No argy bargy in
the 6th European Grand Prix as sportsmanship is
expected at Jerez
"Duels between
the men at the top are always exhilarating to watch
and that's true not just for motor racing, but also
for life in general." Alain Prost
It couldn’t be a
better ending. Ask Michael Douglas Hollywood
star turned producer of an upcoming Formula 1 based
thriller, how his film will end and he would be hard
pushed to find a better scenario than what we can
look forward to this weekend. It seemed that a month
or so ago, Michael Schumacher had it all
wrapped up in scarlet and Jacques Villeneuve,
the wayward head boy in the house of Williams,
was playing truant on the track "nothing is
ever what it seems." said technical
director, Patrick Head. Then a few lucky
breaks came Villeneuve’s way: a yellow flag
driven ‘stop go’ penalty for the
German in Austria, a damaged 50 pence oil seal
washer on Damon Hill’s TWR-Arrows
in Hungary, the Brothers’
Schumachers’ aerial antics and, a blown engine
on Mika Hakinnen’s McLaren in Luxembourg
and there he was, nine points ahead, about to go home
from Japan in a blaze of blue glory.
As we know, the post
race Karaoke night at the infamous Log Cabin
club in the centre of the Suzuka circuit was not the
usual scene of championship celebrations although
Villeneuve managed a rendition of a Guns ‘N
Roses song ‘Sweet Child of mine’ to
take some of the disappointment away. The last
reel is yet to run, for we saw highly unlikely events
in Japan strip the Canadian of his 2 championship
points in yet another yellow flag incident resulting
in disqualification from a race that he attempted to
control to the detriment of Ferrari. Brilliant
teamwork and strategy however, gave the Scuderia
a first and third position and now, here is
Schumacher a point up, getting out the scissors and
selotape for the second time. What a preposterous
ending! Get some new screenwriters that know about
motor racing! Formula one doesn’t end like this!
Can we believe it, as we sit in our seats glued to
phosphor screens around the world? It’s hard,
but we have to, as the final showdown approaches.
With 3200 miles covered in 25 hours or so of solid
racing, it comes down to a single point. A tie break,
a penalty shoot out, it’s all on the black or in
this case, the red and the blue.
There are other
contenders of course and several potential winners. McLaren
is still looking for further spoils especially
Hakinnen so richly deserving of a win this year
having two potential podium finishes cruelly snatched
away by mechanical faults. Jordan will be
trying hard to make that first trip to the top of the
podium for the ever improving Giancarlo Fisichella
in his final race for the team before he moves to Benetton,
who in turn having tasted success with the outgoing Gerhard
Berger would dearly like to go out on a high.
The winning at this
point in the game though, is irrelevant for the two
arch rivals. Whosoever’s rubber crosses the line
first, will take home the prizes, leaving the other
to wonder where it all went wrong, pick up the pieces
and start all over again next season.
Designed by the
Spanish architect and urban planner Tato Nogues,
Jerez was constructed in 1985, largely through
the initiative of Pedro Pacheco, the
City’s Mayor who thought it a sound investment
for promoting the Country’s famous Sherry region
to the world. Jerez, situated in the dry and
under-populated Andalusian region, lacks atmosphere
and has only been used six times for a Formula 1
event. Jerez succumbed to the new purpose
built arena circuit of Montmelo-Catalunya in
1991, the stadium of which, was to become the centre
piece of the Spanish Olympics the following year.
Modifications to the
circuit, carried out in 1992 and again in 1994 for
the European Grand Prix, removed the chicane
on the back straight leading in to the appropriately
named ‘Dry Sack’ to create some
overtaking potential and added a chicane (Ayrton
Senna) on the fast sweeping Ducados
right-hander where Martin Donnelly crashed
with near fatal results following a mechanical
failure on his Lotus during Qualifying for the
final Spanish Grand Prix at the circuit in 1990.
