| US Terrestrial Broadcast in PDT |
| SPEED CHANNEL [LIVE] |
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| Friday 2 May | |
| Qual 1 | 0500 - 0600 |
| Saturday 3 May | |
| Qual 2 | 0500 - 0630 |
| Formula 3000 | 0630 - 0800 |
| Grand Prix | |
| LIVE Sunday 4 May | 0430 - 0700 |
| re-play Sunday 4 May | 1800 - 2030 |
| re-paly Sunday 4 May | 2200 - 0030 |
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After a crazy Grand Prix two weeks ago that will see Fisichella receiving his trophy for winning in Brazil awarded in a special pre-Grand Prix ceremony it appears as if we might well be in for a wet and wild weekend once again. Just in case you missed the news, The race stewards initially awarded the Brazil Grand Prix victory to Kimi Räikkönen. Later, after review of timing records, it was announced the Giancarlo and Eddie Jordan we the actual winners as Fissi had started lap 55 making the two lap reset (as a result of the red flag) go back to lap 53 when GF had managed to pass KR for the lead. In other news for the GP, both McLaren and Ferrari will reserve launching their new cars this weekend, all the new rules for the FIA are to stand intact and teams are still allowed only one type of rain tire for the GP weekend.
| US Terrestrial Broadcast in PDT |
| SPEED CHANNEL [LIVE] |
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| Friday 18 April | |
| Qual 1 | 0500 - 0600 |
| Saturday 19 April | |
| Qual 2 | 0500 - 0630 |
| Formula 3000 | 0630 - 0800 |
| Grand Prix | |
| LIVE Sunday 20 April | 0430 - 0700 |
| re-play Sunday 20 April | 1800 - 2030 |
| re-paly Sunday 20 April | 2200 - 0030 |
Weather for the Grand Prix of San Marino.
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Top eight finishers for the Malaysian GP were; Räikkönen 1h 32m 22.195s, Berrichello +0.39.286, Alonso +1.04.007, R Schumacher +1.28.026, Trulli +1 lap, M Schumacher +1 lap, Button +1 lap and Hiedfeld +1 lap.
Now that's what I call Grand Prix racing! The Malaysian GP was, for me, proof in the pudding that the new rules and regulations are on the right track. The heat looked oppressive and was the likely cause of many a fuel rig malfunction not to mention numerous cars stalling in the pits. J Vill had to have the new rules explained to him as he jogged to the back-up car after abandoning his racecar on the formation lap. Sorry Jac, you must use the car you qualified in... The second turn was a bit of a debouche... M Schumacher let himself get pinched in behind Trulli and beside Coulthard and wound up with nowhere to go except into Trulli. Jarno spun off to the right, Rubens narrowly missed him however, Juan Pablo and A Pizzonia did not. MS had to pit for a new nose (and a drive through as a result of the incident), JPM waited in the pit for what must have felt like years for a new rear wing rejoining the race two laps down and AP stopped off for a new nose as well. The Renault of Alonso looked brilliant as Fernando drove off into the distance obviously on a three stop race. (SpeedChannel's Peter Winsor had an interesting interview with one of the Michelin technicians... It seems that Renault and Michelin are working closely on developing a new approach to "active suspension" that perpetually optimizes the tires contact with the track) DC retired on lap tree leaving Räikkönen to carry the McLaren/Mercedes colors. Throughout the race it seamed as if Trulli had some sort of depth perception problem as he kept running into the rear end of other drivers... One such incident allowed MS to pass JT and JB after Jarno rammed Jenson going into turn 15. Ralph Furman had a nice dice with Trulli as well and came out ahead using an interesting line through the turn 1 and 2 complex to regain his position.
In the end it was all Kimi winning his maiden grand Prix 39.286 seconds ahead of RB. Also of note over the week-end were; Fernando Alonso's eclipsing of Rubens record of youngest Pole sitter, MS reset fastest race and fastest lap record with a 1:36.412 on lap 45 and Kimi Räikkönen is now the second youngest GP winner of all time.
The top eight at the end of qualifying 1.2 are Alonso Renault (1'37"044), Trulli Renault, Schumacher Ferrari, Coulthard McLaren/Mercedes, Berrichello Ferrari, Heidfeld Sauber Petronas, Raikkonen McLaren/Mercedes and Montoya Williams/BMW. There was less than one second time difference for the first eight positions.
Well, at least I didn't fall asleep for a "smidge" during Saturdays qualifying this week. I'll admit that I found myself dosing through the middle third of qualifying two weeks ago. Anyway, this week I was surprised, albeit pleasantly, to see an all Renault front row. We may well see Alonso and Trulli hitting the pits in short order after the start of the GP. Oddly, Ralph S is way down in the field starting at P17. Is RS on a one stop strategy? Will Renault finish inside of the top five? Will J Button continue to out-shine J Villeneuve? Will the weather hold? These questions and many more answered in a short few hours.
