By Richard Barnes, South Africa
Atlas F1 Magazine Writer

Seemingly all year long, Coulthard has been stuck behind slower cars, gnashing his teeth in frustration as Schumacher scampered away unchallenged at the head of the field. With the prospect of getting bogged down behind the Jordan until the first round of pitstops, Coulthard's patience finally ran out - and he paid the price...

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone has never been Michael Schumacher's favourite race, for a variety of reasons. The disqualification in 1994, the controversial victory in 1998, and the accident that broke his leg and ended his 1999 challenge must be among the career events that Schumacher would rather forget. In a typical season, Schumacher would happily leave Silverstone with the points gap to his main Championship rivals unchanged. However, 2001 is not a typical season, and it seems that whatever misfortunes befall the German, he invariably emerges with a greater Championship lead than before. And so it was at Silverstone.

It took exactly one corner before Schumacher was once again placed in the envious position where he could only gain or, at worst, retain the gap to his main rival, McLaren's David Coulthard. For the first time this year, Coulthard's unshakeable demeanour slipped, and that single moment of impetuosity cost the Scotsman what little chance he had left of the Championship.

It's hard to blame Coulthard for the first-corner contact with Jordan's fast-starting Jarno Trulli. Seemingly all year long, Coulthard has been stuck behind slower cars, gnashing his teeth in frustration as Schumacher scampered away unchallenged at the head of the field. With the prospect of getting bogged down behind the Jordan until the first round of pitstops, Coulthard's patience finally ran out - and he paid the price. If Coulthard had given Trulli another wheel's-width of room, both may have made it through the corner unscathed. But races have been settled by less, and with nowhere for Trulli to go, the contact was inevitable.

For Coulthard, the most galling aspect must be the knowledge that he would surely have picked off Schumacher's sluggish Ferrari easily during the race's opening laps. That would have put McLaren in the prickly situation of having to decide what meant more to them - Mika Hakkinen's pride or David Coulthard's slim Championship hopes. The issue of whether McLaren will issue team orders, and to what extent Hakkinen will follow them, remains one of the most intriguing and unanswered questions of the season.

The Finn's return to his dominant form of previous years was both startling and sudden. With the dreaded understeer of the McLaren now apparently resolved, Hakkinen attacked the circuit with relish, simply blowing the opposition away in imperious fashion. It gave a glimpse of what the 2001 season could and should have been - a titanic showdown between the era's two premier talents. But if Hakkinen showed more than willing to re-ignite the old rivalry, Schumacher seemed curiously reticent.

As ever, Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn had a pat explanation - the team had approached the race with a defensive and cautious strategy, had suffered setup/handling problems on Schumacher's car, and had ultimately settled for stretching their WDC lead while retaining the gap in the Constructors' Championship. Call me a cynic, but Michael Schumacher does not race for second, and especially not in McLaren's home Grand Prix.

Over the years, Ross Brawn has also shown an uncanny knack for choosing the fastest race and pitstop strategy, and single-stopping from pole position at Silverstone was just plain wrong. On a slow tight circuit like Hungary or Monaco, it is possible to keep a slower heavier car in front through sheer lack of overtaking opportunities. At Silverstone, that becomes unlikely in the extreme.

The phrase 'bad setup' is becoming increasingly common at Maranello. After nearly six seasons together at Ferrari, and with the most driveable engine/chassis package on the grid, Brawn and Schumacher cannot be making 'bad' setup decisions - merely inappropriate ones. Several teams were expecting rain later in the race, and I suspect Ferrari were foremost amongst those.

Starting both cars on full tanks would have given them the maximum pitstop window to react to any changes in the weather, and the sluggish handling is probably attributable to a compromise setup rather than a 'bad' one. Brawn stated that the car was not behaving as they would have liked. If the rain had fallen, I suspect it would have 'behaved' a lot better, to the point where Schumacher would have turned in another of those jaw-dropping drives that have dubbed him the 'Regenmeister'.

Ultimately, though, it didn't matter. When Schumacher saw Coulthard's spinning McLaren in his rear-view mirrors on lap one, he knew that any points position would suffice. The only white-knuckle moment for the German was when the charging Juan Pablo Montoya swooped to take second on lap 17. Schumacher was not ever going to vigorously contest that position but, even if he had, the new and calmer Montoya would not have done anything rash.

Perhaps, even subconsciously, Schumacher was happy to wait for at least another race before equalling Alain Prost's all-time mark of 51 Grand Prix victories. With a huge Championship lead and three 'home' races among the next four, Silverstone may not have had the same emotional value for Schumacher as triumph in Germany, at his 'home' circuit of Spa, or in front of the delirious tifosi at Monza.

Both McLaren and Ferrari could take heart from Sunday's race. McLaren have Mika Hakkinen back in top form and, for once, they managed to get him to the finish. For Ferrari, the race was about more than just maintaining the Championship advantages. Starts have been Ferrari's Achilles heel this season, and on occasion Schumacher has been forced to resort to the chop to keep his hard-won grid advantage into the first turn. On Sunday, the Ferrari comprehensively outdragged both McLarens off the grid - with a far heavier fuel load to boot. If the Ferrari's sluggish launch control problems have been solved, and if Schumacher can keep up his impeccable qualifying form of this season, they will have the luxury of dictating the races from the front for the remainder of the year.

That leaves Williams as the only major player to leave Silverstone disappointed. They still have the brute horsepower advantage - even with Ferrari running qualifying engines during the race, the Williams cars were up to 7 km/h faster through the speed traps. The problem lies mainly in the Michelin tyres' stubborn refusal to perform in cold and/or wet conditions. Michelin have been lucky in their first year of re-entry to F1, in that very few races have been wet. The hot and dry conditions that have characterised most of the races have flattered Michelin. Perhaps Patrick Head is right, that expectations have been set too high. With the prospect of Goodyear returning to Formula One, testing and development time is a luxury that Michelin do not have.

For now, Bridgestone's new tyres seem to have quelled the Michelin challenge. But with a whole slew of power circuits just around the corner, Williams could well be back with a bang, particularly if the weather stays dry and warm. There is no doubt that Michael Schumacher will equal if not surpass Prost's win record this season. But, if Williams and a resurgent Mika Hakkinen have anything to do with it, he may find things tougher than expected.