AUSTRALIAN GP 99
The first practice for the first
race of the season 1999 was totally controlled by the drivers of
McLaren. Despite Häkkinen's wrecking his car the gap to the
third was over one second. The fastest pn Friday was David
Coulthard, who was able to drive 0.014 faster time than Mika at
the end of the second hour. DC was fastest even though he drove
the whole day with the same tyres despite many visits to the
grass.Saturday's qualifying was driven in clowdy weather, and just before the hour began the temperature dropped a lot. That's why the top teams waited as long as they could before they came to the track. Like the practice sessions, the McLarens were controlling also the qualifying. Why the Ferraris were so slow even though they had been telling all different kind of story, that this year they wouldn't be slower than the McLarens at the beginning of the season. At the very last minute of the hour David managed to make 0.1 tenths of a second faster time than Mika's, and some people already thought that would be enough for pole. But at the last minute came Mika, who had stayed on the track for many laps and drove almost half a second faster time. What was unusual again, at least David was using only one set of tyres, and Mika drove many laps before he drove the best time. Bridgestone's new tyres seemed to last really long especially in a 'cold' weather.
The race itself was predicted to be - like it had been for the last couple of years - a performance by the McLaren-Mercedes-cars... IF the cars would be reliable, which they hadn't been at the winter's tests. The race began when the two McLarens lead the group, The gap to the rest increased at least by a second per. Until on lap 13 our fears became true: David drove his car to the pits and retired because of a hydraylic problem. On the same lap the rear wing of Jacques Villeneuve's car become loosen in the middle of a straight - this had been several team's problem during the winter - and the safety car came out. When the race was re-started Häkkinen's car clotted strangely, and after a few laps Mika had to give up and retire.
Already before, at the start of the second formation lap Schumacher's car stalled and he had to start the race from the back of the grid like in Suzuka just a few months before. In addition to this Michael was having problems with a tyre and the steering wheel in the race. But even all this wasn't enough for Schuey this time. He made the 'Häkkinen' manouvre when he came in to pits too early. The men of Ferrari weren't ready yet, so he had no choice but try again on the next lap miehet. As a result for all of this was 8th place and no points. Had Schuey ever before finished the race at the last position?
A strange thing
happened before the race at the garage of McLaren. Mika jumped
from car to car and didn't seem to know with which car to drive
the race. When Mika finally made his decision (the T-car), he
left the pits in such a horry that some wires were still attached
to the car and some things fell down... on people. Luckily
nothing serious happened, even though some team members could use
ice packs after the incident. How could a top team screw up like
this!
WHEN THE CATS ARE
GONE, MOUSES JUMP TO THE TABLE
All and all it must
be said that the first race of the 99 season was the most
interesting for years. At first it did look that the race would
be the most boring ever, when the McLarens had the lead and
totally set their own pace. But like so many times before, motor
sports showed its unexpected nature. Eddie was one of the few
drivers whom everyone loved to see winning.
BRAZILIAN GP 99
What good did the
Brazilian GP 99 give us? Nothing... David retired a few times
during the same race. I guess it was Mika who won, like he had
done a year before.
GP OF SAN MARINO 99
San Marino was a
far better race for DC. In fact it was the only race he had
finished when four races had been driven. DC said that he didn't
win because the backmarkers didn't let him pass them fast enough.
But Ithink DC wouldn't have won anyway... In Imola David seemed
to be really slow. So the result was far too familiar second
place and wholly six points. After four races the
amount of points was still the same. A G-R-E-A-T start for the
season!
GP OF MONACO 99
But the smiles faded in the race. Schuey took a unbeatable win and his team mate Eddie Irvine was second. Mika had problems with his car and was third, and David's fate was again another too familiar thing: A retirement because of technical failure. This time it was no surprise because David's car This time it was no surprise because something was coming out of David's car already at very early stage of the race at the corner of Loews, which happens to be the slowest corner of them all. And besides (before year 2000) David had seen the chequered flag only once in Monaco: In 1996 he was (surprise, surprise!) second.
