THE GOLDEN 10
Spa-Francorchamps is Michael Schumacher´s living room
What Wimbledon means for Boris Becker, that is the world´s longest and demanding Grand Prix circuit, the track of Spa-Francorchamps in the Belgian Ardennes mountains, for Michael Schumacher: It is his living room. Going there by motorway from Cologne it takes only an hour - since 2002 also for the Team of Toyota. Like at his debut in a Jordan Ford green like a frog as The Wunderkind back in 1991 Michael Schumacher also rode one lap on a mountain bike. And he made himself a really nice present for his 10th anniversary as a Grand Prix winner: With the 10th victory of the season he is alone on the of the record list ahead of the legendary Briton Nigel Mansell with 9 wins per year. From pole position Michael Schumacher lead from start to finish (with the exception of his regular pit stops in the laps 15 and 30) and he also drove the fastest lap. His 63th Grand Prix win the same time was the 6th in Belgium, where he had been disqualified as a winner back in 1994, because the undertray of his Benetton Ford had not been in accordance with the technical regulations of that time. Some weeks later the rules had been changed, and corresponding to today´s law the reason for the disqualification does not exist any longer. Every two weeks Michael Schumacher is adjusting upwards the records, the heads of the statisticians are smoking as well as their computers. In Spa the German run away his team mate Rubens Barrichello partly up to 30 seconds for a 19th finish in the points in a row. The word retirement does not exist for Michael Schumacher for a while, but that he had had to eat grass really in his first ever Ferrari season of 1996 caused by so many technical defects, a lot of people have already forgotten. "Perfectly made, perfectly driven. Ferrari is competing in another league," is Niki Lauda´s balance sheet after the Belgian Grand Prix 2002.
For the first time since Melbourne Jaguar´s legendary team principal was able to be happy. His drivers Irvine and de la Rosa qualified in the first half of the grid, after a heavy battle with Mika Salo´s Toyota the Ulsterman finally scored a point. Now the problem of the Jaguar R3 became clear, after aerodynamics and the suspensions had been modified: The monocoque chassis gets over, but this problem cannot be cured three races before the end of the season as Lauda conceeds. In Spa de la Rosa´s right back suspension had broken at the end of the Kemmel straight, where the road part of the track goes into the permanent one, six laps before the race was finished, may be, because a join between a titanium and a carbon fibre part had been broken once again. Lauda was not amused.
Spa 2002´s typical defects were, throughout the whole field, pretty much blown engines, that made Olivier Panis (BAR Honda), Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan Honda), both the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button, Felipe Massa (Sauber Petronas) and Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes) retire from the race. Two Honda engines had exploded already during the free practice sessions, in qualifying Panis (who had signed up with Toyota for the following two years) had to stop for the same reason. Ahead of Les Combes the engines are running at full throttle a long while, high above the mountain they blow up, because the oil circulation does not work properly anymore. Five laps before the end of the race Giancarlo Fisichella pulled a big fire wall behind his car for seconds.
Toyota did not renew Allan McNish´s contract and they also buy out Mika Salo. The Finn qits his career, test driver is not the job he wants to do again. That task has to be done by Felipe Massa, because he has to hand over his cockpit to Heinz Harald Frentzen, who comes from Moenchengladbach as well as the other Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld. In the neighbour city of Cologne team principal Ove Andersson of Toyota is looking for a young dingo.
Such a one in fact is Kimi Raikkonen. The young Finn, who had come directly from Formula Renault into Grand Prix Racing (without once sitting inside a Formula 3 cockpit) in 2001, is quiet, quick, but unfortunately pretty wild. In both Friday´s and Saturday´s free practice sessions fastest, he missed pole position very shortly in qualifying only by driving into the dirt without reason during his best lap. In the race he first had had a bad start (to be overtaken by Rubens Barrichello), then he had made half a spin to loose his third to Juan Pablo Montoya in the Williams BMW, before the engine was killed. His team mate David Coulthard came home fourth, at McLaren Mercedes something more had been expected. At Williams BMW they had been more realistic concerning that, positions 3 and 5 (Ralf Schumacher) were accepted as a success. Not much was seen from the Sauber Petronas of Heidfeld and Massa both in qualifying and race. Team boss Peter Sauber, normally known for his precise analysis, also did not know any reasons for that. In contrast to Hungary Arrows had come to Belgium, but already before the start they brought home their equipment. About the mysterious US-American investor a lot of was talked about in the paddock, but he was not seen there.
The classic natural circuit of Spa-Francorchamps presented modified in some parts. New run out areas out of asphalt, a pretty controversial new pit entry and the bus stop chicane´s more fluent exit were seen. The pit garages theirselves meanwhile have become pretty small, since their construction in 1983 they had been hardly revised.
Michael Schumacher had - his own words - a good time on his sofa of his living room. The greatest superstar of the modern world of sports becomes the more relaxed, the more he forces all records in the region of the unbeatable. He deals supremely good and with a lot of humour with the permanent presence of the media. That had had not ever been such a way. Some years ago he had been fed up with all that carry-on. Incognito, as he had thought, he had entered public life, because he had worn a wig with long black hair added by sun-glasses. After re-fuelling his road car at the motorway he went into the cashier´s office for paying, thank to his camouflage naturally like a normal citizen. He gave a little tip to the petrol pump attendant making him extraordinary happy, because he said thank you with the words: "Have a nice trip, Mr Schumacher."
Klaus Ewald
© 2002 by researchracing
