French Grand Prix: Race Analysis

Quite simply he was faster than Schumacher, and beat him in a fair fight. The fact that the German dropped out with a subsequent engine failure is irrelevant. And while he was not significantly quicker than team-mate Mika Hakkinen at most stages of the race, he gained by qualifying better and taking the fight to the Ferraris with rather more aggression.

It was also clear that Ferrari had more problems with tyre wear, but that is all part of the game. Both teams started on identical 'Super Soft' rubber, and the rest was down to how the drivers used the tyres, and how the set-up affected wear - and set-up is of course ultimately determined by the driver. Interestingly, on Sunday Hakkinen actually switched to Coulthard's preferred set-up - not the first time it's happened, as Coulthard pointed out: "Again this weekend Mika went to my set-up today, having not found what he wanted, and was much happier. So it gives me another feeling of confidence that the work I do for the team in developing the car is real."

So whichever way you look at it, DC won hands down. And he did it on a day when the team feared mechanical dramas after David had suffered a series of problems in practice.

"We were a little dismayed after practice," said Ron Dennis. "We had a very good warm up, and we felt we were quick and the cars were balanced, and I knew we were going to be able to race them. No doubt there will be all the reasons in the world why we beat them, and none of them will be because we had a faster car or better drivers. That's par for the course when we're racing against our red colleagues! But David overtook fair and square, and our pit-stop strategy was very good. All in all it was a good day at the office."


As ever, the key to the French GP was always going to be the start. Magny-Cours has an unusual layout, with a short run into a very fast lefthander rather than the usual hard braking area. For the drivers in the even numbered grid positions, on the inside line, it's always a bit difficult. The cars on the outside have a better run at the first turn, and can gain ground by sweeping across in front of those caught on the inside.

That's exactly what happened. From pole position Schumacher not only managed to get away in front, he also ensured that he could create some breathing space by helping Rubens Barrichello into second place, by pulling over and blocking Coulthard. It's not the first time we've seen such an aggressive move from Michael off the start this year, but nevertheless it caused considerable frustration in the McLaren camp, because both David and Mika Hakkinen now had to sit behind Rubens.

As ever, Michael put in a brilliant first lap, taking 1.4s out of his team-mate, and then he gradually began to build up an advantage; 3.5s on lap 5, 5.0s on lap 10. Then it levelled out a bit. Tyre degradation was a crucial factor, as practice had proved, and either Michael moderated his pace to save the tyres, or found them going off quicker than expected.

Sitting behind Rubens, DC had his own ideas: "Initially the Ferrari looked like it was easier on its tyres, but after 10 laps we were definitely much better on its tyres, which is what we expected. Although Bridgestone won't tell you directly, that's what we believed."

The gap from Michael to Rubens stayed at around 5.5s, until lap 17, when it went out to around 6.2s for a few laps.

Still, with Coulthard and Hakkinen trapped behind his team-mate, Michael was still safe, and knew that whatever pit strategy McLaren adopted, he could react and still get out comfortably ahead.


However, the plan went awry when DC finally snuck ahead of Rubens on lap 22. The McLaren was faster down the straight, which crucially gave David a chance to make a run into the Adelaide Hairpin. The gap at the end of that lap was 7.2s - the biggest advantage Michael had held so far - but David was immediately able to go 0.5s a lap quicker.

As we were more or less at one third distance, the first stops were just about due. McLaren cleverly brought Mika Hakkinen in first, on lap 23, in order to get him off Barrichello's tail and give him a chance to sneak ahead when the Brazilian stopped. Significantly the cars immediately behind Mika had already stopped, so there was no risk of him getting caught in traffic when he resumed.

Ferrari could have responded by bringing Rubens in next time round - the usual response in such situations - but they were already committed to servicing Schumacher, who duly came in on lap 24.

Coulthard and Barrichello both came in on lap 25. David emerged still behind Michael, but at the end of the lap the gap was down to 5.3s, exactly 1.9s less than it had been before the stop. And that gap was essentially closed in the pits, because DC spent exactly 2s less in the pitlane.

