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Articles by Darren Galpin
| Marbles - Sun 25th Jun 2006 |
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In my last piece, I said that the Canadian Grand Prix would produce a very similar result to that of the British Grand Prix, and I was more accurate with this prediction than I intended, as the top five finishing positions were the same: Alonso, Schumacher, Räikkönen, Fisichella and Massa. I also suggested that it would be a re-run of the British Grand Prix – that prediction was a little less accurate.
A major feature of the race was the marbles, those little lumps of spent rubber which get thrown off the tyres to the side of the circuit. And when I say thrown off, I really mean thrown off – even at club meetings you can get hit by flying lumps of rubber thrown off of the tyres when standing at the side of the circuit, and the rubber in those are far harder than those in F1. This year the problem was far worse than before, exacerbated by the return to tyre changes. In 2005, tyres had to last an entire race, so were by necessity of harder construction, which meant that less rubber could be torn off them. This year tyres only have to last a third of a race or so, so can be far softer, and therefore they tear up more. There was so much debris as a result that a single line developed around the circuit – go off this, and your grip was much reduced. Oh, and the Montreal circuit doesn’t really do run-off areas either, the circuit being lined by concrete barriers for most of the lap. It was an accident waiting to happen, especially given the amount of lappery the top five were doing.
The final ingredient to add to this mix was Ralf Schumacher and his Toyota. Something was amiss with the rear of his car, and a pit-stop to replace the tyres made it no better. At times he was lapping ten seconds off the pace, and the differential in speed in the corners between Alonso and Schumacher when he came up to lap him was frightening. The problem was that many of the corners were blind on entry, and if a car was coming up rapidly behind you then you could turn into a corner and not know it was there. The following car would have no option but to go off line to pass, and onto those marbles……
Ralf continued on for many laps, and it was Jacques Villeneuve who was the poor unfortunate who was finally caught out. He came across the Toyota mid-corner going unusually slowly, and pulled out to overtake and avoid contact. Newton’s laws of motion then took over, and he sailed straight on into the wall at speed, destroying the left front of his car. It was a sad end to an excellent drive which promised a decent haul of points.
However, there is another question raised here – what was Ralf still doing on track when his car was in such a state? Especially when he retired a lap later himself. In club racing, if your car has a mechanical defect, a black flag with an orange circle can be shown which means that you have to pit and have the defect seen to or face disqualification. Ralf should have been shown the same flag, as he was a danger to others and wasn’t going to gain anything by staying out there, as there wasn’t a high rate of attrition, and he wasn’t going to score any points. The only thing achieved was putting others in danger, and BMW paid the price. With safety supposedly paramount for the FIA, with numerous technical changes made on safety grounds, then why was such a situation allowed to happen? If a car is obviously mechanically defective in some way, and is proving to be a hazard, then it has to be removed from the track. What would have happened had Alonso, Räikkönen or Michael Schumacher been involved instead? There would have been a much stronger reaction against the race stewards for allowing such a situation to occur, that’s for sure.
As it was, Räikkönen still got caught out by the marbles, and it cost him second place. With a couple of laps to go, and with Michael Schumacher bearing rapidly down on him, Räikkönen braked slightly too late into the hairpin, and the marbles carried him wide. Schumacher flashed through as Räikkönen tip-toed around the outside. The race result was set.
Special mention has to go to Nico Rosberg, who managed a feisty few first corners. He overtook Michael Schumacher, and decided to battle it out with Montoya into the fast series of left-right corners. He tried to hang on around the outside, but the natural racing line pulled Montoya wide, and they tangled, Rosberg ending up in the wall. It was typical of the manoeuvres which are often seen in the lower racing formulae. Although Rosberg was ultimately at fault – if he had backed out of the overtake, the accident wouldn’t have happened – it was great to see someone trying. Equally though, Montoya could have backed out too. The start of the race is the best chance most drivers will get all race for making up positions, and with a young driver anxious to make an impression, you have to expect that all gaps would be gone for. Montoya is an experienced driver, and he would have known this. He had a choice too.
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