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Articles by Darren Galpin
| Deutschland not quite so über alles - Sun 25th Jul 2004 |
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As the usual set of national anthems rang out at the end of the race, one could be forgiven for thinking that things were as usual in the F1 world. Yet, despite all this, there are grounds for optimism for the rest of the season, because we almost had a race for the lead. And we certainly had a race for the rest of the positions.
The first challenger was Kimi Räikkönen, who clearly likes the latest incarnation of the McLaren. He started from second on the grid, and despite Schumacher’s best efforts, he wasn’t dropped away by much, and surprisingly had enough fuel to run a couple of extra laps to the first set of fuel stops, setting the fastest lap of the race along the way. Coming out of the pit lane, he was right behind the German, and we were looking forward to the continuing battle.
However, coming past the start/finish line, Räikkönen’s rear wing catastrophically failed, the bonded-carbon main element departing company from the wing endplates and flying upwards. Shorn of its downforce, the car pirouetted off at the first available opportunity, landing heavily in the tyre wall. The reaction of the crowd was unnecessary – the red-clad German “fans” threw up their arms in joy that the main challenge to Michael Schumacher had gone even before Räikkönen was out of the car and was seen to be uninjured. It was nationalism at its ugliest, and perhaps a sad commentary of the state of modern Germany.
Elsewhere in the race, Jenson Button was on the move. He started 13th on the grid due to a 10 place penalty for an engine change on Friday, having set a time only a third of a second slower than Schumacher. However, Geoff Willis of BAR later disclosed that Button had five laps worth of extra fuel on board, which was worth around half a second, so the pace which Button had set was even more impressive. He demonstrated this pace quite clearly, moving through the pack, and leading the race for a short while as the leaders pitted. He used the second pit-stop to leapfrog David Coulthard, and set-off after Fernando Alonso.
He feinted this way and that, and had several attempts at the new hairpin, but the Renault had far better traction out of the corner, so despite getting alongside on the exit more than once, he was always outdragged to the next corner. However, he bided his time, dropped back a little, and launched a new attack. His hairpin attempt failed, but he had enough momentum to drive up the inside two corners later. Once past, he went away, and started to catch the Ferrari, although never fast enough to seriously worry the German. You couldn’t help but wonder what might have been – what might have happened if the BAR’s engine hadn’t let go on the Friday? Button said in the post race interview that it had been the race of the life, and you couldn’t disagree, especially if you consider what had happened to his helmet mid-race. The chin-strap had started to work loose for some reason, and the air running over the car sucked it upwards, starting to choke Button. This meant that when he was driving down the straights (or long curves), Button had to use his left hand to help keep his helmet on his head, using his right hand to steer and change up. He would place his left hand on the steering wheel when he came into the braking areas, as he needed it to change down. It made his drive even more remarkable.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Button winning his first race this year, but it won’t be at the next GP in three weeks time at the Hungaroring – the number of corners will favour the Renaults and their traction. But the Belgian and Italian GP’s are a possibility, and it will be well deserved progress for the rejuvenated BAR team.
Congratulations must go the German GP director for concentrating on battles within the field rather than just on the leader Michael Schumacher. It made the race interesting to watch, rather than a turgid fight against sleep and the onset of narcolepsy.
Drivel
On UK Channel 5 last week, the terrestrial premiere of the film "Driven" occurred, sometimes better known as Drivel. You can see why - screen play better suited to a TV show, and ludicrous computerised special effects (I've seen better on a Playstation - the rain effects were certainly no better), overlaid with excessive amounts of rap music. In racing films, you don't need music to build up a sense of atmosphere. Take a look at Roman Polanski's film about a weekend in Monaco - the atmosphere is created purely by recording the sound that is there - the crowd, the engines, and it works wonderfully, building the sense of occasion.
It was also noteworthy for the complete disregard for physics and fact. Take the crashes - there were at least three cars which ended up in rivers, and several over barriers (this was one season's racing remember). When was the last time a car cleared a barrier in Indycar racing? Not for a very long time. And cars in water? Well, during the entire 80 year history of the Monaco GP, only two cars have ever ended up in the harbour, and only a handful of cars have ever ended up in the lake at Mallory Park despite all of the club racing there.
And the worst was the fireball caused by the crashed car in the lake being set on fire. The scene was set - car upside down in the river (looked more like a lake to me - no movement of water could be seen), with a split fuel tank spilling out fluid at a high rate. If this was an F1 car, then there would have been no problem, but Indycars run on methanol, and methanol dissolves in water, which is why during an Indycar pit they keep buckets of water around, and after finishing fuelling, often through some water at the fuel intake to dissolve any spillage left behind (this was shown happening in the film). So, the methanol may have been dumped at a high rate into the water, but it would have rapidly dissolved too, so couldn't have caught fire. Besides, if it had been a river, it would have been swept away down stream fast enough to not have caused a problem.
Still, at least I could continue working on my webpage on my laptop while the film was on, so it wasn't a complete waste of two hours.
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