Brazilian Grand Prix Review

It was a messy finish in so many respects. Not only did the two wrecks belonging to Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso scatter more debris on the circuit than you'll find on the road into Baghdad, but the final result was not determined correctly until almost five days after the race had finished. Kimi Raikkonen was awarded his second career win, and his second in a row, in the minutes after the race was halted. In hindsight, it seemed incredible that there wasn't more debate about the result at the time.

Giancarlo Fisichella had seemingly come heartbreakingly close to recording what would have been a shock, last-gasp, but very welcome win for the financially troubled Jordan team. He had passed Raikkonen for the lead towards the end of the 54th lap, the same lap on which Webber demolished his Jaguar. The race was not, repeat not, stopped for this incident; only the safety car was deployed. It was only after Alonso's crash that the red flag came out almost instantaneously.

Webber had crashed on his 54th lap, while Fisichella, Raikkonen and Alonso were on their 55th, running 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Fisi passed the stricken Jaguar, rounded the debris, and slowed. Raikkonen also slowed, and headed for the pits as he was always going to do anyway. Alonso came around at full pelt, hit one of Webber's wheels, sickeningly cannoned into the wall on both sides of the track, and the red flag came out, the graphic on monitors saying it had come out on lap 55.

Back to the race, now, and the FIA Sporting Regulations state that in a red flag situation "the race will be deemed to have finished when the leading car crossed the line at the end of the lap two laps prior to that at which the signal to stop was given." The powers that be assumed that Giancarlo had not started his 56th lap and was still on his 55th when the race was stopped, thus the race winner was the leader at the end of 53 laps: Raikkonen. And there we had it.

Of course, this prompted Michael Schumacher (no doubt eager to limit others' Championship head-start) to complain loudly that 53 laps didn't constitute 75% of race distance and that half-points should be given. Clearly he hadn't bothered to read the regulations of the sport (and why should he? He's Michael Schumacher, dammit!). The 75% rule refers to the point at which the race is stopped, not the point at which the results are backdated to. But this soon became a moot point. Why?

Because, contrary to what you read in the papers on Monday morning, Fisichella had in fact started his 56th lap - as anyone with a VCR and two ounces of common sense could have told you. How a sport that so prides itself on being consummately 'professional' could get a small thing like the race winner wrong mystifies us. The FIA are now claiming it was all a timing error. Rather inconvenient time for the sensors to go on the blink, eh? Maybe TAG-Heuer wanted another race victory for a team of which they are major sponsors?

It was actually a little surprising to see Fisi and Eddie Jordan accept their initial technical knock-out defeat with such equanimity. Perhaps they realised, in all honesty, that 2nd was a great result anyway, that they achieved it on the back of a daring strategy and no little good fortune that the race was stopped when it was instead of continuing to the end. They were happy enough to accept that the rules were the rules, even though, as it turns out, the rules should have come down in their favour. Or maybe they didn't want to step on Ron Dennis' toes...

In the Olympics, they redo medal ceremonies when a result is corrected, so why not give Fisi his moment in the sun at Imola, and thus allow Alonso to celebrate his 3rd as well? For, in the chaotic finish, Fernando had been taken to hospital for observations, both he and Webber fortunate to have survived their massive shunts. Add to that the bizarre sight of the Grand Prix graveyard on the outside of the Curva du Sol where there were six stricken cars, and you had a Grand Prix that came close to bedlam.

Millions of dollars were wiped in one afternoon of mayhem. Jaguar in particular will be counting the cost of both accidents to Webber and Antonio Pizzonia in the race, plus another crash for Antonio during Saturday free practice. And yet ironically, the culprit to which most fingers were being pointed was one of the new rules for 2003 which had been designed to cut costs: the rule that both Bridgestone and Michelin could only bring one type of wet tyre to each Grand Prix.

The hilly nature of Interlagos is conducive to aquaplaning at the best of times, since the natural valleys create rivers that run across the track. What we didn't need was a man-made aquaplaning hazard at the sweeping turn 3, where drainage pipes fed water of varying depths across the corner. It meant that while the rest of the track was progressively drying during the race, this corner remained wet throughout, but just how wet, and where it was most wet, kept constantly changing.

