Ferrari's Austria debacle

May 16, 2002

Simmering on the Semmering

"I've been going there since it was called the Osterreichring, you know," said Fritz. "Back then, of course, it was a real driver's circuit - as good as any in the world. Fast corners all the way, lap speed over 150mph, more than 200 down to the Boschkurve..."

"The Boschkurve?" enquired Wolfgang. "Which one's that?"

"Ah, yes, of course, you won't remember it. Very quick, downhill, right-hander, unbelievable... it's a bit overgrown now, but you can still make out where it was."

"And they approached it at over 200?"

"In the turbo days, yes."

"The turbo days?"

"Ah, yes, of course, you won't remember them - we're talking about the '80s, when everyone ran turbocharged engines. In qualifying trim, some of them had over 1400 horsepower."

"You're kidding? Just as well they had traction control..."

"Oh, they didn't have traction control in those days - the driver had to do it himself, with his right foot. Had to change gear himself, too, with a clutch and gear lever, and watch the revs so he didn't blow his engine. And another thing - and this you will not believe - was that he had to get the car off the grid on his own!"

"Oh, come on..."

"No, no, I'm serious. Skill, they used to call it. Of course they got paid a lot less back then..."

"Isn't that a bit illogical - I mean, if they had more to do?"

"Funny you should say that..."

"Well, which was the best finish you ever saw there?"

"Oh, '82, definitely. De Angelis and Rosberg - Elio beat Keke by about a foot..."

"What, you mean like today?"

"No, no, he beat him - they were racing, you see..."

"Oh, well, I'm a bit new to this. I've only been to the last couple of races..."

"Will you go next year?"

"No, I don't think I'll bother."

"You know, I don't think I will, either..."

As we sat in traffic on the Semmering Pass on Sunday evening, the rain teeming down, I kept myself amused by imagining conversations in the cars around us. I'm sure Fritz and Wolfgang were out there somewhere. Probably a whole lot of them.

On June 28, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and other members of the Ferrari team are to appear before the World Motor Sports Council in Paris. Perhaps this is a consequence of the virtually unilateral condemnation - from leading Formula 1 figures, from the press, and, most importantly, from the fans - which has come Ferrari's way since Sunday.

The man who said it best was Patrick Head, whose love of motor racing was offended by the body blow it was dealt in Austria. "What Ferrari did was disgusting," he said. "We have an obligation to motorsport, and the public, and it was ignored today. That obligation comes before anything they might have in a contract with Michael Schumacher."

Long-time readers of this column will know of my feelings about the world championship, whose importance I believe ever more ludicrously overblown. When I think of Jochen Rindt, I don't instantly recall that he was 'world champion' - what comes to my mind is that he won the most exciting grand prix I ever saw, at Monte Carlo in 1970.

On Sunday Schumacher himself came out - quite inadvertently - with the most damning criticism of the world championship I have heard in a long time. "On the podium," he said, "I told Rubens that I hope the championship is soon finished so we can go for real racing..."

It was said without a trace of irony. The three dots are mine. So long as Michael wishes to continue, maybe the best solution would be to give him and Ferrari the damn titles before the season starts, and have done with it.

Jean Todt is a much more worldly-wise character than either of his drivers, of course. At a hastily convened press conference, he muttered endlessly about, "Having sometimes to take difficult decisions, and accepting the consequences.

"We are fighting for a championship - and it's a difficult fight," he said, Ferrari having won only five of the six races run so far this year. "In '97, '98 and '99 we lost it at the last race, so we try to avoid that. I had people to face - and no result. Okay, now some people are not happy - but we have the result."

Are we to take it, then, that Barrichello must follow Schumacher over the line in every race until the championship is secured?

"Michael has more chance than Rubens, so if we have to decide in favour of one driver, at the moment it's Michael - it may change in the future."

Yeah, right. Twelve months ago, when Barrichello handed second place to Schumacher in Austria, he was assured that, had he been in the lead, he would not have been asked to give way. Todt glossed over that in a manner which would have made Stephen Byers (government minister of the time) blush.

"Look, we have just done a new contract with Rubens, with a clear situation, a clear understanding. Maybe you don't understand, and I'm sorry for you, but I must say, in all fairness, I'd rather Rubens understood than you..."

True enough, Barrichello took his reaming with remarkably good grace, to the point that one wondered anew if the whisper be true that Schumacher will surprise us all, and quit at the end of the year, leaving Rubens a clear field at Maranello thereafter.

Todt insisted that the decision to order him to move over had not been taken before the race. "No," he said, "we discussed it after the last pit-stops, and the drivers were informed on lap 63." Must have been a pretty swift discussion, methinks, given that the final stops had been made on laps 61 and 62, and a lap of the Al-Ring takes just over a minute.

In the end, though, had not the whole affair been disastrous for the image of Ferrari? Todt wouldn't budge: "You know, I think it's very good for Ferrari's image to be first and second..."

Fritz and Wolfgang weren't convinced.

"Why does everyone talk about 'The Show'?" asked Wolfgang.

"Beats me," said Fritz.