Oz GP race analysis

Beveridge was not standing in an exposed trackside prohibited area, ready to jump over the wall should anything happen; he was a spectator marshal, and as such was just a couple of feet in front of a three-deep row of fans. The only thing that separated them from the unfortunate official was a fence made of four or five strands of wire and plastic ribbon. Had the wheel veered a few degrees to the left, instead of continuing on a relatively straight path down the narrow strip of 'no man's land' grass in which Graham was standing, the consequences would have been far, far worse.

The head-in-the-sand response of controversial race boss Ron Walker has infuriated the local press. On Monday he blamed the fatality on a 'mechanical failure' on Jacques Villeneuve's car. A closer inspection of his comments revealed that he was talking about a failure of the wheel tethers, which suggests an appalling lack of understanding on his part.

But the point is that the general public will hear only the words 'mechanical failure', and bearing in mind that a legal process has already started, I'm sure that Craig Pollock and the rest of the BAR team will be none too impressed at being fingered in this way. I also suspect that Max Mosley, who introduced the wheel tethers, will have something to say on the matter...

As I said, I'll take a closer look later, but in the mean time what conclusions can we draw from what happened on the track last weekend?



Firstly, it's pretty obvious that Ferrari and McLaren have managed to stay clear of the rest, and that - perhaps against many people's expectations - the Italian team has if anything extended the advantage it enjoyed at the end of last season. The two teams hadn't met in winter testing, at least with their new cars, so neither side really knew what to expect.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn told me in January that the team had been very ambitious with both car and engine this year, implying that Ferrari's bulletproof reliability might be compromised. A spectacular engine failure for Rubens Barrichello on Saturday morning led to a few knowing looks in the paddock, and in the same session Schumacher stopped on the track with what turned out to be a brake problem. That was hardly the way to prepare for qualifying, but more importantly it didn't look good for the race, and a pessimistic Jean Todt said as much.

And yet both Ferraris made it to the end, as indeed did both Saubers and one of the Prosts - an impressive achievement. This underlined once again how strong Ferrari's technical department is, and how quickly lessons had been learned from testing.



Of course, like everyone else, Michael was helped by the fact that 10 laps were run under safety car conditions. And in the later stages he was in a position to be back off and control the gap to David Coulthard. But he could only do that because of the hard work he'd done earlier in the race.

One thing some people may have overlooked is that Michael did not waste his pole. Brawn admitted over the winter that starts were the team's greatest weakness, and last year Schumacher's races were often compromised by being beaten away from the line. Clearly some work has been done, although Barrichello blew his second spot and was swamped.

In the five laps prior to the safety car, Michael opened up a gap of 1.523s to Mika Hakkinen. That shrunk to less than 0.5s at the restart at the end of lap 15, when he got a typically impressive jump on his pursuers. On that first flying lap he put another 0.5s on Hakkinen. After five racing laps the gap was 1.9s, and after the next five it was 4.7s, at which point the Finn retired.

Although he now had Rubens riding shotgun, Schumacher did not let up his pace, and that tactic proved to be wise when an opportunistic Coulthard got past Barrichello and set off in pursuit. Michael's final laps before his stop were stunning, and his best - 1m28.212s - would have qualified him seventh. That is an extraordinary statistic, but quick race times are a characteristic of this track, and last year Barrichello's fastest lap would have put him sixth.

Michael was 15s ahead of Coulthard when he stopped on lap 37. DC ran four more laps, maintaining a very good pace, and after his stop the gap was down to 10s. After that, Michael just kept an eye on the margin and drove as fast as he needed to for the remaining 27 laps.

What the times show is how much tyre performance has improved since last year. Pole was quicker by 3.664s, and fastest lap by 3.267s. It's also clear that both the Bridgestones and Michelins worked well at the end of long stints. Patrick Head was more specific, explaining that the French tyres induced understeer early on, but if you were patient they would get better with age.

It seems that more than ever the key factor in determining race strategy will be how far you run with your first set of tyres - remember that DC gained five seconds on Michael in the four laps he stayed out. That of course means that fuel tank size will come into the equation, and one wonders which designers have squeezed capacity a little too much...

