Spanish Grand Prix Review

Car racing in Spain comes a poor second to motorcycle competition, but the last 15 years or so have seen something of a resurgence, with Adrian Campos, Luis Perez Sala, Pedro de la Rosa and Marc Gené all gracing the grid, a regular but usually poorly-attended Grand Prix, two of the most-used test tracks in Barcelona and Valencia, and now the Spanish-based Telefonica World Series, fast usurping F3000 as a final stepping stone in Europe before F1 (or alternatively, as a haven for F1 has-beens!).

Oh, and there's this young man called Fernando Alonso. If his previous 20 Grands Prix for Minardi and Renault had not been enough to demonstrate his abundant star quality, then his twelve-out-of-ten drive from 3rd on the grid to 2nd place in Barcelona, harrying Michael Schumacher all the way as he was spurred on by 20,000 fans from his home town of Oviedo, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that along with the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, he will one of the next great F1 superstars.

With a 7th, a 6th, two 3rds and a pole already behind him this year, after moving from 10th in Friday qualifying up to 3rd on Saturday, some may have thought that he was on a lighter fuel load, but as it turned out he had roughly the same amount of juice as the Ferraris, so the Renault was truly a competitive proposition. In the race, he was able to match the pace of the much-touted new F2003-GA, although the Ferrari's Bridgestones were better when new and the Renault's Michelins more effective when worn.

The only thing he lacked was a more powerful engine behind him, with his motor around 75 bhp down on the best. Nevertheless, thanks to some superb pit work by his crew, he clinically leap-frogged Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari at the first stop, and put pressure on Schumi for the rest of the race. He may have been even closer than the eventual 6 second deficit had he not been dealt some bad cards in traffic, and had he not been held up for several laps by Ralf Schumacher at a crucial stage of the race.

But without waxing too lyrically about Alonso's performance, he did show a level of impetuosity. He became easily flustered when lapping Ralph Firman, taking his hand off the wheel to wave at the Jordan driver when in reality the rookie would never have seen it. And when battling Ralf, he lost valuable metres by sticking his nose in whenever he got a run on the Williams, usually in places where passing was near-impossible, instead of thinking through a clear plan of how to set up the German for a manoeuvre.

Still, his 2nd place managed somehow to take all the attention away from the debut of the Ferrari F2003-GA. After all the early unreliability in testing, both cars came home on the podium, but whether or not the new red rocket was demonstrating its true level of performance was hard to gauge. For this was a track that clearly favoured Michelin over Bridgestone. It is too early to tell if the GA is a large, little or no step at all over the all-conquering F2002 from last year.

Schumacher will admit that instead of cantering to victory he was kept honest by Alonso all race, whilst Barrichello clearly struggled with balance more than his team-mate. But otherwise it was a relatively uneventful race for both of them, save for the first turn when they touched and Rubens was forced to put half his car in the grass. This was an interesting incident: had the Ferraris merely been working together to box in Alonso's Renault, or were we seeing the red machines actually trying to race each other?

If it had been teamwork, then the idea if not the execution was brilliant, and very successfully thwarted Alonso's excellent start. However, Jean Todt may wish to warn them against being so cute in future, as the outcome could have been a whole lot more embarrassing. If it was a real racing incident, then even though they were able to joke about it post-race, Michael will not be pleased. Perhaps all these years of team orders have meant that they don't know how to race each other cleanly any more!

They could have raced properly last year when they were walking the championship; this year they have already had their share of mistakes and could do without any more silliness from now on. There is a strong challenge from McLaren, which continues to lead both titles, and that challenge will only get stronger when their new car comes out. Williams are gathering enough points to be within striking distance, while Alonso is now a championship contender, though if he doesn't win a race that challenge will evaporate.

In fairness it was a genuine racing incident between two people fighting for the same piece of real estate, although Trulli was on the inside and it appeared as though DC was trying to take advantage of the concertina effect caused by Barrichello recovering from the grass by sweeping around the outside. It may have been slightly presumptuous of the Scot to expect Trulli to just give way, but there was not enough in it to start slinging mud either way.

The same goes for the incident that eventually took DC out, his collision with Jenson Button's BAR. This was another strange one: Coulthard claimed that he did not see Button coming up in his mirrors at all. The assumption then was that Jenson had just come out of the pits, but this was clearly not the case. Perhaps the BAR had found itself in the McLaren's blind-spot. But did David's statement suggest he did not know he was racing Button at all? If so, then ignorance certainly didn't turn out to be bliss.

If it was an unhappy day for Coulthard, then at least it got started, which is more than could be said for his team-mate. Raikkonen led Schumacher by 14 points going into Spain, a gap which would have taken a while to close had the Finn kept scoring. But just to underscore the unpredictability of motor racing, a trip through the gravel in Saturday qualifying put Kimi to the back of the grid, from which he slammed into Antonio Pizzonia's Jaguar, which had a launch control problem for the second race in a row.

On the other hand, this was an incident caused by launch control - not only Pizzonia's launch control, but Raikkonen's as well. The McLaren's system was so superior to the Minardis' ahead of him, he had actually gone right as Wilson went left in order to avoid hitting the back of the Briton. He would not have wanted to lift, since that would have negated the whole point of the system, and one wonders how much throttle control he had anyway once the start procedure had been initialised.

At any rate, Raikkonen was out on the spot, and though in previous years the race may have been stopped, bringing out the safety car was the correct thing to do, to keep the race going, to avoid any unnecessary delay, and to prevent more mayhem in the event of another standing start. And, after one forgettable weekend, the Finn finds his title lead trimmed to four points, with the new Ferrari proving reliable and the Ferrari juggernaut back on the rails.

