ORDERS ARE ORDERS

Solo for Ferrari, Harakiri for Honda and Sato at the A1 Ring

Reasonable decisions are not always popular and orders are existing, to be obeyed. The Ferrari directors Jean Todt, aware of his power as Napoleon once had been, and Ross Brawn, strategist like Clausewitz, had changed the positions of their drivers nearly on the finish line. The whole thing had been very embarrassing for Michael Schumacher on the podium (with Austria´s Federal Chancellor Dr Wolfgang Schuessel). There he handed over both the top position and the winner´s trophy to his adjutant Barrichello, who had dominated the whole weekend. Later the German became more and more realistic: "If something happens again like in 1999, when I had broken a leg, then the points are lost. I was also not happy about the order on the radio, but the things are like they are." For the first time Michael Schumacher was greeted with a hail of catcalls from the grandstands after a Grand Prix victory (it was his 58th overall) and on the podium there had been no representative of the Ferrari management to receive the trophy for the winning constructor.

As history had shown before, it does not make sense to let two drivers of the same team taking away the points each other. The situation had been of the same quality at Fittipaldi, Peterson and Lotus in 1973 as well as at Piquet, Mansell and Williams in 1986: The worldchampionship had been won by drivers of rival teams in each case. Only during the great McLaren dominance of the eighties team order could be left: Lauda and Prost, later Prost and Senna were so superior, that they won twelve Grand Prix in 1984 and fifteen in 1988. But in the nineties strict team rules were used for Hakkinen and Coulthard, the Finn won two worldchampionships in a row (1998 & 1999).

The speed, the leading Ferraris showed on the top in Spielberg, was so high from the start, that the top of the field did the first lapping already in the 4th lap (Alex Yoong in the Minardi Asiatech). The lap times were around 1:09 minutes, as fast as in free practice. The Ferrari F2002 is good for the driving style of Rubens Barrichello. The sensitive Brazilian, often making silly mistakes, when being under pressure, needs harmony both in private and business life, at his car and within the team. In the middle of May 2002 the "The New Goddess" F2002 is still unbeaten. Shortly before the Austrian Grand Prix Barrichello had re-newed his contract until 2004 and behind the lines the test drivers Luca Badoer and Luciano Burti had been fighting at Fiorano and Monza.

Ferrari´s dominance forced the rival teams to a deployment of new arms, bringing a lot of problems to many engines at Spielberg, nearly at all teams. The A1 Ring with it´s long straights has got the longest part of full throttle of all Grand Prix tracks (70 per cent of each lap), three slow corners in a row also demand a good portion of acceleration. The thin air of the Austrian Alps takes a lot of power away from the high revs´engines of the 21st century. Already during the qualifying Jarno Trulli with the Renault caused a 10 minutes stop of the session by a lot of oil spread in the last turn. During the race the Honda units within the BARs of Panis and Villeneuve exploded as bombs being ignated. In lap 23 at Panis´car the back wheels were blocked by the explosion at 280 km/h. For this reason it spun, but did not hit the pit wall and so it stood on the middle of the track. The safety car came out for 3 laps, but after the re-start a real crash happened in fact.

Nick Heidfeld had made himself a fine gift for his 25th birthday with being 5th on the grid and he had beaten both Williams BMWs at the start. But in lap 2 they fought back for 3rd and 4th position behind the Ferraris. In lap 27 the Sauber Petronas left the track in a right angle when braking for the Remus curve, in the middle of the pile and at a speed of 300 km/h. With it´s back forward the German´s car only missed Juan Pablo Montoya in the Williams BMW only by a few centimetres at the end of the curve, but it hit the Jordan Honda of Takuma Sato midships like a torpedo. The place of the accident looked like at a rocket exposion in Afghanistan. Heidfeld was carried away from his car, Sato, who had waved his hands very short after the accident, got medical treatment in cockpit for 10 minutes. Then he was carried to the circuit´s medical centre by an ambulance car to be sent to Graz university hospital (where US-American Mark Donohue had died after a warm up puncture back in 1975) later by helicopter. Heidfeld was deeply shocked, but Sato had sustained only bruises and a concussion. F.I.A. senior consultant Professor Sid Watkis, who also carries fine cigars and an exquisite whiskey in his medical car, talked about a miracle having happened.

In this second phase of the safety car being out, nearly all drivers came into the pits for their regular stops. The Ferraris, on a very unconventional two-stop-strategy for the A1 Ring, had used the first Full Course Yellow for their first halt immidiately, and in spite of both drivers coming in the same time, their service was very professional. Casino, the poetic description for the ugly word chaos, does not exist in the Ferrari language in 2002 any longer. The Williams BMW on the position no. 3 and 4 stood out longest in Spielberg, but partly they were about 40 seconds behind the Ferraris. Heidfeld´s team boss Peter Sauber, in most cases known for his understatement, pretty soon had got an analysis of the accident available: "It was an error of the driver, nothing had broken on the car." But television pictures proving his thesis are not on the market. When a car leaves the track in a right angle, that always is connected with questions. Felipe Massa in the second Sauber Petronas had to retire with a broken left rear suspension already in lap 7. If the defect had caused by the effect of an enemy or not, must remain open.

In spite all quarrels caused by the Ferrari strategy and the horror crash, Austria in the middle of May 2002 was very beautiful in fact. In contrast to the weather forecast it remained dry, but in the two days of practice uncountable spins were seen on the slippery surface of the A 1 Ring. Before the start the Vienna Boys Choir sang Austria´ national anthem on the podium, while the V.I.Ps were walking on the grid. The organizers had invited all the drivers´mothers for the Mothers´Day. Thirteen of them really came, for many of them attending their first Grand Prix ever and at Nick Heidfeld also his grandma was there. Mountains covered with snow, comfortable temperatures (about 20° C) and a lot of folklore: Clouds were only over BAR, having not scored a single point after the end of the 6th round of the 2002 worldchampionship as the only team competing. By the way Giancarlo Fisichella received the first points for Honda by coming home 5th place. In Spielberg the Japanese had Harakiri enough.

In the supporting programme of the Grand Prix Austria´s best-known pop star alive, DJ Oetzi, was in concert with the British band The Conrods. Their lead singer had grown long grey hair and also a beard, but in the early days he had been no Rolling Stone, but a real punk: Damon Hill plays the guitar virtuoso like the legendary Mike the Bike Hailwood, but he had also been world champion in 1996 (and in 1994 & 1995 vice champion each). On one of the grandstands a banner was shown: Mika, it´s time to come back. In times of being not so happy about the present, people sometimes think of old values.

Klaus Ewald

© 2002 by researchracing

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