Conference krakar::f1

    
    I think this maybe Williams 300th Grand Prix, and possibly Gerhard
    Bergers 200th or is that the next one.....
    
    Giles. 

I'll be in Jamaica - is that the same timezone??

I guess it is, so looks like the sunshine and rum and cokes will have to 
wait for a couple of hours!

Williams look invincible again this season, but Heinz-Harald needs to buck 
up.

Prediction for Argentina?

Villeneuve
Schumacher
Panis or Alesi


Stu

    ...and it's the 600th GP since the World Championship began. Guests of
    honour include Moss, Piquet, Stewart, and others.
    
    Edward.

    I think they've lined those guys up as winners of the 100th, 200th,
    etc. Grand Prix. Jochen Rindt is the only one who didn't survive that
    particular club.

    Nigel,
    
    Can you list them against their victories in the 100th, 200th, etc.?
    
    Edward.

	Topgear says -

	100th	Moss
	200th	Stewart
	300th	Peterson
	400th	Lauda
	500th	Piquet

    And of course I remembered it wrong and it was Peterson who is the
    absent one!
    
    So who will join that select band on Sunday????
    

    I read a snippet over someone's shoulder yesterday that indicated the
    possible return (did they ever arrive?) of Lola in a couple of races.
    
    Edward

    .8�    I read a snippet over someone's shoulder yesterday that indicated the
    .8�    possible return (did they ever arrive?) of Lola in a couple of races.
    
    ... with a Reynard chassis ?

	The Tyrrell seems set to appear with a weird mid-wing for
	this race, or rather one on each side. 

	Following criticism of the TV coverage in Brazil, an 
	experienced co-director will be at work in Argentina.

	-John

    News from Friday's first practice.....
    
    Schu mk I
    Irvine (half second back)
    Schu mk II
    Villeneuve (sand-bagging as usual?)
    Frentzen
    

Later Friday session - Villeneuve followed by Barichello in the Stewart!!!

    I heard on the news that Benetton have signed up for a similar deal to
    the Williams team, to get a ready supply of Renault V10s for the coming
    seasons...
    			Nick

    Another good race, in which much of the interest was due to differing
    tyre choices and race tactics.
    
    Villeneuve drove well in a severely diminished state. Panis would have
    won if he hadn't retired. Irvine gave very good account of himself
    after a poor start to the season. Schumacher junior was also
    impressive, but badly blotted his book with a stupid move on
    Fisichella, which caused the latter to retire.
    
    Where Benetton and Mclaren?
    
    Did anyone else notice Schumacher senior's - er - aggressive move on
    Panis at the start?
    
    Before this race I thought that the Prost would be front runner this
    season. Now I know it will be. All they need is a second driver.
    
    BTW, fiston Jacques has now equalled Papa Gilles' tally of victories.
    
    Edward.    

A good race but the TV coverage was again bad. Cutting away from the 
Irvine/Villeneuve battle just as Irvine looked set to pass to show crowd 
scenes reminded me of when the BBC cut away to show rain at Wimbledon during
the French GP a few years ago. Agghh!

Dave.

    After several years of F1 ruled by engines (Honda, Renault) we're now
    back to the tyres era. Today, if you have Bridgestones, you have 90% of
    the winning combination.
    
    Watching Panis in qualifications vs other drivers tells a lot about the
    tyres. The only exceptions were the Williams which were also very good.
    
    Other cars - worst were the Benettons - were all over the place. I
    heard Goodyear drivers say things like: on such a surface you can have
    hard or soft compound, it does not make any difference. Well, for Panis
    it made a real difference.
    

    ...and of course for Barichello too. Stewart must have been very
    pleased with the weekend even if they didn't get the result they
    deserved.
    
    It was interesting to see the pace car being used after a startline
    incident rather than a restart. I'd guess this might be a new policy to
    ensure that drivers don't take the wrong attitude to over-enthusiastic
    starts. Slight screw-up by the marshalls who showed red flags and had
    Schu assuming he could use the spare - but I guess he couldn't complain
    too much as he knew there was only one person to blame, added to which
    was the knowledge of where he could have finished, given his usual
    superiority over Eddie.
    
    Imola should be fun, although I wouldn't be surprised if "normal order"
    is resumed.

    Did anyone else see the ease in which Ralf Schumacher blasted past Hill
    on the straight?

    I noticed when they played the British national anthem Eddie Irvine looked
    up and shook his head. I guess he was looking at the flag.
    
    I realise the anthem was for Williams as the winning constructor
    but is Eddie British (ie Northern Ireland) or Irish ?
    
