Formula One Features — September 2001

In these uncertain times it is sometimes good to look back in history at the lives of others who have lived through difficult times and emerged triumphant. One of the best examples of this is Eddie Rickenbacker, a racing driver who led an amazing life which included owning Indianapolis Motor Speedway, being the top scoring American fighter pilot of World War I, building his own automobiles, survived an air crash and on a different occasion spent days adrift in the Pacific Ocean after the plane he was flying on had to ditch.

Grandstand seats for Saturday's CART race at Rockingham cost one hundred pounds apiece, but even with a race shortened from its planned 208 laps to just 140, most of Britain's bedrock motor racing fans will have joined the long queues from the car parks with broad grins on their faces.

The preservation of life was high on the agenda of Formula 1 in Italy in a more immediate and universal sense than is usual, but safety is the relentless preoccupation of our sport - as it has been since Max Mosley took over as president of the FIA a decade ago.

"Chosse life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disk players and electrical tin openers? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else."

A fourth World Championship has taken Michael Schumacher past the three crowns of the late Ayrton Senna, the rival to whom he is most frequently compared and whose mantle Fate forced upon him. Without doubt the German deserves to be elevated into the heady company of men such as Senna, or four-time champion Alain Prost whose tally of titles and record of 51 GP victories Schumacher equalled in Hungary. But the question persists, when looking at their respective careers: has Michael Schumacher had it too easy?

After a poor maiden season in Formula 3000 the highly-rated Giorgio Pantano finally got everything together at Monza and took his Astromega Lola to victory at the Autodromo Nazionale. It was the team's first win for a year - the last being when Fernando Alonso dominated the race at Spa in 2000.

Most team principals will tell you that there's no magic to the F1 business. Things don't just change overnight and even if you work all the hours God made, if you don't have the correct application of technology, then you're wasting your time. To which I would add, from very long experience, the obvious answer to unpredictable conundrums after often staring you straight in the face. But you have to avoid that classic F1 affliction of trying to make things more complicated than they really are.

There was something of an irony in the fact that members of the British and German media were all huddled together in the McLaren hospitality area to watch the Germany vs. England soccer World Cup qualifier. You see back home in Blighty, and indeed to most of Germany, there may as well have not been a Grand Prix at Spa this year. Schumi has done his thing and scampered off with the silverware for a fourth time, and if we insist on waking up in sub-zero guest houses somewhere in foggy old Belgium that's our silly look out.

Last year he was so demotivated at Benetton that his efforts were publicly ridiculed by team boss Flavio Briatore at Indianapolis. But who was the bigger mug, Fisichella for losing his way, or Briatore for signing him to a deal that would have earned the young Italian $13M for 2002? Well, things being what they are in F1, Fisichella won't have to worry what to spend all that money on now that he is switching back to Jordan next season. After another year struggling in the blue cars, the move could scarcely be more timely...

Justin Wilson became the 2001 International Formula 3000 Champion at Eau Rouge on the first racing lap of the Spa race, the penultimate round of the series. His only challenger was Mark Webber and when the Australian crashed heavily into the barriers, it was all over. The shunt destroyed Webber's Super Nova Racing Lola but the Benetton test driver got away with only a bruised ankle. Wilson did not need to win at Spa and victory in the race went to a tearful Ricardo Sperafico of the Petrobras Junior Team.

From as long as I can remember until the early 1990s, Formula 1 gearbox cases were made in cast magnesium. Many still are, but in 1994 John Barnard, who was then working for Ferrari, started a revolution in gearbox design that has culminated in the successful CFRP gearbox case used by the Arrows team since 1998.