"It’s
another driver’s circuit similar to Suzuka and
Spa." Says Jordan Peugeot’s
technical director Gary Anderson. "The
pit straight leads into a third gear right hander
which is an uphill braking corner and then into a
tight second gear hairpin. This leads to the fastest
part of the track, through two fast left handers and
is very demanding." He continued,
"There is an overtaking opportunity at the end
of the back straight. This and the first corner are
the only places to overtake. Coming out of the Dry
Sack hairpin, there are two left handers, one flat
and the second tightens up and needs some care and
thought. It is easy to lose time on the following two
right handers as the tendency is to overdrive the
first which puts you out of line for the second.
After the Senna Chicane put in after Donnelly’s
accident a tight hairpin leads you back to the pit
straight. The driver’s here have a big input on
performance since there is more to doing a good lap
than simply accelerating and braking."
The track should
distribute it’s favours fairly evenly to most
teams with equal amounts of high speeds and heavy
braking, but Pole of course, will give a huge
advantage to the quickest qualifier. Such a grippy
track will be hard on tyres and it seems that Bridgestone
may have the slight edge. A soft compound tyre for
the Japanese company might just pay dividends to the
mid field runners. Goodyear would be wise to
bring the same spec rubber that they used in Japan
as both the Williams and the Ferrari went well.
There has been
speculation that the two drivers might have a
‘coming together’, as the leading
protagonists did, so famously in Adelaide at the end
of the 1994 championship. Schumacher, one point ahead
of Damon Hill, lost control of his car and rebounded
from a wall into the Englishman’s path, so
taking the championship. Whether the direction of his
Benetton could have been controlled to avoid Hill,
will remain a contentious issue. Villeneuve however
was on the offensive at the pre race press conference
when he said, "If I am one point behind, all
Michael, or his team-mate Eddie Irvine, need to do is
take me off the track,"
Patrick Head
commented, "The man who gets ahead is in a
position where, as we’ve seen before, he can be
very aggressive with the person behind. I think
that’s what happened to Damon in Adelaide in
’94, a deliberate removal of a competitor. The
man with less points has to be very careful if
he’s challenging for the lead."
Ironically, the same accusations were levelled at
Williams before Suzuka when Villeneuve had the
points advantage, but common sense has to prevail and
both drivers are at pains to ensure that their
fighting is fair up to a point, but most definitely
legal. "I won't play it dirty," Said
Schumacher, "I want the championship decided
on the race track, not across a table in a court in
Paris or in a collision."
Bernie Ecclestone,
67 year old F1 ringmaster issued a stern warning to
both drivers and threatened severe repercussions if
it came to dirty driving on the track. "The
guilty party can expect to be a spectator in the
first few rounds in 1998. We will also hit them where
it really hurts, in their wallets, if they step out
of line," he said. "Accidents do
occur in the heat of the moment, especially when
there is so much at stake. But we don't want them to
do anything silly. But past championships have been
decided by one driver taking another off and it must
not happen again."
In a small but
significant moment after a successful qualifying for
Ferrari at Suzuka, Schumacher’s team-mate Eddie
Irvine jokingly said, "I hope to make the
best start, pass both of them and then let Michael
pass me!". Which is exactly what he
did. Any further jocular comments by Irvine this
weekend before the race, should noted with the
innuendo with which they were, in hindsight, probably
intended.
Despite Williams
having the upper edge mechanically, Ferrari have the
driver to beat. On a sunny day it will be a close
call, but if it rains as it did at the last European
Grand Prix in Jerez in 1994, the SS
Schumacher steamed to an easy victory. Nothing
more, this year in Formula 1, can shock or amaze us
and for history to repeat itself, would only be
expected. But then Villeneuve is one of the few
drivers that can overtake almost anywhere and tracks
such as Jerez with little passing opportunity hold no
fear for him. Either way, it’s almost as if the
previous sixteen races hadn’t happened. Sixty
nine laps will see the results of a truly amazing
season.
Chris Richardson
