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Articles by Darren Galpin
| The Mists of the Ardennes - Mon 12th Sep 2005 |
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For the Belgian Grand Prix, the track was a little Bon Jovi, i.e. it was slippery when wet. The morning sessions had seen ample amounts of the wet stuff liberally coating the circuit, and the enveloping mists were clinging to the Ardennes trees. Indeed, it reminded you of British Summer Time.
What the weather did though is to throw the dice of chance. Qualifying had been dry, so the conditions threw up a whole new conundrum to solve. The track was damp, and the weather forecast indicated that there might be more rain on the way. On the other hand, as the race progressed, the racing line would dry out. The conditions cried out for compromise, but there were those who could afford to compromise more than others. With a healthy championship lead, Alonso could afford to take it easier – as long as he finished in the top four or so in the remaining races, the championship would be his. Räikkönen on the otherhand had to ensure that he would win. It was looking interesting.
Once the red lights went out, the two McLaren’s, who were first and second on the grid, shot off into the lead and started to disappear, the Michelin intermediate tyre seemingly better suited to the conditions for McLaren. But it was Montoya who was leading Räikkönen, and how long would he stay in front. How would McLaren interpret the no team orders issue?
The first indications came around lap 10, when Fisichella lost control of his car in Raidillion – he disappeared at a high rate of speed backwards into the tyre barriers, at least keeping his car on the ground, unlike Villeneuve and Zonta in 2000. This necessitated the use of the safety car, so that the wrecked Renault and associated missing appendages could be craned off the circuit. Enough laps had also gone that pit-stops became a possibility – what should McLaren do?
Their solution was to have Montoya hurry back to the pits, while Räikkönen made his way there much more slowly. As the circuit was effectively under a full-course yellow, no-one could overtake him, so everyone had to play follow-my-leader and back up behind him. Räikkönen lapped sufficiently slowly that Montoya was already leaving his pit-box when Räikkönen was entering the pit entrance. Other teams took the cue, and Button did a similar exercise on the field to allow Sato to pit and get out of his way. This is an unintended consequence of the rules, but I can see little that the FIA can do about it. The FIA can’t allow overtaking under yellow, as this would sanction a continuing of racing when the race is meant to be neutralised, and short of enforcing a speed at which everyone must run, there is nothing that can be done to prevent this. It’s the usual case of F1 teams exploiting the rules to the full.
When racing resumed, Montoya resumed in the lead, from Ralf Schumacher (who had pitted the lap before the safety car had been scrambled) and Jacques Villeneuve (who hadn’t pitted at all). Räikkönen was fourth. The question of how Räikkönen would overtake Montoya looked a little academic, but the situation resolved itself when Schumacher decided to pit for dry tyres (and then spun off at Les Combes – he had to pit again for new intermediates), and then Villeneuve had his pit-stop. Räikkönen then rapidly caught up to Montoya, who then pitted himself. Räikkönen banged in a lap two seconds faster than anyone else, so that when the pit-stops had run themselves out, he was leading. He was the untroubled to the flag.
As the races laps wound down (shorn of M.Schumacher and Sato after a contretemps under braking for La Source), it dried out more and more, and a few hardy souls started to brave going out on dry tyres, which created an interesting situation as there were now cars of wildly differing speeds lapping together. Interestingly, Jenson Button, who had the opportunity to switch to dry tyres, stuck with his intermediates, as he felt that as they were wearing down they were giving him more grip. This seemed to be borne out by his lap times, as he was catching Alonso at 4 seconds per lap. Both of the Williams went to dry tyres, and it was this that set up the final throw of the dice of fate. Pizzonia was lapping far faster than Montoya, and he decided to try an unlap himself. What exactly happened isn’t clear from the video footage, but the end result was that Montoya clipped Pizzonia, and both were out, thus gifting Alonso an extra two points for the second race in succession, and denying yet another McLaren 1-2. Mathematically, Räikkönen, who won the race, can still win the championship, but slips like this by others in his team are making it all the more difficult.
And finally
Earlier this summer, a Porsche driver in Germany had the shock of his life when a light aircraft landed on top of his car while he was driving at speed around a former US airbase near Bitburg in Germany. The plane somehow came to rest on the roof, but the shocked car driver then slammed on his brakes, and the plane was flung forward nose first on to the tarmac. It is reported that the Bitburg police were considering filing charges of negligence against the pilot. |
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