10 Tenths Grand Prix Preview -France

[Super Tourer]

In the latest of our previews we look ahead to the French Grand Prix.


10 Tenths Grand Prix Preview – French Grand Prix – Magny Cours – 4th July 2004.

Circuit Website: http://www.magnyf1.com/




2003 RACE RESULT – 70 Laps


1 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 70 1:30:49.213

2 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 70 +13.8 secs

3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 70 +19.5 secs

4 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 70 +38.0 secs

5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 70 +40.2 secs

6 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 70 +66.3 secs

7 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 69 +1 Lap

8 Olivier Panis Toyota 69 +1 Lap 10

9 Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda 69 +1 Lap

10 Antonio Pizzonia Jaguar-Cosworth 69 +1 Lap

11 Cristiano da Matta Toyota 69 +1 Lap

12 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Petronas 68 +2 Lap

13 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas 68 +2 Lap

14 Justin Wilson Minardi-Cosworth 67 +3 Lap

15 Ralph Firman Jordan-Ford 67 +3 Lap

16 Jos Verstappen Minardi-Cosworth 66 +4 Lap

Ret Jarno Trulli Renault 45 Engine

Ret Fernando Alonso Renault 43 Engine

Ret Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Ford 42 Engine

Ret Jenson Button BAR-Honda 21 Out of fuel

Fastest Lap: Juan Pablo Montoya 1:15.512

Official Result



2003 grid

1 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:15.019

2 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:15.136

3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:15.480

4 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.533

5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.628

6 Jarno Trulli Renault 1:15.967

7 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:16.087

8 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:16.166

9 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1:16.308

10 Olivier Panis Toyota 1:16.345

11 Antonio Pizzonia Jaguar-Cosworth 1:16.965

12 Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda 1:16.990

13 Cristiano da Matta Toyota 1:17.068

14 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:17.077

15 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas 1:17.445

16 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Petronas 1:17.562

17 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Ford 1:18.431

18 Ralph Firman Jordan-Ford 1:18.514

19 Jos Verstappen Minardi-Cosworth 1:18.709

20 Justin Wilson Minardi-Cosworth 1:19.619

[Super Tourer]

2003 RACE REVIEW

This time last year we were in the midst of very hot weather across Europe and Bridgestone tyres were flagging in the heat. Williams were able to use the advantage of running Michelin’s to good effect and scored a 1-2 – with Ralf taking the win. This was in fact their second 1-2 on the trot, with Ralf having won the previous round (Europe GP at Nurburgring) from JPM in 2nd.


McLaren weren’t able to capitalize on their Michelin’s to the same effect as Williams. Fourth and Fifth on the grid kept them in touch with Ralf and JPM, they finished in those positions as well, but some 38 seconds off the lead. Kimi got mired in the traffic when his stopping strategy didn’t work out and DC had re-fuelling drama’s in his 3rd stop, the main rig failed, they switched to the 2nd but the lollipop man signaled for DC to move off before the hose was removed – result a felled refueller – he was OK, but DC was delayed and lost too much time.

Ferrari had a very quiet weekend by their standards, finding themselves somewhat hampered by their Bridgestone’s high temperature performance. Michael came in 3rd but didn’t particularly feature in the race. Rubens tipped himself off the track on a kerb and spun out, but recovered to finish 7th, behind Webber who put in a solid driver for 6th in the Jaguar.

Renault have always upped the ante for their home race, both cars made it into the top seven of the grid which looked promising for the race, but unfortunately both retired within a couple of laps of each other; Jarno with a blown engine and Alonso with electronics that kept cutting the engine, none of which was in Renault’s script at all.

BAR had a weekend to forget. They found themselves in the midst of a legal dispute over a commercial contract, the upshot of which was that bailiff’s turned up at the racetrack to seize BAR’s cars and equipment. The result of this was that both cars sat out the Friday practice session whilst the legal wrangling continued, losing valuable track time in the process. Come the race, Button’s fuel rig didn’t work during his stop, and the spare rig only put a tiny amount of fuel in, they sent Jenson back out and set about trying to work out how much fuel went into the car, they found out it wasn’t enough when JB parked up trackside – out of fuel. As a small consolation Villeneuve finished just outside the points but someway a drift.

