 French Grand Prix (Magny-Cours) 2003 review.
Story and photographs by Eileen Buckley.
Déjà vu at Magny-Cours
Ralf Schumacher scored the first double of his career with a brilliant pole to chequered flag victory at the Formula One French Grand Prix on Sunday. It was his second win in a week, having just come off another fantastic drive at the Nürburgring circuit in Germany. Happy 28th Birthday Ralf! This win in France is the 6th of Ralf's career, each on a different circuit. This is also Ralf's 4th career pole, his 2nd at Magny-Cours, and his 3rd pole in the last four races. I guess one could say little brother is on a roll!
The BMW-Williams team is also having a good run of it since sorting the rear end of the car recently. Major redesign of the dampers, springs, and camber has brought them back into the championship hunt. Ralf's team-mate Juan Montoya started 2nd at the French race, and was never challenged. So it was a team 1-2 from flag to flag as well. Ralf and Juan seem to have had an icy relationship in the past, but there is a bit of a lovefest going on between them at the moment. With Ralf out qualifying the highly touted Montoya in 7 of the 10 races so far this season - on heavier fuel most of the time - and now with back-to-back wins, one wonders how long the love will last. It's Juan's turn at Silverstone!
The Magny-Cours weekend was a Michelin whitewash except during a brief period of inclement weather at Friday's Provisional Qualifying session. Bridgestone, still with the superior wet tyre, better be practicing their rain dance, as Michelin has shown nothing short of total domination in the dry for the past few races. It's not really that the Michelin is a better all around tyre, it is just better suited to the new regulations. But more on that later.
This weekend also saw the rollout of some significant changes to the Magny-Cours circuit design. The main alteration is the run from Turn 13 to the final chicane before the finish line. The circuit has been lengthened here creating a long sweeping straight ending in a sharp Turn 15, which was meant to create an overtaking opportunity, although it proved in the race to be nothing to write home about. What this new design should do (if the tyre war ever goes away) is move the advantage slightly more in favour of horsepower, which makes the race a bit less promising for the 2nd half of the grid who are in some cases hopelessly lacking in that department. However, the Michelin tyre advantage (or Bridgestone disadvantage) is now so dramatic that even teams with solid horsepower like Sauber and BAR-Honda are getting beat easily by just about anyone on a Michelin. Minardi really missed the boat on that one this year.
If one keeps an eye on the top speeds during Friday Provisional Qualifying, when all are on the same three laps of fuel, one notices almost identical capabilities amongst BMW, Mercedes, and Ferrari. The tyre is not as important with this particular measure, so it is not a bad gauge of grunt. In France, as in Canada, we had the weather interrupt the gathering of any good data (due to the new wacky single lap qualifying rules) and we also saw Jos Verstappen in the Minardi take Provisional Pole in France Friday, being the last of the lucky few to get a run on dry tyres at the end of a wet session. Congratulations for what it's worth, Jos!
However at Nürburgring last week, about half the teams including all of the top guys, had dry weather for their Friday Qualifying runs. The top speeds were as follows, in km/h, for those who ran in the dry:
Kimi Raikkonen - McLaren-Mercedes 308.3
Ralf Schumacher - BMW-Williams 308.3
Michael Schumacher - Ferrari 307.6
David Coulthard - McLaren-Mercedes 306.8
Heinz-Harald Frentzen - Sauber 306.2
Juan Montoya - BMW-Williams 305.7
Rubens Barrichello - Ferrari 304.9
Jenson Button - BAR-Honda 302.4
Jarno Trulli - Renault 299.4
Fernando Alonso - Renault 299.3
Giancarlo Fisichella - Jordan-Ford 295.0
There are differences between team-mates in some cases due to the level of downforce added to the car to help through the turns. But the trend is clear. Renault should not be doing all that well compared to some other teams at certain circuits (note the positions of Sauber and BAR-Honda on the list), but the Michelin tyre advantage is erasing those differentials. Of course chassis design makes a difference on certain other circuits as well, and Renault does have some chassis advantages, but Renault is doing well in places it wouldn't expect itself to. In fact Fernando Alonso was quoted at Thursday's France Press Conference, saying it is "a big surprise" how many points they are scoring.
Back to the race weekend in France, Saturday Qualifying was another great day if you are one of the teams lucky enough to be running Michelins and daring enough to be using their new even-softer compound developed for their home Grand Prix in France. BMW-Williams wins the prize in both categories, but McLaren-Mercedes seems to have conservatively chosen the somewhat firmer Michelin compound. Ferrari on the softest Bridgestones they could find (and seen beating them with meat mallets before the sessions) was happy to make it into the top 10 as the only Bridgestone runners to do so.
