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Articles by Darren Galpin
| Bernie, All is Forgiven - Sun 23rd Apr 2006 |
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The first race of the year to be held, and the first race which was televised by the host broadcaster and boy, did it show. Bernie, all is forgiven – please come back.
We may have had a race, but to be honest I couldn’t really tell, as unless there was a Ferrari on the screen then the TV race director simply wasn’t interested. He (I assume it was a he – women are generally better at multitasking) also couldn’t get used to the idea of mixing in audio feed from the team radios either, and only finally plucked up the courage to experiment on the slowing down lap, when, you’ve guessed it, he played the Ferrari to Schumacher pit radio – over several replays of Ferrari moments.
The race threatened to be boiling up nicely until the pitstops, which removed Jenson Button from second position. His brakeman lifted the lollipop too early, so Button went, only for the brakeman to lower the lollipop and have Button collect it edge side on in his helmet. What was potentially worse was that the refuelling pipe was still attached, and as he drove off he pulled the rig apart, ripping the connecting head from the pipe. Luckily the team had stopped pumping fuel at that point – if they hadn’t, the results don’t bear thinking about, as there could have been 9 litres of fuel per second spewing over the pitlane. Button stopped and waited for someone to come and remove the connector before rejoining the race. The time lost here, coupled with a problem with a wheel nut in the first stop, sunk all chance of fighting at the front. But he still beat team-mate Rubens Barrichello.
Which left only Alonso and Michael Schumacher at the front, and despite severe tyre problems in the middle stint for Ferrari, and a faster car for Alonso, the result was never really in any doubt. Alonso may have been able to brake later, but the Ferrari seemed to have more top end power, and was able to pull out a gap down the straight, leaving Alonso with few chances to outbrake the Ferrari. It was shadow boxing, with the drivers feinting this way and that, but never in danger of actually landing a blow. In fact, Alonso was more in danger of suffering from self-inflicted injury, running a little too deep into several corners and running wide as a result.
Some other cars were competing, but as for what they did, who really knows – they were there only to be lapped if you believed the TV pictures. Apart from Christijan Albers, who barrel-rolled out on the first lap when an out of his depth Yuji Ide stuck his wheels up the inside in a slow corner when there was no gap. Albers’ car rode over the Super Aguri’s left front, and he rolled multiple times into the gravel. It brought out the safety car, but we then missed the restart due to an ITV advert break. Some days you just can’t win…..
The philosophy of Plato
This weekend also saw round 2 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Mondello Park in Ireland. A little bit of bumping and boring is to be expected, but a special mention has to go to Jason Plato, who seems to have an inbuilt inability to overtake without making some kind of contact. His usual technique is to gently bump the car in front in a braking zone, causing it to run wide, and then dive up the inside. It shouldn’t be necessary – other drivers manage to overtake cleanly. A factory drive and a Channel 5 TV contract don’t make you a great driver – your conduct on the track does that. Plato also seems unapologetic, and he would do well to learn from Paul Radisich, a New Zealand driver who now drives in the Australian V8 Supercar series. He used to be a factory Ford driver in the BTCC, and when he accidentally ran into Alain Menu in a Renault at Donington Park in the early 1990s, he slowed down to let Menu back past, so that he didn’t gain what he considered to be an unfair advantage. He also won the World Touring Car Cup race twice. Who would you consider to be the better driver?
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