s h o t g u n r e v i e w s

Ferrari Leads, BMW Threatens and Mika Thinks Launch Control Sucks
The Formula One Mid-Season Wrap-up
By Brian Stovall

Sorry about the extended absence but I’ve been out of a computer. So for my returning article I’d like to get you up to speed overall. This also saves me from doing five wrap-ups when it’s old news anyway. I’ll cover the season up to the end of the European Grand Prix, in Nurburgring.

If you’ve kept track on your own, you know that Ferrari owns the season in the Constructor’s points and their lead driver, Michael Schumacher, is creating quite a gap between himself and 2nd place David Coulthard in the Driver’s Championship. Remember, this is only the half-way point and, not to use a cliché, anything can happen. After all, the younger Schumacher, Ralf, is slowly catching up to Coulthard race by race. As far as the other front-runners, I think it’s a bit too late for Juan Pablo Montoya to be a threat, even though both times he finished a race, he’s been in 2nd. And as for Reubens Barrichello, he seems to be slipping each round. It’s very odd that all three leading teams have problems with one driver or their car. Imagine if Ralf and Montoya were finishing strong together. But it’s as if one has an off day during the other’s on day.

The mid-field has been plagued by performance problems; whether it’s due to driver error, launch control stalls, or breakdowns. In this category, the most surprising and successful team has to be Sauber. They could barely put a race together last season and now their Constructor’s points are in the double digits. The duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld has put a spotlight on young drivers in a time of veteran dominance. The Jordans and BARs are struggling to have drivers finish a single race. Villeneuve (BAR) and Frentzen (Jordan), who are both supposed to be the lead drivers for their teams, consistently drop out with engine failure while their teammates have no problem finishing in low points.

The backmarker teams have swelled to five this season; the worst of which being Minardi, failing to score a point to date. Benetton follows closely with one point in the books, which has to be very frustrating for Jenson Button considering he had a sweet ride with BMW/Williams last year but was sacrificed for Juan Pablo Montoya. I’m not too worried for him though. Two or three years and he’ll be at a top team pimping in the points. And if it weren’t for Eddie Irvine’s successful run at Monaco, Jaguar would be in much worse shape. The biggest commotion to come out of the backmarker group was the driver shuffle that took place around San Marino. Jaguar took Pedro de la Rosa out of testing and placed him in a permanent ride for the rest of the season. This gave Luciano Burti the boot. Prost saw the opportunity to hire lucky Luciano, knowing it was the Jaguar car that sucked and not Burti. All this shuffling left Gaston Mazzacane without a ride. I haven’t heard what has happened to him as of yet but I imagine he’ll be testing for somebody next season.

Teams’ & Driver’s Summaries:
(Numbers apply to this season, not career.)

Ferrari (94 points)
#1 Michael Schumacher (68 points)
Best Start: 1st
Best Finish: 1st
DNF’s: 1

Naturally, Michael has dominated every bit of this season minus the suspension problem he suffered in San Marino. The few times he hasn’t finished first, he’s placed second. Lately he’s been feeling the heat from his younger brother who has already won two races this season. Michael is closing in on the all-time win record of Alain Prost at 51 victories. He would have to win the next three races to beat Prost’s record. Michael passed the second place position of the late Ayrton Senna last season at Monza, letting his emotions show at the press conference, probably realizing that this feat would’ve been harder if Senna hadn’t been killed in an accident in 1994. The next closest active driver to this record is Mika Hakkinen with 18 wins.

#2 Reubens Barrichello (26 points)
Best Start: 2nd
Best Finish: 2nd
DNF’s: 3

Reubens has been a good backbone for Ferrari, kicking in points nearly every race. He had a bit of controversy surrounding his racing style at the beginning of the season. The first three rounds he managed to spin somebody, or knock them out of the race, and only take himself out on one occasion (Brazil). After being given a warning (if it were anybody else, they would’ve been fined after the second time) he gathered himself and pulled off clean finishes. He’s added points to just about every race he’s finished this season. The shock of this is that he has only one career win (Hockenheim, 2000). Now the question is; does he have a good enough setup in the remaining races to beat both Schumachers and David Coulthard?