Since this year's new regulations state that the cars must qualify on race-fuel levels, the Saturday Qualifying results are now relegated to a kind of motorsport purgatory until the first round of pit stops takes place in the race on Sunday. So if your favourite driver gets pole position on Saturday, you cannot get too cocky about this, bragging to your friends and all, because he could be on five laps less of fuel and embarrass you the next day.
Ralf Schumacher's pole was a real one, though, because on Sunday he proved to be the heaviest fuel-laden car of all the top guys in qualifying. Ralf came in for his first pit stop on lap 18, anywhere from 1 to 7 laps heavier on fuel than all others on 3-stop strategies. In France, every 2 laps of extra fuel is about a 0.3 second penalty on your lap time in qualifying. In fact, in the first stint of the race, Ralf didn't come in for tyres and fuel until those on two-stop strategies were beginning to pit. So he seemed truly hooked up at Magny-Cours all weekend.
Michelin took 9 of the top 11 spots on the grid in qualifying, and if you adjust for fuel levels, the teams performed in the following order in France:
1. BMW-Williams (Michelin)
2. Ferrari (Bridgestone)
3. McLaren-Mercedes (Michelin)
4. Renault (Michelin)
5. Jaguar (Michelin)
6. Toyota (Michelin)
7. BAR-Honda (Bridgestone)
8. Sauber (Bridgestone)
9. Jordan (Bridgestone)
10.Minardi (Bridgestone)
On to the race! Well, not much happened in the race. Everyone finished in pretty much the order they qualified unless they had a problem of some kind. Rubens Barrichello of Ferrari created for himself a more exciting day by spinning at the beginning of lap 2 from 8th place, and having to claw his way from the very back. Good thing he was on a two-stop strategy. All of this cost Rubens only one position at the end of the day, Mark Webber of Jaguar gaining the advantage.
Rubens overtook more guys on the track in the first 10 laps than we've seen in that past 3 races by all cars combined. Well, I don't know if that is actually true, but it feels true. Barrichello got past Justin Wilson of Minardi on lap 3, Ralph Firman of Jordan-Ford on lap 4, Giancarlo Fisichella of Jordan-Ford on lap 5, Heinz-Harald Frentzen of Sauber on lap 6, Jos Verstappen of Minardi on lap 7, and Nick Heidfeld of Sauber on lap 9. Rubens then got Cristiano da Matta of Toyota in the first set of pit stops, Jacques Villeneuve of BAR-Honda and Antonio Pizzonia of Jaguar in the second round, and finally Olivier Panis of Toyota in the last set of stops. Busy day, all for 7th place and two points in the championship. Last year he would have gotten zilch for that. Interesting to note that he couldn't get by anyone on Michelins on the track. He had to wait for the pit stops for that.
The other really exciting stuff was going on at the tail-end between Justin Wilson of Minardi and Ralph Firman of Jordan-Ford, two teams unusually close in performance this year. They are each running older versions of the Cosworth engine, still with a 72 degree V angle, Jordan's a somewhat higher performance one. (The new Cosworth in the Jaguar is at a 90 degree V angle and is significantly more powerful than either of these.) May God shine his light down and get Giancarlo Fisichella into a Ferrari or something similar before he retires! In any event, Wilson and Firman overtook each other on the track, back and forth, with Wilson finally getting him in the end due to his long two-stop strategy, which was also good enough to beat team-mate Verstappen though pit work.
The two-stop strategies actually looked liked they may have worked fairly well for the Bridgestone runners, but unfortunately most of them suffered some other problem which makes strategy comparisons difficult. Needless to say, only the very curious of the Michelin bunch tried anything but a three-stop. Unfortunately McLaren seems to have run a tyre with which one would two-stop, but ran it for three. Not a winning plan. I say "seems" because they aren't admitting a thing!
So Ralf ran away with it in the end, well ahead of his team-mate most of the race with one exception that made it temporarily interesting, as Ralf got stuck behind backmarker Trulli during a yellow flag stint, allowing Montoya to make up much of the lost ground. But Ralf pulled it out in the end, showing good mettle under pressure. Big brother Michael seemed to very much enjoy Ralf's win on the podium, holding his head down under the champagne at one point. You won't be able to keep little brother down for much longer Michael!
Michael Schumacher displayed his World Champion stuff by fighting tooth and nail to get by both McLarens in what seemed like a miraculous moment as he emerged from his third pit stop clear of them both. David Coulthard had a bit of a messy McLaren pit stop, with a fuel rig failure and then nearly dragging the refuelling team down the pit lane exit with him. It is not obvious that it cost him anything, though, as Schumacher's heavy 3rd stint was enough to get by even Kimi Raikkonen, who was two seconds ahead of Coulthard before the pits. Nonetheless, McLaren have been a bit off their game these past couple of races.
