By Mitchell McCann, U.S.A.
Atlas F1 Columnist

The championship race is not just dead but is well on its way to being buried with David Coulthard inside the coffin hammering the nails in himself.

IT AIN'T OVER UNTIL THE FAT LADY......OH DO SHUT UP!

The championship race is not just dead but is well on its way to being buried with David Coulthard inside the coffin hammering the nails in himself. Fortunately, McLaren technical director, Adrian Newey, has revealed that Coulthard's mistakes are NOT a result of the pressure. This leaves incompetence and stupidity as the two most likely causes which must be a great relief to Newey, Ron Dennis and Coulthard himself. Actually, the shunt at the start of the British Grand Prix looked like the classic "racing incident" although Coulthard's contention that Trulli should have given him more room is a little peculiar in that the only room Trulli had to give was the space in front of his car, not beside it.

So, as I said after the last race, that's pretty much it for the championship - only more so. Ron Dennis claimed that the Constructors' Championship is more wide open but with Ferrari and McLaren both picking up 10 points with one less race to run, it would appear that the math in Ronworld is as reliable as an MP4-16.

For those of us who are not Ferrari and/or Schumacher fans, we can at least concede the championships and look forward to some potentially exciting races as the season draws to a close. We now have four drivers (five if you insist on counting Coulthard) who can legitimately challenge for race wins without the benefit of competitors dropping out. As the silly season has now almost fizzled out (damp squib that it was), we can move onto the part of the year designated the "silly next season". This is where we all sit around predicting what a wonderfully competitive season it's going to be next year with x (where x is a rational number greater than 2) teams and y (where y is totally irrational number less than 26) drivers, having a chance to win the world championship.

So let me be the first:

2002 should be a wonderfully competitive season with at least two teams and two drivers having a chance to win the championship.

(Couldn't do it. Just because I've always been wrong before doesn't mean I have to make a habit of it!)

WHO IS THAT HELMETED MAN?

Seems rumours of Mika Hakkinen's impending retirement, while certainly not under-reported, may have been just slightly premature. Mika drove an impeccable race and brought back fond memories of championships past when the thrill of the chase was not left in David Coulthard's hands. If Hakkinen hasn't lost the competitive fires, then I hope he does come back next season as it would be great to have three drivers competing for the championship. (Damn! That just sort of slipped out).

Actually, if nothing else, Mika back in a McLaren in 2002 would give us three driver/car combinations that have demonstrated the ability to put a competitive pass on Schumacher. And given that we can be certain that the FIA is diligently working on the problem of drafting and passing in F1......OK, scratch that thought!

FERRARI STRATEGY - WHO WAS THE OXYMORON THAT CAME UP WITH THAT?

OK, that's a little unfair, given Ross Brawn's proven ability to generate race wins with nothing more than the fastest car and the fastest driver. But this time he dropped a clanger turning a silk purse into a pig's ear. After the race, Schumacher wisely chose to neither accept nor apportion blame for the choice of strategy, preferring to give the credit for strategy decisions to the entire team - which makes them all idiots, I suppose.

Half a lap into this race, it was clear what the outcome was going to be. (Assuming of course that Hakkinen had abandoned his season-long habit of chasing black cats under ladders). How bad was Michael's strategy? It was so bad that Ross Brawn had to do his imitation of Burt Reynolds in Driven, and use Barrichello as a blocker to keep the Williams off Michael's back. Or to put it another way, this was a strategy that Sylvester Stallone would look down on.

McLAREN STRATEGY

Seems Ron Dennis has chosen to avoid the problem of picking the wrong strategy by simply not having one. All season long, up to and including the British GP, Dennis has stated that, should the situation arise, they would not ask Hakkinen to move over for David Coulthard. Now I know that theoretically Hakkinen is still in with a shot at the championship in the event that Schumacher deliberately rams Jacques Villeneuve sometime during the last race but really, why would the team deliberately shoot itself in the foot (again!) For the sake of all that is fair and metaphysically ironic, I hope that David Coulthard is running just ahead of Mika in the last race of 2002 with the fate of the championship in his hands.

AND FINALLY...

Jacques Villeneuve really doesn't like to be out-qualified by his teammate, does he?