The Argentine Grand Prix is the final fly-away race until Canada and all the teams will be looking forward to getting back to Europe and working on their cars in earnest.

Goodyear have created a new front tyre that is wider than before and is expected to be worth around 0.6 seconds at the Buenos Aires track. Despite this I expect McLaren to dominate as they have at the earlier races and Ferrari, Benetton and Williams to scrap over the remaining podium slot.

Circuit Oscar Galvez is a bumpy track that doesn't appeal to many of the drivers and seems to lack any real challenge. In addition to this, the circuit offers few chances to overtake so qualifying and race strategy will be extremely important if drivers are to finish in the points.

A lap of the Autodromo Oscar Alfredo Galvez

The 6th gear start-finish straight leads into a slow corner that is taken in 3rd gear. A short spurt sees the drivers getting into 5th gear before braking hard for the 2nd gear Confiteria Curve. Hard back on the throttle before lifting slightly and then another short burst of acceleration before having to brake for Curve 8 (3rd gear). After this corner (double apex) is exited, the driver enter the second of the 6th gear straights, topping 160 mph before lifting slightly for the 150+ mph Ascari Bend. The flat out section ends at the tight double apex corner (2nd gear) that marks the start of the 4th gear Esses. At the end of the Esses, there are two 90 degree left handers to be taken in 4th before a short straight that culminates in a tight second gear left hand bend. This corner leads into the deriguer Senna corner which is another 2nd gear bend. The exit leads onto another short straight at the end of which the drivers have to brake from 5th gear to 2nd for the Horquilla hairpin. After this there is only a shallow bend in the otherwise straight track before the cars cross the finishing line.

Circuit length: 2.646 miles / 4.259 km Race length: 72 laps (190.542 miles / 306.648 km)

What happened last year?

The Field

Winfield Williams-Mecachrome Goodyear
It can hardly get worse for last years Champions can it? Both cars lapped in both the races so far isn't what team nor F1 fans have come to expect of Williams. Still, recent test times have them on a par with Ferrari so at least they have a chance of being "best of the rest" this time out. Jacques Villeneuve is looking like the weaker of the two drivers at the moment after a terrible Brazilian Grand Prix weekend. Admittedly he fought hard in the race but still came away with no points and this is unacceptable for any driver in a Williams. Heinz-Harald Frentzen, whilst doing better, isn't doing so by a great amount. His qualifying performance at Interlagos was good but his race performace lacked in almost every area. When all is said and done, both drivers and team need to raise their game if they are to even come second in the title race. As far as which driver is fastest, I suspect that Frentzen will have the better of his Canadian team mate this weekend.

Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari Goodyear
The Brazilian Grand Prix was a good one for the Scuderia. Michael Schumacher came home in third (although many people say he was first as "you can't include McLaren") and Eddie Irvine ran his team mate extremely close for most of the weekend. Sadly this performance was overshadowed by the controversy raging in the paddock and, interestingly, this seemed to hurt Ferrari more than McLaren. Although they were level pegging with Williams at the Barcelona tests last week and they are sure to be using the new engine for the whole weekend, it will take a massive improvement from Goodyear for them to get anywhere near McLaren let alone challenge them for race wins. As usual, expect Schumacher to be ahead all weekend but don't be surprised to see Irvine close behind.

Mild Seven Benetton-Playlife Bridgestone
A fine performance in Brazil showed the potential of the Benetton B198 and that it isn't the engine that is holding Williams back (the Playlife engine is a badged version of the Mecachrome). Both drivers acquitted themselves well, especially Alex Wurz, and the team worked well over the entire weekend. Benetton have never seemed to go that well at the Argentine track, but with all the changes this season, perhaps this is the time for change. To my mind Giancarlo Fisichella is still the faster of two drivers over a single lap, but his race performances seem very up-and-down and when pressured he is prone to making errors. Alex Wurz on the other hand seems to take longer to get on top of things but drives better in the races. Bearing this in mind, I'd expect Giancarlo to have the upper hand in qualifying, but Wurz to be more impressive in the race. That, however, doesn't mean he'll finish ahead as the Circuit Oscar Galvez is a very hard circuit to pass on. Expect Benetton to be the fastest Bridgestone runners after McLaren and, in the race at least, faster than the Goodyear teams.