This was the real mid-summer renaissance for Williams, and this result put them only 3 points behind Ferrari in the constructor’s championship and edged both drivers closer to 2nd place in the drivers standing, Ralf back in 3rd only 3 points behind Kimi. Tyres had really proved a factor at this stage of the season.


French GRAND PRIX - FLASHBACK

2002 – Kimi Raikkonen looked on course to score his first race win, but tripped over oil from the Toyota of McNish, which allowed Michael Schumacher to scamper past for the win and secure his 5th World Championship in the process. This was a season of crushing dominance by Schumacher, to put it into perspective, he secured the title with 6 races still to run and his nearest ‘challenger’ in the table was JPM who left France on 34 points to Schumacher’s 96.


2001 – Another Schumacher milestone as Michael secured his 50th win here. Brother Ralf was 2nd; having led off the start and up to the pitstops, but as so often happens once the stops had panned out Ralf was behind Michael, a sticky rear wheel wiping out the advantage he had built up. Shumacher and Ferrai were dominating both series; MS had 78 points from DC’s 47, whilst Ferrari had almost double the points of 2ndd placed McLaren in the Constructors Championship.


2000 – A McLaren 1-2 with DC scoring the win from Mika Hakkinen, Rubens was third with Michael Schumacher suffering a very rare Ferrari engine failure. Villeneuve came in 4th in the BAR after battling with Ralf Schumacher for much of the race. The race was notable for DC’s robust challenge on Schumacher for the lead. Dc was fired up by being a championship contender and went wheel to wheel with the Ferrari, inevitably they touched, but DC got through.


1996 – A Renault clean sweep with the Williams – Renault’s 1st and 2nd (Hill and Villenueve) with the Benetton- Renault’s 3rd and 4th (Alesi and Berger)


1992 – The teams were spared pre-qualifying, as mercifully the Adrea Moda team failed to turn up, blaming the French Lorry drivers strike for blocking the roads. At least Perry McCarthy was spared another weekend of agony!


1990 – Ivan Capelli gets on the podium with 2nd place in the Leyton House March.


1988 – A race to forget for Ligier as neither Arnoux nor Johansson qualify for the race in their Ligier-Judd’s. Business as usual at the front at the two McLarens’s of Senna and Prost dominate the season. Prost scores a home win with Senna 2nd, on this occasion.


1986 – The Paul Ricard circuit is altered following Elio de Angelis’ tragic testing crash. The track is shortened, removing the high speed esses and cutting the length of the Mistral straight. A new engineer comes into F1 to work with Patrick Tambay’s Lola – his name – Adrian Newey.


1980 – Another heavily French podium as the Ligier- Cosworth’s of Pironi and Laffite finish 2nd and 3rd.


1979 – Jabouille wins in for Renault with Arnoux 3rd in the sister car.




RECENT WINNERS

2003 – Ralf Schumacher
2002 – Michael Schumacher
2001 – Michael Schumacher
2000 – David Coulthard.



CIRCUIT MAP: http://www.formula1.com/race/circuitmap/723.html

[Super Tourer]

LOOKING AHEAD TO THE 2004 RACE.

Looking back at past races, Renault have always geared up for their home race, back in the 80’s the boost was cranked up and every new development was bolted on the car for the French GP, getting pole was considered essential!

The last two races haven’t been kind to the current Renault team, so I’m sure we will see a big effort from them in France, and have to be a dark horse for a strong race.