McLaren (53 points)
#4 David Coulthard (44 points)
Best Start: 1st
Best Finish: 1st
DNF’s: 1

David Coulthard is basically saving Mclaren’s collective ass while making Mika look inept. He has two wins this season (Brazil & Austria) and is always in the top six. I feel bad for him because even when he’s running well, he’s overshadowed by Mika’s poor performance. If this were Hakkinen raking in points race after race there would be little mention of David’s problems and a lot of talk about Mika’s chances for a third Championship. I look forward to David becoming the leader of team McLaren. It will be very interesting seeing their numbers switched next season.

#3 Mika Hakkinen (9 points)
Best Start: 2nd
Best Finish: 3rd
DNF’s: 4

Launch control has become the bane of Hakkinen’s existence. I’m of the mind if you can’t work it don’t use it. My father argues that it gives you such a great start you’d be a fool not to master it. Well, I think you’re a bigger fool for repeatedly stalling because you haven’t got it down. My point is this, if you know you’ve got a great setup for the race and can bring in some points, then why would you risk stalling? It’s no big deal if your wheels spin a bit off the start. It’s easier to make up time off a bad start than to not start at all. Heinz-Harold Frentzen is having this same problem.

Williams (37 points)
#5 Ralf Schumacher (25 points)
Best Start: 1st
Best Finish: 1st
DNF’s: 5

Name one other driver who could retire from five races out of nine and still give third place in points a run for their money. Their last name would have to be Schumacher. Ralf and the Williams gang have completely turned the team around since BMW came on board as their engine constructor last season. Other teams have tried a change in the formula such as this but been considerably less successful (Jaguar). Now it’s not uncommon to see someone else on the front row besides Ferrari and McLaren. And to top it off, Ralf hasn’t had a DNF due to driver error. In Australia, Villeneuve got up the back of him, which sadly resulted in the death of a Track Marshal from flying debris. Next, in Malaysia, Reubens Barrichello ran into Ralf in the first turn, spinning him out. Then in Brazil, Barrichello nailed him in the ass again canceling any chance of collecting points. But the main thing to take notice of is that when Ralf is on, he is flawless. You might think that his brother breathing down his neck, in that bright red Ferrari, behind him might take him out of his game a bit, but he seems to stay solid. Montoya, in the same situation, still shows signs of panic and premature moves. I just can’t say enough though about the turn-around this team has gone through over the past year.

I also wanted to mention quickly that the repeated success of Ralf this season has overshadowed the records that he and his brother have set and broken. And it looks as if it may be quite a while before an attempt is made on them since they are based on the fact that they are siblings. It starts with the Schumachers being the most successful brothers in the history of Formula One overall. Next are Emerson and Wilson Fittipaldi during the ‘70s. But the Schumis take it a couple steps further by being the only ones to start from the pole position at some point in their career. They’re also the only ones to start together on the front row; and as a bonus they’ve flipped-flopped positions, still starting together (Michael in 1st and Ralf in 2nd, then Ralf in 1st and Michael in 2nd). And to top it off they are the only brothers to both win a Grand Prix in their career, not to mention the fact that they’ve finished a race 1st and 2nd (Canada). As far as I know, no other active driver has a sibling close to joining the F1 circuit, to challenge these records.

