Belgian Grand Prix: Anything But Boring!
Written by George Katinger · August 29, 2004
Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last! Paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, all of F1 must be grateful for today’s liberating race results.
gp2004.com: A tremendous result for McLaren!
f1.racing-live.com: Raikkonen steers his way to victory
If I’ve managed to offend anyone by comparing the American struggle for racial equality with a mere F1 race, I apologize. Having said that, witnessing Kimi Raikkonen’s surge from 10th starting place on the grid to the win was, for me at least, truly liberating. Kimi had everything finally working. The right setup, the right tire selection, reliability and a bit of luck.
And the invincible Ferrari machine finally made mistakes. Wrong tire selection, wrong car set up and no luck to aide them out of their dilemma. Schumacher’s car set up and tire selection was based upon a wet race condition (allegedly) and the red car just was not fast enough through the twisties. That was more than evident the way Kimi drove away after every restart.
The amount of luck required for Kimi to win cannot be downplayed. Considering that he was the only top driver not to suffer Michelin tire problems or involvement in the many accidents or collateral damage from those accidents, he was very lucky. But the win should not be marginalized by attributing all to just luck. Considering how McLaren has struggled all year, for them to climb the top step of the podium with four races left is truly an amazing feat. Yes Ron, I will now grant you and Norbert both a permanent stay of execution!
Move of the race: Montoya’s pass of Schumacher at the bus stop.
Bonehead move of the race: His failed attempt of the same pass on Trulli.
Worst luck of the day: Zonta and his exploded Toyota engine from 4th place with just three laps to go.
Worst team luck: BAR, both cars out, no gain on Renault team chase.
Best team luck: Sauber, with 4th and 5th place finishes. How did they miss all the mayhem and track shrapnel?
Continuing misery: Montoya and Williams. Badly need a win before seasons end. Door open for McLaren to pass in team standings?
Best drive of the race: Barrichello and his comeback from last place after repairs for damage, to third place.
BELGIAN GRAND PRIX RESULTS - AUGUST 29, 2004 - 44 LAPS
POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT LAPS TIRE TIME/RETIRE
1. KIMI RAIKKONEN Finland McLaren-Mercedes 44 1h32m35.274
2. MICHAEL SCHUMACHER Germany Ferrari 44 3.132
3. RUBENS BARRICHELLO Brazil Ferrari 44 4.371
4. FELIPE MASSA Brazil Sauber-Petronas 44 12.504
5. GIANCARLO FISICHELLA Italy Sauber-Petronas 44 14.104
6. CHRISTIAN KLIEN Austria Jaguar-Cosworth 44 14.614
7. DAVID COULTHARD Britain McLaren-Mercedes 44 17.970
8. OLIVIER PANIS France Toyota 44 18.693
9. JARNO TRULLI Italy Renault 44 22.115
10. RICARDO ZONTA Brazil Toyota 41 3 Laps
11. NICK HEIDFELD Germany Jordan-Cosworth 40 4 Laps
R JUAN PABLO MONTOYA Colombia Williams-BMW 37 Retired
R ANTONIO PIZZONIA Brazil Williams-BMW 31 Gearbox
R JENSON BUTTON Britain BAR-Honda 29 Accident
R ZSOLT BAUMGARTNER Hungary Minardi-Cosworth 28 Accident
R FERNANDO ALONSO Spain Renault 11 Spin
R MARK WEBBER Australia Jaguar-Cosworth 0 Accident
R TAKUMA SATO Japan BAR-Honda 0 Accident
R GIANMARIA BRUNI Italy Minardi-Cosworth 21 Accident
R GIORGIO PANTANO Italy Jordan-Ford 0 Accident
FASTEST LAP: Raikkonen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 42 1:45.108
Comments
14 Responses to “Belgian Grand Prix: Anything But Boring!”
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Agreed! What a fun race to watch!
One think that bothered me: I don’t understand why you think Trulli’s spin was JPM’s fault. JPM was late committing to the inside line, but his nose wing was clearly as deep as Trulli’s seat before Trulli chopped down on him.
In every other form of racing, JPM’s move would be considered legitimate so long as he could keep his car off of Trulli’s car, and Trulli would be expected to give him room to race (or at least give him one car-width of track).
