Atlas F1 Magazine Writer
What connection can be found between performance in testing and that in qualifying for Barcelona? How did the current drivers fair in the Spanish venue in previous years? And how many times was the race won by a World Champion? Marcel Schot brings the answers and more anecdotes on the Spanish GP
And as for teams:
There appears to be a link between the number of days tested and the performance increase in qualifying, so after the talk about 2001, the question is how testing at the Catalunya circuit went in 2002 so far.
Williams seems slow, but the whopping 32 days should be paying off. Of the others, Renault looks like a hot tip for a good qualifying position too. Unlike Williams, where test driver Marc Gene did the majority of the work, at Renault both Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button did most of the testing and were equally fast.
More than many other circuits, Barcelona is the domain of the future World Champion. In the eleven times the Spanish Grand Prix has been held at the circuit, no less than seven times the race was won by the driver who went on to win the Championship that season.
The four men not to follow up their Spanish win with a title were Nigel Mansell in 1991, Damon Hill in 1994, Michael Schumacher in 1996 and Mika Hakkinen in 2000. In all four situations, the World Champions ran into problems. Senna in 1991 chose the wrong tyres in the rain. In 1994 Michael Schumacher drove a significant part of the race with the gearbox stuck in fifth. In 1996 Damon Hill suffered massive lack of grip in the rain.
Schumacher's problem two years ago came at the first pitstop. The lollipop was lifted and Schumacher went on his way. However, a split second later, the lollipop came back down, but it was too late as Schumacher had already run over Nigel Stepney's leg, because refueling was still in progress. The fuelhose also damaged the valve on the Ferrari, which in turn lead to difficulties at the second stop. To top things off, a slow puncture in the final part of the race pushed Schumacher back even further.
As it is by now clear that Williams are most likely the only team that can challenge Ferrari for the Championship this year, we'll take a look at their performance last year - the first race with traction control.
Montoya's stop, however, went very well and the Columbian managed to overtake Jarno Trulli in the process. The second stop went equally well and with Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello retiring ahead of him, Montoya was suddenly in third position. On his way to his first ever finish, Montoya even got an added bonus when Mika Hakkinen retired in the final lap of the race. With that he became only the fourth driver in the last 25 years to climb the podium on his first finish. Jacques Villeneuve (Melbourne 1996), Alexander Wurz (Silverstone 1997) and Ralf Schumacher (Buenos Aires 1997) preceded him.
One of the points often raised both against and in favour of the upcoming venue of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, is that the Catalan circuit is used for so much testing that it makes results predictable. Is that true? Take a look at the time difference between qualifying and prior testing last year:
Best Time Test '01 Qual. Grid
Pos Driver in Test Days Time Pos Improve
1. Barrichello 1:18.606 4 1:18.674 ( 4) + 0.08%
2. Alesi 1:18.973 3 1:20.601 (15) + 2.06%
3. Heidfeld 1:19.156 7 1:19.232 (10) + 0.10%
4. Panis 1:19.319 7 1:19.479 (11) + 0.20%
5. Bernoldi 1:19.569 9 1:20.696 (16) + 1.42%
6. Fisichella 1:19.859 8 1:21.065 (19) + 1.51%
7. Hakkinen 1:19.975 4 1:18.286 ( 2) - 2.11%
8. Frentzen 1:19.998 7 1:19.150 ( 8) - 1.06%
9. M.Schumacher 1:20.030 5 1:18.201 ( 1) - 2.29%
10. Trulli 1:20.094 8 1:19.093 ( 6) - 1.25%
11. Villeneuve 1:20.363 6 1:19.122 ( 7) - 1.54%
12. Coulthard 1:20.389 7 1:18.635 ( 3) - 2.18%
13. Montoya 1:20.418 9 1:19.660 (12) - 0.94%
14. Raikkonen 1:20.442 7 1:19.229 ( 9) - 1.51%
15. R.Schumacher 1:20.568 3 1:19.016 ( 5) - 1.93%
16. Verstappen 1:20.622 6 1:20.737 (17) + 0.14%
17. Button 1:20.647 9 1:21.916 (21) + 1.57%
18. Irvine 1:20.983 5 1:20.326 (13) - 0.81%
