With all its chaos, drama, accidents, and on-track action, the Brazilian Grand Prix was a race almost any driver could have won, or at least that's what many claimed. Atlas F1's Karl Ludvigsen looks at who had real claim on Sunday's victory and who proved to be just a complainer

Never in my too-long life have I seen outpourings of "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" to rival those that deluged us after the chaotic Grand Prix at Interlagos. Everybody and his brother and sister coulda won that race, woulda won it and shoulda won it.

First in the queue for the victory he shoulda had was a "really pissed off" David Coulthard, who is well on his way to proving himself one of the least sporting of our current crop of drivers. "I believe I have more claim on that victory than other people," grumbled the Scot. "I'd done my final stop of the race and I know the three guys in front of me all had to come in again if the race had not been stopped. I am going away from here without a Grand Prix win that I worked hard for. The record books will show that I finished fourth and that I am 11 points down in the Championship." Gee, David, quite a few folks would be happy to be that well positioned after only three races of a new season.

Jenson Button put forward his claim for a potential victory, but in a nicer way. "Everyone can say 'What if?'" the BAR-Honda driver said after the race. "I was running fifth ahead of Raikkonen when I went off and we were fuelled to the finish, so if I hadn't made that mistake, who knows? But then I guess there are a lot of other people who can say the same thing." I'll say there were, Jenson, and they did!

A famous complainer stepped forward to stake his claim, if not on the race then on the podium. "The timing of the red flag was really bad luck for me," said Ralf Schumacher. "If this accident hadn't happened I assume that I would have been on the podium as many cars in front of me still had to stop for fuel." Methinks thou dost assume much too much, young Ralf.

Jaguar too said it coulda contested for a place on the podium. Mark Webber woulda been Dr. Mark Gillan's candidate, said Jaguar's head of vehicle performance: "We were running very strongly in the race," he said, "and everything was going according to plan until lap 24 when Antonio spun off at Turn Three - a corner that cost many drivers their race today because of standing water. Mark, however, was running very well indeed and when the safety car was deployed on lap 32, we pitted Mark for the second time and fuelled him until the finish - a strategy that would have seen us on the podium today had we not have suffered from the huge accident on lap 53." Had we not indeed!

Even the paddock's minnows, Cosworth-powered European Minardi, claimed to have a still-secret strategy that woulda seen them home as the winners in Brazil. "Today saw possibly the first time ever that Minardi was potentially in a genuine, race-winning position," said Paul Stoddart after the race. "Many people may laugh, but only those of us within the team will ever know the truth. We had the strategy, but not the luck." After qualifying they'd been quietly confident about a race strategy that they said would move them up the field. Nobody's laughing, Paul, especially after the cheeky way you started the season from the pit lane in Australia. Under the new rules there's still room for a clever strategy to bring results.

In my book the Shoulda Man of Brazil was home-town racer Rubens Barrichello. The odds should have made it impossible for him to retire a ninth time running at Interlagos. He had the car, the pace and the strategy. "I am very disappointed," said the likeable Rubinho. "All I can say is that I did my very best. I concentrated on staying calm, waiting for the right moment to attack. Once in the lead, I immediately pulled out a gap, but then I was forced to stop with a fuel-feed problem. It was very frustrating as I was sure I could win." "We both had the possibility of winning today," seconded another - and equally credible - Coulda Man, Michael Schumacher. "I am disappointed for myself and for what happened to Rubens."

Exploding out of the ranks of the nearly-men, thanks to a fresh look at his laps completed, is likely to be Giancarlo Fisichella. "It was an amazing moment," said the Italian, when it seemed at the time that he'd won. "I asked many times 'Who won the race?' so it was a magic moment. I thought I had won the race and I still think I am the winner but rules are rules. I would never have thought I would finish in second place so I am pleased." He showed a certain grace that others would do well to emulate, a grace that will suit him well if - as expected - he's declared the race winner.

Eddie Jordan also took a philosophical approach. "If you'd asked me before the race if we could possibly have been on the podium," said Jordan, "I'd have had you certified in an institution. This would have been madness. To finish second, we take it as it comes. You can't be that lucky all the time and this was a big result for us. Eight points is more than we thought we'd go home with." I'd say you were pretty lucky, Eddie! You needed those points for Ford, and it looks like you've delivered ten instead of eight.

On the flip side, we have to consider the remarkable good fortune of Kimi Raikkonen. What if the crack in his engine hadn't been discovered after practice, and what if the FIA's officials hadn't allowed it to be changed before the race? This, followed by an apparent victory - now probably demoted to second - was an amazing chain of events. I'm beginning to think this driver was born under a lucky star. It was exactly two years ago that I said I was "Krazy about Kimi." In my post-Brazil column of 2001 I said, "He communicates immense laid-back confidence. What impresses me more, though, is his voice. It's high-pitched and a bit raspy - just like a certain Juan Manuel Fangio. And you know what kind of race driver he turned out to be."

Juan Fangio was never shy about crediting the role that luck played in his racing career. "There is a formula for success," he said, "and it is not difficult to analyze. It is made up of 50 percent car, 25 percent driver and 25 percent luck. All my life I have been lucky." Beyond doubt there are lucky and unlucky drivers. Until this week people were bracketing Giancarlo Fisichella with Chris Amon, who won Le Mans and two non-championship Grand Prix races - successes often forgotten - but never a race for points. Both German drivers who died recently, Manfred von Brauchitsch and Karl Kling, were considered "unlucky birds" - Pechvogel - in their day.

I'm starting to think that there's more of Fangio in Kimi than his voice and his skill. He may have the luck as well. And if the percentages have changed a bit since Fangio's day - the cars count for more now - the importance of luck hasn't diminished. We had ample evidence of that in Brazil in the results for both Fisi and Kimi. My conclusion where Kimi's concerned? David Coulthard is in for a demoralizing season.

About the author:
Long time columnist at Atlas F1, Karl Ludvigsen is an award-winning author and historian who managed racing programs for Fiat in America in the late 1970s and Ford of Europe in the early 1980s. He is the author of seven books about racing drivers and numerous books about classic racing cars and engines, all of which draw extensively on the many images in his Ludvigsen Library in Suffolk, England. This autumn will see publication of Karl's long-awaited work, the update of his epic Porsche - Excellence was Expected. It reveals for the first time details of the all-conquering McLaren-TAGs and the disastrous Footwork-Porsches. Information on the book and a pre-publication discount are available at the Robert Bentley website