One might question the wisdom of JPM’s late committment to the overtaking manuever due to the degree of risk, but the actual contact was clearly initiated by Trulli, no?
Your observations are as usual correct. But you can’t expect Trulli to have his eye glued to the side mirror when negotiating the chicane. Trulli’s expectation of Juan backing off was not unreasonable.
Either way it was a close call, but I would blame Juan more than Jarno.
I would agree that it was a bad/impatient decision by JPM to commit so late, but I believe that the actual accident was caused by a defensive panic by Trulli. If I’m not mistaken, the rules allow you to drive a competitor off the track to the outside defensively, but you must give a car width to the inside. So I’m legitimately confused by the controversy.
At any rate, how exciting is it to have an aggressive hard-charging character like JPM in the mix?
I hope McLaren gives him a quick car next year!
Today’s race was indeed exciting. Formula One has finally found a “formula” for making EACH race exciting. It need only be formalized.
1) Retain the current qualifying system which can cause top teams to be caught out in the rain (e.g. Williams), with average teams getting lucky with good weather conditions (eg. Sauber). In fact, qualifying should be over 2 days (half the cars Friday and half on Saturday) - that would increase the chances of varying weather conditions.
2) Design a helmet shield that can go black for 2 seconds. Randomly select one driver to be blindfolded for 2 seconds in the first turn, ensuring at least two cars making contact.
3) Prohibit Red Flags during the race so that all accidents will result in a Yellow Flag and Safety Car at worst. This will make proper clean-up a thing of the past and ensure that drivers will pick up carbonfibre and other garbage on the track entertaining us all 5-20 laps later when a tire shreds to pieces. The blown tire will create havoc with at least the tireless car, and maybe others that the tireless car is forced to run into. (A bonus from this tire problem could be even more carbonfiber on the track - the “snowball” effect worked great at Spa as the retirements never seemed to stop.)
4) If all else fails, and crashes and retirements aren’t happening, require a minimum of 3 Safety Car periods, rewarding cars that were far behind and out of the race a chance to catch up and be no more than 2 to 4 seconds behind the leader. In other words, steal the lead away from those who have earned it. IRL, European-style!!!
I can’t argue that this was the most exciting race of the year. It clearly was. But it was exciting because of FIA regulations that steal achievements earned by the better drivers. These drivers either lose time, or just get knocked out of the race. In one case (Ralf at Indy), they caused a shunt that could have been life-ending. (I must admit that Ralf’s injuries were cause in part by the carbonfibre-induced shunt, along with sleazy Tony George’s decision to pad the track’s outer walls for his Indy 500, a counter-clockwise race, without regard to Formula One which races clockwise.) I’m all for exciting races, but this is not the way.
Jeff, no one could ever accuse you of lacking passion for the sport, but I think you’re taking liberties with the hyperbole here.
First, I like your qualifying idea, but you have to wonder about costs any time you stretch the event out like that. And that’s not just for the teams and the venue, but for the fans. Tickets are already about $150 just for qualifying, and another $300-$3000 for race day.
As for the temporary blinders at the start, that would appear to be unneccessary. Someone wrecks off the grid or into the first turn.
I agree with the red flag issue, but all the post-race remarks have indicated that the Michelin failures were due to some factor other than carbon fiber shards.
Also, while it’s true that a safety car period can completely wipe out a dominating stint, so can a bad fuel fitting or malfunctioning air hose in the course of a pit stop. Just normal racing stuff imo, and safety car laps have not generally been common in F1 this year.
In spite of what may have been shortcomings, we actually had some hotly contested overtaking in this race! Kimi on Schumi and JPM on Schumi were high drama!
Incidentally, in the wake of Ralf’s wreck at Indy, it was pretty inexcusable to not that the SAFER barriers were not configured for the Grand Prix event. You’re absolutely right about this one. Pretty pathetic.
Clearly I was being sarcastic, but it is sad that the most exciting race of the year is a result of accidents on the track and accidental weather. An example of a properly-run is Hungary - and none of us wants to see that again. We shouldn’t have to wait for rain to foul up qualifying (by the way I despise the current format - I like the 2 mini-race idea, except that they should be run on the same day to lessen the possibilities of changing weather), for Mark Webber or anyone else to start a chain reaction of accidents, for carbonfibre (if that played a role) and a bad batch of Michelin tires to spoil the races of those who risk their lives every other week.
