German Grand Prix Review

Michael Schumacher's 2002 is now obliterating Mansell's achievements. His 9th win of the season equalled the record set by himself last year and by Nigel in 1992 of the most wins in a season. One more win from the last five races, which seems inevitable, will finally see the magic 10 wins in a year achieved. With 106 points on the board already, Schumi is also well on the way to beating his tally of 123 set last year. The superlatives to describe the current Michael and Ferrari juggernaut are fast running out.

But we'll try anyway. Here are some more scary statistics for you. One thing that is very clear is that Schumi hasn't retired yet this year, and may well finish every race in 2002. But in face his last DNF was at Hockenheim last year, which means he has already gone 17 races - an entire year - without a retirement. In that time, he has qualified no lower than 3rd, finished no lower than 4th, taken (only) 7 poles, recorded 5 fastest laps, won 12 times, and scored a crazy 145 points out of a possible 170.

Having said that, in his past five races at Hockenheim for Ferrari, he had never even looked like winning over those long blasts through the pine forests, especially since the Italian engine had always been close to but not quite at the cutting edge in the power stakes. It just so happened that this year, when Schumacher dominated the entire meeting, had been the first race at a heavily revised and emasculated Hockenheim. Who knows whether or not that made any difference, but worth considering nonetheless.

Opinions were mixed over the new track layout. The old Hockenheim was no classic like Spa, but it was steeped in tradition, an idiosyncratic anomaly in between increasingly monotonous, technical tracks. It was sheer torture on engines, brakes, aerodynamics and car set-up skills, and invariably that made for a high attrition rate and interesting results. Rarely had a year gone by in which the German GP didn't throw up some different names in the points.

That aside, the new layout was not without some redeeming features. The new hairpin created a definite passing spot, although some would argue that the old Hockenheim had four distinct passing places anyway, one going into each chicane, and one going into the stadium. The exorbitant width of the track, like Sepang, lessened the sensation of speed, but the fly-by-wire camera angle from the hairpin to the new mini-stadium was superb, and indeed spectators get to see the cars an extra 22 times per race.

Going back to Schumacher though, it should also be pointed out that he has had his fair share of luck, not only as opposed to his rivals, but also as opposed to his team-mate. Even if Rubens Barrichello will never be as good as Schumi, he has been driving better than ever, and consistently, but if Ferrari has problems they will befall the Brazilian. In the last 17 races, by comparison, he has failed to start twice, retired four times, and scored only 51 points, some 94 less than Michael.

Case in point: Williams. Although the inconsistency of the Michelins have certainly had a role to play, I think even Sir Frank Williams would concede that their 2002 campaign has been very disappointing. Their car and engine have not been able to hold up a candle to the Ferraris in race trim, but more disturbingly they can't seem to get both drivers in top gear at the same time. No wonder they are now 65 points behind Ferrari in the constructors' championship, and seemingly out of it.

Before Germany, Juan-Pablo Montoya had gone on a Senna-esque five pole streak, and even if he couldn't turn it into race wins for one reason or another, he was certainly Williams' main man where Ralf Schumacher was fading. In fact, the Colombian has appeared to have had the upper hand since late last year. But all of a sudden at Hockenheim, JPM had dropped to 4th on the grid, made little impression on the top three all race, and only through others' misfortune picked up an undeserved 2nd at the end.

Ralf deserved to finish 2nd though. He had survived being badly baulked by Jarno Trulli's Renault, and having been seriously delayed when he tried to make his stop at the same time that Jacques Villeneuve was limping into the pits in his dying BAR. He may have suffered from not changing tyres at the second stop (risky in view of what happened to Kimi Räikkönen earlier) but looked to have 2nd in the bag until he was called in with four laps to go to correct a computer glitch. Such is modern F1 these days.

With JPM stealing 2nd and Barrichello taking 4th, in the end it was down to David Coulthard to take 5th, an embarrassing lap down, after being asleep all weekend. After their Magny-Cours heroics, McLaren never got it together in front of Mercedes' top brass. DC qualified a hopeless 9th, four spots behind Kimi, on a weekend when he had been re-signed for 2003, when Mika Hakkinen announced his inevitable retirement, and the Scotsman had made an ultra-early pronouncement that he could win the 2003 title.

But having said that, Kimi still has much to learn. In fact, in this race he gets our 'Reject of the Race' award - talk about going from hero to zero within seven days! Having qualified 5th, he leapt up to 4th ahead of JPM at the start, but was passed by Juan-Pablo around the outside going into the Sachs curve. Although Kimi tried to defend his position, and JPM's move will be one of the moves of the year, being passed around the outside like that wasn't too smart.