Quite a few teams need to attend a Pit Stops 101 course it would seem. A few other guys had problems from pit stop work that cost them positions in the race: Pizzonia's second pit went wrong and he lost track positions to Villeneuve, Panis, and Rubens as a result. He would have otherwise scored points for the first time this year. Really too bad, as young Antonio desperately needs the encouragement. Heidfeld also had a delay from shoddy pit work, and lost a position to team-mate Frentzen. Verstappen had problems at the end of the race, with a broken exhaust and a loose wheel nut, and had to make an extra stop, but had already lost his position to team-mate Wilson by then. Montoya had a brief delay in his first stop, but did not lose anything as a result. Jenson Button of BAR-Honda had a fuel rig failure at his first pit stop, and ran dry on the out laps awaiting another stop, ending his race.
Both Renaults blew their engines at their home race, not good guys! That is the first time this season that Renault has not scored points in a race, leaving BMW-Williams alone in that category now. And Ralf has continued his streak of scoring points in every race this year - the only one to do so. Fisichella's Jordan-Ford engine also went kerplooey, but that was pretty much it as we saw rather high mechanical reliability in this race, with 16 cars finishing.
So BMW-Williams and Ralf Schumacher have made the championship hunt very interesting indeed. Michael Schumacher is still leading the Driver's Championship with 64 points, and Kimi Raikkonen still in 2nd place and trailing by eight. But now Ralf is only three points back of Kimi. Juan Montoya is sneaking up as well and sits another six points behind Ralf. Rounding out the contenders are Rubens and Alonso, tied at 39 points and eight back of Juan.
BMW-Williams are also looking good for the Constructors Championship, and have jumped to within three points of Ferrari, which is quite incredible considering that they were scrapping for points with BAR-Honda and Jaguar not that many races ago. McLaren, the only other serious contender here, 15 points back of BMW-Williams who have taken maximum points in two consecutive races now, and have outscored McLaren 36 to 9 in those races. Renault a long shot but solid for 4th place with 52 points, and at a disadvantage for car development as they are only testing at race weekends.
Jaguar has hurdled the Bridgestone-shod Sauber and Jordan teams to take 6th spot in the Constructors, while Mark Webber has moved into 9th place in the WDC race with points in 3 consecutive races.
As we look ahead to the remaining races, there is a fair mix of tracks that suit each of the top three teams, so we should expect a thriller down to the end for both championships.
In closing, I interject my personal desire to see Formula 1 return to a one-tyre-manufacturer series. It is much preferred that the best chassis-engine-driver package win races rather than the best tyre. This tyre war has further clouded an already murky picture created by the sudden and for the most part, insane regulation changes that FIA head Max Mosely unilaterally gave us this year, notably single-lap qualifying and qualifying on race fuel-loads. In fact, the latter has played a large role in Michelin's success, as most races now have an added pit stop to the strategy. This shortens the stints and allows the dodgy durability of the softer Michelins to just make it through the shorter fuel runs.
The softer Michelins typically have had an advantage in grip levels for short periods of time, hence their superiority last year in qualifying, but also note the disappointing race results for anyone who went for pole on them. Their medium and hard compounds were (and probably still are) quite competitive, but who would want to run them with this year's qualifying rules? (Ron Dennis, are you reading this?!) Seriously, if Formula 1 had tracks where overtaking was possible at multiple points, qualifying at the top of the grid would be far less important. But almost half the tracks have virtually no overtaking, and the other half have one or two spots. Grid position is even more vital with the new rules, and softer tyres win the day.
Bridgestone probably still has better dry weather tyres for most normal race circumstances on planet earth, but we are talking about Formula 1 here! A place where the word 'eccentric' no longer has meaning. It is difficult to fault Bridgestone and equally unfair to praise Michelin. Their compounds and constructions were developed for the 2003 season long before Max changed the rules. Rules that inherently favour Michelin. It is not that Michelin started to do much of anything differently they just fell into a good situation. Or had one created for them, as you like. It is one thing to want to knock Ferrari down a notch so the championship isn't over by Monaco, but it is a different thing to destroy the fortunes of four other Bridgestone teams who cannot afford to be harmed like this.