The problem isn’t that remedies aren’t available. The problem is that unanimous consent is required between team owners, and teams currently winning don’t want to risk the status quo by accepting changes. Band Aid approaches like “slicks” with grooves are laughable. Major changes are required but it seems changes currently being discussed tend to be cost-cutting measures not necessarily aimed at improving the show. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but those that do apparently will never get them implemented.
Speaking of laughable, how about the shot of the Spa corner worker broom sweeping debris off the track? Isn’t it ridiculous and ironic that the world’s most technologicaly advanced racing series can’t find a better way to clean a track after an accident?
Even NASCAR, the antithesis of “High-Tech”, can clean a track with a jet blower. Stop counting your money Bernie and pay some mind to the track issues!
Muddy; After watching the race replay tonite I am more convinced that JPM was overly aggressive on the Trulli pass attempt.
His left front tire was barely even with Trulli’s right rear after the initial turn in. JPM then accelerated into trulli as he Trulli made his right hand turn, which was the cause of the contact.
A close call either way, but I think Juan was very lucky, at least untill his tire blew up! Don’t be surprised if the marshalls give Juan a post race spanking and assess him blame for the incident. But JPM is a talent worth watching and we should all look forward to him and Kimi at McLaren next year.
JPM!!! I don’t know if others feel the same way about this guy as I do, but I love guys who say what they want while backing it up with success on the court/field/track… John McEnroe was my favorite. And of course, JV.
When JPM won the F3000 title, I “advised” my friends to start following a future champion. I saw him win his first year in CART at Long Beach. He of course won the Cart Championship, then the Indy 500 (even if it isn’t really the “Indy 500″ anymore - JV won the last true Indy 500). Now we simply have to wait for the right F1 car for JPM to win. While Kimi’s win doesn’t mean McLaren has arrived, they are certainly going in the right direction. It would seem Juan Pablo knew something a year ago. Or maybe his decision was just luck. JPM should be World Champ some day. Just wait and see.
And George, regarding the broom: I starting laughing the second I saw it. Speed TV then picked up on it. It’s one of those classic shots that will no doubt be remembered for years (I think).
Just a quick note: You all remember the defrocked priest mental-case who ran on the track of the British Grand Prix a year or two ago while F1 cars dodged him! He reappeared yesterday in Athens, as he grabbed Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil who was leading the Olympic Marathon with 3 miles to go. De Lima was pushed off course by the fruitcake in a kilt, then was able to resume running. He was not able to maintain his lead, however. He finished with a Bronze Medal (with Italy grabbing the Gold and America taking Silver). The $1.5 billion security force was able to grab Bozo before he could catch a plane to the Republican Convention where 100,000 of his closest friends roam the streets of New York, even as we speak. (Maybe he was going somewhere else - not sure.) That’s one more controversy for the Olympics as Brazil now wants a duplicate medal. I wonder if Greece will slap the clown’s wrist any harder than the Brits did. Maybe Formula One should encourage its drivers to make sure future track intruders are stopped from ever intruding again. That’s about the only excitement that didn’t happen at Spa yesterday.
George, I saw the replay last night, and the “driver’s eye” shot from inside JPM’s car seems to support what you are saying. From that perspective, it looked like Juan had his right front in the grass, and there was no more room for him on the track. Then, he seemed to attempt to merge onto the track as Trulli simultaneously made a right-hander which was pretty consistent with the line he had taken into the turn.
That being said, Pit Pass is reporting that the race stewards have decided to give both drivers a pass, and have deemed it a “racing incident.”
Rightfully so in my opinion, as is took several slow motion reviews for armchair quarterbacks such as myself to “accurately” evaluate the decisions that JPM and Trulli made in about .01 seconds at over 100 mph.
Excellent article. More than Kimi’s win I was very happy to see MS win his seventh title while being passed twice by next year’s team mates. I just hope that McLaren builds them a winning car. Can’t wait for next year.
Who’s this “MS” guy you speak of Joseph? Just kidding!
Schumy’s accomplished so much it’s alsmost tiring going over his records again and again. Great driver, great team builder, great competitior. What’s left to say?