The European Grand Prix: the Out-Takes

The European GP was one of the most dramatic races we've seen since... well, the Canadian GP in June.

We've certainly been spoiled for drama and entertainment this year, but on balance the Nurburgring race was perhaps even more exciting than the one in Montreal.

There were many, many intriguing aspects to what happened over the weekend, and in a number of cases the rule book had to be carefully explored, even by the FIA itself. So let's take a look back at a few of the issues that the race raised.

When is a spare not a spare?

While Lewis Hamilton escaped his qualifying crash in pretty good shape, his car did not. Even before it was towed out of the tyre wall, it was obvious that this chassis would not be usable for the race. When a front suspension is ripped off like that, it doesn't usually come adrift without compromising the tub.

At the time it seemed that if passed fit to race, Hamilton would inevitably be in the spare car, and thus starting from the pitlane. Apart from anything else, it seemed unlikely that the team would risk racing the engine from the crashed car after its trip across the gravel and sudden stop against the tyre wall.

The wreckage of the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton © LAT

McLaren, however, had other ideas, and took advantage of a slightly grey area in the parc ferme rules.

Since the start of qualifying with race fuel, teams have been allowed to change damaged or suspect parts between qualifying and the race, with the approval of the FIA. In the very early days some folk actually got away with changing engines without penalty, but that was soon stopped.

But the ability to replace a completely damaged chassis has remained in the rules. There is one proviso, and that is that the replacement cannot be the spare car, even if the engine is swapped over. The spare is scrutineered on Thursday and is thus already accounted for in the FIA system.

But there is nothing to stop a team using a fourth, extra chassis, which is why all the top teams keep one in their trucks for such emergencies.

Once that decision is made, the question becomes one of how much of the original car - apart from the engine - has to be incorporated into the rebuild. In fact there is no answer to that, it's just a matter of a wheeling and dealing process between the team and the FIA, in the shape of technical delegate Jo Bauer.

As far as we know, this 'rebuild' process has only been attempted twice after qualifying in the past.

The first occasion involved Toyota after Ralf Schumacher's massive shunt at Tabac corner in the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix. The engine was just about the only thing salvageable for the rebuild, but in the end the team discovered a problem with it on Sunday, so Ralf had a change anyway. Since he had not set a time, it was all pretty academic.

It was a similar situation with Kimi Raikkonen after his spectacular suspension failure at the start of qualifying in Bahrain last year, also before he set a time. A spare car would have meant a pitlane start, but a new chassis and original engine at least meant he could take to the grid and hope to gain a few spots off the line.

The difference in Hamilton's case last weekend was that he was already 10th on the grid, so there was much more at stake. And to make matters more complicated, since the accident happened in Q3, there was the small matter of race fuel to be considered.

Soon after the end of the session, the team had the wreck back in the garage, where the damage was properly surveyed. Then it and all the bits that came back on the truck had to go to parc ferme with all the other race cars - where the wreckage was weighed!

To ensure that there was no doubt about the fuel load, what was left in the car was pumped out and measured. To this could be added five laps of fuel that reflected how far Lewis had got in the fuel burn period, before the crash. As of 6:30 pm there was nothing more the team could do with the wreck, as it was sealed in overnight parc ferme.

Meanwhile back at the garage, the reserve tub had been extracted from the truck and was being worked on. It was literally a bare tub, and there was a lot of work to do to dress it with front suspension, sidepods, radiators, and all the rest.

McLaren consult with an FIA official © LAT

Because this car was not in parc ferme, the team could work on it beyond 6:30 pm. They could also do it without supervision from the local scrutineer, who would normally watch every move from the mechanics - he was free to knock off and go home. At 10:30 pm that night, the boys were still hard at work.

They were back in early, but there wasn't much else they could do until 8:30 am and the release of all the cars from parc ferme. At that stage the wreck was wheeled back to the garage, so for a while there were four chassis on view at McLaren.

A team of mechanics descended on the wreck and began detaching the engine/assembly, which was pretty much all that was donated from the original car.

By now the ADAC scrutineer was on duty. A keen, young guy, he seemed to be doing a pretty good job of trying to keep up with what was going on, and the McLaren guys made sure he knew what they were doing, and where damaged parts were ending up.

From time to time his boss or an FIA representative would wander down and take a look. Once free of the engine, the original damaged chassis was taken out of view, and pretty soon, the job was finished.

Before each race Bauer issues a list of whatever has been changed on the cars. This goes into incredible detail, logging every nut and bolt.

In Germany, for example, we learned that David Coulthard's mechanics had replaced the 'Ty-wrap which secures the Wiggins coupling on the gearbox oil pipe' - hardly something of earth shattering relevance.