The result was a puddly trap that ensnared Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli who spun simultaneously, Justin Wilson and Jos Verstappen who stalled their Minardis and retired, Juan-Pablo Montoya and Antonio Pizzonia who crashed with moderate force on the same lap, Michael Schumacher who recorded his first retirement since Germany 2001, Jenson Button whose crash was the most serious at that corner, and Webber himself, whose save and recovery from a wild spin was simply a miracle.

Silverstone may have the worst traffic in and out of the track, and the muddiest car parks, but Interlagos has the unfortunate distinction of being the most run-down circuit on the calendar, even despite renovation and resurfacing work before this year's GP. Only three years ago advertising hoardings were falling onto the track here, and this year there was no excuse whatsoever for a drain that fed water onto the track. With that in mind, turn 3, the Curva du Sol, gets our 'Reject of the Race' award this time around.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Turn 3: Curva du Sol
A slippery little sucker

Webber's crash on the 54th lap seemed to have been caused by aquaplaning on a new puddle on the left kink where he lost control. There was certainly spray coming from the tyres when he started spinning. The velocity of the shunt was such that it tore off three of the R4's four wheels, and worryingly Webber's visor was up before his car had come to a halt, a no-no in an accident. Mark has now had massive prangs at Le Mans, at Spa in F3000, and now in F1, a track record which he no doubt hopes will not continue.

Alonso's crash, though, was even worse. One wonders if he could have slowed more and avoided the debris as others had done. Hindsight, though, is a lovely thing. The fact is that, his suspension broken by Webber's wheel, he went head-on into a tyre wall, sending loose tyres up towards the marshals' post and littering the track (why the tyre wall wasn't bound is beyond me), before another impact on the nosecone on the other side of the track. Thankfully he was unhurt, but he will have been very shaken indeed.

Tyres were a major factor in this race. Not only was it a question of Michelin and Bridgestone, it was also a matter of who could make their intermediate tyres last as the drying track slowly tore them up, so that they would have enough tread to deal with turn three and the other rivers and puddles. Raikkonen and Montoya for example set off like scalded cats in the early green flag laps, jumping to 1st and 2nd, but seemed to burn their rubber and fell back into the hands of David Coulthard and the rest of the pack.

But towards the end on the drying track, with some parts completely dry altogether, there was no doubt that the Bridgestones were far superior. Barrichello passed Coulthard with ease and looked to be sailing away when he retired for the ninth time in as many home GPs, his hoodoo not broken by the omen that local drivers had previously won the Brazilian GP in 1973, 1983 and 1993. When the race was stopped, the drivers on the move were Fisichella, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Villeneuve, all on Bridgestones.

Yet even if Barrichello was moving away from Coulthard at a rate of knots, would he have won? For strategy too had a big hand to play, with many different tactics at work. Amongst others, Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Barrichello, Alonso, Trulli and Ralf Schumacher were all on straight two-stoppers. They brought the first stop forward during the Firman/Panis safety car, with Ferrari and Williams able to pit both cars at once because of the gap between them, although Trulli had to queue behind Alonso.

Raikkonen had seemingly made a blunder by not pitting at the same time, but when he did come in during the Schumacher safety car and fuelled to the end, he had turned his strategy into a one-stopper and perhaps played a trump card. But towards the end, it was clear that his tyres would not be able to last, and as such he was caught and passed by Fisichella, losing the race in what was effectively the last few corners. Indeed, as the red flag was being shown he was in the pits getting a new set of Michelins.

The truly audacious (and ultimately race-winning) tactics, though, came from Fisichella, Frentzen and Verstappen. Both HHF and Jos had started from the pits with a full tank. Fisi had come in to top up before the race went green, so he too was effectively starting full and heavy. That allowed them to climb up the field during the safety car periods and whilst everyone made their first stops, and then be amongst the leaders (or actually be in front, in Fisi's case) with one stop each to go - and when the race was stopped.

As it turned out, Frentzen never pitted all race. And at this point, we should mention Paul Stoddart's bold suggestion that his cars could have won had they not spun out. One may think that this was more preposterous than the rubbish coming from the Iraqi information minister. But try this on for size: at the time he spun, Verstappen was in 7th, ahead of Fisichella, on roughly the same amount of fuel, on the same Bridgestone tyres, and he had held off the Jordan for several green flag laps. Stoddart had a point.