Meanwhile Rubens had a perfect stop, and spent marginally less time in the pit lane than Hakkinen had, and yet suddenly he was 2s behind Mika in fourth place. Those two unhindered laps Mika enjoyed on new tyres before Rubens stopped made all the difference. The second was a 1m19.933s - the first sub-20s lap anyone had done all race, and proof if needed that Hakkinen has not suddenly lost all his ability.

With the stops over, and a clear track between himself and Michael, Coulthard soon began to close the gap. From 5.3s it went to 4.9s, 3.6s, 2.5s, 1.9s, 1.3s, 0.5s on consecutive laps. Not many people have been able to do that to Schumacher in race conditions, and it seemed that DC might be taking too much out of his tyres in the process. In fact Michael was struggling big time: "The tyres on my car seemed to suffer a drop in performance earlier than the others. The problem was at its worst after the first pit-stop. At first I could control the situation, but then the tyres went off and I tried to look after them knowing there were still a lot of laps to go."

Hakkinen was also catching, but not at such a fast rate. However, once he was stuck behind Michael, David's lap times dropped by around 1s a lap, and soon Mika was right on his tail.


The next step of course was passing Schumacher. Not many people would have put money on DC doing that, but the Scot had a pretty good go on lap 34, almost getting by on the outside, but he was edged out. After recovering his composure he did it properly six laps later.

Michael had done his best not to allow DC to get a run at him: "In general I kept things under control in Turn 3 before the long straight, but occasionally if things didn't go so well, then Coulthard got close and was able to overtake me."

Over the next three laps he edged away, before Ferrari brought Michael in on lap 43 for a relatively early second stop. McLaren reacted by bringing in Mika, who was now right on Michael's tail.

Ferrari obviously wanted to get Michael onto new tyres and hoped that he could repeat what Mika had done to Rubens, and put in some quick laps before Coulthard pitted.

Michael easily beat Mika out of the pits, the Finn losing a couple of seconds, so there were no worries on that front. A lap later Ferrari brought in Rubens, hoping that he had done enough to sneak ahead of Hakkinen. However a wheelnut cross threaded and Rubens lost around 8s while the problem was rectified. This was Ferrari's third major pit drama this season, following Barcelona and Montreal.

Meanwhile Schumacher's hopes of getting ahead of DC simply didn't work. David stayed out for three extra laps, and made sure they counted. Quite simply, on old rubber he was quicker than Michael was with his new tyres and heavy fuel load. That effectively won the race for David, and he came out of the pits comfortably ahead of Michael. At the end of his first flying lap out he was 5.6s clear. Anyone who thought Michael would work away and quickly reduce the advantage was mistaken, and over the next 10 laps the gap went to 6.7s, 7.5s, 7.2s, 8.0s, 8.3s, 8.5s, 7.8s, 8.8s, 10.7s 10.3s.

At that point it all became academic when Michael suffered an engine failure: "Down the straight the engine died, and then when I was braking the rear wheels locked and I went wide, and then Hakkinen overtook me. I just tried to go as long as possible, maybe to come back to the pits. You never know what could be the problem."

Interestingly DC did not appear to back off at first, but he eventually responded to an 'Easy' message on the pit board - the team had definitely not forgotten the practice failures. Mika made no attempt to try to catch him, and was presumably he also under orders, since the gap between the McLarens was 12s on lap 58, when Michael stopped, and was 14s when the flag fell at lap 72. Barrichello, in tyre trouble, was no threat.

"I don't think there's any question we had a better car this weekend than the Ferrari," said Dennis. "It's always marginal, it's going to swing between the two teams, but on the high speed circuits I believe we'll have an advantage."



Of the rest, BAR and Jacques Villeneuve did a faultless job to take fourth place and beat Williams and Jordan in a straight fight, although Ralf Schumacher obviously lost a lot of ground stuck behind a surprisingly slow Heinz-Harald Frentzen early on. Ralf then lost out to Jarno Trulli at the first stops.

Jenson Button also did a good job to get onto Ralf's tail and stay with him, but his own chances were sacrificed by Williams when he was used a dummy to draw the Jordans into the pits, by making a very early second stop. Ralf stayed out, banged in some quick laps, and was thus able to stay ahead of both Jordans when he finally came in, earning fifth place. Clever stuff, but it didn't help Jenson...