Reflections on Suzuka

	by Roger Horton, England

So in the end the "race" lasted only as long as it took Mika Hakkinen to select second gear, knowing, as he did so, that he was already past the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher. With both clean air and a clear track ahead, the grateful Finn made no mistakes and never looked back. Schumacher, so dominant in Malaysia just two weeks ago, could only make a somewhat forlorn lunge to his right at the start, in a perhaps not so desperate attempt to block the champion's progress. As the race wore on the pattern became clear. Only yet another McLaren mechanical glitch could rob Hakkinen of the championship he had rather laboured to win, but in the end deserved it none the less. Eddie Irvine - ever the pretender - could only triumph by default, again. The tension, such as it was as the race progressed, lay in just whether this '99 season, piled high with layer upon layer of acrimony and controversy, would crown a champion of such limited ability as its final twist. That Hakkinen won the drivers' crown and Ferrari the constructors' title perhaps was the fairest division of the spoils. Ferrari - as so often this season - at least managed to get two cars to the finish line, a feat that was once again beyond the McLaren team. The "blocking" by David Coulthard of Michael Schumacher as he returned to the track after an off-track excursion, was both wrong and unsporting. But the days of sporting behaviour in Formula One are long gone. The stakes are too high, the price of defeat too dear, to spend time worrying about such trifles. "Do it to them before they can do it to you" now rules. For Michael Schumacher to raise the issue at the post-race press conference was perhaps predictable. His wildly inaccurate claim that he was delayed by ten seconds - and that perhaps the delay contributed to his defeat - was one last convenient excuse. That he chose to re-open the '98 Spa incident (where he accidentally rammed the rear of Coulthard's McLaren) showed that perhaps that particular scar has not healed. Maybe the return to the Suzuka track, the scene of perhaps his two biggest defeats - in '94 at the hands of Damon Hill and last year's largely self-inflicted stall at the start - triggered this unwise outburst. One would have thought that the media-savvy German, aware that not all the attention lavished on Formula One in these last days has been positive, might have let the opportunity to cause yet more controversy pass. But as always the agenda of Michael Schumacher is more important than any agenda or need of the "sport." This Suzuka race was the last for Eddie Irvine as a Ferrari driver. The fact that he managed to leave Ferrari after four years with his reputation enhanced is a credit to his strength of character rather than his outright speed. Ferrari since the '96 season has been Schumacher's territory and the reasons have never been clearer than in these last two races. In this title deciding race - on a track he so often claims as his own - Irvine never remotely looked as if he had the class or speed to trouble Hakkinen. His graciousness in defeat was in stark contrast to his acid-tongued teammate. Perhaps in his heart Eddie Irvine always knew that a championship title, even with the help of wins gifted by team-ordered teammates (Mika Salo at Hockenheim, Michael Schumacher at Sepang) was always a dream too far. He is not, however, diminished through the losing this championship, no driver can give more than his best. Down the field the rest of the runners finished pretty much in the order that they left the grid. Olivier Panis - in perhaps his last race in Formula One - caused a surprise by running in a strong third position in the opening stages. It was too good to last and it didn't, but in the fickle world of the Formula One driver market, he just might get thrown a lifeline in the coming weeks. The BAR team once again left a race empty handed, although for once both cars made it to the finish line. Their point-less season is thought to have cost the team in the region of US$10 million in travel subsidies and prize monies for next season. Paddock gossip has team boss Craig Pollock the most likely candidate to take the blame for what has been a totally forgettable first year at the top level for this mega-budget team, with Adrian Reynard tipped to take a much more active role as Honda make their presence increasingly felt. The smiles up and down the pit-lane at the humbling of these nouveau rich kids-on-the-block and their double-sided liveried cars are wide now, but next year will perhaps be a different story. As the Suzuka race weekend drew to a close, so too the Formula One career of Damon Hill ended. The 1996 champion slid off from 13th position, rejoined in last place and then parked his Jordan in the pit-garage and walked away from Formula One as a driver for the last time. Afterwards he stated: "After the 'off' I lost the nose cone and that meant a pit stop which cost me lots of time. After that I decided there was too little to gain and too much to lose in carrying on." Just how much to lose was to be brought back to us all just hours later, many thousands of miles away on another continent, when CART driver Greg Moore was killed at their season-ending race. The sobering reality that driving racing cars at speed can be a dangerous business and fate plays no favourites as to the age or the talent of the driver in the cockpit, when his luck runs out. In days gone by motor racing was often called "The Cruel Sport." It may have mellowed but it hasn't changed.

Roger Horton	© 1999 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated.
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