I am still reserving my judgment of the new rules and regulations. The GP of Australia had a weather complication that made the various teams' original intentions unclear.
The current weather forecast is for partly cloudy conditions with a high of 93° F / 34°C on Sunday.
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It's the final race of the 2002 FIA F1 World Cup and there are only a few close races in the final points standing for the year to sort out. In the Drivers cup Juan Pablo holds 47 points followed by Ralph and DC each with 42 and 41 points respectively. The next battle is between Jarno [9 points], Eddie [8points], Nick and Giancarlo tied with seven points apiece. Villeneuve and Massa are tied with four points each with Panis nipping at their heels with three Drivers cup points. The Constructors cup is all but carved in stone with Jaguar, with eight points, one point ahead of tied Jordan and BAR. So, now that Rubens and Michael have had some practice, can the Ferrari boys pull off 0.00 finish? The weather looks fine for the weekend however, I have a slight foreboding feeling as we approach the race weekend. Hopefully it's completely unfounded.
| US Terrestrial Broadcast in PDT |
| SPEED CHANNEL [LIVE] |
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| Thursday 10-10 | |
| Practice 2 | 2100 - 2200 |
| Friday 11-10 | |
| Practice | 2000 |
| Qualifying | 2100 - 2230 |
| Saturday 12-10 | |
| Grand Prix | 2200 - 0030 |
| re-play Sunday 13-10 | 1800 - 2030 |
| re-paly Sunday 13-10 | 2200 - 0030 |
Weather for Suzuka Japan.
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GP of The United States of America |
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Rubens and Michael make it the eighth Ferrari one-two finish for the season as Michael narrowly missed orchestrating the closest race finish by 0.02 tenths of a second. M. Schumacher also missed winning the race as he backed off a smidge too much as the Ferraris crossed the line almost abreast. Reports from the track revealed that the crowd approved highly of Rubens second consecutive win. David Coulthard ran a somewhat lonely race finishing third. Juan Pablo managed to stay on track after being assaulted by his teammate his second time through turn one and finished fourth. Ralph lost his rear wing and subsequently was never in the fray. Jarno Trulli in his penultimate drive for Renault finished the day P5 beating future teammate Jacques Villeneuve, which begs the question; Are you truly sure you want to leave Renault Trulli? Raikkonen ran on nine cylinders as long as his Mercedes engine would allow and Pedro de la Rosa, upon abandoning his smoking Cat was instructed by track marshals to jump a barricade. Not that significant unless you take into account that there was an eight foot drop into a culvert on the other side of the barricade...
Qualifying for the US Grand Prix saw the prancing horses dominant once again. Michael Schumacher is still the only driver of the modern era to hold Pole position at Indy. The Scuderia's number one car was followed by teammate Rubens Barrichello, down two tenths of a second. David Coulthard, on his last run, beat Juan Pablo by a mere 0.001 to secure third place on the starting grid. Ralph piped KR for P5 in the final seconds and Eddies session was marred by a pirouetting Nick Heidfeld on his final flyer. HHF standing in for Massa so as to avoid the Sauber being demoted ten grid positions and qualified 11th behind Heidfeld.
Michael managed to top the time sheet in both practice sessions. His best time being a 1'13.548". Rubens "lucky" Barrichello slid into the wall his first time through turn 13 and was unable to run any practice as he severely damaged his F2002 and briefly red flagged the first session. "Irv the Swerve" put in a good days work pushing his Cat to P2 at the end of the day. DC, KR,JV and HHF rounded out the top six. JPM and JB both suffered engine failures that cut their practice time short.
| US Terrestrial Broadcast in PDT |
| SPEED CHANNEL |
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| Friday | |
| Practice 1 and 2 | 0900 - 1400 |
| Saturday | |
| Practice | 0700 - 0900 |
| Qualifying | 1100 - 1230
(R) 1900 - 2030
(R) 2330 - 0100 |
| Sunday | |
| Warm up | 0630 - 0700 |
| ABC |
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| Grand Prix | 1030 - 1200 |
Alright, in all fairness, ABC's coverage of the Italian GP was not all that bad. However, the broadcast would have been MUCH better had they seen fit to broadcast ALL of either [both, preferably] the Podium Ceremony or the Driver Interviews!??!!? Alas no... and folks wonder why F1 has yet to catch on here in America?
He He... Early European reports were calling for Rain.
Looks like racin' weather to me.
