The circuit at
Barcelona is undulating and abrasive and with several
quick and exceptionally long turns, it is tyre hungry
in the extreme. Pit stops have to be calculated with
care and today, the Spanish Grand Prix proved, that
incorrect anticipation of tyre ‘track life’
would lead to several promising drives amounting to
nothing.
There was a threat of
rain hanging in the air and several teams, not
wanting to be caught out for a second race in
succession had spare cars prepared for alternate
conditions. The clouds did stay for a while before
dispersing and the track temperature of 28 degrees
was cooler than the anticipated 31 degrees that the
circuit experienced in qualifying.
Drama commenced even
before the race got under way when Gerhard Berger
stalled his Benetton at the commencement of the warm
up lap, enforcing a start from the rear of the grid,
but seconds before the red light sequence started
Ralf Schumacher’s hand shot into the air
signifying that his engine too, had stalled. "The
engine died on me", he said "and I
was penalised and sent to start the race from the
back". This gave Berger the chance to regain
his rightful 6th slot on the grid as the race got
under way.
Villeneuve made as
perfect a start as team mate Heinz Harald Frentzen
made a disastrous one, getting to the first corner
cleanly. David Coulthard in the McLaren,
launched himself along the right side of the track to
stab briefly at the lead before succumbing to
Villeneuve and slipping in behind. But Michael
Schumacher, as if shot from a gun and in the
spare Ferrari, rocketed through the grid from
seventh place, magically finding space between
Jean Alesi, Berger and Mika Hakkinen, to
harry and pass Coulthard on the outside of turn three
leaving the much annoyed Scotsman to lead the gaggle
of cars through the opening laps.
It was obvious after
the McLaren set an early quick lap that the Ferrari
was not the fastest car by a long way and Schumacher,
as usual, was exploiting all of his guile and
intuitiveness to maintain speed without losing
control. He said, "When my tyre blistered, I
was fighting like hell to keep the car on the road,
it was sliding like it was in the rain!" By
lap 13, with the Williams 16 seconds ahead,
Schumacher was holding up a rapidly closing string of
cars down to 8th place and was heading for an early
pit stop, when Coulthard pulled past the German and
immediately pitted himself, with the Ferrari close
behind.
The string of cars now
headed by Alesi and finally let loose, began to
separate, Coulthard rejoining in 4th and Schumacher,
missing his ‘entry window’ dropped a
further two places back. Both Benetton and Williams
on the Goodyear side were expected to run a two stop
race whilst the majority, with the exception of Olivier
Panis’ Prost team on a slightly harder
compound Bridgstone, opted for three and at one point
as the McLarens slipped further and further down the
field with each subsequent pit stop, it looked like
there might be more.
As cars made their
stops, it was alarming to see the toll that the track
surface was exacting on the tyres. Inexplicably,
Frentzen had to stop early with badly blistered tyres
whilst his team mate sailed majestically into the
distance putting a further 4 seconds on his lead over
Jean Alesi by lap 17.
Damon Hill in
the Arrows was running in a strong 6th slot
when the Yamaha engine let go, the car
ironically coming to a rest opposite the Williams pit
, maintaining Hill’s unbroken record of non
finishes for Tom Walkinshaw’s team. With
little future in the revised Yamaha tested and
rejected last week, there seems scant chance of the
current World Champion humiliating himself further by
signing on with the team for another year. Undaunted
and probably glad to have had the chance to be
competitive however briefly, Hill said, "I
was knocking on the door of the points and the car
was going like a train. I thought we must get a
finish sooner or later. The engine blew up, it just
didn't last." There must be a limit to the
number of ‘stiff upper lips’ that Hill is
capable of and it is a credit to him, that he seems
to have a few more still left in the bag.
Further fuel for a
decision may have come later in the race when Team
mate Pedro Diniz suffered the same fate. It
wasn’t only the Yamaha that made a spectacle of
itself. Ralf Schumacher, having a rotten day in a
surprisingly uncompetative Jordan - despite
team mate Giancarlo Fisichella setting the
fastest lap of the race - retired when his Peugeot
erupted in a cloud of oil and white smoke on lap 50.
On lap 37, It was a
pity to see Rubens Barichello setting his car on the
grass with engine troubles after such a fine finish
in Monaco. "My engine started making the same
noise I had heard in the race at Imola.
I didn’t have the strait line speed to
overtake." Team mate Jan
Magnussen who finished a creditable 13th for the
team, sounded like the ‘Bad Tempered
Ladybird’ declaring that, "The race was
very boring. There wasn’t anybody to fight with.
Only myself the clock and the laps."
The Ferrari and
Benetton of Eddie Irvine and Berger
respectively, were making the mid field running and
by the time that the ‘two stop’ teams had
pitted for the first time between laps 18 and 25, it
was almost time for the second pit visit for the
‘three stoppers’
Lap 28 saw Coulthard
making a small inroad into Villeneuve’s massive
advantage and by the time the McLaren was due for a
second stop, it was clear that the Canadian’s
tyres were on the way out, but still he kept a
commanding lead over Alesi’s inherited second
place.
