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Articles by Darren Galpin
| The Malaysian Grand Prix - Sun 20th Mar 2005 |
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Strangely enough, the Australian Grand Prix did prove to be an accurate indicator for the next race, rather than proving to be a freak result. The Renault really is as good as it looks, Ferrari are screwed, and Red Bull Racing have made a big leap forward.
The race was also ironic when viewed from the position of BAR-Honda. They retired two healthy cars in Australia in order to fit fresh engines (a loop-hole since “clarified” by the FIA). The new engines fitted were of a different specification, and supposedly more reliable. However, within five laps of the start, both had boiled their internals and dumped their liquids trackside. Don’t despair though – the team can fit fresh engines again for Bahrain……
The biggest improver over the winter has to be Red Bull Racing, and specifically Christian Klien. He had looked out of his depth last year at Jaguar, and it seemed that he was very lucky in keeping his seat for the year. A years experience, and the threat of Vitantonio Liuzzi as the team’s third driver, ready to take the race seat whenever required, seems to have enabled Klien to make the big leap forward. Although in both Grands Prix he has been beaten by his team-mate David Coulthard, it has never been by that much. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain this form over the coming season.
Ferrari’s strategy of starting the year with a modified 2004 car looks to have backfired badly, with the Australian Grand Prix flattering to deceive. It looked as though the lottery of qualifying had blown their Grand Prix in Australia, with Barrichello fighting back to second. In Malaysia, the true state of the situation was revealed – the car isn’t good enough, and the tyres are not up to the job. Both Ferrari drivers qualified well down the field, Schumacher in 14th. Barrichello pulled out of the race six laps from the end when out of the points and going backwards – his softer rear Bridgestone tyres had lost their tread completely, and were effectively slicks – in order not to have an accident. Schumacher looked most disinterested for most of the race, and scraped a couple of points due to the misfortunes of others, rather than anything he did. There will be recriminations in Maranello, as they will be highly unaccustomed to the state of affairs. It will be interesting to see their reaction – will they over-react in their attempts to rectify the situation (the traditional Italian response), or will they work their way back into it methodically, the usual Todt and Brawn approach?
What was clear during the race is that the performance of Renault is a true performance – they once again led from start to finish near enough, although this time with Alonso rather than Fisichella. Fisichella hadn’t got his car set up as he wanted it, and it showed, especially in his more and more desperate attempts to stay in third place, culminating in his accident with Webber. Fisichella took far too much speed into the final corner, and was always going to lose the place, as was obviated by his four wheel drift at the apex. Webber, a little to impatient to get past, was attempting to go around the outside, and acted as the brake for Fisichella’s drift. Both were out on the spot and both denied responsibility in their interviews. Sorry lads, you were both at fault. Fischella was always sliding out, and Webber put his car in danger. File it away under “lesson learnt”. The outcome of it all was a safe third place for Heidfeld, good reward for a good drive.
Also noteworthy was the performance of Toyota, with both cars looking like top 10 cars, more befitting of the biggest global car manufacturer than their performances so far. In both races so far, Trulli has got the upper hand over Ralf Schumacher, and to be frank, I don’t see that changing much over the rest of the year, one or two races excepting. Ralf did at least fight and trade places with the Williams drivers, but he never looked like being on the pace of Trulli. Being twice on the front row will do wonders for Trulli’s confidence, and his race performance helped to belie his “good qualifier/bad racer” moniker. Put him in a good car with a chance, and give him the backing of the team (seemingly lacking from Briatore last year), and he will do wonders. As a result, Ralf is being shown to be what he really is – a competent driver who can bring the car home, who will spring the occasional great drive, but not the next world champion, whatever his surname may suggest.
The US and Europe
My most recent project has had me looking at early races in the US, in the years 1900-1908. From these early beginnings, it is clear to see why US racing has developed in a different way to that in Europe.
Early European races were almost exclusively based on public roads, with races either being point-to-point affairs between the cities, or based on circuits which were 10s of kilometres long. However, at the same time in the US, most of the races were being held on horse racing tracks. There were road races, such as the Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize events at venues such as Long Island, but these were in the minority. Most of the early circuits were one mile dirt ovals, and although these later gave way to purpose built venues, these newer venues were also ovals, either built from wood, or from bricks (hence why Indianapolis is known as the Brickyard). Which perhaps explains why the majority of venues in the US today are still ovals. In the case of Europe, the venues gradually got smaller and smaller, until they became purpose built venues such as Monza.
Early US race meetings are also noteworthy for the range of different races they held. One example is the Cupid Race – drivers would have to do a lap, pick up a woman passenger, and the continue on their way. Even then, 24 hour races were common, being held on a variety of venues, which led to a huge number of laps being completed when they were held on 1 mile ovals. The rules though were slightly different to those of today – drivers were frequently allowed to change cars should they have an accident, as long as the car was of the same type!
One other anecdote: during an 24 hour endurance race at Morris Park in 1907, a driver called Lawrence Smelzer crashed and was killed. After the event, two women turned up to claim the body. Both claimed to be his wife……
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