Reflections on Hockenheim
	by Roger Horton, England

There is nothing quite like the sporting contest to stretch the human emotions to - and sometimes past - breaking point. Success, no matter how dramatic and satisfying, is seldom final or permanent. Defeat and sometimes public humiliation is never far away. Today's winner is always going to be tomorrow's loser. Since the Canadian Grand Prix, just barely seven weeks ago, the main protagonist for the '99 titles, the McLaren and Ferrari teams, together with their drivers, have experienced the full range of sporting agonies. The pendulum of fate has been swinging wildly and constantly for all concerned with just one unlikely exception - Eddie Irvine. For without a marginal error of judgement during his first pitstop at Silverstone he would almost certainly have been celebrating his third win in a row on the Hockenheim podium, but given the way the dice are falling for him now, who would bet against him achieving that feat in Hungary anyway? There was something refreshingly honest about the way he thanked his new teammate Mika Salo for "obeying the call" and relinquishing the lead in a race he could - and perhaps should - have won. The "we are in this together" spirit that he clearly generated with Salo in those brief moments of post race celebrations, went a long way to explaining clearly to all the world the frustration that any driver feels in being denied a victory he has earned. For Salo, freshly rescued from enforced inactivity courtesy of Michael Schumacher's accident, the pain was not too hard to bare. A podium finish in your second race for Ferrari, not to mention the first podium finish in your Formula One career, is a rare and memorable achievement anyway, and it could well be a ticket for more in the future. For Irvine, free of the shackles enforced by Michael Schumacher's demand that he never face competition from a driver within his own team, the past two races have been heady stuff. He has won races, talked freely and enjoyed himself. He, more than anyone, knows that nothing has really changed at Ferrari. Nothing that has happened since Silverstone has proved that he is now a better driver than before. Few would seriously suggest that even Eddie Irvine on a good day could beat Michael Schumacher in equal equipment or pull off some of the magical wins that his injured teammate has under his belt. The only thing that has really changed is the perception that somehow Irvine was just a rather sore loser who could talk a good race. Suddenly he looks like a natural winner with more wins to come. For the entire McLaren-Mercedes team the German Grand Prix was a total disaster. The perception - because that is all it can be - that they have taken their collective eyes off the ball in the absence Michael Schumacher's challenge is hard to refute. Mistakes during high pressure pitstops happen in all teams and always will. The only objective criticism that can be levelled at the team is their failure to clearly enforce team orders prior to the Austrian race and thereby rule out the kind of challenge that David Coulthard made on his team leader. Whether they were right or wrong depends on whether you consider McLaren to be a Formula One racing team, or just a high speed billboard for their corporate sponsors and technical partners. Team orders have always had their place in racing down the years, but surely not in the middle of the season between teammates with careers to build and points to prove. At the time of writing the exact cause of the two rear tyre failures suffered by the team over the race weekend remains a mystery. But it would seem likely that, in Hakkinen's case, low downforce modifications made to the rear wing may have caused it to flex and make contact with the tyre enough to have caused the a cut and hence sudden tyre deflation. Much of the on-track action at Hockenheim was fast and furious, and it is a sure sign of the changing times when a track which for many years was never considered worthy to hold a Grand Prix, now provides some of the best opportunities to observe modern racing drivers earning their considerable salaries. To stand close to a modern Formula One car as it brakes from over 340 kmph into one of Hockenheim's many chicanes is to understand clearly the difference between racing drivers and other mere mortals. Slow motion replays, so favoured by the German TV producer, also serve to highlight just how committed a driver must be as he literally launches himself through a series of left and right flicks with armfuls of opposite lock and with the throttle pressed down just as hard as he dares. The opening laps of this year's race featured some of the most frantic Formula One action seen for a while, as drivers strained to gain a position before the race settled. Once again David Coulthard failed to read from the right script, and when his team needed him to stay ahead of Eddie Irvine at all cost he let them down again big time - just hours after being confirmed in the team for next year! From driving like a champion at Silverstone, to taking his teammate off at Austria, to committing racing suicide not once, but twice in Germany, he is stretching the goodwill of even the most loyal and fair minded team principal to the limit. Through all this Mika Hakkinen has looked - outwardly at least - almost totally unaffected by all the misfortune that has befallen him during these last three races. He continues to dominate in qualifying, continues to make the best starts, continues to drive like the champion he is and will surely be again. Winning races Eddie Irvine might be, but he has never remotely looked as if he has the measure of the quiet Finn. But championships are not won by anything other than ending the last race with more points than your rivals, and at the moment Irvine and Ferrari have more of them than Hakkinen and McLaren. The stakes for all concerned were raised at Hockenheim and the pressure will only get more intense from here on.

Roger Horton	© 1999 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated.
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