Monaco was a
devastating race for McLaren. The times when David's car lasted
'till the pitstops had been rare, but in Monaco the cars had also
been really slow. Sure, Mika had problems with his car's
suspension and at least one gear was missing from David's gear
box... But McLaren had to improve a lot if the team wanted to
beat Ferrari in the future in speed but ALSO in reliability.
Ferrari's lead in the constructors' and drivers' Championship was
huge. It seemed like McLaren had already screwed all up what came
to season 99.
SPANISH GP 99
The qualifying was the most even so far in 1999, when at one point the three best drivers were separated with only 17 thousands of a second. At the beginning the surprise was created by Sauber's Jean Alesi by keeping the provisional pole for a long time. Finally he was 5th, when the McLarens and the Ferraris were faster. The most surprising moment of the hour was when David drove to the pits when he was making his fastest time! On that lap he dorve the first sector of the track to the time 23.8 - time which no one could drive later, not even David himself. Once again there was just one word to describe all this: Idiocy. David's guts were finally enough for the 3rd place. His superiors were of course Mika and surprisingly 'the other one' of the Ferraris, Eddie Irvine. Schuey was left to 4th place. Jacques Villeneuve kept again BAR's flags high with his 6th place.
The start of the race was expected to be interesting. What would happen to Ferrari-McLaren fighters Mika-Irvine and David-Schuey? At the start David made fun of both the Ferraris and took the second place right behind Mika. David's actions enabled Jacques to climb up to the 3rd place, and that decided the race to McLaren. Schuey was for over 20 laps trapped behind Jacques, and was at least a second per lap slower than Mika. David was having a rough time. After the second pit stopSchuey nearly passed him, but luckily just nearly. After a tight battle McLaren took its first 1-2 victory of the season!
After the
Catalonyan battle both Schuey and Mika disappeared to a holiday
to North-America, whereas their slaves, the number two drivers
Eddie and David worked long hours at the tests. David drove the
fastest time of the 3-days-long test session at the track of
Silverstone.
CANADIAN GP 99
The sixth race of
the season at Montreal, Canada was again really interesting and
full of action. The safety car was out several times, and also a
lot happened to David. During the race three World Champions,
including Schuey who was leading the race, drove off the track at
the last corner and wrecked their cars. After that it was easy
for Mika to take the win, but behind him drivers were fighting
hard for good positions. Halfway through, right after the safety
car had curved back to the pits, David tried to pass Eddie, who
was second. Eddie closed the door on DC and so both drivers ended
to the grass. Eddie was able to get back to the track faster and
was finally 3rd in the race. Things didn't work out quite that
well for David: He got a 10 seconds stop/go-penalty for passing
the safety car, and ended up finishing the race on 7th position.
FRENCH GP 99
David was driving
well at the start of the race and was leading for a few laps
before he retired because of electrical problem on lap nine. Soon
after tha it started to rain a bit and the safety car came out
and stayed there for many laps. When the rain faded away the race
was finally on its way again. Mika tryed to pass Rubens who was
leading and spunn. Mika was dropped down by many places, but even
that didn't depress the Flying Finn this time. The victory in
France was taken by Heinz-Harald Frenzen, who had suffered from
concussion in Canada. Mika fought his way to the 2nd place and
increased the gap to Schuey to eight points - way to go Mika, way
to go Finland!
BRITISH GP 99
Friday's practice for the British GP was really even. Seven first drivers were separated by only four tenths of a second. The fastest driver of the day was Mika, David was 4th and Damon Hill 7th. In the Saturday morning's practice Mika was unbeatable. DC was second, but his time was 0.6 seconds slower than Mika's. Schuey was third, 0.8 seconds behind Mika's time.
Even in the
qualifying no one was able to tame Mika. He took his 6th pole of
the season easily. Schuey was second and David third. He was
having problems with the rear of his car, and was 0.8 seconds
slower than the pole man. Eddie was fourth and so the starting
grid looked really interesting. Which one would win, McLaren or
Ferrari?
TAKE IT AS IT
COMES...