#6 Juan Pablo Montoya (12 points)
Best Start: 2nd
Best Finish: 2nd
DNF’s: 7

That last number is correct; 7 “Did Not Finishes,” which means both of his finishes have been 2nd place. If there is one driver you should feel sorry for (besides Jenson Button, but I’ll get to him at the very end) it’s Montoya. He knows what he’s capable of. We know what he’s capable of. It’s just too bad his car doesn’t. This is the team that engine failure has had the most effect on. The stats prove that if he and Ralf complete a race, they are guaranteed points. I honestly believe they would be in 2nd place in the Constructor’s Championship. But then again you could say if Mika’s car would go faster and quit stalling he might be doing better. The difference is the spirit in the two Williams drivers that isn’t in one-half of the McLaren team. Juan Pablo is coming over from CART and his win at the Indy 500 last season. I was curious to see what he could achieve that Button could not. I think they are pretty much equal except for the extra bit of risk Montoya seems to put into his driving. But remember, Jenson was doing some amazing things with the same car last year, to only be at the age of 19 and scoring points. He played a large part with the incorporation and development of the BMW engine into the car. Montoya has to now figure out why Ralf can both qualify and finish in first place, yet he is prone to mechanical failure.

Sauber (15 points)
#16 Nick Heidfeld (8 points)
Best Start: 6th
Best Finish: 3rd
DNF’s: 4

If there were an award for most improved team it would go to Sauber. They could barely put together two finishes in the same race last season. Youth must be their secret…well, that and the factory Ferrari engine package they went with this year. Nick spent his rookie year, 2000, with team Prost, which never scored a single point, if I remember correctly. Sauber seems as if it’s taking the rebuilding approach as seen in other sports by foregoing big names and selecting with the young drivers. The cars and drivers have already proved their potential. Give Raikkonen and Heidfeld a couple years and allow Sauber to develop an aerodynamics package and it could be a four-way battle for the Constructor’s Championship.

#17 Kimi Raikkonen (7 points)
Best Start: 7th
Best Finish: 4th
DNF’s: 3

This was the most controversial hiring of the year. Kimi had only been in 23 professional races before Sauber signed him for the 2001 season. That’s only 23 more than I’ve been in! The problem was he didn’t have his Super license. Wouldn’t that be impressive to flash at somebody? The FIA decided to grant him one under certain provisions, the most important being a four-race probation based on his performance. Could he hang with the seasoned drivers and abide by the rules and courtesies? He proved his worth in Australia, scoring a point in his debut Formula One race. San Marino marked the end of the probation and he was official. But this decision is going to cost Sauber dearly after this year. Their prime sponsor, Red Bull energy drink warned Sauber if they signed Raikkonen they would pull their sponsorship next season. I hope they’ve come to their senses, but to date I haven’t heard anything.

Jordan (13 points)
#12 Jarno Trulli (7 points)
Best Start: 4th
Best Finish: 4th
DNF’s: 3 (& 1 DQ)

Jarno has been the dominant driver on the Jordan squad even though he leads Frentzen by only one point. His qualifications and race performance are better overall. And he appears to have better control over the Jordan, which has been suffering from severe understeer. They were the team with the most radical aerodynamics redesign package for the 2001 season. This is Trulli’s second-year with the team and he has a better handle on the car than he did last year. I expect him to stay near the front and bring in low points fairly consistently.

#11 Heinz-Harold Frentzen (6 points)
Best Start: 4th
Best Finish: 4th
DNF’s: 4 (& Did not Start 1)

Heinz-Harold, on the other hand, has slowly dropped in performance over the past two years. His 1999 season was impressive. It locked Jordan into third place in points and gave Frentzen a couple wins in a year that was dominated by Eddie Irvine, who was with Ferrari at the time, and Mika Hakkinen. Heinz-Harold’s teammate that year was Damon Hill, who retired at the end of the season. Now Frentzen can’t seem to get it together. He’s also been plagued by the Launch Control stall. In an interview, he described the terrifying feeling of being at the front of the grid for the start and having your car stall. He said he braced himself as hard as he could, anticipating the collision from behind. By the time the other cars in the back made it up to him, he knew they would be doing well over 100mph. He’s opted to use manual control on a couple occasions since then. A quick note: he had to miss a race (Canada) due to back problems. Test-driver Ricardo Zonta stepped up for that round.

