THE DINGOS ARE COMING

Before the new Grand Prix Summer: Chances and Perspectives

The generation of the young fathers, the Schumacher brothers, Barrichello, Frentzen, but also Salo and Crazy Eddie Irvine, has reached the climax of their careers. Mika Hakkinen is officially on a baby break - and behind them, the young wild have already tasted blood, since they had left school to receive their driving-licenses.

They look like alsatian dogs, but they are predators always being hungry: Australia´s wild dogs, the Dingos. The Dingos in Formula One are hungry for wins. By the way, Ralf Schumacher has got both qualities of these groups: He is a young father and a wild dog, too. Juan Pablo Montoya, Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikkonen, but also Alex Yoong, Mark Webber and Takuma Sato belong to a crazy, young generation making their experiences the time-lapse way, starting as kids in go-karts, but not all being new Sennas at all. And between the age of the novices Felipe Massa and Alan McNish is a difference of nearly 12 unbelievable years - that was the age of the kids signed up by McLaren some years ago wisely. Massa (20), now at Sauber Petronas, drove touring cars for Alfa Romeo, also being the winner of the European Formula 3000 Series. McNish (32) had been testing for McLaren, Benetton, Lola and finally for his new employer Toyota. He had also been on top of the 2001 American Le Mans Series in an Audi sportscar.

In November and December 2001 all testing had been banned, and therefore the teams´computers and test stands were in total action. But meanwhile all competitors have experienced: That was no good idea and we don´t want to repeat it. Williams BMW (with Antonio Pizzonia from Brazil) and Ferrari signed contracts with a second test driver each, making Luciano Burti believing himself winning the 1st prize in the great lottery twice, after his horrible crash at Spa 2001: His French team does not exist any longer. Alan Prost, a genius as a driver, as a team principal a Chris Amon figure, had to apply for the bankruptcy proceedings in winter, at that´s end the liquidation of the company, founded in 1976 under the name of Equipe Ligier sponsored by a lot of money coming from the French state´s national budget, had become reality. The critics, not only coming from France, were defeating. Not only by Jean Alesi, once being Prost´s employée (until the middle of 2001), but also his team mate at Ferrari at the beginning of the nineties. The Sicilian Frenchman drives DTM (German Touring Car Masters) in 2002, the other dropout, Mika Hakkinen only the baby carriage of son Hugo.

This time they were testing at Barcelona, Valencia, Estoril, Mugello, Imola and in the rainy Silverstone, but not again at Kyalami/South Africa, where BAR Honda and Williams BMW had been facing a crowd of 100,000 the years before. The circuit above Johannesburgh is in deep financial troubles, after the famous trackside hotel, the Kyalami Ranch, that had been founded by a former KLM pilot back in the sixties, had been cancelled a decade before for the construction of ugly buildings replacing it.

The results of those testing sessions are very important for the engineers, but also for the popular press. The data delivered by such testing are not comparable. Different circuits, tyres, weather conditions and fuel loads, also old, intermediate and new cars: That is good for public relations´, but not for prognosis´ purposes. A first real estimation of the performances will be possible after the championship´s 4th round at Imola for the earliest possible moment. Who ever maintains, an evaluation of the cars´ performances can be made by an outside point of view, simply speculates about them, denying, what he really does. Because it is absolutely impossible. And the exact data about engines´ horse powers or aerodynamic levels are so secret, that only a very few people within the teams know them, and that only on their personal sector, they are working on. The only non-controversial analyst in the business is Italian journalist and engineer Enrico Benzing. His statements about the engines´power are accepted as nearly correct statements by the engine shops´designers for 20 years.

Absolutely different are also the wind tunnels of the single teams, no matter, if they use one of theirown or a hired one. Really wrong results they deliver very rarely. The raising of the data is, when working exactly, more or less a routine job, but their interpretation is an art, only a few people can master. In general the wind tunnel results only can be so precisely, the method, they are founded on, allows them to be. McLaren´s aerodynamics guru Adrian Newey, will remember the year 1990 only with fear, if he really wants to do so at all. One of his turquoise-coloured Leyton House Judd CG901s had not been able to qualify on the slow speed track of Monaco, while both Capelli and Gugelmin had got the abilities to fight for the the lead with the McLaren Hondas on the fast Circuit Paul Ricard a little later. It was said, that defect pressure sensors in a hired wind tunnel had been responsible for that, giving the cars a low level of downforce. The consequence of that affair had been, that Newey had been sacked at Leyton House to start a world career at Williams some time later. Jaguar´s technical director Steve Nichols was in nearly the same troubles at the beginning of 2002, in spite the team´s statement expressed his voluntary retirement for giving new, creative talents the chance for doing the job better. Before that, the Jaguar R3, Nichols had been responsible for, had massive difficulties with the front wing (determining the air-flow of the whole car). Jaguar´s aerodynamics department still is working in the wind tunnel of Swift in California. For this reason, they have got the problem known from many German government members, permanently switching between Bonn and Berlin: The spend a lot of time sitting in air-crafts, making remain too little of it for doing their jobs. Those difficulties are absolutely not known from Toyota in Cologne near the old capital. Chassis and engine are made under one roof, the wind tunnel is integrated in the factory.