19. De La Rosa 1:21.101 5 1:21.338 (20) + 0.29%
20. Burti 1:21.902 6 1:20.585 (14) - 1.61%
--. Alonso -:--.--- 0 1:21.037 (18) -.--%
--. Marques -:--.--- 0 1:22.522 (22) -.--%
Team Days * Improve
McLaren 11 (20) - 2.15%
Williams 12 (19) - 1.44%
Jordan 15 - 1.16%
Ferrari 9 (14) - 1.11%
Sauber 14 - 0.71%
BAR 13 - 0.67%
Jaguar 10 (12) - 0.26%
Prost 9 (12) + 0.23%
Arrows 15 (17) + 0.78%
Benetton 17 (20) + 1.54%
Minardi 0 -.--%
* Testing days including test drivers
Team Days * Best Set By
Renault 21 (26) 1:17.687 Button
McLaren 14 (24) 1:17.775 Raikkonen
Sauber 18 1:17.891 Heidfeld
Ferrari 9 (19) 1:18.096 Barrichello
Jordan 21 (24) 1:18.552 Fisichella
Arrows 3 1:18.620 Frentzen
BAR 12 (21) 1:19.182 Panis
Jaguar 20 (21) 1:19.234 de la Rosa
Williams 18 (32) 1:19.238 R.Schumacher
Toyota 14 (15) 1:19.831 McNish
Minardi 4 1:20.249 Webber
* Testing days including test drivers
However, testing times are no good if the race weekend becomes a rainy affair. On the sunny Spanish costas rain seems as far away as the north pole, but reality is that the Spanish Grand Prix is known to have been held on a rainy Sunday afternoon on quite a few occasions. In 1991 and 1992 Nigel Mansell was triumphant, while in 1996 Michael Schumacher swooped the opposition for a maiden win with Ferrari.
For Williams, the Spanish Grand Prix showed just a faint glimps of things to come. Qualifying was quite horrendous, with Ralf Schumacher taking up fifth place, while Juan Pablo Montoya made it a season worst twelfth spot on the grid. However, after one lap in the race, the Williams drivers were in fourth and sixth, where they remained until the first pitstops. That is, until Montoya's stop, because Schumacher's brakes failed after twenty laps and the German spun off into the gravel trap.
Past Performance by Current Drivers
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | Average Qualifying Position |
|||||||
| Qual | Race | Qual | Race | Qual | Race | Qual | Race | Qual | Race | Qual | Race | ||
| M.Schumacher | 3 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3.166 |
| Barrichello | 7 | M | 17 | M | 9 | 5 | 7 | DQ | 3 | 3 | 4 | M | 7.833 |
| Coulthard | 14 | R | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4.833 |
| Raikkonen | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8 | 8 | 8.000 |
| R.Schumacher | - | - | 9 | M | 11 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | M | 8.000 |
| Montoya | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 12 | 2 | 12.000 | |
| Heidfeld | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 19 | 16 | 10 | 6 | 14.500 |
| Massa | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Fisichella | 19 | R | 8 | 9 | 4 | R | 13 | 9 | 13 | 9 | 19 | 14 | 12.666 |
| Sato | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Villeneuve | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 6 | M | 6 | M | 7 | 3 | 5.333 |
| Panis | 8 | R | 12 | 2 | 12 | 16 | 15 | M | - | - | 11 | 7 | 11.600 |
| Trulli | - | - | 18 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 16 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 11.200 |
| Button | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 10 | 17 | 21 | 15 | 19.500 |
| Frentzen | 11 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 13 | 8 | 8 | M | 8 | 6 | 8 | R | 8.333 |
| Bernoldi | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 16 | M | 16.000 |
| Irvine | 6 | R | 11 | 12 | 6 | R | 2 | R | 9 | 11 | 13 | M | 7.833 |
| de la Rosa | - | - | - | - | - | - | 19 | 11 | 22 | R | 20 | R | 20.333 |
| Yoong | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Webber | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Salo | 12 | DQ | 14 | M | 17 | M | 16 | 8 | 12 | 7 | - | - | 14.200 |
| McNish | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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Volume 8, Issue 17
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Interview with Takuma Sato
Jo Ramirez: a Racing Man
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Fisichella's Recurring Nightmare
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