operations for granted now that they've got the speed. Fast is no good if you can't get the job done.

As for Barrichello, F1 Rejects co-author Jamie McGregor reckons he's doing no better than Irvine was last year despite being more highly rated, and I have to agree. Let's not forget that Irvine out-qualified Schumacher in a straight fight here last year, having already won a race. I also agree with Martin Brundle when he says that Barrichello appears to be pacing himself. I'd like to see more style and bravado from Rubens. He's certainly capable of it.

Ralf's drive was superb in a car that wasn't balanced to his liking, as shown by his constant brake lock-ups. Though Jenson Button has been scintillating so far, all things considered, and should have taken another point for 6th, he was over half a minute behind his team leader by that stage, and that rather puts things in perspective. Williams, together with McLaren and Ferrari, really do look like having a monopoly on the points.

Benetton have the look of a team that's given up 2000 and are focussing on the Renault involvement in the years to come. Neither Giancarlo Fisichella or Alexander Wurz are doing themselves any favours either. Arrows have the speed, but they need to find reliability. Without checking, I'm guessing that they have a worse reliability record than Prost right now, and that's saying something.

I'd suggest that it is decision time for Prost now with over a quarter of the season gone. Alain either continues to develop this lemon, or starts seriously thinking about how he can put the ingredients together in 2001, and start compiling the right package. In my humble opinion, he shouldn't wait for Peugeot to procrastinate about buying a share in his team, but decide right now if Peugeot can deliver the goods in the future, and act accordingly.

Jaguar really confuses me. If anything, they've slipped back as this season has progressed. Irvine and Johnny Herbert aren't far apart, but Herbert hasn't really moved up. It feels like Jaguar have started from scratch instead of build on Stewart's solid platform from last year. Stewart's car was a nimble dynamite last year, but there's no sign of that in this year's car. I believe it's decision time for Jaguar as well. If they decide to give 2000 up, they should make that intention public, instead of keeping the expectant Jaguar fans on tenterhooks. At this rate, Jaguar fans (Jamie included) will die waiting.

Not much to mention about BAR or Sauber. They can afford to plug on in the midfield because at least they're getting somewhere and have points on the breadline. But I will say something about Minardi. To me it's clear that the lack of power in the customer Ford engines is reflected in the drivers' morale. Marc Gene and Gaston Mazzacane have resigned themselves to the fact that they will always qualify and run last. There's no close competition for them to aim at, and that's really sad.

Relatively you won't have to put the frontrunners at a disadvantage, because you can just give them more points, but what it does mean is that you give the midfield teams something to aim for. At the moment, someone like Ricardo Zonta knows he will start from, say, 12th, maybe make up one or two spots at the start, maybe pass someone in the pits, benefit from possibly one or two mechanical failures, and still be outside the points.

I don't think it's very fair that Alexander Wurz can start 18th (having qualified 19th), finish 9th and get absolutely nothing for it. Not that I think he was particularly impressive, but heck he did finish ten spots ahead of where he started. I don't think it's very fair that Jaguar, in order to make it into the points, will have to beat the Saubers, the BARs, the Benettons and the Jordans and then hope for a Williams to retire.

CART grids aren't that much bigger, but they award points even beyond the top ten. There's no reason why F1 can't do something similar.

So we move on now to the Nürburgring, and Schumacher will be nigh on invincible on his home territory. The top teams are dominating such that all four top drivers look like finishing, and this means it is vital for McLaren to bring down the sizable point gap between Hakkinen and Michael as quickly as possible. There's no better way to do that than with a third victory on the trot.