European Grand Prix Review

The pre-race chatter was once again dominated not by the action the track, but rather by more proposed rule changes. The teams seemed to agree on 2.4 litre V8s come 2006, although BMW's Mario Thiessen murmured that it may not be quite so set in stone as yet. Put it this way: we're not holding our breath. There's still a lot of time and detail for much ink to be spilled. Of greater immediate concern were the revised qualifying format for the British GP, and proposed new rules in relation to the safety car.

As of the British GP, one-by-one qualifying will be scrapped, replaced by free-for-all sessions as before. The one-hour session will be divided into three 20-minute blocks. In the first 20 minutes, all drivers have to complete 6 laps, before a break for 20 minutes and then a final flurry in the last 20, in which all have to complete 6 laps again. The aggregate of a driver's fastest times from the two mini-sessions will determined the final grid position.

Runs can be made on low tanks, and although the cars otherwise enter parc ferme straight after, they are allowed to be filled up to race fuel loads. This after Jean Todt of Ferrari made the very sensible observation that, if race fuel loads were to be used in qualifying, drivers who have already banked a super-quick time and looking to save fuel might go dangerously slowly on their warm-down laps. As with all attempts to change the qualifying format, it was rightly met with mixed reactions.

Perhaps free-for-all qualifying lessens the element of 'chance', because all drivers have up to four separate runs to set a time, and so to compile the grid by aggregate times would retain some unpredictability. But frankly aggregate times is more of a departure from tradition than the single-car format ever was. Furthermore, what if a driver fails to do his requisite six laps in either of the 20 minute sessions due to an off or car problems, or fails to record a flying lap time? This has not been answered satisfactorily as yet.

And then there were the proposed new safety car procedures in the wake of the events in the Monaco tunnel. The pits are now closed during safety car periods, and also the safety car will no longer give warning that it is due to pull into the pits that lap. Whilst the safety car is primarily for exactly that - safety - it also serves a purpose in terms of spicing up the race, as any American motorsport fan can attest. Both these changes completely undermine the latter role of the safety car.

Whether to pit immediately as a safety car comes out is a classic test of flexibility and the ability to think on one's feet. Ferrari lost its chance of winning at Monaco because they slipped up. The start of a caution period is the perfect opportunity for the more strategically savvy to gain a jump on the opposition, which normal racing conditions would not permit. To close the pits when the safety car is deployed, only opening it once everyone is in line, flies in the face of wanting more unpredictability in the sport.

Now the act of returning to green flag conditions will be a momentous non-event. If the problem of telling the drivers in advance was that they would indulge in their dangerous brake-warming squirt-and-brake exercises, which finally caught someone out at Monaco, then the simple way is simply to ban the practice, and for anyone seen doing it to be given a drive-through penalty. All the race leader would be allowed to do is to ease off the throttle gradually if he wanted to back up the pack behind him.

To practice and qualifying, then, and just as in Monaco there were a number of points of note. The most obvious, of course, was the startling performance on Saturday of Takuma Sato, who bettered his 3rd place on the grid in Spain by landing on the front row. In doing so, he proved once and for all that he really does have the speed to match and beat team-mate Jenson Button, if only he had the consistency and the reliability - from both himself and his car - to fully capitalise upon it.

McLaren's upturn in fortunes continued, further aerodynamic tweaks and what was surely an added effort by Mercedes on their home track combining to make Kimi Raikkonen a genuine contender during practice and qualifying, his 4th on the grid the best for the frustrated Finn this year. David Coulthard may have joined his team-mate, had his car not failed after pre-qualifying, forcing him to change engines and start from the back of the grid - but on fuller tanks, he would surely be a dark horse.

But while McLaren sort of returned to form, the team that had just demoted them from 5th in the constructors' table, Sauber, were having a terrible time. Giancarlo Fisichella was also forced to start from the back after an engine change early on Friday, although it availed him of the possibility of running heavy. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa blew his qualifying lap, and even started behind both Jordans. The Brazilian is not making the impression - good or bad - that he did back in 2002. Sometimes anonymity is worse.

