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Can Formula 1 be made safer ? August
28 - September 5 News
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Formula 1 news, results and statistics when you need it |
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Can Formula 1 be made safer ? August
28 - September 5 News
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5-Sep: Formula 1 testing continued at Mugello and Fiorano today and commenced at Magny Cours. A number of teams have also commenced straight line testing at various venues.
At Mugello, Rubens Barrichello continued
to top the timesheets ahead of BAR test driver Takuma Sato who was faster
than Olivier Panis!
There were several red flags during the session with Sato, Panis, Alesi
and Yoong running in to mechanical problems. Sato spun off as well. Click here for the timed results from Mugello
At Magny Cours, Juan Pablo Montoya set the
fastest time on the first day of testing with Jenson Button in the much
improved Benetton just a few hundredths of a second behind. Marc Gene in
the second Williams was third.
Tomas Enge driving the Prost for the first time was impressive setting
a time under a second off the pace of Montoya. He is one of the candidates
to replace Burti at the Italian GP if the Brazilian doesn't recover in
time. Click here for the timed results from Magny Cours At Fiorano, Luca Badoer continued testing for Ferrari today. He concentrated on practice starts as well as mechanical component testing. He completed a total of 54 laps with a best time of 59.933. Ricardo Zonta started a 3 day straight line test for Jordan at Vairano, Oliver Gavin continues his straight line testing for Benetton at Danielson while Andre Lotterer continues his straight line testing for Jaguar at the Elvington airfield, all in preparation for the upcoming Italian Grand Prix on the 16th of September. 5-Sep: Luciano Burti has been moved out of intensive care but will remain in hospital for a few more days. One of the doctors monitoring Burti's condition said "Now is the moment when Luciano has to stay at rest. We are still doing examinations and following, step by step, his health state evolution, which is getting better and better. We will wait some more days until we can precisely say when he will be able to be discharged and go back to his daily routine." Meanwhile both Rubens Barrichello and Niki Lauda have been critical of the slow reaction from the marshals after Burti's crash. Barrichello said "The only thing that surprised me was the reaction of the marshals. It's fair to say that Irvine did a lot of the organization work to clear the tyres. It was a horrible accident and I feared the worse." while Lauda said "The marshals in the beginning did very little. Eddie ran in there and had to take over the whole operation, which normally drivers shouldn't do. He was the one who told the medical car to pull Luciano out backwards because they couldn't remove the tyres. It's very important to improve this situation for the marshals." 4-Sep: "Can Formula 1 be made safer ?" - Topic of the week - Have Your Say
4-Sep: Luciano Burti's condition is
getting better. He should be out if intensive care tomorrow as further
tests revealed that he only suffers from bruising and pain. A statement
released by the Prost team read "After the accident he had last
Sunday at the Belgian GP, in Spa-Francorchamps, Prost Acer Brazilian
driver Luciano Burti spent the last two days under observation at the
Saint Tilman University Hospital, in Liège. Michael Schumacher has indicated that safety should be improved following Burti's crash on Sunday and said "There's no 100 per cent safety in Formula One but we must do everything to reduce the risk as much as possible. Therefore, it is important to draw findings from the analysis of the crash and to translate them into measures."
Meanwhile David Coulthard warned not to attempt and remove
danger from Formula 1 and said "Danger is a part of our sport. We
can't have a series of low speed corners, because that's not what F1 is
about. Corners like Eau Rouge are difficult, they are dangerous, but
that's Spa. What we should try and do is make the run-off areas as safe as
possible, to minimise the chances of a driver getting hurt because he hits
the barrier. I think that's what we should tackle, rather than changing
the tracks.
Can Formula 1 be made safer ? - Have
Your Say
4-Sep:
Formula 1 returns to testing mode this week with teams testing at
different venues. Ferrari started their testing at both Mugello and
Fiorano. BAR and Jordan are also testing at Mugello with
Jordan also conduction aerodynamic tests at Vairano with Ricardo Zonta
from tomorrow.
