This week's Grapevine brings you
information fresh from the paddock on:
Michelin To Spoil Bridgestone's Party
There were several things about the US Grand Prix that the tyre companies found interesting – or worrying, depending on your point of view.
Going to this year's event, Bridgestone thought they had some advantage from their experience of last year, where they learned that the banked corner was really something of a pussycat, when it comes to tyre wear. So they could go with softer rubber than last time around. Problems would, however, still be coming from all those slow corners on the infield putting constant, traction controlled acceleration through the rear tyres.
That's not too much of a problem at a place like Monaco; the tyres are soft and adhere well to the circuit, and the strains are pretty consistent. However, Indy has a seriously fast straight – which means the tyres have to be of relatively tough construction, or they come apart.
As it turned out, Bridgestone think they took their best tyres to the track. Both constructions clearly held up well – they suffered some good wear, but had no unexpected issues. The trouble was, Michelin seemed to do at least as good a job, but without Bridgestone's experience.
Michelin's solution was interesting: their "Prime" tyre was pretty conservative, and should have done well at combating blisters; but its performance deficit was some three to five tenths a lap off that of unblistered "Option" tyres. That seemed to make the selection pretty clear cut to the teams, who almost all took the quicker tyre – and set about working out how to prevent blistering. It seems that being well worn in was the best route, so a number of drivers started the race with what amounted to half worn rear tyres on their cars...
And then things actually got quite interesting, as come race time, it became clear that Michelin's tyres were arguably far better suited to racing at Indy than Bridgestone's. Following qualifying, Williams mechanics estimated their performance deficit to Bridgestone of maybe three or four tenths. They based that on the apparent improvement in Hakkinen's fortunes, rather than Schumacher and Ferrari, deciding Ferrari's selection of Bridgestone's Prime – and harder – tyre difficult to properly judge.
In the end, of course, Hakkinen showed that the softer option with one stop would win the race, though not before a scare with Barrichello closing him down at speed. In hindsight, Ferrari think that had they gone for the soft tyre, it could have gained the Brazilian maybe another 30 seconds before his engine gave way... so they would have had the beating of Hakkinen and McLaren for sure. Alarm bells went off, however, looking at the performance of Williams.
Initially, Barrichello made the most of a lower fuel load to pull away from Schumacher and Montoya; however, as the race progressed, it demonstrated that the Michelins were totally consistent, as Montoya simply got quicker and quicker when the fuel load came down. Wear was even, and the balance of the car remained very even. This has been the area giving the French giant most trouble this season: as the tyres wear, they have been blistering, which is profoundly damaging to grip and balance. Arguably – and Bridgestone are hoping this is the case – Indy has proven particularly tough on rears, balancing the tendency of the Michelin front to go off faster than the rears (prompting Fisichella to run the whole Spa race on one set of worn front tyres). However, they fear this is not the case, and things are going to get difficult from here on in.
Feedback from the Williams camp is a bit mixed. They think Montoya would have won, if the car had kept running. The Michelin's technical people have encouraged that thought, and further believe Irvine's long run proves they are on the right road. Ironically, Irvine's performance is Bridgestone's biggest hope: the Jaguar finished a minute and twelve seconds behind the winner – roughly the same margin as he finished behind Montoya in Italy. Which means, in conjecture, the status quo remains.
Things were returning to normal in the States: certainly, the noises coming from the pitlane included the normal rumblings concerning who is going where in 2002… particularly now Mika has decided to take time out, letting Kimi Raikkonen have his seat.
Despite Eddie Jordan's protestations that he won't consider another driver contracted long term to another team, rumours persist that Takuma Sato is a shoe-in for the number two seat alongside Fisichella. With Panis and Villeneuve confirmed at BAR, no amount of domination at F3 will earn him a race seat there next year – but Honda are keen to see a Japanese driver in one of "their" cars. Jordan are still working hard to be nice to their engine supplier, and Sato seems to be pretty quick. He even seems to have a good idea about how to set up a car... so it would not be a massive problem to have him on board. Apart from telling Jean Alesi he doesn't have the seat, that is.
In fact, that second Jordan seat is fairly hot property. More hopefuls are being tested this week – Narain Karthikeyan is to put in another appearance, and is rumoured to have the financial clout to take a testing role next year. There's some pretty serious speculation that a solid Indian consortium is backing him to become the first Indian driver in Formula One... though all attempts to unravel that rumour causes its substance to fall apart.
Paul Stoddart's life is not getting much easier, either. He could be losing Fernando Alonso to Jordan or Benetton, depending on Briatore's decision on whether or not to run Button. It seems the Englishman could be pushed out to either Sauber or Jordan to make way for Alonso alongside Trulli. Then again, Alonso could, allegedly, be enticed to the Jordan seat; though when asked directly, he's pretty convincing about staying at Minardi until Briatore needs him elsewhere. So Stoddart is considering his options for next year – and has to face the potentially disastrous decision to run with two "pay" drivers in what's already going to be a "development year" for the team, as they settle in with AMT.
Meanwhile, Felipe Massa is hot favourite to replace Raikkonen at Sauber, and has been since his first test with the team. Peter Sauber failed to sound excited, saying it's too soon to consider the post, but invited the youngster back anyway. Feedback from the test team was pretty consistent though – they think he's very quick, and solid potential, but are not sure he has Raikkonen's raw talent. From their attitude, it seems the second test could simply be to try out as test driver, pending finding someone quicker again.
Following the US GP, Hakkinen's win set a bit of a cat amongst the pigeons. He confirmed his continued intention to take 2002 off, but the 2003 Silly Season is clearly kicking off, as there is already speculation that he'll be back in 2003, alongside Raikkonen. These rumours see Coulthard signing up elsewhere, probably Jaguar. They haven't yet decided the fate of Irvine or de la Rosa...
Silly Season Rumbles Again