Spanish Grand Prix Review

Schumi now has 57 career victories to his name. In the current field, the next best are Jacques Villeneuve and David Coulthard, both on 11, but both of them are arguably closer to the twilight rather than the zenith of their careers. Of the drivers likely to inhabit the post-Michael grid, the most wins belong to Michael's brother Ralf, on a paltry four. The argument that we should feel privileged to witness history in the making is very strong, but purely from the perspective of variation, the day Michael hangs up his helmet and allows others to share the wins will be a refreshing day indeed!

Michael and Ferrari have an edge over the field not seen since the Mansell-Williams romp of 1992. As if their Imola performance was not staggering enough, the red machines began stamping their authority right from the word go in Spain, at a track where teams test so much it is a fairly good indicator of relative performances. That Barcelona suited the Bridgestones helped, but the fact remains that the Ferraris were just about the fastest two in all pre-race sessions.

With just one finish and six points from five races this year, it must be galling for Barrichello to see that Schumi has four wins and 44 points already. What makes it more incredible is that Michael has also had mechanical problems, as he did pre-race on Sunday in Spain, but he never has them when it matters. Nurburgring last year is another case in point. The Ferrari team is geared around Michael as it is - and it appears as though luck has followed suit.

No win is ever easy, but this was as close to a stroll in the park as Michael is ever going to get. After Barrichello's demise, he made a fairly good start, stayed in front of his brother going into the first corner, pulled out almost a second a lap, and watched as his hapless and (dare we say) impotent challengers all faltered. While at Michelin-friendly tracks the cards won't so readily fall his way, we refuse to believe that that one second per lap advantage was all down to rubber.

Ralf ran wide after is first stop, damaged his front wing, got a new one that was seemingly configured incorrectly, came in again for a second nose job, and eventually blew his engine on the last lap having given up on points for the day. Juan-Pablo Montoya was forced to set his best qualifying lap in a car not properly set up, and then in the race ran over his lollipop man, who had mistakenly let JPM go when the fuel hose was still in, and who was very fortunate to escape without serious injury.

The Williams mistakes allowed the gruntless McLarens to catch up somewhat, on a track where the superb aerodynamics of the MP4/17 could come to the fore. Coulthard in particular was superb as he drove a consistent, forceful race to 3rd, but Kimi Raikkonen, who qualified 5th for the fifth straight time, was another lucky fellow when his rear wing collapsed on the long front straight. The Finn has now suffered mechanical problems four races in a row; since when has that happened to a McLaren driver?

A similar thing had happened to Sauber in Brazil in 2000, but teams don't test at Interlagos, whereas they do ad nauseam at Barcelona. Whilst admittedly Minardi don't test as much there as other teams do, it still seems strange that the problem never occurred previously. Perhaps it was simply, as claimed, a manufacturing glitch. But while supposedly other team bosses were commending Stoddart on his action in withdrawing the cars, we wonder if secretly they were also shaking their heads that such a thing could happen to a professional 2002 F1 team.

Going back to McLaren and Coulthard though, DC's gain was definitely Renault's loss. For while the Scot had driven very well in the race, the truth is he had been out-qualified by Jenson Button's Renault, the resurgent youngster beating his team-mate Jarno Trulli yet again, and in the battle of the Brits in the race, Button comfortably had the measure of the McLaren in the first stint, making a mockery of DC's derisive comments about the Renaults' performance after San Marino.

This should have elevated Trulli to 4th and his first points of the year, only for the Italian also to suffer hydraulic problems and also finally fall out. It's fair to say that Jarno has been completely overshadowed by Button so far this year (though the season still has a long way to go), but it's also fair to say quite categorically that the battle between Renault and McLaren for the rest of the year will be fascinating. As much as Ron Dennis would hate to admit it, their performances are currently on par with each other.

Renault's misfortune was Sauber's big gain. While they seem to have slipped behind the French team to be placed fifth in the team pecking order as opposed to the fourth they claimed last year, in Spain they did what they accomplished so often last year - run reliably and pick up big points when others fall by the wayside. Nick Heidfeld's 4th was his best result since Brazil last year, while Felipe Massa's 5th place takes his season tally to 3 points, making him the first of this year's rookies to escape 'reject status' on our website.

After dicing with and disposing of Olivier Panis' BAR early in the race, Heinz-Harald eventually caught up to Massa who was trapped behind the slowing Button, and would have passed the Sauber if his Cosworth had nearly as much grunt as the ex-Ferrari engine in the Swiss car. Clearly, the A23's aerodynamics are good, making the orange cars a competitive proposition, especially in Spain where aerodynamics are so vital. It will be interesting to see if they can keep rising up the order in upcoming races. Tom Walkinshaw went on to mention that this kind of performance was exactly why they hired HHF - but to be honest, we doubt if Jos Verstappen would have been incapable of a similar performance.

Arrows were thus the ninth team to score points this year, leaving only the Honda-powered BAR and Jordan outfits still on zero. BAR had yet another forgettably mediocre weekend in the midfield, while Jordan repeated their Imola trick, with both cars retiring early. After Giancarlo Fisichella suffered another hydraulics failure, Takuma Sato (who had already gone off-track in every session during the weekend, and had a fine for speeding in the pits) gave us the best Japanese spin-off we've seen since the good ol' days of Satoru Nakajima and Ukyo Katayama, and for the sheer entertainment value of it all we decided to award him 'Reject of the Race'.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Takuma Sato
Executed the perfect sliding, skidding, out-of-control, mindless spin

Sato received some competition for the ROTR award from local hero Pedro de la Rosa, who managed to spin his Jaguar into the gravel whilst running on his own in last place, making it the third Spanish GP in a row where he has gone out with some off-road incident. The R3s with their shocking front-end aerodynamics were always expected to struggle in Spain, and so they did, with matters made worse for Eddie Irvine when he was relegated to the back of the grid after fuel irregularities in qualifying.

The Toyotas also had a nondescript weekend, which didn't come as a surprise considering that their strength is in their engine power and not their cornering grip. Mika Salo made an early unscheduled pit stop, which for a moment had us thinking that they were on a 23-stop strategy, and the Finn eventually finished 9th as the last car on the track in a race of attrition, one spot behind team-mate Allan McNish, who drove a steady race to 8th. Two top-10 finishes was a good result, and Toyota should be quite satisfied.

A brief comment also on the infamously poor Australian TV coverage of the race. Being the Spanish GP, it was only a matter of time before the maladroit hosts of the Aussie telecast, Darrell Eastlake and ex-World Champ Alan Jones, referred to Jones' victory in the 1980 race at Jarama which was subsequently stripped of WC status. It's a story - or should we call it a whinge - that gets air time every single year. This year, it took them literally only 30 seconds after the telecast began before they started talking about it!

The genuinely crappy Aussie telecast coupled with the current Ferrari dominance doesn't exactly make for riveting viewing Down Under at the moment, but there's a glimmer of hope going into Austria. For all the criticisms of the A1-Ring, really an emaciated version of the former Osterreichring, it tends to produce one of the better races each year, the short lap usually meaning a very close grid. Which means, let me guess, that the Ferraris will only be 0.4 of a second ahead of the rest of the field?