Belgian Grand Prix Review

In previous years of single team or driver domination, it was usually a case of the rest of the field catching up by year's end. In 1992, Nigel Mansell won 8 of the first 11, but only one of the last 5, which saw two Williams wins, two McLaren wins, and a Benetton victory. The next year, Alain Prost took 7 of the first 10, but none of the last 6, as team-mate Damon Hill took a hat-trick, before the season finished with a win for Michael Schumacher's Benetton and two for Ayrton Senna's McLaren.

In 1994, Schumi won 6 of the first 7, then only 2 of the remaining 9, although there was something rather more arbitrary about that. The point is, at no time in recent memory has a team established its dominance and then moved further away from the field as the year has gone on, as Ferrari is doing in 2002. Even in 1988, when McLaren won 15 out of 16 (Ferrari can still win 15 this year, albeit out of 17), it could be said that Ferrari and Benetton were inching closer by year's end rather than McLaren pulling away.

How the uncompetitive period in the early 1990s is being taken care of! Barrichello dived past Raikkonen by La Source, and, reliability permitting, the 1-2 was settled. During the race, Kimi never showed the pace to suggest that, even if he had beaten Rubens off the line, it would have been anything but a Ferrari quinella. Michael could then afford to toy with the lap record and with his team-mate, whilst Barrichello could toy with the rest of the field. It made for painfully tedious viewing.

Michael's mission to smash the lap record was aided by the track modifications to Spa this year, which upgraded run-off areas, mildly changed Eau Rouge, but most notably altered the pit entrance and eased the exit to the Bus Stop. It was a change that widened the chicane and made it look less fiddly, but in reality the changes were neither here nor there. Our only criticism was the abhorrent camera angle that half-obscured the cars behind a crest as they entered the Bus Stop!

But regardless, Spa is Spa, still the greatest track on the calendar, its fast sweeps suited to good aerodynamics and a strong engine. No surprise, then, that the Williams and McLaren were equally matched, the Williams with its powerful BMW motor but an FW24 chassis that has seemingly undergone little development of late, and the McLaren with its renowned aerodynamics but a Mercedes engine that started the season reputedly 70-80 horsepower down on the best and has been playing catch-up ever since.

Even so, one may have expected power to have the advantage over handling, so it was probably a surprise - not least to themselves - that the Williams were only 4th and 5th on the grid, Ralf Schumacher ahead of Juan-Pablo Montoya, with David Coulthard 6th but Raikkonen threatening to take pole before settling for his first ever front row start. There is no doubt that Kimi has been tremendously impressive especially in qualifying this year, at times leaving DC in the shade, but this was something a bit special.

The Finn may have genuinely believed that he could make amends for France. That depended on him maintaining his position off the start at the very least. Thus he tried gamely to block Barrichello's move, but once that failed, the drove the rest of the race like a disconsolate man. His save at Pouhon when he looked sure to spin was brilliant, but lost him his place to Montoya. He then damaged his car on the bollards on the entry to the Bus Stop, and just kept falling off the pace before his engine blew up.

It was, another disappointing race for Williams. JPM managed to stay 3rd and fend off DC towards the end, but never looked like making any inroads into the Ferraris. Once again only one Williams driver was on song in the race, and this time it was Ralf who faltered, dropping from 4th to 6th early, falling out of the points with a spin, unable to pass Jarno Trulli late in the race, and only coming 5th after Kimi and Jarno retired. Being inherently good on paper is not good enough. Williams need a spark of energy, and soon.

Compared to 2001, when the Benetton Renaults improved from one end of the grid to the other as the season went on, this year progress has seemed a touch slow. Here Jenson Button dropped out early, but for once Trulli was having a decently solid race. He almost made a great outside move at the first turn stick, and may have done so had he not accidentally picked neutral. He looked set for points ahead of Ralf, being able to hold off the Williams, until his engine also stopped. Jarno needs more drives like this.

Progress has also been sorely lacking at Honda, and coupled with Bridgestone tyres that may not have been the thing to have, both Jordan and BAR struggled. Giancarlo Fisichella was the only man on a one-stopper, but found himself testing the line between 'one move' and 'blatant weaving' in trying to defend his place. His Honda, and that of Olivier Panis' BAR, both blew up. In the search for speed, reliability has gone at Honda. Six detonations over the weekend earn them our 'Reject of the Race' award.

For the first time in a while, however, Toyota had something to cheer about, ironically in the first race after it was announced that both Mika Salo and Allan McNish were being replaced for 2003. Salo, although acknowledged to be talented, has never done something that makes you think, "Wow, that was unbelievable." Still, by qualifying 9th and finishing a combative 7th, that was a nice 'up yours' to the team from the Finn, while McNish also drove steadily to finish 9th.

But if Toyota had reason to be pleased, then Jaguar would have been doing cartwheels. A new front suspension package worked wonders, Eddie Irvine starting a fabulous 8th and Pedro de la Rosa 11th. Eddie then took a point for 6th, albeit thanks to retirements up ahead. However, with so much continuous effort having gone into the R3 and the R3B to try to put some respectability into their 2002 efforts, one wonders if that has hampered the amount of resources being spent on next year's R4.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Honda Engines
Some big explosions hamper BAR and Jordan all weekend

More shenanigans from Arrows though, the team stating early on that they would not compete in Belgium just as they had sat out Hungary, before seemingly coming to an agreement with an American mining magnate, sending the cars to Spa, naming Heinz-Harald Frentzen as the second driver even though he had left the team, and then deciding after all that their financial problems weren't over and that they wouldn't compete. Perhaps understandably, the FIA are becoming impatient with this game.

Last year, in what was then Ferrari's best ever season, their planned party at Monza was spoiled by September 11. This year, with the Prancing Horse even stronger and more dominant, the Italian GP should be a glorious homecoming. Most of the tifosi will never grow sick of Ferrari success, but one wonders whether or not some of the less fervent devotees may secretly be hoping that someone not driving a red car may come through to stand atop the rostrum.