Ask Nigel: September 12

Dear Mick,
No, unfortunately I didn't get to speak to Patrick Head after the Belgian Grand Prix, but a colleague who did reported that he was indeed in somewhat trenchant mood...

Then again, how could it have been otherwise? Twenty-four hours earlier, everyone at Williams-BMW was elated, for Juan Montoya and Ralf Schumacher had annihilated the rest in qualifying and, as at Hockenheim, had the front row to themselves.

On the Saturday, the team got things absolutely right, reading the weather correctly, and sending their two drivers out on slicks - all right, I know they're not 'slicks' any more, unfortunately, but that name for 'dry tyres' endures - at precisely the right moment, where others did not. Ralf and, particularly, Juan then made the most of their opportunity.

The race, by contrast, was disastrous, but I think it's worth bearing in mind that, following the Sunday morning warm-up, neither Montoya nor Schumacher was in particularly optimistic frame of mind. Their cars, so beautifully behaved the day before, were far less to their liking when running a lot of fuel, bottoming badly at several points on the circuit, and understeering too much.

After qualifying, Montoya had been understandably elated, but he certainly wasn't assuming the race was going to be easy: "I think Michael is going to be very quick tomorrow..."

Come the race, Heinz-Harald Frentzen stalled immediately before the first start, which meant a new formation lap and a new start. Bad news for Juan, whose engine stalled as soon as he engaged first gear for the formation lap. That meant starting from the back, but he made good progress, passing many cars by the time the race was stopped, following Luciano Burti's accident.

By this time, of course, Michael Schumacher had established himself firmly in the lead, having passed his brother - with surprising ease - up the hill to Les Combes on the opening lap. As Ross Brawn said later, "I was surprised at how much wing Williams were running - they ran a stack of it, and that meant they weren't particularly quick in a straight line. Normally, in a straight line, no one can get near them. One way and another, they made it easy for us that day."

Once the race had been stopped, and the cars brought to a halt, behind the Safety Car, on the grid, Jos Verstappen, who had pulled up behind Montoya, noticed that the rear wing beam on Juan's car was failing. That being so, it was probably extremely fortunate for him that the race had been halted when it was: the consequences of a lost wing at somewhere like Eau Rouge or Blanchimont don't bear thinking about.

The beam on Montoya's Williams was changed, and then it was decided that Schumacher's car should receive the same treatment. It was therefore put up on blocks, and the mechanics began their work.

At the time I remember looking constantly at the TV screens in the press room, expecting to see a new start time announced, but none appeared until suddenly the grid was being cleared, engines fired up again. It all seemed rather sudden - and it didn't allow the Williams boys time enough to complete the job. Quite obviously, Ralf couldn't be sent off on a formation lap like that, so, ridiculous as it may have looked, there was no alternative but to leave him up on blocks until the rest had departed, and then get the work finished. This was duly done, and Ralf tore off, now necessarily starting from the back.

On the restart there was more bad luck. At La Source, Heidfeld's Sauber punted de la Rosa's Jaguar into Montoya, and quite hard, too, to the point that Juan drove a cautious opening lap, concerned that maybe something might be about to break. Once he had satisfied himself that all was well, he really got with it, passing a number of people - including Ralf, into Eau Rouge, of all places...

It was all for nothing in the end, for Montoya's engine then blew up, and although Ralf made reasonable progress, and finished the race, he was out of the points, seventh. In the closing laps, he had a good fight with Jean Alesi, but failed to get by the Jordan-Honda, which said everything about how much wing he was running. Ordinarily, one would have expected a BMW-powered car to waft past a Honda-powered one up the hill after Eau Rouge, but Ralf was never able to make it.

In the post-race press release, P. Head's comment was terse: "Today shows we've still got a lot to learn." While Spa may have turned out badly for the team, however, the long-term prospects are somewhat better than good, not least because the Williams driver pairing is the best in F1. Recently, Ross Brawn murmured that, for 2002, he feared Williams-BMW more than any other team.




Dear Paul,
I feel exactly as you do. While the BTCC interests me not at all, your point is well made that many manufacturers quit the series after 'getting trounced by their competitors' - and several others, too, got out of it after achieving great success.

This is always going to happen. As Jackie Stewart has accurately pointed out, major manufacturers do not get involved in motor sport for reasons of passion. It's a cold, logical decision, taken in a boardroom by people who see it as good for their business, be it on technical grounds, advertising grounds, or whatever. And when they see it as no longer good for their business, they take another cold, logical decision to get out of it.

This happens for one of three reasons. One, the company concerned is facing major financial problems, and therefore sees a Formula 1 race programme as a luxury which is instantly expendable. This was the case with Renault back in 1985. Although they continued to supply engines (to Lotus, in this case), they pulled the plug instantly on their own F1 team.

Two, a company is spending huge amounts of money on F1, and getting little in return, in terms of results. This is how it was for Peugeot, who got out at the end of 2000, bleating that it wasn't fair, that only a couple of teams ever won Grands Prix.

(For this reason, down the road I must say I wonder if Ford, mighty successful in NASCAR and CART at a cost a mere fraction of what they spend on F1, might pull the plug on the Jaguar programme. The story may be apocryphal, but someone who should know told me that a member of the Ford hierarchy recently demanded to know, "Who is this guy Ed Irvine? And why is he the second highest paid employee of Ford Motor Company?")

Three, a company can get out of F1 simply because enough, for the time being, has been achieved, and the directors can see little point in continuing indefinitely. It was this way with Honda, who won innumerable races and many World Championships (Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost) with McLaren, and then decided to call a halt, albeit temporarily, to the F1 programme at the end of 1992.

