Spanish Grand Prix - Ferrari Owners' Club

GRAND PRIX: Barcelona: First Time Win for the New Car by Frank Bott

4.5.03

Despite Ferrari winning last year's Championships in the old faithful F2002, as well as being able to give this car a fitting send off by winning the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola two weeks ago, the season so far can best be described as having a disappointing start. Domination is always a precious commodity and difficult to maintain, but even allowing for the opposition striving hard to catch up, Ferrari has fallen slightly behind their true position and the high expectations of their many loyal supporters.

Spokespeople from the other F 1 teams seem to want to project the impression that the F2003 GA is still a bit fragile, but both Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello appeared to be very confident, assuring an interviewer that the car came out tops in all.phpects after completing an exhaustive development and test programme. As Michael summed up, "It's faster!". Either way, the car looked and sounded absolutely terrific, and the new profile is clearly the result of extensive wind tunnel experimentation and testing.

Saturday

Practice started on time, the track was dry, the sky clear, and the new format seems to work very well . It does mean that the early runners in turn get their chance to make their mark on the final grid positions, and it was good to see the triers trying as hard as they did. Poor Pizzonia (Jaguar) had managed to knock over one of his own pit crew during the Friday unofficial practice, and if you couple that with what appears to be a public display of lack of confidence in his ability, then the poor chap clearly did very well to post any time at all to get 16th. on the grid, ahead of Fisichella (Jordan), Wilson (Minardi), Verstappen (Minardi) and the hapless Raikkonen (McLaren), who managed to drop his car into the kitty litter half way through his timed run in a fit of over-enthusiasm.

Villeneuve (BAR) was as brave as ever, but was unhappy with what he claimed to be an imbalance in the car's handling. Button (BAR) seemed to have none of these problems in the other car and posted a very creditable 5th., to secure a position on the third row. Alonso (Renault) was pushing like mad, and was throwing the
gauntlet down very forcefully in the direction of both Ferrari and McLaren, to be rewarded with 3rd. fastest, ahead of his team mate Trulli (Renault), who was trying equally as hard. Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher finished 2nd. and 1st in that order, giving a grid of Ferrari/Ferrari, Renault/Renault, BAR/ Toyota, in which Panis was coming to terms with the new found power and increased handling capability of the Toyota. Coulthard (McLaren) was 8th.

At the end of the session, someone ill advisedly pushed a microphone in the direction of McLaren's Mr. Dennis, making the mistake of asking for an informed comment on the team tactics after the Raikkonen off, and also wondering if he had a view on the performance of the new Ferrari ? Surely even the tiresomely graceless Mr. Dennis must have just one friend somewhere in this world who would be willing to take him quietly on one side and have a word to the effect that our Ron has long been firmly established as the undisputed prince of charmless banality, and for him to keep on endorsing the fact with his endless petulance is just plainly embarrassing.

Sunday

The grid formed up, a very fine day, with perfect track conditions It was good to see our two red cars occupying the front row, and both cars had an excellent start on the green. Alonso (Renault) too started very well indeed and managed to split the Ferraris before the first bend, but was then out shuffled going into the curve proper, to leave Michael ahead of Rubens once the dust had quite literally settled.

It was not so good further back, where Pizzonia (Jaguar) was having a problem with the effectiveness of the car's launch control. He was well and truly rammed from the rear by a charging Raikkonen (McLaren) who's launch control was obviously extremely effective, but was still experiencing the rush of blood which caused him to be at the back in the first place. I have never seen a Grand Prix won by anyone on the sprint away from the line , especially from the back row, but the list of failures on that score just has to be endless.

The pace car was brought out immediately, and stayed there for five laps until the debris and broken cars could be cleared. The race settled down into an orderly display, with positions changing further down the field. It was interesting to see that Wilson (Minardi) had somehow managed to get up to 9th. overall from 18th. on the grid, so he was obviously on a charge. Montoya (Williams) came from 6th. to 5th, with Villeneuve (BAR) up with Button (BAR), after some very brave overtaking.