McLaren and Mercedes threw everything they had into preparing for this season, and confidence in the camp was sky high. But Schumacher's pole margin, and the degree to which he was able to pull away in the first half of the race, appeared to leave the opposition a little stunned. Mika Hakkinen's spectacular suspension failure did little to ease the tension.

It's inevitable that things break in the opening races - Luciano Burti also had a major crash after a suspension breakage in qualifying - but Hakkinen's failure was nevertheless a major shock to all concerned. He was in seventh gear at the time, and make no mistake, it was a big accident, and eerily reminiscent of the one he suffered after a tyre failure in Adelaide in 1995. Thankfully the consequences were not as serious, but his helmet did get a knock.



On the positive side, Coulthard was on the case. He admitted that he didn't do a great job in qualifying, and by McLaren standards sixth was a disaster, but he put that behind him and drove a great race. His move on Barrichello, reminiscent of the move he pulled on Michael Schumacher in France last year, underlined that he is a charger of the first degree. His poor qualifying form was emphasised by a fastest race lap that was 0.8s slower than his qualifying time. Michael was 1.4s off, and only Luciano Burti, who actually improved on his crash-compromised qualifying time, did better than DC.

After a dip in the second half of 2000 David finished the season well in Malaysia, and if he can keep performing at this level, the results will come.



So what of the rest? Jordan had the edge in the Honda battle, and both cars were strong in qualifying, but Heinz-Harald Frentzen's race was ruined by that cheeky shove from Barrichello. Interestingly his best lap was 2.6s off his qualifying time - the biggest margin of anyone who got beyond the opening laps. Panis was unlucky to have his BAR debut spoiled by the penalty that dropped him from fourth to seventh.

Williams and Michelin didn't get a result, and we didn't see what Ralf Schumacher was capable of after his superb fifth in qualifying. Ralf had the edge on Juan Pablo Montoya all weekend, and the Colombian's first GP began with the sort of flair that we expected. He sailed straight on at the first corner, and piled back onto the track with scant regard to who might already be there, i.e. Panis.

At the second corner he found Eddie Irvine on the outside, and rather than risk losing momentum by taking a tight line, he just drove the Jaguar off the road. I know that's what he did because Juan told me! We already knew that he's an uncompromising racer, and I'm sure it's just the sort of aggression Frank Williams wants to see, but I've got a feeling that JPM won't make many friends amongst his colleagues. He'd already mightily pissed off Jacques Villeneuve in qualifying...



It was good to see Nick Heidfeld make a few people sit up and take notice; I wasn't a particular fan when he was coming up through the ranks, but I think he was a little hard done by last year, and has a lot of potential. As of course does Kimi Raikkonen. What can you say about the guy? He didn't put a foot wrong all weekend, and was assured and confident in and out of the car, despite his lack of worldliness. He'd never been out of Europe before...

It took a steward's decision to get Kimi into the points, at the expense of Panis, but the guy deserved a little present. As did Peter Sauber, or whoever persuaded him to take the gamble.

Benetton didn't expect much from this first race, and in truth it was a pretty dismal performance. Giancarlo Fisichella did at least see the chequered flag, albeit three laps down and with his engine sounding like an angry bee in a tin box, but this is surely not what Renault wants to see. Race lap times were way off what might be termed respectability.



Finally, a note about Fernando Alonso and Minardi. It's true that the team usually enjoys its best qualifying session of the year in Melbourne, before others get their acts together - Marc Gene was 18th last year and we've seen similar performances from the likes of Esteban Tuero in the past.

But bearing in mind the total lack of testing, it was an impressive job, and the 19-year-old Spaniard's first race weekend was quite something. The highlight was perhaps his 15th place on Saturday morning, ahead of the 2000 pole time!

We all thought Minardi was dead and buried a few months ago. I was a little sceptical about the rescue plan, but Paul Stoddart has lived up to his promises, and then some, and has generated an extraordinary amount of goodwill in the paddock. Alonso is of course already contracted to Renault, so perhaps it wasn't such a bad weekend for Sr Briatore and co...