At Mugello, Rubens Barrichello set the
fastest time of the session ahead of Jean Alesi and Takuma Sato. Anthony Davidson testing for BAR spun off in the morning bringing an early end to his test. The test was interrupted by heavy rains in the afternoon. The test continues tomorrow. Click here for the timed results from Mugello At Fiorano, Luca Badoer started testing for Ferrari today. He concentrated on electronics testing completing a total of 75 laps with a best time of 1:00.371.
3-Sep:
Luciano Burti is recovering well at hospital from the bruising he
suffered as a result of his horrific crash at the Belgian GP on Sunday. A
team spokesperson indicated that while he is getting better all the time
he is likely to remain in hospital over the weekend and said "He is
recovering really fast and woke up normally by himself this morning. He
will stay in hospital until the end of the week and possibly over the
weekend."
Michael Schumacher
who has just won his 8th race of the season
has indicated that winning 2 of the 3 remaining races will be very hard as
he doesn't believe that Ferrari will be as competitive as the Williams at
Monza and Indianapolis and said "We have been competitive everywhere
with the exception of high-speed circuits such as Hockenheim and Montreal.
But even then we were in the position of getting second position. We have
never really had a down side and been non-competitive. We have a very
strong car in qualifying which puts us is a strong position for the start
of the race. So I think these were the fundamentals and the basics. We
have two races which are good for us. This one (Spa) and Suzuka. Monza
could be difficult for us, and Indianapolis could be difficult for us. If
you look at the level of competition that Williams have shown us. So I'm a
little bit skeptical for this."
2-Sep: At the post Race
press conference for the Belgian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher
indicated that while he was delighted with his 52nd win, Giancarlo
Fisichella made it a lot easier and said "I don't think the Benetton
is normally a car to run up front, so it was a bit of an unusual
situation, even though they had good speed, obviously. But I guess David
could have gone faster. Once he was past he went faster, so that was the
extra bonus I had to disappear to quickly.
David Coulthard
was pleased to finish in second place given his
poor qualifying position and said "I'm quite happy with the result
but it doesn't look quite as good as it sounds because obviously a lot of
cars dropped out. I think three cars went out before the start proper but
I still had a little bit of fun. Spa is a track where if you have a bad
qualifying you can overtake, because of the fast corner through Eau Rouge
and if one person has a small lift there it gives you momentum and I was
able to overtake both Jenson and Giancarlo - although they were both going
at quite a pace. They must have taken a big step forward since the start
of the season, that's a pity! Second place in these circumstances,
absolutely the best I could hope for so I'm pretty happy considering the
way my weekend started and the way qualifying went and again the guys have
given me a reliable car."
Giancarlo Fisichella
described the reason for the improvement in
their pace and said "Obviously we had the new aerodynamics package
here and the car was much more competitive, easier to drive, easier to get
a good set-up, even much more grip normally. Even during the race there
was a very good balance, especially after a few laps because at the
beginning there was a lot of understeer but then there was a good balance.
We just missed a few kph on the straight compared to people but maybe in
Monza there is one more step and we are very optimistic for the next one." 2-Sep: What the teams and drivers said following the Race at Spa ... Report
2-Sep: Belgian Grand Prix - Race:
Michael Schumacher wins his 52nd Grand Prix breaking the all time
record number of wins ahead of Coulthard and Fisichella. Hakkinen,
Barrichello and Alesi make the top 6 ... Timed Results
... Full Report ... Notes 2-Sep: Belgian Grand Prix - Warm-up: Michael Schumacher sets the fastest time ahead of Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen. Ralf Schumacher, Eddie Irvine and Heinz Harald Frentzen make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes
2-Sep: The Minardi team
announced that their engine supplier for next year will be Asiatech.