After Schuey's accident Mika's biggest opponent in the title hunt was surprisingly Eddie! Who could have believed that Ferrari's number two driver would have a chance to the title. The world of F1 is full of wonders.
The second start of the race didn't go at all well from David, and he was stuck behind Eddie. Mika instead managed well again and was leading the race 'till his pit stop. Then his problems began; the left rear tyre caused problems and Mika had to come back to the pits a lap later. At this point Mika's placing was worse than 10th. A few laps later At this point Mika's placing was worse than 10th. A few laps later a tyre became loosen from Mika's car at the last corner of the track. Luckily Mika's speed wasn't too high, and the tyre didn't hit anyone. Mika returned to the pits again, but retired finally a few laps later.
When Mika was
suffering from his tyre problems David had taken the lead.
Eddie was less than a second behind him, but David didn't make
any mistakes. During the second pitstops Eddie didn't
manage to pass David, and that was it. David drove the
fifth win of his career and his win first of the season at the
best possible time. McLaren hadn't win its home GP for nearly ten
years, and winning his homerace meant a lot to David. Nonetheless
the victory didn't make things any easier for DC, when his team
mate had twice as much points. Would team orders come in effect
soon?
AUSTRIAN GP 99
FROM EUPHORIA TO
A LONG NIGHTMARE
We knew that some day it would happen, but it still hit us like a lightning bolt from a clear sky. The Austrian GP 1999 became a real nightmare to the drivers of the team McLaren. Like so many times before, the second corner of the A1-Ring - perhaps the most famous corner of the world - Remus that is, was a crucial place. Already on the first lap a catastrophe saw daylight when DC tried to pass the leader Häkkinen. Mika spunn off the track and was suddenly on last place, David was luckier and was able to continue his race on first place. Finally the win was taken by Eddie with a second's gap to David. Mika made a miracle possiible and was third. Mika Salo who was driving Schuey's car was disappointedly 9th.
The crash at Remus
was the main story after the race. It was clear that the only
culprit to the incident was David. He tried his passing manouvre
in altogether wrong place and took all the blame for himself.
Even though his apology was approved in the team, McLaren's inner
peace had suffered a lot. Was the damage already too sewere?
GERMAN GP 99
After Mika's retirement it was easy job for Ferrari to take a 1-2 victory. At the start of the race Mika Salo had been Häkkinen's worst opponent, and without a team order he had won the race, but "Robin let Batman to win". The German GP 2000 was historical for Finns: For the first time in the history of F1 Finns were holding the first and second places, and Salo was on the podium for the first time on his career. But where was David?
At the beginning of the race David was stuck behind Salo and wreck the front wing of his car to the rear of the Ferrari. DC had to come to the pits to change his front wing, and he was then outside points. He made a desperate move and overtook a car by cutting a chicane. This wasn't approved and DC got a ten seconds stop/go penalty. Finally David was 5th in the race. Without his two stupid mistakes David would have won the race so easily: His fastest lap time was 1.5 seconds faster than anyone else's!
It's true that
Ferrari took its two vitally important wins only because of
McLaren's dull mistakes. Ferrari wasn't faster than McLaren in
these races, but was able to collect the trophys with its
better luck, reliability and flawlessness. In motor sports you
won't achieve a point if you don't finish races or hit idioticly
other drivers. Reliability is always more important than speed.
When then races had been driven, Eddie Irvine had taken an eight
points lead in the World Championship. He had retired only once
during the whole season. At the constructors' side Ferrari had
suddenly 16 points lead. Would McLaren still be able to fight for
the titles?
HUNGARIAN GP 99
In Hungary there
was a Finnish celebration both on the track and outside of it. 20
000 Finns had come to Hungaroring to witness McLaren's
for once flawless race and a 1-2 win. Mika won, David was second
and Eddie was 3rd. The whole weeked was a nightmare to Mika
Salo: 18th in the qualifying, 12th in the race. Hungary proved us
what's the ground rule in F1: When McLarenis survive the first
lap and the pit stops, no one can beat them. In the kingdom of
the Silver Arrows everything was fine again!