So I think you're quite right, Paul. The involvement of many major manufacturers may be great for F1 at the moment, but we should never make the mistake of thinking these people are in it for the love of racing, and have anything in common with the likes of Frank Williams and Ron Dennis. We rely on them, I feel, at our peril. If a truly major world recession hits, the importance of an F1 programme won't raise a blip on their screens, and we should always bear that in mind.




Dear Ray,
I can't say I've ever been a great fan of Giancarlo Fisichella, because although I think he has tremendous natural talent - always shown at Monaco, where he traditionally excels - there have been way too many occasions on which he has not made the most of it. His speed has never been in question, but last year, in particular, members of the Benetton team reckoned he was lazy, and in the team's press release at Indianapolis, I remember, Flavio Briatore roundly criticised him for it.

All that said, there is no doubt that - as with his former Jordan team mate, Ralf Schumacher - Giancarlo has greatly raised his game this year, in anticipation of a quick new team mate. It's true to say that most people expected that Jenson Button would have the edge over him in 2001, but such has absolutely not been the case - indeed, their respective performances have caused the F1 paddock fundamentally to reassess Jenson, particularly when it comes to motivation, and it is no secret that Briatore would replace him next year if he could a find a way to do it.

This year Fisichella has considerably impressed me, I must say, because, although he is hugely paid, it has been a thankless task to drive what has been - until very recently - a woefully uncompetitive car, and he has never lost sight of his primary aim: to dominate his team mate. Now he goes back to Jordan, and if EJ's team can put together a good car for 2002 - and if Honda can find some horsepower from somewhere - he could well be a prominent player next year.




Dear David,
Good to hear from you - still have the T-shirt somewhere!

I think you're right that John Surtees has been shortchanged in the history of the sport. After all, he was - and will always be - the only man to be World Champion both on bikes and in cars, and there's no doubt whatever that in the '60s he was a truly great racing driver. I saw him win races in all manner of cars, from Ferrari and Honda F1 cars to that glorious red Lola T70, and his ability was consummate, particularly at the great circuits, like the 'old' Spa-Francorchamps and the 'old' Nurburgring. It delighted me to be present at Oulton Park in 1970, when he won a Formula 1 race at the wheel of a car bearing his own name.

John, I think, is well aware of his place in history. If, though, he has been shortchanged, as you say, I think it may be because, like so many ex-drivers, he was conspicuously less successful as a constructor and team owner, and this, of course, constituted the last part of his active career in the sport. Many remember him, too, as a man with a perennial chip on his shoulder: he was never one to follow 'party lines', for the sake of it, and always resolutely said what he thought, which did not necessarily make him popular is some circles.

It's true, I think, that, for Surtees, there have always been two ways of doing something: his way - and the wrong way! But that's him, and that's what makes him quirky and interesting - and what makes his opinion always worth seeking out.

There has never been the slightest doubt about his passion for this sport, be it to do with cars or motorcycles. Many drivers have very little interest in cars and bikes per se, but John has a huge collection of them (bikes particularly). And of course the other thing, too, is that, at 67, he is still blindingly quick, and drives sublimely. At the Goodwood Revival Meeting last year, I watched him disappear from the rest in a Ferrari 250LM, and, honestly, it might have been 1964, the year he became World Champion.

Surtees, as you say, is a regular at historic car and bike events, and also frequently turns out to demonstrate Mercedes Grand Prix cars of the past. He is also much involved in the karting career of his young son, Henry. Never far from racing, one way and another, and that's a fine thing.




Dear Martin,
My view of Luciano Burti's accident is that we should celebrate the fact that, in 2001, a driver can crash at that speed - I'm told the impact speed was 177mph - and survive it at all, let alone with relatively minor injuries. In the course of 30 years of covering this sport, I've witnessed a good many fatal accidents, and most were far less dramatic than that which befell Burti. It was stunningly impressive, I think, that the monocoque of the Prost was completely intact after the accident.

Was it Irvine's fault? No, I don't think you can say that. It's true that he didn't give Burti any room to work with, in the sense that he held to his normal line, but at a corner as quick as Blanchimont there really is only one line, and it would have been difficult to back out of it sufficiently to allow the two cars to go through side by side. Whether or not Eddie had made a mistake at the previous corner, I don't know, but certainly he must have a lost a little momentum for some reason, for Luciano would not otherwise have been up with him, and thinking about a pass. In normal circumstances, cars proceed through that section of the circuit nose to tail: Blanchimont is ordinarily not a place you would even think of as a spot to overtake.

If, as you suggest, it's only a matter of time 'before Spa is dropped from F1 because it is so much out of character with modern circuits', then it's only a matter of time before I turn my back on motor racing.

It is because Spa is 'out of character with modern circuits' that the drivers love it so. No racing driver worth the name is other than in his element at this circuit, and the same may be said of Suzuka. Should we ultimately finish up with 17 variations of the Hungaroring for our World Championship, I personally wouldn't cross the road to see another F1 race.




Dear James,
I agree with you entirely. Justin Wilson's done a superb job this season, and fully deserves his F3000 title. I haven't seen much of him, other than on the track, but he seems a very pleasant lad, and there doesn't seem much doubt about his talent - although how that will translate into F1 remains to be seen, of course.

One or two F1 teams have shown interest in him, but I'm afraid that if you think a British team will pick him simply because he's British, you're dreaming. In an ideal world, that might be the case, but in the real one it's rather different, I'm afraid.

If you have a question, send it to AskNigel@haynet.com.