It is worth considering, then, how the tactics played out when the race was stopped, and how they would have played out if the race had gone on. The fact is that Coulthard, Ralf and Trulli all lost out because they pitted just before the red flag was shown. One wonders if any of them could have made it to the end of the 54th lap, if they knew the race was going to be stopped at that point. Ralf probably couldn't, Jarno probably could (he came in at the end of the 53rd), but could David stretch it out a few more laps?

Ralf, Raikkonen and Fisi would have had a tight battle for 2nd place, with the McLaren car advantage probably able to negate the tyre advantage Giancarlo may have had. Both of them may well have got the better of the Williams. Ralf's performance in Brazil was improved, but still lacked the brute competitiveness that Frank Williams and Patrick Head would have hoped for after the kick up the backside they sent the German by mail during the week.

And what of Barrichello had he not retired? Put it simply, such was the gap he was pulling over Coulthard, if he had pitted before the red flag, he would have been around where Raikkonen and Fisichella were, and thus in a position to be in front at the end of the 54th lap. And had the race continued, he would surely have been dominantly out front, especially since he was on Bridgestones. In a nutshell, the Brazilian Grand Prix was his for the taking, not that that will bring any comfort to the Paulistas.

Mind you, all of this is speculative, and as Murray Walker has said ad nauseam, "F1 backwards spells 'IF'." For if Barrichello would have won at a canter, then so could Michael Schumacher. The World Champion was ahead of Barrichello when he spun off, Rubens having lost out to Michael during his slide in the early laps after his bumbling attempt at a start when the race went green. Instead of a Ferrari 1-2, which could have been very possible, today we're talking about the first Ferrari double-DNF since Belgium 1998.

Having said that, McLaren's bright start to the season must be beyond the wildest expectations they would have had for their interim MP4/17D. Funny how Ron Dennis has criticised Bernie Ecclestone for slamming the new qualifying rules. Fancy Ron coming to the new rules' defence! Although he said this allegedly on the basis that Bernie as the ringmaster should not criticise his own circus, one gets the feeling that he's quite enjoying the show at present. We can't wait for Ron's planned arbitration to rule the three race results so far null and void!

Coulthard is driving with precision and no little speed. It is worth noting that he has out-qualified Raikkonen for five straight races now, and could have won all three this year. Kimi, though, has won one (almost two!), and his confidence must be soaring. His pass on DC in the early laps was decisive and brave, although perhaps David wasn't fighting as hard as he could have, content to let Kimi go, while his outside move on Ralf going into turn 4 will definitely be in the nominations for 'overtaking move of the year' at season's end.

Despite his heavy smash, Alonso is another man whose driving is at new heights, although one wonders if we will see a more circumspect Fernando at Imola. After his first stop, when his crew inadvertently gave him dry tyres, he had to pit again the next lap, dropping him back to the end of the queue, and he later had a drive-through penalty as well for passing under yellows. But even so, and though he was on Michelins, he battled his way through the field to record his second podium in succession.

In the end, then, Ferrari are not currently at their best, and they have given a mighty head start to McLaren. Williams needed to take advantage of days like this but didn't, and the FW25 still looks like a struggling package. Renault have performed steadily despite their lack of outright pace, and find themselves in 2nd in the constructors' title and 3rd and 4th in the drivers' championship. Sauber have picked up points so far, but more by fortune and strategy than speed. The C22 still doesn't look the goods, sadly.

Jordan may consider themselves lucky, but Fisi's drive was top-class, he had started a fine 8th on the grid, and he was on the right tactics and the right tyres at the right time, so good luck to him. A competitive Jordan is good for F1, so one hopes this result leads to more sponsorship. Jaguar, in Webber's hands at least, are increasingly genuine threats, and showed better reliability at Brazil. Mark's 1st in Friday qualifying was stunning, and his eventual 3rd on the grid was the best yet for Jaguar. But then again, Jaguar have always done OK in Brazil.

BAR have promise, but are still yet to fully deliver. Same with Toyota, Panis' quickest time in Saturday free practice turning into no better than 14th on the grid and an average race performance, while Minardi's chance to shine may have come and gone with this race if there are no more wet events to come. And with that, the first three fly-away events are over with a seriously exciting European season in store, starting with Imola in Ferrari's heartland, where we may see the debut of the Ferrari F2003-GA.