BAR (12 points)
#10 Jacques Villeneuve (7 points)
Best Start: 7th
Best Finish: 3rd
DNF’s: 4

He won the Indianapolis 500 in 1995 (one of the few I’ve been to despite living in Indy my whole life) and went on to become the Formula 1 World Champion two years later. He has yet to win a race since. Villeneuve had an impressive string of starts last season but failed to consistently score points. It’s pretty much the same scenario this season minus the impressive starts. There was also a bit of tension between him and Montoya a couple races ago. I think it was over driving techniques. What kills me is that these two almost mirror each other in demeanor and driving style. Jacques is just plagued with the slower car. When he does have the power he’s every bit as aggressive as Juan Pablo and not afraid to challenge a front-runner into a corner. This is his own doing though, opting to move to BAR and leaving Williams, whom he had won his Championship with in 1997.

#9 Olivier Panis (5 points)
Best Start: 6th
Best Finish: 4th
DNF’s: 4

Olivier Panis makes his return as a signed driver after serving as a test-driver for McLaren last season. He takes the place of Ricardo Zonta who finds himself testing for Jordan. Olivier may not be scoring a lot of points but he seems to keep the car in the top ten when he finishes a race, keeping BAR from being labeled as a back-marker. This is a fairly new team and it would be a bit more damaging to them if their drivers weren’t turning in decent results. I think they still have a good deal of development until they come out of nowhere as Williams did. One positive sign is that Honda just signed to stay on as their engine constructor.

Jaguar (5 points)
#18 Eddie Irvine (4 points)
Best Start: 6th
Best Finish: 3rd
DNF’s: 5

Two years ago he was fighting for the Championship in a Ferrari, but his decision to join Jaguar their first year, back in 2000, might just be the one that sends him into retirement. I was really anticipating these emerald green cars making their way around the circuits, but it turned out if you blinked you would’ve missed their performance. They were the most unreliable vehicles for having such an important name. This season, Bobby Rahal has been brought in to turn things around, introducing a radical aerodynamics package, then redesigning it about a fourth of the way into the season. I don’t know if it was a majority of the front-runners dropping out or actually the new design, but Irvine had the team’s best finish a couple rounds ago at Monaco. He took third place. There are rumors that they’ll switch to a Cosworth engine next season, which would make sense since Rahal has always had a part of his career connected to them. This is why you should never burn your bridges; you never know when you might need a favor…or a million dollar engine. On a qualification note, Irvine must prefer starting from the 12th and 13th position. It’s where he found himself for the first six rounds.

#19 Pedro de la Rosa (1 point)
Best Start: 14th
Best Finish: 6th
DNF’s: 3 (out of the 5 Rounds he’s been w/ Jaguar)

I’ll get to the driver-trade crap that took place, in a moment. Pedro has managed to finish two races in a row after dropping out of the first three he took part in when he took Burti’s ride. Again, this might be related to the package redesign, which was incorporated around Monaco. If this is the case, it’s a much-deserved outcome for de la Rosa who was lucky if he even finished a race while he was with Arrows last season.

Now onto the trade melee, which took place after San Marino. Pedro was testing for Jaguar when rumors started circulating that team “leaping cat” was disappointed with Burti’s performance. They pretty much told him right out that he wasn’t going to be re-signed and de la Rosa would be Irvine’s teammate in ’02. Hearing this, Prost was able to ditch Gaston Mazzacane and give Luciano a ride and a sense of security. I can’t figure out why Prost went after Gaston in the first place. He sucked with Minardi last year, so wouldn’t he still suck no matter where he went this season? I don’t want to spend too much time on this. For a more detailed and cynical look at these events, check out my San Marino Wrap-up.

