Belgian GP Race Analysis

It was a race of mixed fortunes for the teams chasing Ferrari. Williams did a sensational job in qualifying and blew it on race day, while David Coulthard and McLaren recovered from a series of mishaps to take a good second place. And Benetton's performance proved that F1 isn't quite so predictable after all...

There's so much to talk about that I'll focus on a couple of issues - the qualifying lottery and the unprecedented outcome of the race stoppage. But first it's worth picking up some general points with respect to the race.



Although we often tend to characterise Spa as a pure power circuit, because of the high speed blast up the hill after Eau Rouge, this year's race served as a reminder that it's one of the most complex tracks to prepare for. It really is about getting every element of the package right on the day. Michael clearly did that, and so too did Giancarlo Fisichella.

There are few circuits where the compromise between low drag for straightline speed and higher downforce for cornering is so delicately poised. If there's any hint of rain on race day, then you have to factor that in as well, and put on a little more wing.

This is crucial because Les Combes, the corner at the end of the long straight, is the key to getting past people. Speed at that point is determined by many things, and pure bhp is just one of them. In fact it can be traced all the way back to your momentum out of La Source, the slowest corner on the track.

Ferrari was convinced that it would not rain until after the race, and went for a dry set-up. The delay after the stoppage brought that rain window a little nearer, but the team did not waiver. In contrast McLaren added a little downforce. Meanwhile Ralf Schumacher started with too much wing, which is why he lacked speed - and changing it for the restart is apparently what led to the car not being ready to go in time.

Benetton got it right. The Michelin dry tyres were clearly working well, and the team did an excellent job of preparing scrubbed fronts for Fisichella in the warm-up, to avoid the drop-off in performance. Team mate Jenson Button didn't do any laps in the warm-up, and thus didn't have scrubbed tyres, and the results were obvious as he quickly faded in the race.

Fisichella also benefited from a trick the team has pulled several times this year, namely keeping the same front tyres on for the duration of the race. A near perfect balance allowed him to get through Eau Rouge right on the limit and gave him confidence into the other dauntingly quick corners, while some of his rivals were spooked by handling inconsistencies. Good grip from the rears and an effective traction control system also gave him a boost out of La Source, which as we've seen, pays off more than a mile up the road at Les Combes. On the lap he was passed by DC, he didn't get out of La Source well.

"He got the traffic there, he was a bit slow coming out of La Source, and that gave me the momentum," explained Coulthard. "Normally he was always gaining five car lengths coming out of La Source. All of a sudden he didn't and I was a bit quicker through Eau Rouge, and a little bit quicker at the end of the straight. That's all I needed, and I was able to use it.

"The thing is we were both what I presume to be flat. Neither of you can get any quicker through there, and it's down to how many horses you've got, and how much drag you've got."

As I said, the teams face an incredibly complex set of equations...



After rain on Friday afternoon the problem on Saturday morning was fog, or more specifically the fog that prevented the medial helicopter from leaving its base in Liege. That trimmed the two 45 minute sessions to just one, and instead of ending at 11am the single session started at that time, leaving a much shorter lunch break than usual before qualifying.

The lack of running also left teams relatively ill-prepared for qualifying, but rain during that break soaked the track and ensured that the afternoon would be interesting, to say the least. The shower stopped before the session was due to get underway, and it was clear that it would be getting dry by the end. But would it be good enough for normal grooved tyres?

Most drivers started the session on wets before switching to intermediates, and as the session went on, there were some impressive performances for a given set of conditions. But despite a few more drops of rain half way through, as usual the track was drying fast, so being on pole with 15 or 20 minutes to go was utterly meaningless.

One thing was certain; you had to be out there and running when the flag came out. Ideally you also had to time your run so that, whatever your choice of tyres, you had two laps on them - one to get a feel for the ever changing limit, and one to push to that limit. And that second lap would have to start as close as possible to the arrival of the chequered flag.

In other words you had to leave the pits with just over four minutes to go. That would allow for an out lap, a first flying lap just before the flag came out, and then a second flying lap that ended well after the flag flew, with the track at its driest.

In the morning Williams had found that the softer dry Michelin (the 'option') had performed very well in similar cold and slightly damp conditions, whereas the intermediate had been disappointing. So it was no surprise when Williams went for dries. To save time the team did its tyre changes in the pitlane, race style, rather than push the cars into the garages. A great move.

Other Michelin runners quickly moved to dries, as did some of the Bridgestone guys. But most found that they only had enough time for one dry lap, which was bound to be compromised by the driver's lack of total confidence in the conditions. This happened to Mika Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve and Fisichella.