Sauber weren't the only team in the wars. Jaguar had to hurriedly prepare for the Nurburgring after all their Monaco dramas, including the well-publicised loss of their Steinmetz diamond in their publicity stunt gone wrong. On a circuit where they were confident, Mark Webber was then slapped with a 1s penalty (since when has that been available, or was it plucked out of thin air?) on his qualifying time for disobeying a yellow flag on Friday. The Aussie admitted as much.

Now this really was an example of officiousness gone mad. True, even though Webber made an educated decision to press on unabated, that was no excuse, and some sanction was necessary. But perhaps a fine sufficed. Docking him one second from his time in a future session seemed either irrelevant, draconian or arbitrary, if not downright illogical. Thankfully it mattered little, as a relatively spread-out midfield meant that the Jaguar only dropped from 12th to 14th on the grid.

With only one Williams left, Montoya proceeded to then complete a rather aimless race, picking up a point for 8th which leaves him down in 6th in the championship, 22 points behind 2nd-placed Barrichello, and Williams some 25 points behind 2nd-placed Renault in the constructors'. BMW's only consolation will have been that they were saved their blushes by an even more pathetic display by rivals Mercedes as these great German companies embarrassed themselves on home soil.

More than ever though, the final points results in this race were determined by pit strategy. After the usual first lap shake-up, Raikkonen found himself in 2nd place, with a rapidly-forming queue behind him as the Finn's pace fell to around three seconds off the race leader. Of those behind the three-stopping McLaren, though, were the equally three-stopping BARs and Renaults, with only Barrichello's Ferrari two-stopping amongst the leading gaggle.

This proved significant because Raikkonen's lack of pace meant that he, Sato, Button, Alonso and Trulli were unable to pull out much of a gap over the rest of the midfield. This was led by a fast-starting Coulthard, who from the back of the grid was always going to two-stop, and it included the likes of Fisichella and the Jordans, able to also two-stop because of their Bridgestone tyres' greater consistency, plus the Jaguars, only two-stopping as well, and taking a gamble because they were on Michelins.

The other one to gain an advantage was obviously Barrichello, once again employing the heavier-tanks tactics he has been using to average effect since Spain. As the three-stoppers pitted, he found himself in the clear, and as the race panned out, the only man he was effectively racing was Sato. The superb closeness of the Ferrari's two-stop plan versus the BAR's three-stop strategy was no better demonstrated than the fact that, when Taku made his last stop, he came out right on the Brazilian's tail.

This was now a straight race to the flag for 2nd place. Whilst Sato has shown this year that he's not afraid to make a move (his awesome pass on Coulthard in Bahrain springs to mind), to make an opportunist dive inside Rubens with over a dozen laps to go was a sign of his inexperience; there's still a certain maturity that Taku lacks. If, say, he had made such a lunge on the last lap, with the same result of losing his front wing, he could still amble around and claim 3rd.

Then again, if he had been patient, he may well have found a way past; Rubens magnanimously - in contrast to the excuse-ridden post-race interviews we have grown truly sick of - admitted as much. That the Honda engine eventually blew again anyway might be tiny consolation, although that may in turn have been triggered by the extra pit stop. Either way, but for this unsatisfying end this may prove to be Sato's coming-of-age weekend as a genuinely creditable and competitive Grand Prix driver.

Coulthard may have also been in the fight for what eventually was 3rd, although Button probably had it sewn up after his sensational move outside the Scot at turn 1, which will be in the shortlist for overtaking manoeuvre of the year, no doubt. But DC joined Raikkonen in yet another monotonous double-engine-failure-DNF as the litany of McLaren Mercedes' humiliation continued. It's fair to say that currently there is a certain suspension of belief over just how terrible McLaren's results have been this year.