Ron Dennis was one who came out and claimed that the Ferrari F2003-GA had not been all that impressive, but one wonders if there was an element of wishful thinking in that. He has also said that there is no chance of having the results from the first three races annulled as a result of the legal action he and Sir Frank Williams are launching against the FIA. He would say that, of course, having outscored Ferrari 39 to 16 in the first three races, only to have Ferrari return fire 32 to 12 in the last two rounds.

Now, normal service has been resumed, Ferrari are turning poles into wins, and McLaren are finding themselves starting heavy and mid-pack, hoping for podium finishes at best, all this with an old car which may soon start showing its age against the F2003-GA. That the MP4/18 has not so much as turned a wheel yet, and will not debut for another three rounds at least, even though it was originally scheduled to appear for the first time here in Spain, is not only unbelievable but it is handing the initiative right back to Ferrari.

Another man in wishful thinking mode over the weekend in saying that the F2003-GA wasn't as brilliant as expected was Juan-Pablo Montoya, who along with Ralf Schumacher continued to struggle with the Williams FW25's problematic aerodynamics. Although with a 4th and 5th they continued to accumulate points, these are not the minor placings they or BMW are hoping for or expecting, especially with the Munich V10 as strong as ever. The head-scratching at Grove continues.

Added to the fact that the team switched to a two-stop strategy at the first stop, and both cars found it hard going to maintain grip late into their remaining stints. It made for some hairy moments for Ralf as he fought to hold off his brother, Alonso, and towards the end Cristiano da Matta. Montoya had fewer moments but was hardly stunning, although his passing moves on Button into turn 1 after the initial safety car and on his team-mate into turn 7 were opportunistic manoeuvres from the top drawer.

Through solid consistency and reliability alone he is the rookie of the year so far, even though he is the only debutant who doesn't get the benefit of Friday testing. But having said that, he hasn't shown himself to be the best thing since sliced bread - the likes of Alonso, Raikkonen and Montoya have future superstardom sewn up at the moment - and I think Emerson Fittipaldi's claim that he is the most talented Brazilian in the field is probably a bit rich.

Olivier Panis continues to be dogged by misfortune, as he was at the start of last season. Having elected to go on strategies with extra fuel stops in previous races, ironically here in Spain when most were choosing the three-stop path he went for two, and although he fell back in the first lap melee, he would have comfortably scored points were it not for a gearbox failure coming out of the pits. Though not a jealous fellow, he will nevertheless be irked that da Matta has scored Toyota's first points of the year.

Mark Webber also scored Jaguar's first points of the year, finally, but for once this season his performance throughout the weekend was relatively subdued, except for Friday qualifying when he was 7th ahead of both McLarens and Williams. Better a quiet, solid performance that earns points though than a sensational drive that comes to nought when the car breaks down. And for once this year, the spotlight at Jaguar was on his team-mate, albeit for all the wrong reasons.

If Ford really were that desperate for results, then they already have Webber doing an outstanding job in a car that is capable of delivering regular points. In that sense they can afford to give Pizzonia time to learn his craft. And those in the know are convinced of Antonio's intrinsic ability. In Melbourne this year, when F1 Rejects asked leading journalist Simon Arron whether or not Pizzonia was "the real deal", the answer was immediate and in the affirmative.

Firman had his best weekend to date, scoring his first point and out-qualifying an off-colour Giancarlo Fisichella who has been out of sorts since fortuitously winning in Brazil and returning to Europe (how he's hoping the results of the first three races aren't annulled!) and thoroughly out-racing the Italian as well. He was not afraid to battle and pass Fisi, and his move on Wilson around the outside of turn 10 and down the inside into turn 11 ought to be considered one of the best passes of the year so far.

Ralph's first points should give him much confidence, and stymie those pathetic rumours that Jordan was about to replace him with Eddie Irvine. For Eddie Jordan is not like the Jaguar management; he knows the value of allowing young drivers to learn their trade. And Firman is indeed getting steadier and more consistent with every race, and he hasn't been blown into the weeds by Fisi. Ralph's ability to hold off Button for 8th towards the end of the race will have caught the eye of some.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Jacques Villeneuve
Feels need to "race" his teammate off-track in the media

In other words, he was crap because he was better. Whatever, Jacques. It was a lame continuation of the Jacques v Jenson public slanging match, and quite pathetic to see an ex-World Champ reduced to doing his racing via petty hypotheticals off the track in the media. As such, Jacques takes out our 'Reject of the Race' Award in Spain. Considering the sort of tyre trouble all the two-stoppers ran into, one wonders if Jacques' two-stop plan with a heavier initial fuel load really was all that much better anyway.

Sauber continue to disappoint gravely. Last year Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa came 4th and 5th in Barcelona, this year neither Heidfeld or Heinz-Harald Frentzen really looked like points, although Heidfeld may have challenged Firman for 8th were it not for a late penalty for ignoring the blue flags. Still, Sauber's lack of a top-flight designer is hurting them badly, and the C22's aerodynamics are simply not sophisticated enough. They risk falling further behind as the season progresses.

Meanwhile, Minardi brought both cars home for the first time this year, and Wilson in particular was brilliant in the first stint, running in the points after skirting around the first lap incidents, but inevitably falling back through the field as the race progressed. For all his experience, though, Jos Verstappen doesn't appear to be able to extract much from the PS03, which seems to confirm, sadly, that Minardi will remain bottom-of-the-pile material for yet another season.