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When the call came to do the report on the Spanish GP for the Club's website, I was a little reluctant. In the ‘70s and 80’s I was a fanatical F1 fan, getting to Silverstone at the crack of dawn for Friday qualifying and sitting in the Copse grandstand to make sure of getting a glance of oddities such as the Life W12 which rarely made it past the first corner. Over the years, I witnessed many magnificent sights, such as Rosberg’s 160 mph lap and Mansell leading the Ferraris out, to the huge acclaim of the crowd. Best of all though, was Ayrton Senna’s single lap qualifying. You’d watch the others thrashing round and wait with eager anticipation for the Marlboro liveried car topped by the yellow helmet to come out and put their efforts into perspective. My fanatical interest in F1, already on the wane in the 90s, took a knock on the 1st May 1994 from which it never really recovered. I kept my eye on the sport, but the days of hardly being able to wait for AUTOSPORT to come out were long gone. Since then, the more gentlemanly sports of sportscar and GT racing have mostly kept me amused. However “needs must” because of the sudden unavailability of regular correspondent Winston D’Arcy (I hope his case goes OK and that he’s back soon), I did some homework and found out that the latest tinkering with the regulations was mostly about one engine per weekend, two hours of qualifying and the cars spending most of their time in parc fermé. Oh well. I missed qualifying – I had to go to out and forgot to set the video – not a good start, but found out that Michael Schumacher was on pole by 0.6 secs from Pablo Montoya. I have to say that, having seen Montoya in the lower formulae, I expected great things of him in F1 which he just hasn’t delivered and, what’s worse, he’s turned into a whinger. Having read and watched a few interviews lately, he's not necessarily the sharpest tool in the Snap On box. Takumo Sato was an excellent third for BAR. I must admit to being puzzled by the hysteria generated by Jenson Button’s recent results. They are good but Sato hasn’t been far behind and, if anything, Sato has a better record in F3 than Button. I was also surprised by the praise heaped on Button by Schumacher and Ross Brawn’s statements that he must be under consideration as a future Ferrari driver but then the Website Editor reminded me of Schuey’s psychological warfare of the past, particularly against Damon Hill. It’s been so long since he’s needed to use it that I’d forgotten about it. It still works, as demonstrated by Button’s off-circuit excursion and consequent 14th place on the grid...... Trulli qualified his Renault ahead of Rubens, who was 1.2 seconds behind Schuey; although some of the reason for this later became clear. He was on a two-stop, as opposed to three-stop, strategy and was fuel-heavy. Rubens was in front of Ralf Schumacher, who seems to have totally lost the plot and the much-fancied Alonso, who had another poor qualifying. The McLarens were 10th and 13th, the team having admitted that a major redesign will be necessary before we can expect a return to form. The Ferrari-powered Saubers were 12th and 17th, what has gone wrong there? Jordan may seem on the path to oblivion but there is now talk of the talented but sponsor-less Heidfeld being replaced by Verstappen and his cash. I suppose Eddie’s thinking is that if the car’s no good you aren’t going to do any good anyway so you may as well rent it out to wealthy punters to ensure the team survives to fight another day. The grid was propped up by drivers whose ilk we haven’t seen since the 1970s. Unfortunately, the common sportscar formula of a rich gentleman racer who pays for it and a professional who makes it go quickly can’t really work in F1, as the rich gent doesn’t get to share the glory. At the lights Schuey made a good start but Trulli’s was blinding and he took the lead at the first corner. Whether launch control is allowed or not, Renault (neé Benetton) always seems to make good starts but the consequence of the good traction was horrendous understeer for the rest of the race. Montoya bogged it on the start and later retired with cooked brakes, the team having fitted small brake ducts to gain straight line speed. Trulli and Schumacher quickly put some distance between themselves and the pack. Trulli stopped first, Schumacher put in one of his outstanding in-and-out laps and came out in front of the Renault - game over, just the same as at Imola, although it took until Ruben’s stop for MS to take the lead. Sato’s BAR stopped the lap after Schumacher, so he had not qualified light. Rubens hung onto second, any challenge thwarted by excessive wear of the left rear tyre through running heavier and further. There were also shades of the Ferrari team before it was run by Brits when his tyres went missing before his second stop. The only real drama for Ferrari was when Schuey’s exhaust cracked; he reduced the revs but amazingly did not lose any pace. The Renaults leap-frogged Sato to take third and fourth with Trulli finishing ahead of Alonso, who raced well through the field. If he can sort out qualifying we might yet see a challenge to Ferrari. Ralf Schumacher’s sixth place was small consolation to Williams. Fisichella scored his best result for Sauber this year, finishing 7th. He comfortably out-paced his team-mate. Button too raced well through the field to pick up the final point for BAR. This race was all about Michael Schumacher. It was his 200th GP, his 75th win, his fifth win in a row (one to go to beat Nige’s record) and the 8th anniversary of his first win for Ferrari, since when he has won over 50% of all Grand Prix. He has now won more GPs than Clark, Stewart and Piquet added together. So, whichever way you look at it, or measure it, I have come to accept that he is the greatest driver in the history of the sport. As the other drivers might say (though I didn’t know there were any Geordies racing) “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus; and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable drives".
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