BELGIAN GP 99
In Belgium McLaren finally took the lead at the constructors' Championship with its 106 points against Ferrari's 97. What happened in the race is a wholly another story...
For the second time
in six weeks' time David and Mika hit each others at the first
lap of a race. This time the situation wasn't so sewere; Mika's
car's left front tyre hit slightly David's car and both were able
to continue to race normally with their undamaged cars. But Mika
was so shocked about what had happened that he couldn't fight for
the win anymore. So, since a team order was not given, David
became the happy winner of the Belgian GP. Mika, though, did his
best to ruin David's joy and sulked after the race, even though
everybody (except for some idiotic Finns) said that Mika was to
blame for the first conner's incident. It took three days before
Mika admitted that the crash at the corner of La Source had been
his own fault. And way too many people thought that the Belgian
GP was won by 'the wrong man' : Those extra four points
should have been taken by Mika. But I stick behind my opinion: IF
A DRIVER IS SO SLOW THAT HE CAN'T WIN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ONLY
WITH HIS OWN PERFORMANCES AND HIS OWN CREDITS... IF HE IS SO
HELPLESS THAT HE NEEDS HELP FROM HIS TEAM MATE, THEN THE DRIVER
DOESN'T EVEN DESERVE TO BECOME THE WORLD CHAMPION!!!
ITALIAN GP 99
So Italy wasn't a good place for Ferrari, but it wasn't a happy place for McLaren either. After taking the pole Mika made another big mistake during the 1999 season. The last one was in Imola, in a same kind of situation: When Mika was leading the race. Also now Mika made a stupid mistake and retired. Without his two mistakes Mika would now have had 20 points more, so if he wouldn't win the title he could only blame himself... unless he would lose the battle with OVER 20 points.
The whole weekend was really bad for David. In the qualifying the gap to team mate was almost 0.8 seconds, and in the race DC was struggling with his undedsteering car. Again after a win DC had to face the cruel world.
In Italy Ferrari was able to decrease McLaren's lead a bit, and an old-new name entered the title hunt: Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frenzen, who won the race. When only three races was left, Mika and Irvine were sharing the lead with even points. Frenzen was third ten points behind, David was two points from Frenzen.
After Monza the
teams were testing in France, at the track of Magny-Cours. David
was fastest every day. David was working for full three days,
Mika only two. It's just so wrong... At the last day of the tests
McLaren announced that team orders would 'probably' come in
effect at the next race.
EUROPEAN GP 99
CAN'T THE TOP
TEAMS DO NOTHING BUT MISTAKES?
Before the qualifying began rain became, so the starting grid was decided on a drying track. Germany's Heinz-Harald Frenzen took surprisingly the seond pole of his career, even though he had been having problems in the practice sessions and even in the qualifying . David managed to take the 2nd place, but Mika was left to 3rd place. Everything went wrong for the Ferraris; Eddie was 9th and Salo 12th.
The race got a bizarre start, when the first start was aborted. A few drivers already moved. Only later it was found out that Marc Gene had caused the confusion... In the second start Alex Wurz sent Pedro Diniz to a trip across the air. But the Brazilian got no serious injuries. When the safety car left the track Frenzen was leading and was followed by Mika, David and Ralf Schumacher. Eddie was stuck behind Giancarlo Fisichella and the top four was running further from him. Then the rain begin...
Mika was the first one who came to pits to change to wets. The decision to change tyres turned out to be wrong. The rain stopped and the top 3 drivers who were having slicks set their own pace. Mika instead was dropping down all the time because of his slow tyres. Also Ferrari screwed up; both drivers' pit stops lasted for about 30 seconds and both Salo and Eddie losed many placings.
Frenzen and David who were leading the race came to the pits at the same time. The team Jordan didn't make any mistakes and Heinz-Harald was back on the track before David. But that joy didn't last for long, already on that same lap H-H had a electric problem and his game was over. DC took the lead! At that point it started to rain again and the drivers were trying to keep their cars on the track. And then happened something I had feared: Only five laps later David drove off the wet track and retitred. Rare have been the times when I have been so angry and sad because of David's retirement. Driving off the track also decided the destiny of David's World Championship dreams: to the trash can (for good?).