    Royston

    My recollection is that Irvine is from Ulster, lives in Southern
    Ireland (Dublin) and views himself as non-natioanlistic Irish, like the
    rugby team, ie representing N & S. What his passport says I have no
    idea! Nor what anthem they would play if he had won.
    
    Paul

    Oh, and can we see more of the president's daughter :-)

I agree with .15, the TV coverage was pretty bad, again.  And to make
matters worse here in the US, ESPN didn't have Bob Varsha commentating.
I think it was John Watson and Derek Bell stumbling through.  They seemed
to have a hard time commentating on the race and chose to reminisce for
most of the time, spending about a third of the race on the phone to
Sterling Moss.  Now I've nothing against Sterling, but I wanted to know
what was happening in the race!

We didn't even get a relplay of the start.  So it was hard to tell who
caused what.  They showed one close-up replay of Schumacher going out.
I'm sure Bob Vasha would have made sure a decent replay was shown.

As always, the Indy Car coverage later in the day was superb.  What a
contrast.

Martin

    According to the Ferrari Web site, Schumacher had oil spraying all over
    his visor and that is why he got into the mess he did.  It's nice to
    see close racing again!

Could anyone clearify the following 2 points? 
There wasn't too much of attention paid to that facts though, since both drivers
didn't finish the race.

-	Frentzen had to pass several cars within the warmup-lap, in order to
	get to his grid-position. Is that legal after all ?
	What other options would he've had - start from the pitlane, or
	from the end of the field ?

-	I noticed Panis passing another car during the pacecar phase. However,
	I'm not sure whether he noticed that the race was being paced at that
	stage. What would have been the penalty for that: 10secs in the pits
	or disqualification ?

- Tom

    >> Frentzen had to pass several cars within the warmup-lap
    
    They said on ITV that as the whole field DID NOT pass him whilst he was
    stationary, he can make up ground to his 'proper' starting position.
    
    I also noticed Panis overtaking under the safety car, but nobody
    commented on it, and seemingly nothing was done.
    
    Greg

    >They said on ITV that as the whole field DID NOT pass him whilst he was
    >stationary, he can make up ground to his 'proper' starting position.
    
    That's right...
    
    >I also noticed Panis overtaking under the safety car, but nobody
    >commented on it, and seemingly nothing was done.
    
    It was not clear it was a full course yellow already, I don't think
    so... 
    Flags were not there strongest point this weekend I think.
    
    

	Were there signs in this race that Williams may not be
	invincible?. Schumacher_M and Panis both looked good for
	a win if they'd finished, also I noticed that Villeneuves
	last set of tyres (on 3 stops) was well shot by the end
	of the race with visible graining on the left front.
	Maybe their car is heavier on the tyres than the
	other Goodyear runners. This circuit with its 'short cut'
	pitlane was kind to multiple stoppers but other circuits
	aren't like that - but they may not cause as much tyre wear 
	either.

	-John

Don't know about the oil, but should not have Schumachers(M) move on Panis 
and then his destruction of Barichello (and in effect Coulthard) been 
punished more. If that had been Irvine I'm sure he'd have got a dressing
down by the authorities, oil in visor or not.

re.26:

    >I also noticed Panis overtaking under the safety car, but nobody
    >commented on it, and seemingly nothing was done.
    
    Perhaps he'd been passed unseen and was re-taking his position (as is
    allowed?).

    Dave.    

    The other odd incident was the fact that all the Jordan mechanics left
    the pit wall and returned to the pits just before Schu jnr. took the
    flag. Three theories have emerged:
    
    1. They were protesting on Fisicella's behalf.
    
    2. They were being superstitious becuase the last time they were headed
    for 3rd. Barichello packed up 300m short of the line.
    
    3. They are in some sort of pay dispute with Jordan.
    
    I haven't seen a confirmation of which one is correct..... 

    Apparently, Jordan mechanics receive bonuses if their drivers finish in
    points-scoring places. Schumacher's mechanics did indeed return to
    their pit before he crossed the line. Their intention was to show
    solidarity with Fisichella's mechanics, who as a result of Schumacher's
    gaffe had to forfeit their bonus.
    
    Edward.

    I can't believe this. Though I'm sure it's true.
    
    Does everybody hate everybody in F1 ? They are on the same team do they 
    think that R_Schu took out Fisichella on purpose ? It was a mistake
    that I'm sure Schu wishes he counld get back if he was any kind of a
    teammate. Does he have no remorse ;').
    
    For the mechanics to do this it must split the team up even more.
    
    How do they expect to win if they're not a team.
    
    Fred