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It's all over save the shouting, Ferrari have sewn up yet another one-two finish in Monza. Rubens managed to pass the two Williams on the first lap. Juan Pablo had a poor start which resulted in Ralph being told by the pit wall to allow his teammate to pass him, this created some confusion between the drivers and RB was able to muscle past both of the blue and white machines. Michael managed to pass JPM by lap four and Ralph had dropped out with smoke billowing astern his Williams. The Ferraris then drove off into the distance with Rubino setting fast lap of the race on lap 15. The first time through turn one, Coulthard was able to rear-end his teammate effectively removing himself from the race as he had to pit for a new nose assembly. [Although he did manage to roll in seventh] Kimi suffered engine failure, F. Massa had brain fade as he ran his left rear over P de la R's right front entering into the Ascari hairpin. [The race stewards have awarded Massa a demotion of ten grid positions after qualifying for the US GP] That was a bit of a shame as both the Jag's were running very well as proven by Eddie Irvine's third place finish. That's two podiums this year for "the swerve"...good timing dad! ;) Rubens naturally lost his lead for the middle third of the race as he was running a two stopper however, narrowly regained P1 after his second stop. The top six were rounded out by JT, JB and OP. Oh, and one more for the records, MS has passed his own record of most championship points in a season.
Sadly, American F1 fans will have to suffer through ABC's coverage of the Italian GP as this is one of three GP's [Monaco, Italy and US] not covered by Speed Channel. Broadcast times are 1 PM Eastern and 3 PM Pacific.
Juan Montoya drove his Williams-BMW to a new qualifying lap record for Monza as well as resetting the all time lap speed record [Keke Rosberg - 1985 - Williams/Honda (Turbo)] with his lap time of 1:20.264. It appeared as if the front row would be all blue and white until the very last when MS piped brother Ralph for second. RB, EI and KR rounded out the top six. Sato did have a big off in the dying seconds of qualifying as Kimi's McLaren, on a cool down lap, squeezed into Takumo's Jordan attempting to complete his third timed lap in a row. Race stewards thought KR's actions or misjudgment warranted his being penalized and removed Kimi's best time allowing Eddie Irvine to move up one place on Sundays grid.
So, we are off to Monza the fastest track on the calendar now that the Nürburgring has been chopped in half. Granted, the drivers [less J. Villeneuve] seemed to like the new changes @ the German Grand Prix I must admit that I miss the dash through the forest.
Anyway, off to Monza... Ferrari and Schumi have sown up both titles for the year, not to mention dethroning my man Nigel Mansell from the most GP wins in a season record, we should still have a bit of fun this weekend. Takuma Sato will be driving with the least amount of rear wing he has ever used, which might well prove quite spectacular. The Arrows saga should be resolved this weekend hopefully to the inclusion of whatever the team evolves into on the F1 grid. Massa will no doubt be on a tare as he looks to fill the vacant seat at Toyota now that C. Da Matta has spurned F1. Fisichella and Jordan will be looking for a good finish, the revised Jaguar and EI may well be prove to be an up-setter, then again, they may not... Oh, and Alex Yoong will be working his tires off trying to get with-in 107% of the pole. Overall, there is enough in the mix for a good race weekend.
Weather for Milan [roughly eight miles to the South West of Monza].
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Finally, after months of trying to have this sites hosting moved to a decent ISP I have prevailed. I apologize for the lack of updates this season.
Granted, even for a Ferrari fan, this years FIA World Cup has been a bit of a snooze-fest, still there is no excuse for not providing updates.
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The records are falling... welcome to year two if the tire wars! Both JPM and MS have set new lap records this past week. Juan Pablo brought the Valencia record lap time down to 1m 10.977s. Michael clipped 39 1/10ths off the 1997 Fiorano record [59.010s / MS / F310B / post season]. Speaking of records, I believe Arrows may well have set a record for shabby handling of a driver by "forgetting" to let Jos know he no longer had a seat. So we might see JVer plowing along in a KL Minardi for at least some of 2002.
Well, I was hacked. Needless to say, as I rebuild this site and the Ferrari Library, you will run across a number of page loading errors. My regrets.
Mr Boy
Ferrari launch the F2002
One hopes that the "driver errors" experienced by both RB and MS one sunny Spanish day bodes no ill for the new chassis. However, I believe that we all make our own luck. Ferrari have been talking about the "hat trick" since before the F2002 was launched, never good in a superstitious sport like F1. I have always felt that Ferrari was meant to win both cups in 2000. Unfortunately, team orders and a disastrous pit stop cost Eddie Irvine the Drivers Cup that year. The F2002 it's self is absolutely gorgeous. The Tifosi-Club has a nice photo comparison of the F2001 v. the F2002.
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