The deal is for one year with an option for 2003. Asiatech will soon
deliver a prototype to Minardi to be fitted to the 2002 Minardi. Asiatech engines are based on the Peugeot 'works' engines that the Prost team used during the 2000 season. When Peugeot pulled out, they sold their engine unit to Asiatech who modified the engine and supplied the Arrows team this season. Arrows were not happy with the engines and will be using Cosworth engines in 2002 which will be the same specification as those supplied to Jaguar. Click here for the latest on the 2002 Line-up
1-Sep: At
the post Qualifying press conference for the Belgian Grand Prix, Juan
Pablo Montoya described how he was on pole despite only having two
runs and said "We did the first run on wets, but we knew it was going
to get drier and drier, so we did a decent lap to get us on to the grid
and then we had to really play completely on slick tyres and it really
worked well. The team did absolutely brilliantly, and I think everybody
did a fantastic job."
Ralf Schumacher
was asked if he was frustrated during the
session and said "I can't really remember. No, we were discussing
what to do and it wasn't an easy decision to take, actually. At a certain
point, we still had that problem with the intermediate tyre and we had to
go on slicks quite early while some Bridgestone runners still stayed on
intermediates. At the end of the day, it didn't work too bad. It's always
under these conditions that you need to have a bit confidence that the
car's doing well and you need to have good luck. Then you're there."
Michael Schumacher
indicated that he was not disappointed to be
3rd and described himself as the Bridgestone Pole man and said "Put
it this way, I'm the Bridgestone pole position man today. If you look at
the gap to the next Bridgestone guy it's quite big. We timed it right for
your situation. It looked that way already this morning when these guys
went on dry tyres in slightly damp conditions they got good grip. You know
these tyres have an advantage in one area and then a disadvantage in
another area. A race is going to be a long way and it should be alright
for us." 1-Sep: The FIA stewards have decided to allow the 4 non-qualifiers to race tomorrow as the session was run in changeable conditions. Jos Verstappen and Enrique Bernoldi of the Arrows team and Fernando Alonso and Tarso Marques of the Minardi team all failed to set times that fall within 107% of the time set by pole-setter Juan Pablo Montoya. However given that the time set by Montoya was achieved at the end of the session while the track was drying quickly the FIA stewards considered the situation as an exceptional circumstance.
The FIA stewards
also investigated a possible yellow flag
infringement by Juan Pablo Montoya and later cleared him. The
McLaren team appealed the decision as a number of drivers improved their
times despite the yellow flags being waved but the appeal was reject. Ron
Dennis indicated that he wanted a clarification regarding the rules under
these circumstances and said "We appealed to try and understand why
the regulation is being interpreted in a specific way that it hasn't been
interpreted before. The regulations say that if you go through a yellow
flag and set a fastest time in that sector, you lose your fastest
lap." 1-Sep: What the teams and drivers said following Qualifying at Spa ... Report 1 Sep: Belgian Grand Prix - Qualifying: Juan Pablo Montoya grabs his second pole position of the season ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Michael Schumacher. An amazing Frentzen in the Prost was 4th ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Jacques Villeneuve! ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes.
1 Sep: Belgian Grand Prix - Saturday Practice:
Juan Pablo Montoya sets the fastest time of the session ahead of
team-mate Ralf Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen. Coulthard, Barrichello and
Fisichella make the top 6 ... Timed Results
... Full Report ... Notes. 31-Aug: At the Friday press conference for the Belgian Grand Prix, Olivier Panis indicated that he expect a powerful engine and a better chassis from BAR next year and said "The package that we have is still OK, there's nothing really wrong, but I think we need to improve aerodynamically and we are waiting for the new engine for next year. Honda will making a completely new engine and I feel it will be a really good improvement. If we work together really well, that will be a good step but everybody is improving. We know where we are now but we need to close the gap to the best, and that's not easy. I think we need we need to work aerodynamically for the low speed circuits, particularly for the low speed high downforce." Jos Verstappen admitted that Arrows are not doing much about the rest of the season and are concentrating on next year and said "I think all the circuits we go to will be very hard. We're missing out a lot at the moment and I think the team knows that, and we are concentrating a lot for next year. Next year's car has already spent a long time in the wind tunnel and there's not much we can do for this year." Pedro de la Rosa describes being hit from behind by Michael Schumacher and said "I was coming out of the pits, looking in my mirrors, and I could see a Ferrari was coming so I kept right over to the right hand side and I looked again in my mirrors. Michael was behind me, he hadn't overtaken me. I looked again, I just kept to my right, before turning into Eau Rouge because I wanted to let him by and at the very last moment, I felt someone hit me up the back. Obviously it was Michael. There's very little I can say, I couldn't disappear from there, I was letting him have the whole road to chose wherever he wanted, but he preferred to hit me. There's no one to blame really, because there was a lot of spray. I must say I couldn't judge where Michael was properly when I looked in the mirrors. There was one point where I saw him and then there was another point where I didn't and I think the same applies to him, so it's a racing incident but just a typical wet weather accident."