Prost (3 points)
#22 Jean Alesi (3 points)
Best Start: 11th
Best Finish: 5th
DNF’s: 0

Logic would tell you that the person with the least amount of retirements should be one of the highest ranked in the standings, but that’s not the case with the oldest and one of the hardest working men on the grid. What this does prove is all the experience Alesi has had even though he’s stuck in a sucky ride. His finishes seem to linger around 9th and 10th place when he isn’t scoring a couple points. At the beginning of the season, Prost came out with a bit of kick. Their practice times were better than some of the midfield runners and they didn’t suffer from failures every session. This has not been the story lately. Alesi, by the grace of God, has scored a couple points as mentioned, but Burti has suffered, as did Mazzacane before him. I think we’ll hear a retirement announcement from Jean pretty soon, maybe after one more season. He was a crowd favorite at Indy last year. The Prost team would have to go through a successful development phase for Alesi to make any other considerations (in my opinion).

#23 Luciano Burti (no points)
Best Start: 14th
Best Finish: 8th
DNF’s: 1 (out of the 5 rounds he’s been w/ Prost)

For Luciano Burti, the story has been the same since his short stint at Jaguar; car performs poorly and there isn’t much he can do about it. What amazes me about driver rotation is that teams honestly think different drivers make that much of an impact. I believe that there are some who are more balls-out than others, but overall the “slow” guys are only a couple seconds behind. What if Luciano was put into Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari. He might not drive as crazy but he’d still be at or near the top. So what good does it do for the team, or the driver’s esteem for that matter, to lay blame and make them hit the road? The move made by Jaguar was premature and the action of a new team boss (Rahal) who is used to doing things like they do in CIRCLE RACING! These drivers are the best in the world. You don’t just luck into F1. If you take into consideration all the other road-racing leagues below them, it’s quite apparent that the odds are stacked against you being able to sneak your way into the sport. Burti knows he can be a badass just as Button or Raikkonen did when they came onto the scene at an age where most Americans would just be starting college.

Arrows (1 point)
#14 Jos Verstappen (1 point)
Best Start: 13th
Best Finish: 6th
DNF’s: 3

At one time or another every great driver has been a backmarker. I’d put Verstappen in this category because of watching what he does with the car he’s been given. Needless to say, team Arrows is not a threat to any of the big boys. But the combination of having the car with the fastest straightaway speed and an exceptional driver such as Jos provides a few highlights for the team each season. Austria was one of these occasions a couple rounds ago. He was giving the car such hell I knew something would have to give at some point. It ended up being the race where he scored the single point he is still boasting at the half-way mark. The announcers on Speedvision have voiced their opinion that if he were with a faster team, he’d be very high in the points. His driving style is very similar to M. Schumacher’s. The unfortunate part is that he would have to leave Arrows to prove this theory.

#15 Enrique Bernoldi (no points)
Best Start: 15th
Best Finish: 9th
DNF’s: 7

I don’t have much to say about Enrique. He’s your run of the mill backmarker who has shown few characteristics this season. No breakthrough qualification or race performances to speak of. He takes the place of Pedro de la Rosa, which weren’t very big shoes to fill in the first place. Why does Verstappen do so much better and last so much longer? 7 DNF’s?

Benetton (1 point)
#7 Giancarlo Fisichella (1 point)
Best Start: 10th
Best Finish: 6th
DNF’s: 5

I didn’t realize Giancarlo had this many DNF’s until I was writing this. He doesn’t seem to be sucking that bad. Fisi was the saving grace of Benetton last season. It was like a soap opera over there. The team threw out threats last year to former teammate Alexander Wurz about being replaced at some point in the middle of the season (he’s now testing for McLaren). Through all of this Giancarlo raked in enough points to place Benetton 4th, outdoing Jordan. It won’t be the same this year, between Button’s issues and the teams’ overall performance. I wonder if he still likes going to work?

