Schuie Wins while Nielsen Travels
If the rest of the F1 season will be as dramatic as the first weekend of racing was, then F1 fans will be in for an edge-of-the-seat spectacular. Ferrari took an arrogant "well last year's car is still better than anything anyone else has got" stance and ran the F2001. From an engineering standpoint, it's not a bad decision. This year's car is much more complicated, and it will be difficult to sort all of the bugs out on the road. Last year's car was reliable enough to win the championship, so its not like they are running a pile of parts.
Qualifying was dominated by rain. All of the fast times were racked up in only a few minutes of dry. Rubens did an outstanding job in is qualifying session, but close inspection of his segment times could indicate that team orders came into play. He was almost a half second faster through the first part of the track, and then edged Schumacher by only 0.005 seconds. I think someone told him to ease up, but he didn't go slow enough--
Jordan had a miserable weekend, with Sato (and the dreams of Honda's big bucks) not even qualifying within the 107% rule. He was allowed to enter the field by the grace of the marshals because the precedent had been set for wet qualifying sessions.
If Eddie Jordan was having a rough time, Tom Walkinshaw was having a nightmare. Both Arrows could not be started on the grid for the computer engine map had a major brain fart. I hear that if you can write engine management computer code, there may be an opening. One benefit from this was that Orange had an extra several minutes of TV coverage (at least on Star Sports out of Hong Kong - yes, I'm still in China), but I'm not sure that a stalled car on the grid is the kind of exposure that a sports drink company had in mind. Several penalties only added insult to injury. The rules state that you must run the race with the car you started, unless it has been red flagged. That means you can't run the T-car.
Michael Schumacher was said to be wandering around the pits prior to the start of the race telling people to be careful going into turn one. His brother took this message to heart and was too busy looking in his mirrors to see that race leader Barrichello was braking. BMW has a great history of making airplane engines. The blue and white roundel signifies a turning propeller. Launching a Williams F1 chassis into the air was not the intended use of this power plant. Fortunately no one was injured in this cluster, but close inspection of the replay shows that several drivers were just lucky.
Once the race was restarted on lap five, Trulli (Renault) put up a tremendous battle to keep Schumacher behind him and did an outstanding job for about three laps. Then his head got in the way, overcooked a corner and tapped the wall ending the Italian's day.
Juan Pablo still showed that he wants respect from F1 fans and set up a nice pass on Schumacher, but even though he copies Schuie's driving style, he has a lot to learn. The Brazilian brought home the remaining Williams in second. Once Schumacher cleared traffic, he sailed to victory for the third time in a row, and Ferrari's fourth manufacturer's trophy in a row from the land down under.
Mark Webber turned out to be the hero of the day, bringing home his Minardi in 5th place, in front of his home crowd. The Aussies went wild. Boy, crow tastes good when looking back at some of the comments that I made before the season. I'll hold out for the final judgment on Minardi. Lets see what they can do when more than 8 cars finish the race.
Toyota had a hot and cold start to its entry into F1. Both cars qualified in the mid teens, which isn't a bad start. McNish was caught in the turn one debacle at the start and finished dead last, but Salo managed to show his experience and bring home 1 point for 6th place on the first race Toyota has competed in. Hopefully, they will be able to repeat this success.
McLaren's newest addition, Kimi Raikkonen, made an impression by clinching the last podium spot on his debut drive. DC, however, either has a lemon for a car, or tried to live the Eddie Irvine lifestyle too much over the winter. It may be a long season for Ron Dennis this year.
Niki Lauda showed that he is still the elder statesman that doesn't mince words and managed to get a 4th place out of the Jaguar team. Can he keep the fire going, or was this just a one-time blip on the radar screen?
With one race down, the usual suspects less one (Minardi) are at the top of the charts. While it is still way to early to make predictions, Ferrari is still in championship winning form, but will their dominance continue with the new chassis. It should be an interesting year.
