With local hero Michael Schumacher dominating last Sunday's European Grand Prix, you would think most German fans were delighted at the end of the weekend, right? Wrong. Atlas F1's Karl Ludvigsen looks at the Germans who on Sunday had little to celebrate

According to the newspapers, the 106,000 fans who paid the Nurburgring's eye-watering prices to watch last Sunday's European Grand Prix went away ecstatic. 'Their Schumi' had once again demonstrated how a Grand Prix should be won - from the pole, leading from the front, mastering the field in dominating style. It was an incredible 76th victory for one of the greatest racers in history, hailing from a town only an hour's drive from the 'Ring. The weekend was a great success for Germany - or was it?

Let's consider the race from the perspective of the semi-German BMW-Williams team. One of their drivers tried braking and steering at the same time during the rush into the first turn and found out that that didn't work out. His stop for a new nose dropped Montoya well back and allowed him to eke out a single point for his team in a car that wasn't performing all that well anyway.

And whom did Montoya hit when he did that? Only another German hero, Schumacher frere, driving another semi-German car, knocking him out of the race - along with a Toyota built in Cologne. "It's always a bit disappointing to see your two cars bump into each other," said Frank Dernie of BMW Williams with commendable restraint. "It's better to qualify more forward."

We are in a season that has a "Big Three" group of non-German teams - Ferrari, BAR and Renault - with BMW-Williams tagging along in fourth, mainly by virtue of Montoya's second place in Malaysia and dribs and drabs of other finishes along the way. This resembles in no way the plan that BMW had in mind when it cast its lot with Williams in 2000. That five-year plan saw lots of victories by 2003 and a clear shot at one or another World Championship in 2004. This, you may have noticed, is 2004, and a lot of folks in Munich are unhappy with the Williams fall from form. One head has rolled at Grove; similar actions in Munich are likely. BMW boss Helmut Panke will want to see fewer excuses and more actions to move his cars to the front of the field.

And the other semi-German team? What can you say? Kimi qualifies well and then retires with an engine failure that one paper describes as "customary", while David starts from the back after a broken engine before qualifying and then during the race converts another one into what Smokey Yunick called a "mosquito sprayer". It was an appalling weekend for Mercedes-Ilmor, one that must have people in Stuttgart questioning the entire viability of their alliance with McLaren - indeed, the viability of their presence in Formula One.

You've certainly noticed that DaimlerChrysler has its fair share of business problems these days. It's just seen its plans for world domination shattered by its suspension of support for its sick car-building ally in Japan, Mitsubishi. Its Mercedes products are under fire for declining quality. It hasn't been able to name a successor to the retiring Juergen Hubbert as head of its Mercedes-Benz car operation. Mr Hubbert, always a stalwart supporter of the Formula One initiative, seemed conspicuous by his absence from the McLaren-Mercedes pit-wall last weekend.

One praiseworthy aspect of motor sports is its ability to raise morale and heighten corporate pride when other things are going wrong. "We're doing well on the track," say a company's personnel, "and that shows that we have what it takes, so we'll soon be giving them what for in the marketplace as well." To say that McLaren-Mercedes wasn't providing that satisfaction to its German sponsor, engine supplier and partial shareholder would be putting it mildly. Grand Prix racing is hurting the Mercedes brand, not helping.

Mercedes's Norbert Haug said he thought the weekend's problems were blameable on a faulty batch of pistons. In case you think that was an attempt to palm the failures off on an outside supplier, be reminded that Mercedes-Ilmor machines and final-checks its own pistons. The engines are built and tested with a first batch of pistons that is then checked and thrown away before installation of the final race pistons. Surely any such problems should have shown up at that stage. Indeed, with one engine per car per race weekend, the preparation of the final race engines should be incredibly meticulous. In an organisation like Mercedes-Ilmor that prides itself on its in-house capabilities, the mass failure of a batch of pistons would be a catastrophe on the level of Apollo 13. In Brixworth, heads would roll.

The only German business entity that survived the European Grand Prix with any semblance of intact pride and reputation was insurance company Allianz AG, a BMW-Williams sponsor who took the precaution of sponsoring the race as well. Apart from its association with the very high cost of attending the race, remarked upon by spectators, this turned out to be a good idea. After suffering its biggest loss in history, Allianz is on a successful comeback trail and very much benefits from the positive spin that motorsports can provide. Its corporate guests at the 'Ring, however, can't have been thrilled by the first-corner collision of the company's two sponsored cars.

Apart from Michael Schumacher, the only German who came away from the Eifel Mountains with real respect was Nick Heidfeld. Though back in tenth place, the likeable German had good things to say about his team and its progress so far in 2004. He deserves more than the 'no comment' that Patrick Head gave him in his recent run-down of drivers. Sure, it's hard to shake off being rejected by McLaren in favour of Raikkonen, but teams should look farther than that. "They choose drivers like it's a black art," bemoaned BAR tester Anthony Davidson. How right he is. I wish both Heidfeld and Jordan the best for the rest of '04 and a great drive in '05 for the other German who got the job done at the 'Ring.

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.

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