Australian Grand Prix Review

For the second time in five races, a tragic shadow has been cast over the F1 community with the death of a marshal, struck by a flying wheel. Before we come to reviewing the rest of the weekend's events, spare a thought for Graham Beveridge's family and friends.

Being at the Albert Park track provided us with a unique perspective which television simply can't offer. There is nothing quite like the ear-piercing scream of an F1 car, let alone the smell of one as it comes flying past. From our grandstand vantage point, at one of the slower corners of the track, you can really get an appreciation of how a car is behaving and how a driver is reacting.

You can also add to that the excellent big screen coverage which was much more comprehensive than the international TV feed.

As expected the McLarens were providing the only sustained challenge despite some reliability scares, but with Jarno Trulli ending the day second fastest there was hope that the Honda-powered teams might give the big two something to think about on Saturday. Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikkonen were superb in the Saubers, despite Heidfeld's brake problems, but we went away wondering if both of these youngsters, Raikkonen especially, could deliver come qualifying.

After their blistering testing pace, Prost was nowhere to be seen on Friday, and we expected to see more from Jean Alesi in particular. The Benettons were in trouble in terms of both reliability and pace, and the Asiatech engine in the Arrows sounded awfully clunky on up-change. The three drivers who fought their cars more than anyone else at our corner were the South American trio of Enrique Bernoldi, Luciano Burti and Gaston Mazzacane, and it was no surprise to see Burti later plant his Jaguar into a wall.

Even on the Friday it was clear that the Bridgestones had a clear edge over the Michelins, and the only two punctures suffered were both by Michelin runners, namely Jenson Button and Eddie Irvine. And it was fantastic to see the European Minardis, the Australian race fans having adopted the team as their own. Fernando Alonso looked brilliantly settled and controlled for a 19 year old, but it was clear that Tarso Marques was having trouble getting to grips with his virginal chassis.

Saturday morning confirmed the trends, with the times free-falling into the mid 1 minute 27 bracket, quicker than the fastest lap ever at Albert Park, set by Jacques Villeneuve in his Williams in 1997. The big news from the two otherwise fairly uneventful morning sessions was that Ferrari were struggling with reliability as much as McLaren, with Barrichello's engine letting go on the way out of pit lane, and Schumacher stopping after he had set what was, at that stage, the fastest time of the weekend.

Both Hakkinen and David Coulthard had the problem of not having enough laps for two runs after the session was restarted, and in the end seemed to circulate rather aimlessly, Coulthard especially. The Scot ended up only 6th, while Hakkinen was relegated to 3rd with Barrichello taking up the other front row spot, as could have been expected. Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 4th, and Ralf Schumacher as the top Michelin runner in 5th (and the only Michelin user in the top 10), were both excellent efforts.

Heidfeld continued to impress, qualifying 10th, with Raikkonen a solid 13th. Villeneuve just pipped the consistent Olivier Panis in the internal BAR battle, the Frenchman having had the upper hand up till then. Montoya was a little disappointing to be down in 11th, while Alesi's form was not improving much, down in 14th. The Benettons were well and truly floundering, Button and Giancarlo Fisichella stuck in 16th and 17th.

Last year, the Ferraris and McLarens monopolised the first two rows of the grid, with a big gap back to the rest of the field, who were all covered by a tiny margin. This year, it would appear as though Jordan, BAR, Williams and even Sauber have pulled closer to the top two, leaving the rest behind, resulting in a more spread-out grid. As a case in point, there was almost a full second between Raikkonen in 13th, and Alesi in 14th.

Grey skies were an unwelcome change on Sunday morning after two days of perfect weather, and there was even some rain at the start of the warm-up. Ferrari only made a brief appearance, and Coulthard would have been pleased to top the times after what had been a fairly unflattering weekend. It was also good to see Montoya, who had been unspectacular thus far, near the top of the times, while Arrows struggled with reliability as they had done the previous two days.

But Barrichello, realising that he needed to defend himself, started leaning on Frentzen, who nearly jerked twice into the side of Coulthard, forcing the McLaren to ease off and drop back to 7th behind Trulli, although the Scot would soon be past the Italian. Meanwhile Barrichello let Frentzen and Ralf move up into 3rd and 4th. Then Montoya, renowned for his cold tyre antics, made a hash of things by trying to dive between Trulli and Coulthard, only to end up going across the grass at turn one.