That level of detail was impossible in the case of the Hamilton's car, or poor Bauer would still be typing the list out now. His officially published notes revealed just how much new stuff was involved:

Car 02:

Deflector stay
Complete chassis assembly
Complete steering assembly
Both front corners and related components
Both rear corners and related components
All front bodywork and related components
Top body assembly
All rear bodywork and related components
Complete floor assembly and related components
Various electrical harnesses and control units
Oil radiator assembly
Water radiator assembly

That doesn't leave an awful lot left of the original car, apart from the aforementioned engine and gearbox!

Of course, with fuel conservation a concern, all Hamilton could do on Sunday was a slow lap to the grid, a formation lap, and then straight into he race.

It's a testimony to the McLaren guys that this untried 'bitza' not only suffered no mechanical problems, but handled OK as well.

"They did a fantastic job," said Martin Whitmarsh after the race. "We had a very badly smashed up car, and at 6:30 pm last night we had to put that back into parc ferme, and all the pile of bits.

"Basically we did a survey of the damaged parts and the bits that we could re-use, and from that, we built up a plan, we got the spare chassis out, we built up that, had it as built as we could have - and at 8.30am we'd get the crashed car back.

"With the assistance of the FIA, we had to pump the fuel out and weigh that, we then had to build up a spare car, with the engine and the gearbox and some of the rear components from the damaged car, and get it into a position where Lewis could go out and race. They did a fantastic job, there was nothing wrong with the car...

"In fairness, the FIA was pragmatic and supportive. They knew what we were trying to achieve, they did all they needed to do that they ensure that the regulations were maintained.

"We tried to be realistic, we could have said can we have the T-car and switch the engine over. We decided that that could potentially be contentious, and therefore we'll have to start from scratch.

"There's a degree of ambiguity, and we decided not to push the point. It caused a bit more work for us, and a bit more stress for us, but the FIA were being supportive, and we didn't want to push that point..."

It's worth pointing out that at no point did any rival team make any enquiries with the FIA as to the scope of the rebuild. Presumably everyone was happy to acknowledge that, one day, it could also happen to them.

Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld tangle on the opening lap © XPB/LAT

Lucky father Nick

The birth of his son in the early hours of Saturday morning was obviously a momentous event for Nick Heidfeld, and after qualifying, the BMW Sauber man was able to rush home and spend a little time with his newly-expanded family. In all the excitement he must have lost a little sleep, because it appeared that his brain wasn't fully in gear on Sunday.

Just after the start, he had a clash with Robert Kubica as the pair came out of the first corner. It looked like the Pole just ran a little wide - it was already slippery after all thanks to the onset of rain - and you'd have to call it a racing incident.

What happened next looked a little more like petulance on the part of Nick, as he appeared to drive into the side of Kubica at the left-hander that followed, spinning him round and leaving them both crawling away at the back.

The two have been very evenly-matched so far this year, and it was perhaps inevitable that at some point they would end up fighting for the same piece of road.

Historically Sauber was always the most conservative outfit, and the one thing you never did was collide with a team-mate - something that Jacques Villeneuve and Felipe Massa once managed at Monaco.

That sort of approach has carried on into the BMW era, and after the race Mario Theissen was not a happy man. The fact that his guys had at least salvaged three points sixth and seventh softened the blow, but there was no question that a podium finish had gone astray.

"The collision on lap one cost us a podium finish and a fourth position," he rued after the flag.

"That's certainly not what you want to see, a collision between the team-mates, and that is something we have to discuss between us. I haven't spoken to them properly yet, but I know the views will be opposite! It's not about discussing what happened, but how to avoid something like this in the future.

"Other than that, the race went well. We were very lucky with the red flag. Nick had damaged suspension caused by the collision, and the time period before the restart was just sufficient to change the suspension on his car. I have to say the pit crew did an excellent job. Race strategy was perfect, and the timing of the stops."

Later in the race Heidfeld got into another scrape when he rammed Ralf Schumacher into a spin at the last corner, an incident that somehow escaped censure from the stewards, although they did study it.

Had they also looked at the first lap, a two strikes and you're out policy might have cost him dear. In fact, the Kubica incident was not officially examined.

That may come as a surprise to the armchair referees among you, but there's a reason. When, during the break before the restart, the TV director showed the fairly damning evidence from Nick's on-board camera, officials in race control were apparently way too busy with everything else that was going on to notice the replay. A lucky escape...

Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella exit their pit boxes © LAT

A dangerous liaison?

Speaking of penalties that never happened, there was a widely-held view that Fernando Alonso and McLaren were fortunate not to be penalised for a dangerous release from the final pitstop.

There was no question that at those final stops Alonso pulled out right in front of Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, to the extent that the Italian was almost able to draw alongside. But did it deserve a penalty?