Positions changed as
often as the tyres, cars both gaining or losing pace
and balance from a second or third set of tyres. Mika
Salo’s Tyrrell Ford suffered a blow
out that put him into the gravel on lap 35.
Panis’ harder compound tyres seemed to be
holding out as Coulthard, unable to maintain his
third position, had to succumb to the
Frenchman’s pace. The final pitstop by Coulthard
saw him fade as quickly as Panis started to shine and
with the second and final stops for him and Alesi on
lap 44, the finish order was penciled in.
A brief flash of red
at the front of the field during Jacques
Villeneuve’s final pit stop was the last chance
of contention from Schumacher as he then pitted with
destroyed tyres and slipped comfortably to fourth
where he remained to the flag.
However it was
Irvine’s Ferrari, one lap adrift, in a Deja
Vu situation from earlier laps, that prevented
Panis, Alesi and Schumacher from getting through to
continue the chase after Villeneuve. Panis was
obviously far quicker and had at that point every
chance of catching Villeneuve. "I was behind
Eddie for six or seven laps and I just could not get
past him. He must have some problem with his
eyesight." He said later, "I think
he saw that the blue flags were being waved. But it
is impossible to talk to Eddie about anything, isn't
it?" Irvine on the other hand thought it was
Jos Verstappen who was holding up proceedings.
"There were so many pit stops I was not sure
who was in front of who". Said the Irishman.
Alesi, eager to get on
with the race even though he stood no chance of
passing the Prost, was busy frantically signaling to
the marshals "..to wake up and do something
about Irvine." This they did eventually,
giving him a present of a 10 second stop go penalty
which he was obliged to take on the penultimate lap.
With Alesi’s mirrors full of Schumacher’s
Ferrari, it was none too soon for him. "I
knew Olivier would find it difficult to pass, he does
stupid things," Said Alesi, "I was
more worried about Irvine than Michael behind me
because he is a strange driver."
In vain, Panis powered
after Villeneuve leaving the Benetton trailing and
holding off Schumacher. But the positions were not to
change. With Coulthard on a suspect fourth set of
tyres, Johhny Herbert pounced from 6th place on the
last lap to move up a place, his friend the Scot
unable to control his mal- handling McLaren.
As Villeneuve took the
chequered flag for the eighth time, surpassing the
number of Grands Prix won by his father, Gilles, one
couldn’t help but stifle a small yawn at the
predictability of it all. With so little overtaking
action on the track it is a wonder that of the 67,000
in attendance who couldn’t see into the pit lane
stayed to the finish. It didn’t stop Jacques
from being happy. To comeback after two barren races
and regain his leadership at the top of the standings
gave him an obvious moral boost. "It was a
very pleasing day for me and for the whole team.
After that stupidity in Monaco it is good to win
again." He said, "We have thrown
away too many races this year and now we have to make
the most of things." Regarding the ease with
which he pulled away, he went on, "The car
didn’t feel as good as it did in winter testing,
the tyres were different and in the middle of the
race when the heat picked up it was very difficult
but, being in front and having Michael (Schumacher)
second blocking everybody else, gave us a lot of
help. We planned for two stops and we knew it was
risky for the tyres, but there is more chance of
something going wrong when you do three. It was a
good all-round team performance." Of course
it was most definitely not a good all round team
performance and Frentzen’s three stops did
go wrong. With the German’s mental abilities
under pressure, still in serious doubt and his
inexplicable tyre wear, William’s Technical
Director Patrick Head was a disappointed man. "I’m
very happy for Jacques, but we’re having a real
struggle getting two cars in the points." He
said, but excusing Frentzen’s performance,
continued, "The car was way imbalanced and
very badly set up. That’s all there is to
it."
It was nonetheless a
fine drive by Olivier Panis who settled any
ctiticisms about his inherited win in Monaco last
year, by trouncing all but one of the leading
drivers. There were no retirements of any
significance to give him extra places and it proves
that the Panis driven Prost Mugen-Honda has
indeed become a finely honed package and is probably
throwing doubts into team boss Alain Prost’s
mind as to the wisdom of his choice to sign with
Peugeot next season. Despite criticism of his
Bridgestones during a poor qualifying session that
left him 14th on the grid, Panis relented, praising
their perfect race- worthiness. "The tyres
were too hard for qualifying but for the race, were
fantastic. They improve all the time."
French Canadian, Jacques Villeneuve
took his Williams to a dominating Victory at Catalunya
in what was to be a race won not only by strategy,
but more importantly by the consistency of the tyres
that have this season, become so crucial in deciding
the outcome of a race. It was also significant in
that it was Goodyear’s 350th Formula 1
win and yet it might not have been. Whilst sounding
meaningful, 350 race wins has been relatively easy to
achieve. Goodyear have had a monopoly in Formula 1
since Michelin pulled out in 1984 and with a
mere three wins in the following seven years from two
Pirelli-shod Benettons and a Brabham,
a race had only to commence, for Goodyear to claim a
victory. In effect Goodyear could write their own
‘Hall of Honour’ years in advance. With the
immersion of Bridgestone into the F1 melting
pot, Goodyear have had to cast aside their
complacency and, instead of treading water, for the
past few seasons, they have now been forced to start
swimming again against an ever strengthening tide.
