May 28, 2002
by Erik C. Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
Monaco has always been a difficult race in which to pass, and this year's installment proved to be no exception. After getting the jump on Juan Pablo Montoya at the start, David Coulthard lead from lights to flag, nursing a smoking engine and holding off Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. In so doing, he managed to score McLaren's first win of the season and one of his best races ever.
The Scot got the jump on Juan Pablo when the Columbian spun his wheels at the start. He then managed to put a nice lead on the field, but it was short lived. The McLaren seemed to have a handling problem requiring him to slow more than usual for the corners. This allowed the field to close slightly. Then the wispy-smoke tell-tale signs of an engine about to let go started to show on the exit of the tunnel. A quick review of the telemetry showed that the oil reserve system was a little too ambitious today. A couple of quick key strokes by a McLaren engineer on the pit wall eliminated the problem.
Behind Coulthard, Schumacher had his hands full with Juan Pablo. He was on Montoya like Amex on a client that hasn't paid his statement for a couple of months. Eventually, the Ferrari brain trust realized that there wasn't any way around and brought the championship leader in for his one and only pit stop. The timing strategy was good enough to get him out ahead of the two BMW-Williams, but not quite enough to put him in front of the lead McLaren.
Juan Pablo's engine blew with 31 laps to go allowing Ralf to finish third. I'm pretty sure that this wasn't team orders, but if it was, what drama...
Trulli brought his Renault home in fourth place on one of his favorite circuits, solidifying the French team's place as best of the rest.
Both Jaguars finished, but two laps down. The Ford money will have to dry up sooner or later. Too bad they are trying to recreate the 70's and 80's of the marque's history and not the glory days.
Barrichello had a miserable day. First he hits Raikkonen and looses his nose. Then he gets a stop and go penalty. Then he gets caught speeding on the penalty and has to come back in again. Still, he's getting paid well.
Toyota had another dose of reality as both cars when out on accidents. They did have their best qualifying effort of the season. Still on track and making progress.
Ferrari skirted the issue of team orders, but from what I gathered, there are still a lot of upset people from the shenanigans that were played out in Austria two weeks ago. The FIA will have a meeting to discuss, not the team orders, but Rubens being on the top spot of the podium in mid-June. Gut feeling says that if Ferrari wins Canada, the points from Austria will go bye-bye.
Coverage in the United States left a lot to be desired this weekend. ABC has so much respect for Formula One they actually show the studio where the commentators are watching the race, rather than being there. Danny Sullivan was the pit side reporter this weekend, and when interviewing Bernie, I couldn't tell if he had to pay him to sit down. It was pathetic. Wonder how bad they're going to screw up coverage of Canada in two weeks. The free ad time that ABC got was spent promoting a new show called "The Hamptons". Just what we need, more encouragement for the wannabe lifestyle.
Me, bitter? Nah, I live for this stuff...
May 28, 2002