No surprises as we were treated to two GP's in the space of one week. Michael Schumacher, driving the dominant car in F1, won both races with relative ease.

If you are only going to watch one F1 race all year, I would recommend the French Grand Prix. There is a very slow hairpin curve located halfway around the circuit that always provides super exciting passing attempts, most of which fail miserably. This year was no exception, as Juan Pablo Montoya powered away in the lead followed closely by Schuey and the young Raikonnen (McLaren). Sure enough, Michael tried to pass Juan at the infamous hairpin. The two cars almost touched, and for an instant it looked as though Raikonnen was going to pass both of them. But Montoya sorted himself out and lead the race until the first pit stop. As usual, Michael put in some "cracker" laps before his stop and emerged from pit lane in the lead. Or did he? Turns out there is a solid white line marking the exit to pit lane and the drivers were under explicit instructions not to cross it. Michael did cross it in his exuberance to stay ahead of Juan and he was given a stop and go penalty because of it. This is rather surprising considering Ferrari and Schuey usually enjoy the benefit of their own set of rules and are rarely penalized. Now, after the race leader and acknowledged "king" of F1 gets penalized for something you would think the other teams and drivers would take notice and be doubly sure they don't do the same thing, right? So the bonehead of the weekend award goes to Ralf Schumacher for taking a penalty for crossing exactly the same white line. Then David Coulthard gets the bonehead of the century award for doing exactly the same thing late in the race and depriving race fans of a good charge and potential battle for second or even first place. Doh!

McLaren seemed to have the luck this weekend as far as set up and strategy were concerned. It was great to see Kimi Raikonnen leading the race from Schumacher with only a handful of laps to go. He drove a superb race and deserved his first win. However, bad luck was waiting for Kimi as he approached the infamous hairpin: he locked up on some lost Toyota oil and missed his turn in point. Schuey seized the opportunity and the lead and it was all over but the crying after that. Michael wins his eighth race of the season and ties the record for earliest clinching of a world championship (Zzzzzzzzz…….). His list of records is now so long it makes me dizzy but here are a few:

· Greatest number of victories
· Greatest number of world championships (5, tied with Fangio)
· Most consecutive points finishes
· Most consecutive podium finishes
· On track to beat the record for highest average points per race in a season
· He will surely beat the record for greatest number of victories in a season

The only record of any consequence that is still outstanding and he hasn't beaten is most pole positions (held by Ayrton Senna) and Michael is closing fast on that one.

Some pundits were getting excited about the "new" Jaguar because Eddie Irvine qualified 9th (instead of his usual 19th). A point to remember: France is home ground for Michelin. They engineered a tire that was perfect for the track, the surface and the conditions. As a result, the Michelin-shod cars had a big advantage over Bridgestone cars. This fact became obvious in the qualifying and in the first stages of the race. Another "plus" for Jaguar was the fact that the Arrows team had effectively eliminated themselves from qualifying. All should be back to normal by the next race for Jaguar. Take special note: even with inferior Bridgestones and a stop-and-go penalty, Schumacher and the Ferrari still won the race. How good do you think this car is??

Are you still with me?

The scene moves to Germany one week later for the German Grand Prix. Now, this race is supposed to be interesting because Michael has never won his home Grand Prix in a Ferrari (Zzzzzzzzz……). For the first time in six races Montoya was not on the pole. Home fans were overjoyed because it was an all-Schumacher front row for the start. Now, I will summarize this "race" in short order: Schuey won it easily, and we were treated to 15 seconds of excitement when Montoya passed Raikonnen and the two cars went through 4 or 5 corners side by side in an epic battle. Other than that, not much happened. Ralf screwed up everything he could possibly screw up and handed second place to his teammate Montoya. And what of Jaguar? Well, they qualified in their normal 16th and 20th places. Both cars retired with mechanical problems. Eddie Irvine scored a lucky three points for the team in the first Grand Prix of the year. Other than that, the team has not scored a single point. Enough said…..

If you are a Formula One fanatic like me, you will no doubt watch every race through to the end of this season even though the championship has been wrapped up. On the other hand, if you find F1 boring at the best of times, you may just want to program the VCR and spend the time in the garage working on your Jag.

 

Posted: 7/30/2002