Preview - Bravery and the Greatest Corner in F1

I watched the CART series circus arrive in Montreal and I heard the comments from all the drivers disparaging the boredom of F1 and promising that the Montreal CART race would be infinitely more exciting. Well guess what? It was as boring as any F1 race ! The Montreal CART race was the first opportunity to compare CART and F1 speed on the same track. F1 came out on top as CART's pole time was over 6 second slower than Formula One's was 2 months ago

In this, the most boring F1 season in a long time, we can look forward to the Belgian Grand Prix, held on what is without question the most beautiful and excitingrace track in the world. You simply HAVE to watch at least the qualifying for this race in order to see the greatest corner in F1: Eau Rouge. This thing defies description; after leaving the start line, the drivers will go through an unbelievably sharp right hand hairpin (called "La Source"). Then they have to redline it in every gear right up to sixth and peg the car at its maximum seed (somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 kph), all this while going downhill! Then, with their foot flat to the floor and every nerve ending in their body telling them to lift off the gas, they have to place the car just right for a *slight* kink to the left before sweeping to the right as the track starts climbing steeply uphill. Take special note that the cars are absolutely at their maximum speed, absolutely at the maximum lateral G's, and absolutely at the very bottom of their suspension travel as at the bottom of the hill, ALL AT THE SAME TIME! Combine this with the fact that all they can see out of the slit in their helmets is a wall of pavement rushing at them as the corner falls steeply and then rises just as quickly. Wow!

Taking this corner with your foot to the floor is considered to be the "holy grail" of F1. I urge you to take the time to watch qualifying for this race, just to see this corner. Of course, the Ferraris will be the favorites to take pole and win the race, but keep your eyes on the drivers with the biggest....... uhh....... hearts and watch as Montoya, Coulthard and Villeneuve show you why they are true F1 drivers in the classic sense.

Things could get complicated in qualifying on saturday as weather forecasts call for possible rain showers on Saturday, Spa is notorious for its changing weather...

Friday Practice

Have Michelin got it right? That's the question everybody is asking after today's practice session. A couple of surprises: Ferrari were not on top, McLaren were. Second, ten of the fastest twelve cars were on Michelins, the rest were on Bridgestones. Only Ferrari managed to crack the top ten with Bridgestones; but then again, Ferrari is so good they could crack the top ten with Kmart off the shelf tires.

The weather report is not good for tomorrow's qualifying. If it rains, all bets are off, anything can happen depending on tire choice and the timing of your fast laps. Let's hope it doesn't rain and we get to see some of the drivers try Eau Rouge flat out which some say is now easier than before thanks to higher downforce and changes made to the curbs.

Prediction? Although the McLarens and Michelin looked good today, I still think at least Schuey can take pole. So I'll go with Schuey first, then Raikonnen, Coulthard, Barrichello, Ralf and Montoya. If the Michelin tires are good and Arrows does not run, look for the Jaguars in 11th and 13th places.

Qualifying

You have to give me credit for my powers of prediction! Only David Coulthard failed to perform up to expectation and ruined my almost perfect top six prediction. As expected, Schuey is on top of the time charts and he didn't seem to break a sweat in the process. Raikonnen put on a great display to finish a strong second, but it was obvious he didn't have the right stuff to challenge for pole. His second attempt to beat Michael's time was ragged to say the least. Mr. Montoya, after his mid-season string of five consecutive pole positions, finishes fifth and qualifies behind his teammate for the third successive GP. Coulthard finishes out the top six.

The best qualifying of the year is something to smile about in the Jaguar Racing garage... Team Managing Director Guenther Steiner (left) and Niki Lauda (photo Jaguar Racing/Mark Thompson-Getty Image)

BIG surprise with Jaguar qualifying very well. How to explain it? First, the Michelin tires. Obviously they got it right and Bridgestone got it wrong. Of the top eleven qualifiers, only the two Ferraris broke the Michelin stranglehold. Second, the Arrows team were missing from the paddock again. Third, the Sauber team really screwed up with their set-ups and both cars were relegated to the back of the grid. Fourth, Eddie Irvine actually TRIED this time, you could see that he was pushing hard and it paid off. Maybe he's finally worried about getting a seat for 2003.

Predictions for tomorrow's race: sorry, but Schumacher will win it. There will be some excitement as the drivers battle to make it through that impossibly tight first La Source corner, but even if Michael is pip'd by Kimi or someone else at the start he has the right car to drive by them all and win the race. So ignore him and we may see some spectacular high speed passing amongst the 2nd to 10th place cars. I have no idea who will finish behind Schuey but look for Raikonnen and Ralf on the podium. Jaguar has a chance of finishing in the points, but consider this statistic: only the BAR team has a worse record for reliability in 2002. Let's hope the cats make it to the finish line.

A note of optimism: Jaguar announced the signing of Malcolm Oastler as engineering director. This is a good sign as one would not normally assume that a team that is about to shut its doors or be put on the auction block would start hiring new talent. However, before we get carried away, remember that Oastler was fired by BAR back in March after four fruitless years. Lets hope he does a better job at Jaguar. A whole new design would be a great start!

Pedro dela Rosa exiting La Source, the tight right hander after the finish line (photo Jaguar Racing/Mark Thompson-Getty Image)

We got a point!

Eddie Irvine profited from a high rate of attrition among the cars in front of him and scored the Jaguar team one and only (well deserved) point since the lucky first race of the season. It looked to me like he just stuck to a game plan and took no chances, driving hard but not pushing it too much. He and the Jaguar team can be very proud of the fact that they were "the best of the rest" today; meaning they were the highest placed car outside of Ferrari, Williams and McLaren. Bravo!

As far as the "race" goes, there wasn't really one. Michael got into the first corner first and Barrichello snuck into second. Oddly enough, all the drivers that tried a fancy passing maneuver in the first corner got sr$%#@wed and those that stuck to the inside and behaved themselves came out on top. It didn't take but a lap or two for the Schuey, Barrichello, Montoya line up to develop and it stayed that way all the way to the checkered flag. The lead Ferrari of Schumacher simply stormed away from the field. Opening up as much as two seconds a lap on the pack. By the tenth lap or so, Schuey was lapping FOUR SECONDS a lap quicker than the Jaguars, BAR's, Renaults, Toyotas and Jordans in the middle of the field. Think of that, FOUR SECONDS a lap. That is simply unbelievable.

The two high points of the day were Jaguars performance and Jacques Villeneuve. He drove a superb race and made some wonderful passing maneuvers and for what? Eighth place and no points.

Next race: Monza and the Italian Grand Prix. No doubt about it, it will be a Ferrari party like you've never seen before. Monza is an engine track; power is everything. We might see the BMW powered Williams or the Mercedes powered McLarens outrun the Ferraris on pure grunt, but I doubt it. Look for aFerrari one-two in qualifying and the race and look for a million crazy Italians running all over the track even before the checker falls.

See you there!