April 2, 2002

Round three of the F1 season seemed an awful lot like round two, but with a twist. Brazil has always been an interesting circuit because of the compromise nature of the track. It's a fairly high speed circuit, but there needs to be enough down force on the car to keep it on the road during the infield sections. The team that can best set this balance will win the race.

Ferrari finally made the race debut with their new F2002 car in the hands of Schumacher. He had a F2001 as a backup and Rubens was stuck with last year's machine in front of his home crowd. As his success rate at this track was a dismal 1 finish in 9 starts coming into the weekend, the team likely thought it wouldn't much matter.

Qualifying was the interesting "wait till the last minute because we might get more favorable conditions late" drama that it always is. Juan Pablo took pole, barely edging out the time that Schumacher set by just 0.2 seconds. Ralf took the third place on the grid followed by the McLarens. DC managed to edge out his much younger teammate, but the pressure is definitely on. It was interesting to see that Schumacher was the only Bridgestone driver in the top 7. Somehow I don't think that he can get the most performance out of the tires, more like the tire company has placed its bet on only one driver. Renault was shining brightly by getting its two cars up behind the McLarens, thereby taking top honors of the also rans. Rubens ended up 8th after his first time was disqualified for a red light infraction during the morning warm up. His fastest time would have also given him 8th, so it was a moot point.

But as always, qualifying only helps, what matters is what happens Sunday. Everyone was on their seats for the drag race to turn one at the start. Juan Pablo managed to brake at the last possible moment and keep the lead through turn one. In doing so, he lost the line through turn 2 and also the lead. Juan Pablo is good, but he's not that good. In turn 4, the true revolutionary element of the F2002 came into play: retractable bumpers that operate at close to the speed of light. One second the Columbian's front wing was there, the next it was under his car and into the rest of the field. Off for a new nose, and he would only manage 5th, almost being lapped by the lead cars.

The race got interesting when Rubens passed MS for the lead with the old car and started to put some distance between himself and his teammate. Ferrari would say that he was on a two stop strategy and suffered from a hydraulic failure, but it LOOKED more like he was on a three stop strategy and ran out of gas right before he would have had to come in for a stop. Inquiring minds want to know...

The rest of the race was spent seeing if Ralf could catch and pass his brother. Ferrari played its cards right and managed to get its remaining car in front of the BWM-Williams during their one stop strategy. Then it was a matter of Ralf having 22 laps to pull out the win. The F2002 had one less element on its rear wing than the Williams, and just managed to have the requisite speed needed to keep the edge on the main straight into turn one. If there ever was clear evidence that the engineers rule this sport, here was a clear example.

DC managed to bring his McLaren in for his first podium of the year. Doesn't look good for Mr. Dennis, but it's too early in the season to count them out. Jenson Button brought the Renault in third showing that with full factory support this team is going places. And those places are not down the time sheets. Mika Salo captured his (and Toyota's) second point of the season. They are doing much better than the team was expecting. Note to BAR: keep it low key with realistic expectations and you'll do better.

The real key of this weekend was confirmation of what we already knew. The battle for the championship will be between the brothers Schumacher and Juan Pablo. The Columbian said that he would get even with Michael. Has he not seen the tapes from earlier in the 4-time champion's career? Get a little too close with the title on the line and he will interpret BMW as "break my wing". Rubens has got to start finishing races if the Scuderia plans on taking home their 4th constructor's championship in a row.

Race Results

1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1h31m43.663s
2	Ralf Schumacher	Williams BMW	+0.588s
3	David Coulthard	McLaren Mercedes	+59.109s
4	Jenson Button	Renault	+1m06.883s
5	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams BMW	+1m07.564s
6	Mika Salo	Toyota	+1 lap
7	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar	+1 lap
8	Pedro de la Rosa	Jaguar	+1 lap
9	Takuma Sato	Jordan Honda	+2 laps
10	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR Honda	+3 laps
11	Mark Webber	Minardi Asiatech	+3 laps
12	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren Mercedes	+4 laps
13	Alex Yoong	Minardi Asiatech	+4 laps
14	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber Petronas	+10 laps
15	Jarno Trulli	Renault	+11 laps
16	Felipe Massa	Sauber Petronas	+30 laps
17	Allan McNish	Toyota	+31 laps
18	Oliver Panis	BAR Honda	+46 laps
19	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Arrows Cosworth	+46 laps
20	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows Cosworth	+52 laps
21	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	+55 laps
22	Giancarlos Fisichella	Jordan Honda	+65 laps

Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media