Analysis: Hope for Anti-Schumacher Camp in Austria

Austria offers a slender ray of hope on Sunday to Juan Pablo Montoya, David Coulthard, and those Formula One fans hoping for an exciting race that ends without a Schumacher spraying champagne in triumph.

That has not happened since September last year, with Ferrari's four times World Champion Michael winning five of the last six races and his younger brother Ralf triumphant for Williams in the other.

Michael's F2002 has won every race it has entered this season, starting with Brazil, and lapped about a second faster than rivals in Spain two weeks ago amid mutterings that the Schumacher dominance was becoming boring.

The German is confident he can claim a fourth win in a row, declaring in Barcelona that "this year there are no circuits that will not suit us."

But the southern Austrian A1-Ring, with its scenic surroundings of snowy peaks and tranquil Alpine meadows, is the one circuit on the 17-race calendar still missing from his collection of victories.

The Ferrari driver, who leads the title chase by a hefty 21 points over Williams' Colombian Montoya after five races, has never won in Austria. He has only once qualified on pole position there and Ferrari have only three wins in 24 previous editions of the Austrian Grand Prix.

McLaren's Coulthard won in 2001, his last victory to date coming from seventh place on the grid, and finished second in the previous four Grands Prix at the A1 Ring.

Wrecked Chances

Austria was not on the calendar for the first five years of Schumacher's career, in which he took two titles with Benetton, but something or someone has conspired to slow him down there since 1997.

Last year his car's launch control failed at the start and he then tangled with leader Montoya - the first of a trend and an incident that cost Schumacher six places and wrecked his hopes of victory. In 2000, Schumacher went out at the first corner after colliding with Brazilian Ricardo Zonta and in 1999 he was absent altogether after breaking his leg in Britain.

The year before, his Ferrari went off at the Jochen Rindt corner and in 1997 he finished sixth after being penalised for overtaking illegally under a yellow caution flag while running in third place.

Had Schumacher's teammates not let him past on two occasions, highly reluctantly last year and more willingly in 1998, his podium record in Austria would amount to just one third place in five years.

While Coulthard has been struggling, Spielberg is a circuit that has favoured McLaren in the past and the Scot's record will have raised his hopes. Williams also hope to get considerably closer to the Ferraris, with Montoya and Williams team mate Ralf qualifying second and third in Austria last year and their Michelin tyres well suited to the surface.

The team are seven points adrift of Ferrari in the constructors' standings and could even regain the lead if Schumacher suffers some of the bad luck that has afflicted teammate Rubens Barrichello on the track this year.

"I think we'll be a lot closer at the next race," said Williams technical director Patrick Head in Barcelona. "But we're going to have to improve a lot very quickly in order to get back into a competitive position."

Further down the grid, Honda-powered Jordan and British American Racing are seeking their first points while Minardi, who pulled out of the Spanish Grand Prix due to safety concerns about their rear wings, will be back in action.