Eddie Jordan
has indicated that both Fisichella and Trulli are
two very special guys but he chose Fisichella because of continuity and
said "I think any team boss is not really happy about employing a
driver for a short term whilst the owner of that contract then becomes as
they will do: Renault own this contract. With one year left on his
contract to come to us, owned by Renault, an opportunity then became
possible when Giancarlo's option hadn't been taken up and we took up the
option and it was a three year deal so it made a lot more sense to Jordan.
Ron Dennis
admitted that McLaren were not good enough this
season and said "The reality is that as was patently obvious, there
were many times this year where we didn't do a very competent job. We had
competitive cars and often had the opportunity to win and then suffered
unreliability. Most of the time I think we had the right race strategy and
had the perfect strategy apart from two occasions when we had the wrong
strategy, but I don't think that's bad, a bad average. Overall, we just
weren't good enough, and I think that that's the same for everybody who
hasn't won. There's always reasons why you're not competitive, or that
you're unable to finish races. The most important thing is to
systematically analyse the reasons why and take the correct preventative
steps to avoid it happening again. But Formula One is just that, it is the
pinnacle of motor sport, it's extremely difficult to succeed in, it's
extremely difficult to win a race and it's even more difficult to win a
World Championship. At the end of the day, the best team this year won and
the objective for any team, other than Ferrari, is to try and be even
better or better than the competitive, which of course will include them
when we start the season next year." Patrick Head is not looking at positions in the championship but hopes to reach a stage that will compete for the championship next year and said "I don't think we're really looking at positions at all, we're just looking at it as four races and wanting to do the best we can in each race. One of the things our racing has been characterised by this year and last year was a quite big variation between the circuits we go well at and the circuits we don't go well at. Obviously, as with a number of teams, we want to get ourselves into a position to be able to be competitive next year, to be able to compete in the championship, and to do that, you've got to be competitive at every race, so it's not really interesting to talk about races that we're good at and races that we're not good at. We're trying to make sure that we do a good job at each race and what comes out of it at the end comes out of it. We just look at it one race at a time." All three team bosses appeared to agree to the compromise allowing Toyota to test until the 15th of November. Toyota as considering this compromise. 31-Aug: What the teams and drivers said following Friday practice at Spa ... Report 31-Aug: Belgian Grand Prix - 2nd Friday Practice: Michael Schumacher remains fastest ahead of Jarno Trulli and Rubens Barrichello. Fisichella, Hakkinen and Raikkonen make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes 31-Aug: Belgian Grand Prix - 1st Friday Practice: Michael Schumacher dominates the session ahead of Jarno Trulli and Rubens Barrichello. Hakkinen, R Schumacher and Alesi make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes
30-Aug: At the Thursday press
conference for the Belgian GP, Niki Lauda echoed earlier comments
by Bobby Rahal on the differing management styles between the two and said
"Well Bobby was a different managing style. I have my 'Austrian' one
if you want to say so, and I've done a lot of changes, certainly. But
basically it's not so difficult a decision Bobby took in a way because it
was in accordance with all of us. Basically he had two businesses: one in
the United States and one here. But Formula One, our performance isn't
really what it should be. It needs a lot of work, so he decided his
priority is in the United States, so he had a very peaceful departure.
Nevertheless we will continue with my 'Austrian' way of doing my
work."