So DC had retired, and the leading man was now Schumacher Junior with his Williams. Ralf went to pits and Fisichella was leading for a while until also he drove off. And the lead was taken again by younger Schuey. His world was blackened when the rear tyre of his car explouded and he had to go to the pits to get a new tyre. Finally R Schuey was 4th in the race.
The last F1-race in Europe at the last Millennium was really full of action and exciting. Many drivers was disappointed during the race, when on a good position either the car or the weather caused problems. But few teams were still smiling when the race was over: Stewart achieved its first win ever, thanks to Johnny Herbert. Team Prost's Jarno Trulli was 2nd and Stewart's another driver Rubens Barrichello was third.
Mika managed
finally to get himself the 5th place and 2 points. With those two
points he took the lead at the World Championship. Eddie was 7th
and got no points. When only two races was left, Frenzen was
still 3rd 12 points and David 4th 14 points behind Mika. McLaren
was leading the constructors' Championship with 8 points more
than Ferrari. The tune for the last two races looked clear: David
would again try to help Mika to win the Championship.
MALAYSIAN GP 99
Friday's practice for the Malaysian GP went by when all the teams and drivers were getting to know to the track. After two hours of practice a surpriser had the first place: Jacques Villeneuve! Everything looked good for Ferrari as well as for Davidi, Mika instead was only 8th.
The qualifying was
Ferrari's and Schumi's celebration. Schumi was a second faster
than his team mate Eddie who was second. David managed to pass
Mika at the very last moment and took the 3rd place - ha, ha! The
speed of the Ferrari's was wondered by all. Where from they had
found that extra speed again?
ANOTHER DAY IN
THE TRENCHES...
David passed Schumi
at the early stage of the race, and went on to chase Eddie, who
was leading. But already on lap 15 David had to park his car to
the grass. Another mystical failure in David's car...
PARISIAN GP
With the Parisian
verdict the whole F1-series turned into a soap opera. FIA decided
that Ferrari doesn't have to bother to obey the rules. Try to
race in a car which has a 'wrong' coloring, then!
JAPANESE GP 99
The qualifying
became a startling fight between Mika and Schumi. After the first
runs the gap between these two was 0.000 seconds! Mika managed to
take the provisional pole with his second try, but Schumi did the
same thing with his third run. Mika's last two runs were ruined:
The third one he had to abort when the session was stopped
because Eddie drove off the track. The last run was ruined when
Jean Alesi spunn in front of Mika. So, because of Mika's
bad luck Schumi took the pole. Mika was second, David third,
Frenzen 4th and Eddie was 5th.
FLYING FINN FIRST
AT FINISH...AGAIN
I bet David's race was a nightmare from the start. At the start was dropped down to 5th place. After the first pit stops it looked a lot better. Mika was leading, Schumi was second, David was 3rd and Eddie 4th. If this had been the order at the finish line, McLaren would have won ALSO the constructors' title. But then David drove off the track and hit the wall. DC made it to the pits, where his front wing was replaced. When DC returned the pack he was 10th. His car had appearently suffered more sewere damage; seven laps later, on lap 40, David drove his car to the garage and retired. The problem was the gear box. A lousy ending for a lousy season!
After the race Schumi critisized with harh words David's actions in front of him at the decisive moment of the race. David was then being lapped by Schumil, but held him behind for a lap despite of the blue flags. Schumi said that he had lost 10 seconds behind David, when the truth was three seconds. With his accusations Schumi showed that he's still a very bad loser, for he did also mention Spa 98. At first David threatened Schumi even with a defamation indict. David didn't like the way Schumi told his opinion to the media, not to DC personally. When the sun was already setting inSuzuka these two men talked things clear.
Mika won the
Championship in Japan by driving, but the constructors' title
McLaren lost in Paris, where FIA decided that Ferrari doesn't
have to obey the rules and laws of F1.