Räikkönen then didn't change his tyres at the first stop. Although this was probably a consensus decision, I can't believe that Kimi didn't have a part to play in making that call. The subsequent blow-out of his left-rear, and the Finn's Villeneuve-like attempt to drive back far too quickly on three wheels, made the original decision look rather silly. His flapping tyre caused bodywork and engine damage that slowed him for the rest of the race, but he still succeeded in throwing the car off the track and into a tyre wall.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Kimi Raikkonen
Hero to Zero in seven days thanks to daft tyre choice

Well boo-hoo, Felipe. If I had both my cars behind Panis, and wanted to choose one to attack the BAR, I would go for (a) the team leader, (b) the more experienced driver, (c) the one who hadn't been throwing the car off the track with reckless regularity. On all three counts, I would go for Heidfeld. And once Olivier was out of the picture, with a 6th and 7th formation finish for the taking (Sauber's equivalent of a Ferrari 1-2, let's face it), I could still sort of justify leaving the team leader up front to pick up that one point.

Heidfeld is very much Sauber's chosen man, and in the absence of offers from better teams for 2003 - once again, a travesty - he has been re-signed for 2003. The same cannot be said for Massa. Yes he is fast, but he has also made way too many errors. Last year with Räikkönen, Sauber's youth policy came up trumps; this year it has only half-worked. There is no guarantee that Massa will stay in the team for next year, and for him to criticise the team in the press seems stupid in the extreme.

Well before the first pit-stop, both cars were already way out of the picture. Button eventually pulled off the track and Trulli crashed in the stadium, bringing a forgettable weekend to a close. Interesting quote from Jenson after he retired though, saying how difficult it was to drive without traction control after it failed on his car. Memories are short indeed. And they say traction control doesn't take away from a driver's skill. It was a sad indictment on the skill required of a Grand Prix driver these days.

If Renault had a forgettable weekend, what about Jaguar? Although I guess most weekends have been anything but memorable this season. But after their noticeable improvement with the R3B at Magny-Cours, the Jags were mired at the back again at Hockenheim, Eddie Irvine starting 16th and Pedro de la Rosa 20th, and both cars retiring relatively early. Still, the general signs of improvement are there, which hopefully will be a good platform into what will be a crucial 2003 season for them.

Rumours have it that Craig Pollock will be involved in a takeover bid for the team. If this turns out to be true, then this could have interesting implications for the driver market. Pollock may or may not bring Jacques Villeneuve with him, in which case one of the current Arrows men may have to move. Frentzen is known to be interested in returning to Jordan, but considering their continuing legal dispute it seems entirely mad that they're even considering overtures from each other.

If Pollock wants a solid financial platform for the team, though, the continuing involvement of Red Bull will be vital, and if Red Bull is there, then there is a strong chance Bernoldi will remain. While Bernoldi hasn't set the world on fire, he has proven to be a competent F1 driver, and in particular a solid racer, able to defend well (ask David Coulthard) but also able to pass. He was amongst the midfield gaggle in this race, and at no stage did he put a foot wrong.

Starting 11th, he too was caught up in the midfield rough-and-tumble, which tends to bring out the racer in him, the side of Villeneuve we all love to see. The shame is that we don't see it more often these days, nor at the pointy end of the grid. He was the author of one of the more bizarre moments on race day, when, as he was being lapped at the hairpin, he turned sharp left instead of right sensing a problem with his car, before doing a u-turn to head back to the pits! Signs of his current indecisiveness, perhaps.

In contrast, team-mate Panis was a man driving for his career, now that it looks as though he will be the man ousted from BAR at the end of the year. His return to F1 after his brilliant year as McLaren test driver hasn't enhanced his reputation all that much, but at Hockenheim he was in top form, qualifying a fantastic 7th (he is not well-known for his qualifying prowess after all) and looking set for a points finish until an engine seizure spun him out of the race.

After their initial flurry, both the Toyotas have slipped back into mediocre unreliability, although on the whole their first season has gone respectably enough. Both Mika Salo and Allan McNish qualified dismally, although for once the Scotsman got the better of the Finn, and McNish retired whereas Salo came home a lowly 9th. Rumours still abound about the future of both drivers, especially McNish, and this combined with an increasing number of DNFs must surely be unsettling for both at the moment.

Minardi continue to languish at the back, although Mark Webber showed once again what a great racer he is. After being stuck on the start line for a few seconds, he charged back up, overtaking Button, Salo and Irvine, and attempting a banzai three-abreast move in the new mini-stadium complex which would have been the pass of the year had he made it, before succumbing to one of Minardi's rare mechanical failures this season.

For the third time this year Alex Yoong failed to qualify, and he is clearly out of form and down on confidence at the moment. When you've got a driver who can't decide whether he wants to race or just test, that's a bad sign. Frankly, his current presence in the Minardi race seat is a waste of a decent car at the moment. Perhaps Flavio Briatore will want Fernando Alonso to get some more race mileage before he graduates to the Renault race seat next year?

So we have our 3 week mid-season break now, for which we have Eddie Jordan to thank. Who knew back in Melbourne, that by now both the Drivers and Constructors titles would be already sewn up. The interest value for the remaining Grands Prix lies mainly in the Silly Season, and wondering where all the pieces of the driver and engine puzzle fit for 2003. The only area in which F1 is keeping the best for last is in the tracks: Monza, Spa, Indianapolis and Suzuka are still to come...