Willy Rampf
explained the reasons behind the competitiveness of
the Sauber compared to last season and said "The C20 is a completely
new design compared to the C19. I think the only part that we carried over
from the C19 were the wheelnuts - the rest is redesigned. Due to the
regulations for this year, we had to redefine the aerodynamic package. The
target was to have an aerodynamically very efficient car which is what we
have now. Also, with the weight reduction programme, as we redesigned each
part, we also had to reduce the weight for each part. We have more ballast
than we have ever had before.
Rubens Barrichello
believes that the season has started for him
as so far he was there to help Michael and said "For me the season
has just started. I think it's a great fight that we're still going to
have and I saw a lot of people with the number one cap for Michael saying
'Rubens! Rubens!' It's just starting for me.
David Coulthard
indicated that while he said that his motivation
isn't to finish second, he will do his best to win the remaining races and
said "I don't think I said I wasn't interested. I think I said my
motivation isn't to finish second. My motivation obviously is to win so
when I look at these last four races, it is about trying to be in a
position to get ten points out of those individual races and as I said
about the championship, it's the result of the job you do in your
individual races during the course of the year. If I do the second best
job this year, then I finish second. If I don't, then I won't, but it
doesn't change the motivation which is to win."
29-Aug: Ayrton Senna has won a
record 5 times at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit and this year Michael
Schumacher in his 10th appearance has a chance of equalling that record.
Jim Clark was the only other driver to have also won 4 times while Juan
Manuel Fangio and Damon Hill managed to win 3 times. In addition to
Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard are the only current
drivers to win here with a win each. McLaren leads Ferrari in the number of Wins 8 to 7. Lotus is third with 5 wins and Williams with 3. McLaren also have the most number of Poles with 8 followed by Ferrari with 7. In the past 6 years the race ran under wet (or semi-wet) weather conditions 4 times, the most memorable was in '98 when at the start Irvine and Coulthard touched at La Source forcing Coulthard into a spin and because of the spray most of the cars behind couldn't see in front of them and there was mayhem. Luckily no one was badly injured. The weather forecast is for showers all weekend!
29-Aug: Niki
Lauda has confirmed that Bobby Rahal did indeed offer Eddie Irvine
to Eddie Jordan as a replacement for Heinz Harald Frentzen but he
stopped it and said "Bobby did make an approach to Jordan Grand Prix
about Eddie Irvine. Bobby defended the issue by saying it was nothing more
than joke, but unfortunately jokes like this with existing drivers do not
work very well. I stepped in and ended whatever discussion was taking
place at the time." 29-Aug: "Where does Ferrari take it now?" is the title of the 27th issue from the Diagnosis and Prognosis Series for the 2001 season. In this issue, the Heretic looks at the aftermath of the Hungarian Grand Prix and the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix - Issue 27 28-Aug: Who will take 2nd ? - Have Your Say - Topic of the Week Returns!
28-Aug: Outgoing Jaguar Racing boss
Bobby Rahal has indicated his disappointment to be leaving Formula
1 before seeing the R3 race next year but is satisfied with what he has in
the US and said "I enjoyed so much of my time over there and the
biggest disappointment will be not being around to see the new R3 chassis.
I believe Steve Nichols and Mark Handford have designed a very good car.
I'm looking forward to re-focusing on Team Rahal and Kenny as he tries to
win the CART championship. I've got a great thing here and it's refreshing
to come back to CART because the ability to compete is so easy compared to
F-1 and all the politics.”
Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw is pushing for radical changes in the
way qualifying is run in Formula 1. He is calling for CART and Super Bike
style qualifying where each driver gets only one run on a clear track. He
said "It's all too predictable and there is so much emphasis on
qualifying, the race is almost over by Saturday afternoon. Hungary was a
classic example. If a driver wasn't on the front two rows there was little
chance of winning. If qualifying was done in a slightly different way,
extra sparkle could be added. 28-Aug: "It's Williams Time" The Belgian Grand Prix Preview is now available ... Race Preview Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix Schedule:
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