The Colombian then went off-road for a second time at turn three, this time crazily taking the (for once) innocent Irvine off with him, relegating the Jaguar to the back of the field, with the Williams now down in 15th behind Raikkonen (who had made a very conservative start). But then Raikkonen proceeded to pull off a sensational move inside the fast-starting Fisichella at turn five, not a renowned passing spot, pulling Montoya with him.

Lap three saw another hugely controversial incident. When Frentzen spun, Heidfeld was ahead of Panis and Jos Verstappen's Arrows. By the end of the lap, both Panis and Verstappen were past the Sauber. This was BEFORE they reached the localised yellow covering where Bernoldi (who had been looking on edge all weekend) had not surprisingly stuffed the other Arrows into the wall already. After the race, both Olivier and Jos were penalised 25s for passing Heidfeld under yellows, although Panis strongly denies it.

Some have said that Panis and Verstappen passed Heidfeld under the yellow for Bernoldi's incident, but that was clearly not the case. The only possibility, then, was that yellows were out where the marshals were still recovering Mazzacane's Prost, out early with a mechanical problem. Panis claims that the stewards took their decision on Heidfeld's word, and the evidence would suggest that it was a contentious call.

It's clear that wheel tethers can only do so much. They worked in Burti's first crash, in Schumacher's accident, and in Bernoldi's prang. But they didn't do their job in Burti's qualifying incident, nor when Villeneuve clouted the fence. Then again, such was the force of these impacts, there's only so much the tethers can do. Besides, the cars are meant to disintegrate on impact to dissipate energy, in order to protect the driver. That Villeneuve walked away with only some bruising and extreme pain was amazing.

Having said that, when bits of debris fly all over the place, there is always the danger of marshals and spectators being hurt, especially at a street circuit like Melbourne. One of my first impressions upon arriving trackside was that the catch-fencing was not all that high, and showers of debris could easily go over them, especially if a car took off as Villeneuve's did. But everyone who serves as a marshal, or attends as a spectator, should be aware of the risks involved.

Those with longer memories, including BAR boss Craig Pollock, an old Villeneuve family friend, will have been chilled at the thought that it was Jacques who crashed in this way. For it was in similar circumstances that Gilles Villeneuve was killed in 1982, when he clipped the rear wheel of Jochen Mass' March, sending his Ferrari airborne, throwing the great Gilles out of the car. While Jacques, only 11 at the time, has rarely talked about his father, the similarity of the accidents will not be lost on him.

For F1, the sad thing is that everyone has suddenly gone into a safety frenzy once again. While a point could be made about the height of the catch-fencing, suddenly there's the talk of coronial inquiries and even criminal charges. Max Mosley is talking about slowing the cars down. Clay Regazzoni has called for Villeneuve to be "shown the red card" (whatever that means), and for Barrichello to be penalised for his incident with Frentzen.

The rest of the race, frankly, was rather anti-climactic. Schumacher ran away from Hakkinen, and even the Finn suffered a nasty crash of his own after a suspension failure. Barrichello got held up by Alonso coming out of the pits (the only blemish against the Spaniard all weekend), and Coulthard took the opportunity to go around the outside of the Ferrari into turn 3. Thereafter Barrichello dropped right off to be 30s behind Schumacher at the end of the race, and that was a very worrying sign.

Coulthard ran Schumacher close at the end, but then again Michael was cruising and merely pacing himself. McLaren have a lot of work to do to get on even terms with Ferrari. Unfortunately the Honda users never challenged during the race, Trulli suffering an engine problem, and Panis never getting close to the leading trio. Frentzen's charge back through the field was respectable, but he never looked like getting past Heidfeld, who was promoted to 4th (and out of reject status in one hit) after Panis' penalty.

Irvine (thanks to a misfire and late pitstop) and Alesi (disappointingly) were non-entities for the rest of the race, both finishing behind Burti. While Jaguar's average performance was somewhat expected, thus far Prost has flattered only to deceive badly when it really counts. A big performance in Malaysia is required from them. And, mind you, also from Benetton, which at this stage wouldn't be much better than the Minardis. Their weekend was disastrous to say the least, and by the end both Renault engines were carrying V8s around, 13 seconds off the pace.

So the 2001 season has got off to a perfect start for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari in less-than-perfect circumstances. For the first time in a long time, Schumacher and Ferrari has started the season neither behind nor equal with the pace-setters, but in blistering form and leaving the opposition in his dust. For once, McLaren is the team with the catching up to do.