The technical rules have changed only in detail for 2002. A lauch control, influenced by the starting lights, is forbidden as well as an electronically controlled power steering. On the other side bi-directional telemetry, influencing the car´s computer software from the pits, is allowed for the first time since 1993. The crash test from behind became stronger, the wheel tethers also must be more robust by 20 per cent. Also by 20 per cent the rear view mirrors have to become larger, the size of the final red lights has to be increased by 50 per cent. To adopt last year´s cars for the 2002 season for this reason is no problem.

A fast old car and an even faster new one Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has got in winter. As the last top level team they presented their F2002. While some rival cars surprisingly looked very similar to their last year´s contender, the F2001, also making McLaren copy some details, Maranello is a step further. But in January and February the time for testing was very short. While personell and organisational structure remained unchanged (bringing stabilty and continuity to the team for years), they were able to find a new, great sponsor. Vodafone (telecommunications) represent the future at a time, the traditional tobacco companies are on the way to retire theirselves from Grand Prix Racing more and more. In the Chinese Calendar 2002 is >The Year of the Horse<. For this reason there are more wishes than open questions.

The MP4/17 of West McLaren Mercedes has got an aerodynamically covered front suspension and for the first time an engine with an angle of 90°. The organisation between McLaren (in Woking/Southern England), Ilmor from Brixworth in England´s Midlands) and the Mercedes-Benz headquarters at Stuttgart (in the Southern part of Germany) had been reformed. The Finnish Dingo Kimi Raikkonen should motivate 2001 vice champion David Coulthard and Austrian test driver Alexander Wurz to a new level of driving performance, but he himself is thinking of winning Grand Prix races. In August the whole TAG McLaren will have moved to their new headquarters called Paragon, of course a top modern wind tunnel is intgrated in. This masterpiece of modern building art was created by Lord Norman Foster, who had redesigned the Berlin Reichstag, the German House of Parliament, before constructing Hongkong´s new international airport. For the first time since 1984 ( winning the worldchampionship by Niki Lauda) the McLarens are on Michelin tyres.

Very similar to their 2001 contender is the FW24 of Compaq Williams BMW. Actually chief aerodynamicist Geoff Willis had joined the team of BAR Honda for a while, but chief designer Gavin Fisher remained at the Grove facilities. There the technical director Patrick Head is reigning by a strong hand for decades, and that sometimes also by a good portion of cynism. It is his task, to keep the open rivalry between Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya in a productive limit for both the team and the drivers. New at Williams is co-sponsor FedEx (logistics, before at Ferrari, even earlier at Benetton).

Red Bull Sauber Petronas again partners solidity with flexibility with their C21. Actually the Austrian energy drink company Red Bull had sold their share majority of the Swiss team to the bankers of Credit Suisse (who are looking for a new investor patiently), but they remain Sauber´s sponsors.

Giancarlo Fisichella is considered the sexiest Grand Prix driver, as it was expressed by an opinion poll published in February 2002. After four years with Benetton the Italian returns to DHL Jordan Honda, whose new title sponsors is an associated company of the German mail, logistics and finance, Deutsche Post World Net. The cigarette brand Benson & Hedges stays with the British Silverstone based Irish team as a co-sponsor. The British Formula 3 Champion Takuma Sato is the team´s second driver and one of four men giving their debut in 2002. Back home again is also former chief designer Gary Anderson, one of Eddie Jordan´s Irish blood brothers. A great start had the only 19 year old Marcel Lasée, when testing the 2001 type EJ11.

Half a football team could be made of the drivers of Lucky Strike BAR Honda. The regular drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis are partnered by Anthony Davidson, Darren Manning, Patrick Lemarie and Ryo Fukuda as the team´s four test drivers. Team principal and co-founder Craig Pollock, friend of Villeneuve and once his biology and sports teacher at a Swiss boarding school, had been replaced by Dave Richards (former Benetton) over the winter.

For the first time since Adelaide 1985 (where also Niki Lauda had retired from active competition for the second time), the French car manufacturer re-enters Grand Prix Racing with a car completely made by theirown, after being the top engine supplier for Williams, Ligier and Benetton during the nineties. But in contrast to their second return in 1977, this time Mild Seven Renault are constructing their cars in England, exactly in the former Benetton factory at Enstone near Oxford. There a grown staff of technicians, partly belonging to the old pioneer days of the former Toleman team, is looking for continuity, while the wide angle engines as ever are made in France. The drivers Jarno Trulli (who was born in Pescara and named after the Finnish motor bike rider Jarno Saarinen, who had been killed at Monza in 1973) and Jenson Button are a nearly ideal mix of youth and experience.

Still fighting with structural problems was HSBC Jaguar Cosworth over the winter. At that time the bosses drove their car theirselves, no matter, it was last year´s model R2. Niki Lauda, who had driven the McLaren Mercedes double-seater (with the Spanish King Juan Carlos on board), wanted to know more about today´s cars electronics. Dr Wolfgang Reitzle, by the way married to the beautiful-looking star journalist Nina Ruge, might be fascinated by the adventure, such a testing session is. Behind their regular drivers, Ulsterman Eddie Irvine and Catalan Pedro de la Rosa, two Dingos are waiting with the European André Lotterer and the Australian James Coutney.