The shame of the situation is that the tyre manufacturers are not moved to develop compounds that could translate into road car use. They are in fact pushed the other way and are now in a realm that is so far off the end of the scale so as to be useless to the general public. These classes of compounds translated for a road car would find the owner replacing his tyres every few thousand miles. It is unfortunate because other aspects of F1 are moving in the right direction to deliver benefits to the general driving public. On the engine side in particular, we will be seeing engine development beginning next year that emphasizes reliability and fuel efficiency. Let's get the tyre focus back onto performance and durability. And let us take out of the paddock an aspect of current Formula 1 racing that none of us pay to see! Ah, we can always dream.
At least Michael Schumacher seems fairly light-hearted about it all. From the post-race press conference:
Interviewer: "Michael, without Bridgestone today would you win or would you lose. How do you think?"
MS: "It would be very difficult to run without tyres."
In the meantime, on to great Great Britain and Silverstone! And let's drink a toast to a long run of wet races, just to serve Mr. Mosely right!
Current championship standings
Pre-season
Ferrari F2003-GA launch
2003 F1 season calendar
09/03/2003 - Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne)
- Australia circuit map by JR
- Australia qualifying grid by JR
- Australia race start grid by JR
- Australia parc ferme post-qualifying by the FIA
- Australia race lap-by-lap by JR
23/03/2003 - Malaysian Grand Prix (Sepang)
- Malaysia circuit map by JR
- Malaysia qualifying grid by JR
- Malaysia race start grid by JR
- Malaysia race lap-by-lap by JR
06/04/2003 - Brazilian Grand Prix (Sao Paulo)
- Brazil circuit map by JR
- Brazil qualifying grid by JR
- Brazil race start grid by JR
- Post-qualifying notes by the FIA
- Brazil race lap-by-lap by JR
20/04/2003 - San Marino Grand Prix (Imola)
- San Marino circuit map by JR
- San Marino qualifying grid by JR
- San Marino race start grid by JR
- San Marino race lap-by-lap by JR
- Post-race notes by the FIA
04/05/2003 - Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona)
- Spain circuit map by JR
- Spain qualifying grid by JR
- Spain race start grid by JR
- Spain race lap-by-lap by JR
18/05/2003 - Austrian Grand Prix (Spielberg)
- Austria circuit map by JR
- Austria qualifying grid by JR
- Austria race start grid by JR
- Austria qualifying review by Shell
- Austria race lap-by-lap by JR
- Austria race review by Shell
- Austrian GP photo gallery
01/06/2003 - Grand Prix de Monaco (Monaco)
- Monaco circuit map by JR
- Monaco qualifying grid by JR
- Monaco race start grid by JR
- Monaco race lap-by-lap by JR
15/06/2003 - Canadian Grand Prix (Montreal)
- Canada race preview by EB
- Canada circuit map by JR
- Canada qualifying grid by JR
- Canada race start grid by JR
- Canada race lap-by-lap by JR
29/06/2003 - European Grand Prix (Nürburgring)
- Europe race preview by EB
- Europe circuit map by JR
- Europe qualifying grid by JR
- Europe race start grid by JR
- Europe race lap-by-lap by JR
06/07/2003 - French Grand Prix (Magny-Cours)
- France circuit map by JR
- France qualifying grid by JR
- France race start grid by JR
- France race lap-by-lap by JR
- France race review by EB
20/07/2003 - British Grand Prix (Silverstone)
- Britain race preview by EB
- Britain circuit map by JR
- Britain qualifying grid by JR
- Britain race start grid by JR
- Britain race lap-by-lap by JR
03/08/2003 - German Grand Prix (Hockenheim)
- Germany race preview by EB
- Germany circuit map by JR
- Germany qualifying grid by JR
- Germany race start grid by JR
- Germany race lap-by-lap by JR
- Germany race review by SO
24/08/2003 - Hungarian Grand Prix (Budapest)
- Hungary race preview by EB
- Hungary circuit map by JR
- Hungary qualifying grid by JR
- Hungary race start grid by JR
- Hungary race lap-by-lap by JR
- Hungary race review by EB
14/09/2003 - Italian Grand Prix (Monza)
- Italy race preview by EB
- Italy circuit map by JR
- Italy qualifying grid by JR
- Italy race start grid by JR
- Italy race lap-by-lap by JR
- Italy race review by EB
28/09/2003 - American Grand Prix (Indianapolis)
- America race preview by EB
- America circuit map by JR
- America qualifying grid by JR
- America race start grid by JR
- America race lap-by-lap by JR
- America race review by EB
12/10/2003 - Japanese Grand Prix (Suzuka)
- Japan race preview by EB
- Japan circuit map by JR
- Japan qualifying grid by JR
- Japan race start grid by JR
- Japan race lap-by-lap by JR
- Japan race review by EB
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