Perhaps if Fisi had been racing Fernando for position things might have been viewed a little differently, but usually in these cases the key thing is the moment when the lollipop man makes his decision, and lifts the lollipop.

And video evidence confirmed that when McLaren's man made his critical call, Fisichella hadn't yet started moving. In fact Alonso made something of a sluggish getaway - he also had to steer round the Honda crew that was stationed in front of him - and that probably made it look worse than it was.

Thus race control made the decision that there was no need for a penalty, and the fact that there was no complaint from Renault seemed to confirm that was the correct call.

The third lap chaos

Finally, it's worth taking a look at the third lap chaos that ruined Hamilton's weekend, and in effect has also curtailed Scott Speed's career with Scuderia Toro Rosso.

As ever I was down at the first corner for the race. Being out on the track also gives you a pretty good idea of what the weather is doing, something that does not always comes across on TV.

There were already spots of rain on the formation lap, when Spyker made the inspired decision to bring Markus Winkelhock in, and at the start of the race it was starting to come down properly. But what happened at the end of the second lap was quite extraordinary.

This wasn't normal Nurburgring rain, this was a couple of minutes of a monsoon-like deluge that soaked me and the marshals and photographers I was standing with from head to toe. I have rarely experienced anything quite like it in more than three decades of being rained on at race meetings.

Apart from the wet-shod Winkelhock, the first man into view was Felipe Massa, who had a spectacular and almost slow motion half-spin before somehow collecting it all up.

Right behind him, Alonso ran wide, and also managed to keep going. But Jenson Button, after a great first lap and swift tyre change, went flying into the gravel. This is how things panned out for the cars that has gone past the pits at racing speed:

Order at Start of Lap 3:

Winkelhock
Massa        - Spin
Alonso       - Slide
Button       - Off
Webber
Coulthard
Kovalainen
Hamilton     - Off
Barrichello
Sutil        - Off
Schumacher
Rosberg      - Off
Speed        - Off
Davidson     - Off
Heidfeld

All the other drivers pitted that lap and thus came out of the pitlane and approached the corner at a much slower rate, and thus in a much better position to see the yellow flags and judge the conditions.

Nico Rosberg joins Jenson Button in the first turn gravel © LAT

So in effect Kimi Raikkonen, Takuma Sato, Alex Wurz, Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella and Robert Kubica all got a 'free pass,' and were not subjected to the near impossible conditions that greeted their colleagues.

The one who didn't make it was Tonio Liuzzi, the last man out of the pits after coming in a second time having made the great call to go straight to extreme wets.

When he put his foot down as he exited the pitlane, the car turned right and pitched him into a spectacular spin. We've talked a lot about lucky escapes lately, and this was yet another, because it was only the quick thinking of safety car driver Bernd Maylander that avoided a potential catastrophe as he accelerated out of the way of the blue car.

Then, after missing the FIA Mercedes, Tonio could easily have gone under the tractor that he glanced, or struck one of the marshals who was running alongside it across the gravel.

A valuable lesson was learned by the FIA - next time the safety car will be waiting around the corner...

After the race STR didn't bother to issue a press release, and not for the first time Liuzzi was not properly able to give his side of the story, something that has saddled him with an unfortunate reputation as a crasher.

In Canada his own quotes were changed, and the fact that he'd run over some of Kubica's debris (as we all saw on TV), something that may have explained why the car turned hard right into the chicane wall, was excised from history.

He was also hung out to dry by the team in Monaco. Intriguingly, after the race there a chunk of his diffuser was found in the nose of the sister car of David Coulthard, after a Ste Devote clash, and again that damage probably accounted for his off into Casino.

This time he was not caught out by damage, but by a mechanical glitch, as he explained the following day.

"When I went out of the pit lane at the beginning it felt like there was something in the rear suspension, because I went on the throttle, I went into second and third, and the rear just went away, when I was completely straight.

"When we looked at the data we found we had a problem with the e-shift - that's what we call it, the others call it the seamless. When I did my upshift the gearbox didn't work properly, and we had a locking wheel.

Vitantonio Liuzzi loses control of his Toro Rosso on the main straight © XPB/LAT

"The rear tyres didn't push at the same time, and that created the spin. It was pretty weird because I was straight and I had this push to the right side."

None of this was related to the media by the team management. Clearly, it was unfortunate that STR was the only team to lose both cars on that lap, but in the circumstances it was a little unfair that Speed had such a hard time and ended up in an altercation with Franz Tost.

Incidentally, I suspect that some of the drivers listed above who made it through the Turn 1 lake only did so because their teams were sharp enough to actually get on the radio and tell their guys that they were heading for a disaster area, and that they had better pay attention.

I wondered if Scott, running some 44 seconds behind the first spinner Button, had received such a message from the STR pit.

"The radio was silent," was his reply.