by Erik C. Nielsen
Pictures courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
The FIA intended to make racing in 2003 much more interesting than the red parade to which one has become accustomed. If the rest of the season is as interesting as the first race, then they have truly succeeded. In the end, David Coulthard had more things go his way than anyone else in the field, and brought his silver arrow home first.
But, it wasn't in the bag early for him. Several lead at the front but couldn’t get their acts together. Raikkonen, Schumacher and Montoya all lead, but, through error or the cars disintegrating around them, all were eventually passed by McLaren’s number one. His team-mate managed to salvage his race and capture the final spot on the podium, with the Columbian splitting the pair.
Ferrari were not showing their 3-championships-in-a-row form. Michael Schumacher started ahead of everyone else in an F2002 chassis and seemed to have done his homework again. Then the track started to dry and it looked like it was over. Montoya and Raikkonen both started on slicks and made the most of the drying conditions.
The whole goal of the new rule interpretations was to make the racing closer and more interesting. With qualifying best described as a cluster, the race panned out with faster cars on heavier fuel loads starting behind slower cars, and there were a few surprises along the way. Rubens is staying consistent in not finishing an Australian GP by crashing out early after running wide.
Firman made his F1 debut showing he was just as good as Ferrari's number two and crashed out in the same corner on the next lap. Toyota did not get off to their best start with neither car finishing. Da Matta no matter in this race. Both Jaguars were out, so the winter testing has just maintained the teams performance. Both BAR cars finished on the lead lap, but before all of the French Canadians start hooting and hollering, neither was in the points.
Kimi lead after the second safety car period when Webber's Jaguar broke its suspension, and did an excellent job of holding Michael Schumacher at bay. But a speed violation during a pit stop brought him back in for a drive-through penalty that cost the young Flying Finn the win. Montoya tried to capitalize on the error, but got a little too excited thinking about winning and spun the BMW Williams, allowing DC to go by. Michael obviously did not have his best day and could have won had he not needed to pit during a black flag for breaking his barge boards.
You could conclude that the car is only good for one season. Wonder if the warranty ran out. It was interesting that his lap times didn’t change. I’m sure there is a junior aerodynamic engineer that is taking a beating in Modena this week. Did the rules make the racing closer? Probably not. There was a lot of bad luck floating around Melbourne this weekend and the weather didn’t help things. More will develop at Malaysia on March 23. Then well see if there has been a changing of the guard.
Race Results
by Erik C. Nielsen