#8 Jenson Button (no points)
Best Start: 16th
Best Finish: 7th
DNF’s: 2

Here’s a guy who wishes he went to work somewhere else. As I’ve mentioned in just about every article, Button had a sweet rookie season. After all, he landed a ride with Williams. They did have the courtesy to let him know that he would only be there for one season, seeing that he was on loan from McLaren. Now he’s a full-fledged employee of Benetton (as far as I know) and he has to be pissed. The first two races of the year yielded decent starting positions. But as the other teams worked out the kinks in their cars, he found himself qualifying from either the 21st or 22nd position. I was completely unaware he did so well with a 7th place in Monaco. This was also the race where a lot of front-runners retired early (hence the Jaguar 3rd place finish, as stated earlier). This is just another sad case of him having to stick around until he lands a sweet deal with another team.

Minardi (no points)
#20 Tarso Marques (no points)
Best Start: 20th
Best Finish: 9th
DNF’s: 5

*Now I’m just writing for the sake of fairness and completion. I really don’t have anything to say about these two boys. I can tell you a bit about Minardi. They are the luckiest punks ever. Their backup cars weren’t even ready until the second race of the season. So, when the drivers made their debut in Australia, what they were sitting in was it. Naturally they banged the cars up a bit, but it all worked out (about as well as it can for Minardi). This is another thing about them; they are one of these teams that rotate drivers each season as if it will solve their problems (as mentioned in the Prost section). The fact that these cars are constantly 2-3 seconds slower than the rest of the field is a sign that the driver makes no difference at all. I could run faster than these cars even with my fatass cat on my back. Their future doesn’t look that promising either. They don’t have any kind of big engine deal coming up and they could only hold their big-time sponsor, Telefonica, for one season (2000). And to be a bit shallower, their cars are the most boring out there (I would’ve done the job for free) and their Website would probably give you a better idea of their budget and level of imagination. But I hold nothing against their drivers. They gotta git they bling-bling on like everybody else (my Spellcheck just went out of its mind).

#21 Fernando Alonso (no points)
Best Start: 18th
Best Finish: 12th
DNF’s: 5

*See “Tarso Marques,” above.

Circuit Recaps:

Here are short summaries of each track and the top three finishers.

Australian Grand Prix
March 4, 2001
Round 1

The first race of the season is the shakiest since the teams have yet to race side-by-side. New aerodynamics and engine setups are put to the test. They haven’t really run a full race duration at this point. The top story was the fatal accident triggered when Ralf Schumacher broke hard and Jacque Villeneuve got up the back of him, sending his car flipping along the safety fence in the air, basically disintegrating it. Flying debris hit the Marshal fatally injuring him. On a lighter note, it was also Michael Schumacher’s chance to continue his win streak from last season, in pursuit of the record. You’ll find out later when this run ended, but for this race he came out on top.

Top Three:
1. Michael Schumacher
2. David Coulthard
3. Reubens Barrichello

Malaysian Grand Prix
March 18, 2001
Round 2

Weather and attendance were the biggest problems in Malaysia. Firstly, the organizers had scheduled the race second on this year’s calendar after it was the last round of 2000. These tickets aren’t cheap and Malaysia isn’t that extravagant of a country to begin with, versus Monaco or Italy. Therefore a good number of fans couldn’t afford to attend since the races were less than five months apart. The government stepped in and threatened to block any telecasts if ticket sales didn’t pick up as the race neared. Race day came around and there were a decent amount of spectators so problems were avoided. The second story was the monsoon conditions typical to the climate for this time of year. It made for a fascinating race. The slide-offs were many, but there were only eight retirements (better than average for this season). Ferrari’s wise tire decisions paid off and Michael Schumacher kept the win streak alive.