The same engines as Jaguar Orange Arrows Cosworth use in 2002. Shortly before the start of the season Dutchman Jos Verstappen, who had started his career as Michael Schumacher´s Benetton team mate in 1994, was replaced by Heinz Harald Frentzen, who had lost his job by the bankruptcy of Prost Grand Prix. The second in the front section pretty bizzarre looking A23 is driven by Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi. Arrows had been founded in winter 1977/1978 by a conspiracy of the heads of US-American Shadow Racing against their team owner Don Nichols. They had given their Grand Prix debut in Interlagos 1978 with Riccardo Patrese behind the wheel of the Ford Cosworth powered FA1, being nearly an exact copy of the later that year appearing Shadow Ford DN9. The following legal action taken by Shadow for compensation, Arrows survived as well as a quarter of a century with many troubled seasons, in spite of the fact, not a single Grand Prix had been won so far in the history of the company.

The economic base of KL Minardi Asiatech was concentrated nearly completely onto the Asian-Pacific region by Australian team owner Paul Stoddart, still having got their headquarters in Italian Faenza. Stoddart, whose main occupation is running his airline European Aviation, but also earning money with the selling of air-crafts´spare parts, was able to find sponsors in especially Malaysia, in spite of the worldwide recession. He also was able to get a works engine by Asiatech (former Peugeot F1). Alex Yoong from Malaysia and Mark Webber, Australian like the Brabham dynasty and Alan Jones, are unexperienced, but they learn quickly. With the former Prost employées John Walton and Loic Bigois and ex-Ferrari designer George Ryton, Minardi has got good personell on the management and technology field.

>Nothing is impossible< is the advertising slogan of Toyota on the German language markets. Panasonic Toyota, based in Cologne, is sponsored by consumer electronics group Matsushita and reigned by Austrian star designer Gustav Brunner as their technical director. The boss of the engine shop is Norbert Kreyer, who once had been working for another Grand Prix team being not far away, as well as Brunner had done: At Zakspeed in Niederzissen. Toyota´s drivers Mika Salo and Alan McNish are both reliable and quick, being especially important in an era of building up a team. That McNish is 32 years of age, when giving his debut, does not really matter. Damon Hill had been of the same age, when entering the business in Spain 1992. Four years later he became world champion, after two vice titles the years before.

Summer is, when the races are driven, winter is, when they have stopped - that is the both simple and complicated philosophy of Grand Prix Racing. The best féte of the winter 2002 was the Grand Prix Party held in the Royal Albert Hall, where also the Grand Prix Oscars, the Bernies (for Sir Frank Williams, Paul Stoddart and Michael Schumacher among others) were presented, and the profits taken from it, were for the benefit of F.I.A. senior consultant Professor Sid Watkins` spine and brain foundation. The cheekiest criminal act of the 2002 winter was the theft of a prototype helmet for Michael Schumacher at the Schuberth factory in Braunschweig near the Motopark Oschersleben. Later the thief probably has got pangs of conscience, when he brought the helmet to a priest to make the helmet given back to it´s owners. In spite of that, the affair was embarrassing enough: Schuberth is a highly specialized company for defense technology, not less guarded than the Hardthoehe, the German defense ministry in Bonn. But in 2001 the breakdowns had become more and more within this institution. How often the priest of Maranello will ring the bells for Ferrari´s wins, the exciting 2002 Grand Prix summer will show us.

Who wants to organize the future, first has to know history before doing so. Some guys will never understand that. Former Grand Prix driver Ian Ashley (who had driven at B.R.M., Token and others) was detected having carried a knife in one of his socks, when checking in for a flight to the USA, only some months after the September 11th attacks. Of course, the Briton is no terrorist, but a fool.

Also Michael Schumacher often shows a great lack of interest in the history and the traditions of his sport bringing him both enormous prestige and feudal prosperity. F.I.A. president Max Mosley, a polyglot lawyer and physicist, with parents of contemprary history, regularly becomes really frustrated by that.

>Light the fire within< was the motto of the XIX Olympic Winter Games at Salt Lake City 2002. One man, in whom the fire had burnt ever until the last second of his short life, on 18th April 2002 would have become 60 years of age. Jochen Rindt, son of a spice manufacturer from Mainz at the River Rhine, not for away from the Nueburgring, had lost both his father and mother during a bomb attack on Hamburg´s Speicherstadt, when he had been a baby of only 15 months. For that reason he had grown up and been educated at the parents of his mother in Austrian Graz. Rindt had died on 5th September 1970 - and became world champion some weeks later. It was not only his extraordinary biography making Rindt an idol for millions, a cult figure also in the 21st century, even three decades later. Rindt was probably the fastest man, who had ever driven a racing car. For all people of the present, not only for those, who had experienced that days gone by: The fire is burning. Still. And each summer again.

Klaus Ewald

Graphics: project 2000

© 2002 by researchracing

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