The following table shows clearly the value of getting the timing right, even with the wrong tyres:



: Alonso (20th stayed on wets)
: Irvine (18th first man to get chequered flag)
: Heidfeld (14th stopped on circuit)
: Trulli (16th stayed on inters)
: Marques (22nd suspension problem on last lap)
: Verstappen (19th second man to get chequered flag)
: Bernoldi (21st ran out of fuel on last lap)
: Alesi (13th stayed on inters)
: Coulthard (9th stayed on inters)
: Raikkonen (12th gearbox trouble on last lap)

: Chequered flag ends session

: Villeneuve (6th)
: Button (15th)
: Barrichello (5th stayed on inters)
: Fisichella (8th)
: Burti (18th)
: De La Rosa (10th stayed on inters)
: Panis (11th steering problems)
: Hakkinen (7th)
: Montoya (1st)
: Ralf (2nd)
: Michael (3rd)
: Frentzen (4th, last car to complete a timed lap)

The benefits of a perfectly timed late run are obvious, with most of the quick times set on laps that were met by the chequered flag. Prost and Frentzen got it just right. Bearing in mind his last lap was 1m55.2s, the German must have started it just 4s before the flag came out. Perfect, if a little fortunate! In contrast Eddie Irvine was right behind him and was too late to get a final lap in, hence his hopeless position with a time set 15 minutes from the end of the session.

McLaren's decision to leave Coulthard out on intermediates was a bad one, and led to some fairly damning criticism from the man himself. It was due to a lack of time to make the change, but that comes down to the way the team ran the session for him. As we've seen, you had to be in the pits and changing to new tyres with four minutes to go, even if you were going for new intermediates. Barrichello and both Jordan and both Jaguar drivers were among those to stay with inters.

Considering that he spent the last two or three laps of the session parked at Stavelot, and set his best time 14 minutes from the end, Nick Heidfeld's performance in 14th stands out. But he also inadvertently triggered a controversy, because yellow flags were hung out for the last few minutes, and in theory that meant drivers were not allowed to set their quickest sector time.

Most of them obviously did, because the track was drying, but Ron Dennis issued a protest to make a point about the rule. He was encouraged in part by a frustrated Coulthard, who was adamant that he'd slowed more than others. I'll discuss this issue further in a future column.



The complexion of the race was determined by the Burti/Irvine crash. The safety car was brought out for a brief period, before it was deemed that the incident was serious enough to justify a red flag. As I said in Cooper Straight last week, stoppages have been extremely rare recently, and this was the second in three races (both generated by Burti!). But now we had a situation that was unfamiliar to everyone, because it was the first time that a rule introduced last year had to be applied.

It's long been the case that if a race is stopped within two laps, the original start is deemed null and void, and anyone involved in a shunt can restart in spare cars. For the past seven seasons every red flag has occurred within the first couple of laps, expect Montreal 1997, which was stopped so late that a final result was declared.

In the past if a race was stopped later than the second lap, then the final result would be an aggregate of the two parts. This happened 10 times, the first occasion being Austria 1978, the last Japan 1994. However, adding up the gaps often led to confusion during the second half. What's more, if a stoppage came after a safety car had been out for a while, the artificial gaps behind it would become unfairly relevant to the final result.



Now the policy is What You See Is What You Get. Drivers and TV viewers alike don't have to get involved in calculating gaps, and the results on the road in the second part are the final results. The only contribution the first part makes is to set the grid for the restart, and to trim the field a little, because only those running at the time can restart, and no spare cars can be used.

Thus at Spa the first four laps made no contribution to the race as such. Even if the stoppage had occurred after 20 laps, or indeed anything up to 75 percent of the original race distance (at which point a final result can be declared), the situation would have been the same. A completely new race was run over 36 laps - the original distance less an allowance for the laps used up earlier. So we had a Grand Prix that officially lasted for just 155 miles.

So what would have happened has the old rules been applied? Well the only difference to the points finishers would have been that Ralf Schumacher would have beaten Jean Alesi to sixth place. In fact Eddie Jordan thought he had - like many people, he was not up to speed with the revised rules...

The regs make a lot of sense, but there is an anomaly that could crop up in the future. Although time gaps after the first part are irrelevant, anyone who is actually lapped before the stoppage loses a lap from his final result.

Just supposing that after their grid troubles either Ralf Schumacher or Juan Pablo Montoya had somehow gone a lap down before the Spa stoppage. They would have taken the restart from the back of the grid, and effectively been on minus one lap! If one of them had then been quick enough to pass everyone else and 'win' the 36 lap restart on the road, the WYSIWYG policy would have been blown. Along with the fuses in the timing computers, no doubt...

One interesting point is that cars are not allowed to be refuelled on the grid before the new start, so everyone took the restart with a very light fuel load, having used up much of what they had on board for their intended first stints. That is why the stops began so early (attempts to get out of traffic jams also played a part), and the schedule was a little mixed up for some people:



10-15-11
10-14-12
11-12-13
7-14-15
9-9*-18 (*second stop early due to wing damage)
7-13-16

Everyone did two stops, with the exception of Heinz-Harald Frentzen. He'd collided with Montoya at the first start, stopped for repairs, and the team had topped him up before the red flag. He thus took the restart with a heavy load, serious body damage, and no chance of keeping up with the rest. He was the only driver to make only one stop in the 36-lapper.

Finally, for the record, this is where the race fits into the history books:

Australia 1991: 24m34.899s (Rain)
Spain 1975: 42m53.700s (Fatal accident)
Austria 1975: 57m56.690s (Rain)
Monaco 1984: 61m07.740s (Rain, chequered flag shown in error so no restart)
Italy 1978: 67m04.540s (Restart after accident delays, cut from 52 to 40 laps)
Belgium 2001: 68m05.002s (Cut from 44 to 36 laps)