Top Three:
1. Michael Schumacher
2. Reubens Barrichello
3. David Coulthard

Brazilian Grand Prix
April 1, 2001
Round 3

This should’ve been foreshadowing for Mika Hakkinen, indicating he would have problems with Launch Control before it was even incorporated. He stalled on the start and that was it. Lucky for McLaren, Coulthard stepped up to win the race, ending Schumacher’s win streak. Coulthard had great finishes for the first two rounds, as you can see above, but he really needed this to show everybody that Mika’s performance didn’t dictate his. The big question is whether he would’ve won the race if jackasses hadn’t knocked out both of the Williams’ cars? Barrichello took out Ralf, and Montoya was leading when backmarker Jos Verstappen nailed him in the ass, ending the race for both of them.

Top Three:
1. David Coulthard
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Nick Heidfeld

Grand Prix of San Marino
April 15, 2001
Round 4

Even though the McLarens had the front row for the start of the race, neither of them would finish first. Instead, the crowd at San Marino would see history being made. Ralf Schumacher grabbed his first career win, making the Schumachers the first brothers to win GP’s. It was great seeing Michael, who had retired from the race with suspension problems, come out to congratulate his younger brother. They weren’t finished though. Jordan saw its best team finish with Trulli and Frentzen in 5th and 6th.

Top Three:
1. Ralf Schumacher
2. David Coutlhard
3. Reubens Barrichello

Spanish Grand Prix
April 29, 2001
Round 5

Few races end as exciting as Spain did. You know how people ask you “if you remember where you were when…” Well I’ll never forget where I was when I saw the last lap of this race. I work for a local television station and I was watching the satellite feed while the sports anchor was recording it for highlights. So it’s about six in the morning (our time) and Mika Hakkinen is leading the last lap. Keep in mind that at the season half-way point he hasn’t even placed 2nd. About six turns from the finish line he started to lag a bit like he had missed a gear. Then he appeared to speed back up. Finally the smoke came pouring out of the engine. Usually I’m sitting in front of the monitor quiet so I don’t bother the anchor whose busy writing his copy. Rarely he’ll turn to ask if there is anything happening. At this time I started howling and he came over. We were beside ourselves. Mika’s car had come to a stop about three turns from the finish line, which is about 15 seconds away. That was the distance between Mika winning and Michael Schumacher winning, who had been more than half a minute behind. Talk about a terrible feeling (kind of like catching the end of a Sprint commercial and realizing you just missed seeing Sela Ward). Schumi proved a gentleman and had a quick talk with Mika afterwards to share his sympathies. Michael even stated in his press conference that it’s not the way you want to win a race.

Top Three:
1. Michael Schumacher
2. Juan Pablo Montoya
3. Jacques Villeneuve

Austrian Grand Prix
May 13, 2001
Round 6

This was the race where Launch Control claimed its most victims on the start. Both Jordans, a Sauber, and naturally Mika Hakkinen all stalled during the start. A couple of them eventually made it back out but for all purposes should’ve just hung it up. I guess it is a free practice. After the commotion it was a pretty clean race. Montoya led for quite a while and made Michael earn the lead. At one point, he fought him hard into the second turn on the track, which is a very hard right. This forced a couple of the leaders off, but when the dust settled, the Ferrari’s were kicking crack. Queue McLaren’s pit-crew think tank. They put together a strategy that straight up won the race for David Coulthard. They crew held out for a couple extra laps while David had clear track in front of him. He was able to turn fast, clean laps with no interference. Michael comes in for fresh items and goes back out figuring he’ll reclaim the lead when David comes in. Upon Coulthard’s arrival, McLaren throws a clean stop on David sending him out right in front of Schumi. This would be the move that won the race. After that David was able to pull away from Michael. Chalk win number two up for McLaren and Coulthard.

Top Three:
1. David Coulthard
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Reubens Barrichello

Grand Prix of Monaco
May 27, 2001
Round 7

The most prestigious round on the Formula One circuit and you can probably guess who won. Ferrari found themselves on top again with a one/two finish and Jaguar had its best race yet with third. It was a particularly bad weekend for Williams. Both of their drivers retired. A lot of drivers opted for a manual start over Launch Control. If there’s any track you don’t want to stall on, it’s Monaco. It’s a street circuit, which means the cars don’t even have the room to go three wide. A clean start is essential. The race had to be started three different times the year before due to first lap accidents. The last thing you want is to be the reason for a full-course yellow just because you couldn’t get the start right. It pretty much went without incident. Everybody managed to stay out of the drink but over half the field retired by the end.

