Austrian Grand Prix Review

It's easy to overlook the fact that Schumi has won the last three, largely because none of them have been 2002-style cake-walks, and because every single race this year has been eventful, and anything but processional. It came as little surprise, though, that Austria would provide another dramatic race. Ever since its reinstatement in 1997, the A1-Ring has provided more than its fair share of talking points, and although this year's race was somewhat tame by 2003 standards, it was still anything but dull.

In that regard it is a shame that Formula One will not be returning to the Styrian hills in the near future. Admittedly it makes financial sense not to go back. Austria means almost nothing to the F1 industry compared to Britain, Italy and Germany, and it doesn't represent a potential market like the USA and China. There has been no local driver to cheer on since 2000, and of all the permanent tracks on the calendar, the A1-Ring must be one of the lightest when it comes to a load of major fixtures.

But the track itself, although to purists an unacceptable emasculation of the old Osterreichring, and labelled "innocuous" by Autosport writer Nigel Roebuck, can take some of the credit for giving us exciting events. Its simple layout but low-grip nature means that on paper it is easy to navigate and great charges can be rewarded, but it is also easy to overstep the mark and make mistakes. The shortest lap time of the year, the track has often produced tight grids and Grands Prix with a go-kart feel about them.

This raised the question of the green tarmac on the exit of several of the turns, notably turn one. All weekend drivers were going off the track, over the kerb, using the full width of the green tarmac, and then kicking up dirt as they rejoined the track. If short-cutting a corner and thus gaining an advantage is banned, how is fully leaving the track on exit for the sake of a time gain any different? Although since everyone was doing it, it was impossible to penalise anyone, but it made for messy viewing.

The actual race on Sunday got off to one of the more stuttery starts in recent memory, thanks firstly to Cristiano da Matta stalling twice. To abort the first two starts was the correct decision. Da Matta was starting 13th, and at the first start he had Heinz-Harald Frentzen behind him, and after the horrible incidents befalling the likes of Siegfried Stohr and the late Ricardo Paletti in the past, in such situations the start is always postponed, and so it should be.

The second delay was more controversial, though. The Brazilian was now at the back of the grid, where no one could ram his stationary car, so why abort again? The answer was simple. Cristiano had parked on what was the 21st grid slot, right on the racing line. With the cars due to fly by again in 80 seconds' time, the officials could not risk being unable to move the stricken Toyota in time. It was noticeable that for the third start, da Matta was asked to start from the other side of the grid in effectively 22nd spot.

At this point, it is worth mentioning that one of the redeeming aspects of the coverage from Austria, which generally was abysmal with the director missing key incidents and providing us with too many arty super slow-mos of Ferraris, were the cameras that seemed permanently fixed on Ferrari and McLaren personnel. The four-letter reaction of Norbert Haug to the second delayed start, compared to the unmoving, squat figure of Jean Todt, made amusing viewing at what was a terribly anti-climactic time.

The race then further stuttered when the safety car was deployed for Jos Verstappen's Minardi, which had parked against the pit wall on the climb up to the first turn. Although not on the racing line and not really in too dangerous a location, the Dutchman's car did seem to be wanting to roll down the hill, which is a lot steeper than it appears on television. Who knows what kind of grief that may have caused? Again it was the right call by race director Charlie Whiting to bring out the safety car for two laps.

Once the race did truly get underway, Michael and his Ferrari F2003-GA stamped their authority right from the outset, building a gap over Juan-Pablo Montoya's Williams, which had taken advantage of Raikkonen's sluggish start to move into 2nd. This handy gap proved vital, as it meant that during those few laps when a rain shower passed over the track and the Michelins were far superior to the Bridgestones, JPM could only close to within a few seconds of Schumi rather than overtake him and subsequently hold him up.

What made his efforts in the latter two-thirds of the race even more remarkable was how he was able to put behind him the fire at his first stop, when his malfunctioning fuel rig ignited. After the memorable Verstappen fire at Hockenheim in 1994, the Eddie Irvine fire at Spa in 1995, and the Pedro Diniz fire on his out-lap in Argentina in 1996, this was the first fuel-related fire incident for over seven years, calling into doubt once again the wisdom of using refuelling stops to 'spice up the show'.

It also called into question the manufacturing standards of Intertechnique, the company supplying all the fuel rigs, which have caused problems for just about every team at some stage. Let us not forget that multiple failures afflicted Ferrari here. The failure of the first rig at Rubens Barrichello's first stop meant they had to use the back-up, and it was this second rig that caught fire. When the rigs pump in 12 litres per second, the last thing you want is for the rig to leak and spark all by itself, as happened here.