In perspective, Raikkonen has one point from seven races, compared to 60 for the title leader. Coulthard has four. McLaren languish in 6th in the constructors' championship, with only half the points of Sauber. Ferrari have over 100 points more already. In addition, they are only one point ahead of Toyota, two ahead of Jaguar, and three ahead of Jordan. Regardless of whatever upturn in performance there's been in the last two weekends, the barren scoreboard tells the story.

McLaren in their politically-correct way, toeing the corporate-friendly line, will of course not say this, but the problem is in one place more than any other, and that place is called M-E-R-C-E-D-E-S. McLaren are patently making gains in the chassis department; Mercedes (or Ilmor) need to rapidly step up to the plate in terms of both horsepower and above all reliability. The shocking number of detonations this year is enough to make you wonder why the US have bothered to look for WMDs in Iraq, when there are plenty to be found at Woking.

We've been dying to bestow this honour on McLaren all season, but perhaps it's unfair to saddle the whole team with it, so 'Reject of the Race' goes to Mercedes, for shaming themselves yet again, this time on home territory. If this were still the good ol' days of pure engine suppliers and not 'technical partners', Ron Dennis might have good reason to look elsewhere for his motors next year; sadly for him, that's not possible in the current age when McLaren are all but married to the Stuttgart concern.

McLaren's demise left the middle points positions to the two Renaults of the voiceless Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, although in truth it was a very quiet race from both. Yet it is once again noteworthy that it was the Italian ahead of the Spaniard (courtesy especially of an early race mistake when Fernando ran wide), with Jarno now on 36 points keeping up the pressure on Button and even Barrichello, and some 11 points clear of Alonso. Trulli's definitely the quiet achiever of the year so far.

Sixth place fell to a stunning drive from Fisichella who had come from 18th on the grid, using his Bridgestones to run longer before his first of two stops to cement his position ahead of a dogged Webber in a move that decided who took away the three points. The Australian always found himself fighting a rearguard action yet again, after another very poor start that saw even both Minardis blast past him. Such consistently slow getaways are simply not good enough, and Jaguar needs to do some serious work on this part of their game.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Mercedes/Ilmor
WMDs to be found at Woking, not in Iraq

Those two points brought Jaguar within only another tantalising two of McLaren's 6th place on the table, vital because if the Big Cat hits 6th by the British GP, Webber is not free to make all the rumours come true and leave for another team without a handsome pay-out. Which is interesting because, if at Magny-Cours, say, Webber looks like scoring points, knowing that those very points might jeopardise his chances of moving to a better team, might it not make him think twice? Oh, we are cynical indeed ...

On the topic of being cynical, nice to see Jaguar employ some team orders (*gasp* ... no, you didn't hear us say those forbidden words) at the end, as the lapped Christian Klien made a none-too-subtle attempt to hold up Fisichella, to give Webber an opportunity to attack the Sauber for 6th. But the rapidly-graining Michelins on the Jaguar meant that the Australian had no real chance, and his team-mate was slapped with a 25-second penalty for his trouble, although in the end it did not affect the Austrian's final position.

Disappointment for Toyota once again, also in something of a home race near their team base in Cologne. Olivier Panis was at the back of the leading bunch early, but he was three-stopping, and if the likes of Trulli and Alonso had their race compromised by being held up by Raikkonen early, then Panis suffered more than any other. But once again, Toyota's tactical naivety and inability to be more flexible (e.g. try to change Olivier onto a two-stopper) is truly confounding. Little to say about the Minardis of Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner, except that once again they went slowly and finished.

(Oh, yes, and some viewers may also have noticed that Michael Schumacher won in his Ferrari, taking his 76th victory, 60th pole position and 62nd fastest lap, having been consistently fast all weekend (even if he did not top a practice session), and having driven peerlessly in a race of his own - once he had effectively claimed the win within the first ten seconds. Too obvious to bother mentioning, really. Normal service resumed indeed.)