Michael Schumacher was clearly in dominant mode, but it was Alonso (Renault) who was making it a great race before his partisan home crowd. He was running regularly with less than 10 secs. between himself and Michael Schumacher, with Barrichello a similar distance behind in third place. R. Schumacher (Williams) was running in P 4. at this time. There were the usual up and down variances brought about by traffic congestion, and whilst this occasionally caused the commentators to steam up, Michael seemed to have everything under close control. It was good to see the F2003 GA working so well.

Both the Ferraris were on three stop strategy, and were the Renaults, and the race witnessed changes of lead during these stops, the lead being shared by Michael Schumacher and the hard charging Alonso. The last twenty or so laps were just a bit processional, the gap between first and second runners varying between six and ten seconds, but Michael was demonstrably in total control.

It was a good finish for the Ferrari team, the points scored in both the Driver's and the Manufacturer's Championships closing the existing gap, and promising well for the future. This writer does not get even the slightest bit bored when Ferrari win, and let us hope that the pattern has been set for the rest of the season.

Jean Todt:

Today, we knew it would be vital to get both cars to the finish and to do so obtaining almost the perfect result was important, as it allowed us to close up the gap considerably, having lost ground in the first three races. On those occasions, we had not been able to make the most of our potential, at least in terms of the results. The sixteen points we have picked up here are the result of a great job from a fantastic group of people, an extraordinary car and two great drivers. We still have eleven races ahead of us, when it will be vital for both our cars to finish in the points, given the new points system.

Michael Schumacher :

This was a perfect day for the championship and for the new car. I am very happy and must thank the team for their 100% effort. At the first corner, I did not expect Rubens on the outside and I moved over the inside kerb and slid a bit and thought we might touch. I am not sure if we did or not. But that is racing and it is supposed to be a competition. The win was not as easy as it looked. We had expected a very tough fight after seeing the lap times on the first two days and that is how it turned out. My tyres performed very well at the beginning of each stint, but towards the end their performance dropped off a bit. But towards the end of the race, the longer I was out on the track, the better the situation became and the tyres were more consistent again.

Rubens Barrichello :

I have never been so close to Michael as I was at the first corner! I had to try and get ahead of Fernando again and then when I saw Michael protecting his line on the inside, I felt I had to give it a go on the outside. I did get slightly ahead, but then I went on the grass and had to back off. My tyres were good for the first five to ten laps of each stint, but after that I could not maintain my pace. That is why Fernando managed to pull away, because when I should have been pushing to pass the five cars which were racing one another, I was struggling a bit. I made some changes to the settings from the cockpit and during the last pit stop, the team changed the front wing settings.

RACE RESULTS - BARCELONA GP
65 Laps. Weather : Warm, Dry

Classified:
Pos	Driver	Team		Time
1.	M. Schumacher	Ferrari	(B)	1h33:46.933
2.	Alonso	Renault	(M)	+ 0:05.716
3.	Barrichello	Ferrari	(B)	+ 0:18.001
4.	Montoya	Willliams	(M)	+ 1:02.022
5.	R. Schumacher	Williams	(M)	+ 1 Lap
6.	da Matta	Toyota	(M)	+ 1 Lap
7.	Webber	Jaguar	(M)	+ 1 Lap
8.	Firman	Jordan	(B)	+ 1 Lap
9.	Button	BAR	(B)	+ 2 Laps
10.	Heidfeld	Sauber	(B)	+ 2 Laps
11.	Wilson	Minardi	(B)	+ 2 Laps
12.	Verstappen	Minardi	(B)	+ 3 Laps

World Championship Standing, Round 5:
Drivers:			Constructors:
1.	Raikkonen	32	1.	McLaren	51
2.	M. Schumacher	28	2.	Ferrari	48
3.	Alonso	25	3.	Renault	34
4.	Barrichello	20	4.	Williams	32
5.	Coulthard	19	5.	Jordan	11
6.	R. Schumacher	17	6.	Sauber	8
7.	Montoya	15	7.	BAR	6
8.	Fisichella	10	8.	Toyota	3
9.	Trulli	9	9.	Jaguar	2
10.	Frentzen	7
11.=	Button	3
11.=	Villeneuve	3
11.=	da Matta	3
14.	Webber	2
15.=	Firman	1
15.=	Heidfeld	1