It was a testimony to the preparedness of the Ferrari crew these days that they minimised the time lost at Barrichello's first stop, that they had the presence of mind to send Schumacher on his way once the flames had been extinguished, and that they did not panic when the repaired rig still seemed reluctant to go on at both their cars' second stops. In years gone by the very temperamental, very Latin Ferrari crew would more often than not lose their cool under pressure.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Toyota's Launch Control
Boffins' bungling led to 2 aborted starts and much anti-climax

However, even though he was unable to take 2nd place at the end, the way he caught the Finn hand over fist in the final stint spoke volumes for the relative pace of the F2003-GA compared to the McLaren MP4/17D. With four podium finishes from four starts, the new Prancing Horse seems to have overcome its initial reliability problems, and McLaren ought to be extremely worried that their new car still had not been launched (at the time of writing), let alone tested and raced.

Ferrari have now regained the lead of the constructors' title by one point, having been behind by 23 points only three races ago. If that does not concern Ron Dennis enough, then the disparity between Raikkonen and David Coulthard in Austria should. This was the most lop-sided set of performances from two McLaren drivers for some time, caused by the fact that DC had made an error in second qualifying and had to start from 14th, trapping him in the pack, and suffered understeer all race as well.

This is not to say that McLaren should be troubled by DC per se, for on the whole the Scot has been his reliable self in '03, but as we've said before and need to say again, McLaren's early success this year was based on getting their cars home, making minimal pit stops and committing no errors while others faltered under pressure. In the last three races, when there have been few unusual circumstances, and when everyone has largely been on the same strategy, McLaren's stealth has been no match for Ferrari's speed.

Remember that in Friday qualifying, now the true indicator of a car's relative speed, the two fastest cars after the Ferraris were the Jaguars and the BARs, with the McLarens only 7th and 8th. Originally the MP4/18 was meant to debut in Spain; the delay in getting it ready has been very un-McLaren-like. Thanks to the new points system, Raikkonen still leads Michael by 2 points (under the old system Michael would be ahead by 2), but Schumi leads the win count 3-1, and should conceivably take the title lead soon.

Williams continued their up-and-down season with yet another race in which they proved they could be semi-competitive, and yet another race in which one but not both of their drivers fired. Montoya returned to something resembling form, and would have been in the fight for the lead had his BMW engine not expired, although I suspect Schumi would have had too much speed for him in the end. Still, despite the utter frustration, he was still in conciliatory mood afterwards, thanking both Williams and BMW for their efforts.

It was ironic that after all the mud-slinging from BMW towards Williams in relation to the FW25 chassis, it was the engine that cost them a chance of victory. That ought to bring Mario Thiessen and his men back down to earth a little bit. For apart from a surprise link-up with any other team (although a buy-out of BAR has been mentioned), there is no better partner than Williams despite its doldrums over the past two years in the area of aerodynamics, and going it alone would be a costly and risky option.

But while the younger Schumacher continues to disappoint, Alonso continues to amaze. Starting from the pits after his qualifying error and aided by the safety car that allowed him to catch up to the rest of the field, he was able to set rapid times despite his one-stop strategy. He didn't suffer from chronic understeer like other Michelin runners, and clearly has a beautifully set-up and balanced machine. On Barrichello's tail with one stop each to go, he would almost certainly have had the pace to defeat Button for 4th.

Renault were running a more powerful engine for Alonso here, so one hopes that its failure was not a sign that improved power output has come at the expense of reliability. Fernando has a good chance at finishing in the top 4 of the drivers' championship, but only if he can score points on a regular basis. Meanwhile, the Spaniard is well and truly leaving Jarno Trulli in the shade. The Italian is fast going from being Flavio Briatore's chosen man to becoming his forgotten man.

Being out of favour with Flav is a rather thankless position to be in. Just ask the likes of JJ Lehto, Johnny Herbert, Alexander Wurz or Jenson Button. By starting 6th, Jarno keeps demonstrating his one-lap speed, but he just can't get it together in races, but we knew that long ago. He was the only man to spin in the rain having put his wheels over a white line, a very silly thing to do. In the end he couldn't beat Webber for 7th, even though the Jaguar had started from the pits and made one extra visit through pit lane.

Webber's re-signing with the Big Cat hot on the heels of news that Jaguar wanted to keep him came as something of a surprise so early into the season, but it is a sign of how well the new group of people at Jaguar have come together, and it also vindicates the decision to replace famous names and personalities with a starless group of hard-working, technically-minded people. Just going by their rate of improvement this year, their target to win races by 2005 suddenly does not seem so ridiculous.