West McLaren-Mercedes Bridgestone
McLaren, for the third race in succession, have the best chance of victory on Sunday. Whilst Goodyear say they've made 0.6 seconds up with their new tyre, Bridgestone will also have moved forward and I am sure McLaren will not have been slacking off in the break. Ferrari and Prost have recently lodged complaints that surrounds the green button on the McLaren steering wheel that they believe operates a power "storage" device for the engine (see news for more detail). Regardless of their technical innovations I believe the teams real advantage lies in the combination of two quick drivers, the Mercedes engine (arguably the best in F1), the Bridgestone rubber, superb technical facilities and finally, the best aerodynamicist in motorsport. Back to the race. Expect the front row of the grid and the top two steps of the podium to be monopolised by McLaren with Mika Hakkinen taking both pole and the win ahead of David Coulthard.

Benson & Hedges Jordan-Mugen Honda Goodyear
Jordan arrive in Brazil with everything to do. So far neither driver has had a lot of good things to say about the car during race weekends and the bumps of Buenos Aires aren't going to help them much this time out either. The team have redesigned their front suspension and spent a week working on setups to try and combat the understeer and severe pitch sensitivity that the car has been suffering from. Sadly I don't think this will be the weekend to fix matters and it will be a damage limitation exercise rather than a fight for points or a podium. Expect Ralf Schumacher to end up on top in qualifying but Damon Hill to use his experience to best effect and do better than his team mate in the race.

Gauloises Blondes Prost-Peugeot Bridgestone
Prost arrive in Brazil with only 1 9th place finish to show for their first two races. Alain Prost and Peugeot will not be happy with this and will be striving to improve their position. Their achillies heel still seems to be the transmission, but the main reliability problem seemed to have been fixed for Brazil. Regardless, the team have said that it will take until the first European race for them to be back where they should be and I have little reason to think they are lying. Both drivers are quick and reliable so if the car can keep going expect them to be either in the points or close to it. Olivier Panis still seems a little slower than Jarno Trulli to me, but his extra years of racing give him the edge under race conditions.

Red Bull Sauber-Petronas Goodyear
Sauber put in a less than stunning performance in Brazil, but a large part of this was down to the accident that Johnny Herbert had on the Saturday morning. Although he was still able to outqualify his team mate Jean Alesi, by the Sunday his neck was so bad that Johnny retired rather than endanger his fellow drivers. The car seems good and the engine, while not on a par with the Ferrari or Mercedes engine, seems to have the legs of most other powerplants on the circuit so there is no reason why they can't do well. Even though Jean Alesi has improved expect him to be beaten solidly by Johnny Herbert this weekend in both qualifying and race.

Danka ArrowsBridgestone
I have very little to say about Arrows. Their cars are slow and unreliable at the moment and it seems that there is little hope of improvement before the start of the European season in San Marino. Expect tail-end qualification and retirement before half distance. Mika Salo should beat Pedro Diniz, but it doesn't look as easy as most people seemed to think it would be.

Stewart-Ford Bridgestone
Again, what can be said about Stewart? The cars are unrealiable in the extreme and even when they are on-track, they're not exactly setting the world on fire. Yet again I wouldn't expect much improvement before Imola so this weekend will be a case of trying to get a car to the finish. Despite the improvement of Jan Magnussen from this time last year, Rubens Barrichello still seems to have the better of him. Qualifying and the race are a bit of a lottery depending on the amount of running they get, but expect midfield grid slots on Saturday and retirement for both cars on the Sunday.

Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear
Tyrrell were, it seems, flattered by the level of the opposition in Australia and in Brazil things returned to normal. Whilst not right at the back, the team were certainly nowhere near the top 10 as they were at the first race and even Tora Takagi was unable to do much about it. The Ford v10 powering the Tyrrell chassis is a little more stable than the version used by Stewart last year, but still suffers from poor reliability. Expect them to be ahead of Minardi and perhaps Arrows, but little else. Takagi should easily beat Ricardo Rosset in both race and qualifying, but neither will reach the end unless they are extremely lucky.

Minardi-Ford Bridgestone
What do Minardi have to do to improve with respect to their immediate opponents? They finally have a half-decent engine and the chassis, an area they usually excel in, seems to have let them down. Shinji Nakano and Esteban Tuero are both capable enough, but neither has the ability to drag the car above the back few rows of the grid. Tuero should outqualify Nakano, but in the race it's anyones guess what will happen, but if the previous races are anything to go by, they will both retire.

Enjoy the race...