Top Three:
1. Michael Schumacher
2. Reubens Barrichello
3. Eddie Irvine

Canadian Grand Prix
June 10, 2001
Round 8

Canada would be the next track where the Schumachers put another record in the books. Ralf took his second win of the season and older brother Michael came in second. If you remember, when Ralfie won his first GP Michael had retired with problems. For the first time they were next to each other on the podium with Ralf as winner. This race also put a bit of a silver lining on Mika’s season thus far. He made his first podium appearance of the year. Canada provided a couple surprises in the points with Kimi Raikkonen and Jean Alesi having their best finishes yet. There was also a bit of disappointment when Jacques Villeneuve retired early in front of his home crowd.

Top Three:
1. Ralf Schumacher
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Mika Hakkinen

European Grand Prix
June 24, 2001
Round 9

If there were any round this season where Michael should’ve felt pressure, it would’ve been in front of his home crowd in Germany. The ideal finish would have been a one/two by the Schumacher brothers, but a penalty against Ralf, for crossing the white blend line out of the pits, wiped out any chance of that happening. The crowd did get to see the duo start from the front row together. Well, as usual, when one of the Williams can’t pull it together, the other steps up to put on the pressure. Juan Pablo Montoya collected his second podium finish and his second completed race for the season. David Coulthard helped McLaren’s cause by finishing the race in 3rd.

Top Three:
1. Michael Schumacher
2. Juan Pablo Montoya
3. David Coulthard

I will say it’s been a breath of fresh air not seeing two drivers dominate while all others disappear. While it looks like Michael has the Championship locked down, McLaren’s David Coulthard and team Williams/BMW have put a spin on everything making you anxious for the next round to see who might take poll or who just might legitimately beat Schumacher (vs. him breaking down) for a win. There’s still eight rounds left and that’s plenty of time to rise and fall.

I’d like to take a moment at the mid-season point to acknowledge my sources for all of my Formula One information and pictures. Speedvision is the Kingpin of all news I regurgitate to you. They provide the actual footage I use to take notes. Secondly, Formula1.com provides any breaking news and gossip. Since Indiana, and a lot of other U.S. states, have such a closed mind to this form of automobile racing, news is hard to just happen upon. I rely on Formula1.com for any news of importance (driver trade, testing accidents, or team to team bickering). I also use photos from this site for the wrap-ups since I wasn’t able to scan a lot of my material from last year’s race (I filled eleven rolls of film). I will have extensive coverage of the U.S. Grand Prix when it returns to Indy for a second year in a row. I plan on doing a preview, which will include shots from last year’s activities. I beg you to at least do practice or qualifications if you are in the area and have nothing to do. It’s well worth the money figuring it only costs around $10 bucks for the fun. Other forms of road racing such as Porsche and Ferarri GT series put on events of their own.

I would also like to thank the Shotgunners for allowing me to write about F1, considering a month before I started this the sports column was given the boot. I hope it contributes to the site.

I still plan on reviewing the NASCAR comics Troy gave me a while back, and the films “The Young Racers”, “Grand Prix” and “LeMans” as mentioned in an earlier article. I doubt I do a wrap-up for the French Grand Prix seeing it was only a week after the European round and it’s taking me forever to do this mid-season report. Never fear though, your bi-weekly race reports will be back for Silverstone!

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Brian Stovall's email address is brianstovall@hotmail.com. He highly recommends the anti-NASCAR site, noright.com, for those who have a hard time with CRS (Circle Racing Syndrome). Thank you for checking it all out and please email him your suggestions and responses for this column.