Maybe with the exception of Malaysia, the R4 has been competitive everywhere else, and Webber's 3rd in Friday qualifying merely underlined the fact that the Jaguar is a genuine podium contender this year. By the time he served his stop-go penalty, Webber had passed Alonso on the road, and despite still having two more stops to go, making it a total of three visits to the pits, he thrashed Trulli and team-mate Antonio Pizzonia, who had started 6th and 8th respectively, and who had both made only two stops.

Mark's fastest lap towards the end of the race was in the 1:08 bracket, under last year's lap record, and faster than everyone bar the Ferraris. Were it not for his stop-go, he may have come 6th or even 5th ahead of DC. It was a shame, then, that Jaguar fell foul of the strict parc ferme regulations in force this year. It appears as though they may have been caught out by the two aborted starts and performed unauthorised work on the car before the final parade lap, thinking that they were free to do so after the initial parade lap.

The other team that showed really good speed throughout the weekend was BAR, with Villeneuve and Button 4th and 5th after Friday. In the race, Jenson was superb, staying out of trouble and running strongly en route to a well-deserved 4th place. He may be accused of being too generous to Barrichello when the Brazilian made a late dive inside, but the Ferrari was inevitably going to get by. Were it not for his spin in Brazil and his tangle with DC in Spain, Button would have scored good points in 5 of the 6 races so far.

Meanwhile Jacques recovered from 12th on the grid after his untidy lap on Saturday and held off DC for 5th for much of the race, until he stalled at his second stop and could not move again without a change of steering wheel. His frustration and anger was obvious, and in no small way due to the fact that Button has had the better reliability and, more often than not, the better speed. His post-Melbourne whinge aside, Button has kept his head down and earned results, while Jacques' verbiage has been little more than that.

Speaking of verbiage, Eddie Irvine seems to produce reams of it daily with his comments on all things F1, and during the week he came out with a left hook on the Jordan EJ13, calling the car "atrocious" in the Belfast Telegraph. He had a point. Jordan were never in the hunt even for points, and after his third retirement in succession I suspect that Giancarlo Fisichella is getting embarrassed. The more races that go by with the Jordan remaining grossly uncompetitive, the more his Brazil win looks like the fluke that it was.

More than that, but Firman is keeping pace with the Italian in races even if not always in qualifying, and it's Sunday that counts. Irvine also said of Ralph that he "can't drive" and that he's "got no style". True, Firman does appear jittery on the circuit, like an accident about to happen, but with each passing Grand Prix his race pace is becoming more impressive. Brazil aside, Ralph is the only man to have scored points for Jordan this year under 'normal' conditions. I wouldn't call that being unable to drive.

Aerodynamically, the Swiss team are dearly paying the price for not having a notable designer. And since Peter Sauber's men traditionally struggle to improve their car as the year goes on, it's hard to see how the fundamentally flawed C22 can be converted into a regular points-scoring machine. Someone also needs to tell them that running light in Saturday qualifying is not only annoying to viewers who can see through the tactic, it also doesn't work once the race order sorts itself out after a round of pit stops.

As for pathetic, then Ove Andersson's forlorn expression on the Toyota pit wall for most of the race said it all. Da Matta's car continues to have the better reliability, whilst Olivier Panis' luck goes from bad to worse. Having come in under the safety car, it would have been interesting to see how his tactics played out for the rest of the race. With 5 DNFs now from six races, and a Toyota that works on some tracks but is like a dog elsewhere, the affable Frenchman's patience must surely be running out.

Finally, Minardi are a concern at the moment. The PS03 is not particularly reliable, as shown by Verstappen failing to complete his Saturday qualifying lap, and by the Jos' immediate retirement in the race. It also appears to be either difficult to set up, or just downright difficult to drive. Justin Wilson continues to show up his experienced team-mate, and one feels his talent is being squandered at Faenza. Minardi is the only team yet to score in 2003, and their drivers are last of all on a results count-back at present.

But worse still is how silent Paul Stoddart has been in recent weeks. For the last two weeks, Stoddy has constantly remained upbeat, chirpy, in fighting mood, always good for a sound-bite. This year we've heard next to nothing from Minardi in terms of technological, sponsorship or staff developments. There's a jaded feel to this little team right now, as Stoddart's talk of battling in the midfield fails to become reality once again. The men in black need a good weekend at Monaco to keep their heads above water.