Williams hit a rich patch of form last summer which put them on track for a strong 2nd half of the season. It’s hard to believe but they have only scored 9 points since the San Marino Grand Prix back at the end of April, the three recent DSQ’s and Ralf’s violent accident have pretty much blunted their championship edge of late, but new improvements are coming including aero parts on the car, electronic systems and a dose of extra power from BMW so we can expect a fight back from Williams. We still don’t know if Ralf will be driving in France, it looks unlikely, and he may miss the British GP as well.

We are due to see the much awaited McLaren MP4-19B, the heavily revised car that the team hopes will turn their season around. It’s tested well, but frankly so did the MP4-19, but I’m sure this time McLaren have learnt which direction they need to take with the car. The drivers are looking for improved aero efficiency and more importantly stability under braking, DC in particular has not felt the 19 has been particularly ‘underneath him’, which doesn’t do much for confidence in the fast stuff! It will be interesting to watch the progress.

Rubens seemed to have the measure of Michael at Indy, whether he can carry this through to France will be interesting to watch. However, in the past Michael has scored a couple of milestones in France, and anything else other than him adding to his win tally would require the opposition to galvanize itself together at the same time.

Speaking of which BAR still fell foul of getting two cars to the flag at Indy, this time JB retired with TS taking the podium. The strategy calamity at Indy should focus the team on the detail of the race a bit more, we’ve suggested in past previews that one weakness of BAR is a lack of front running experience, and calling the right strategy shots against Ferrari.

Our thoughts for the race – pole, will Renault want the glory of pole in France, in front of the top brass - so could Trulli snatch it?

Onto the race – has to be MS, if he trips up JPM is due a good result, Button is on the verge of a win and Renault will be desperate for a good home result – finely poised!



RACE TIMETABLE – all times are LOCAL time: http://www.formula1.com/race/timetable/723.html


Friday 2 July

11:00-12:00 Friday Practice 1

14:00-15:00 Friday Practice 2



Saturday 3 July

09:00-09:45 Saturday Practice 1

10:15-11:00 Saturday Practice 2

13:00 Saturday Pre-Qualifying

14:00 Saturday Qualifying



Sunday 4 July

14:00 Race








LIVE TIMING: http://www.formula1.com/race/livetiming/723.html




TIME ZONE
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=195

France is 1 hour ahead of BST



WEATHER

http://uk.weather.com/weather/local/...&letter=P&y=11


Outlook
Friday 2nd July – Possible showers 21 dec C
Saturday 3rd July – Partly Cloudy - 22 deg C
Sunday – 4th July – Partly Cloudy - 22 deg C



UK TV VIEWING

http://www.itv-f1.com/TVSchedule.aspx


The French Grand Prix on ITV1

Qualifying - Saturday 3 July, 1230-1415

Race - Sunday 4 July, 1205-1530

Highlights on ITV1 - Sunday 4 July, 2345-0045

Highlights on ITV2 - Monday 5 July, 1800-1900

Replayed - Tuesday 6 July, 0120-0425



Please check times with your TV schedule or the motorsport press before recording this race!

[Super Tourer]

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS



2004 Drivers Championship


1 Michael Schumacher - 80

2 Rubens Barrichello- 62

3 Jenson Button -44

4 Jarno Trulli -41

5 Fernando Alonso -25

6 Juan Pablo Montoya -24

7 Takuma Sato -14

8 Ralf Schumacher - 12

9 Giancarlo Fisichella - 10

10 David Coulthard - 9

11 Kimi Räikkönen -8

12 Felipe Massa -5

12= Olivier Panis -5

14 Cristiano da Matta - 3

14= Mark Webber -3

14= Nick Heidfeld -3

17 Timo Glock - 2

18 Zsolt Baumgartner - 1





2004 Constructors Championship


1 Ferrari 142

2 Renault 66

3 BAR-Honda 58

4 Williams-BMW 36

5 McLaren-Mercedes 17

6 Sauber-Petronas 15

7 Toyota 8

8 Jordan-Ford 5

9 Jaguar-Cosworth 3

10 Minardi-Cosworth - 1





10 Tenths Tyre Maker Standings

1. Michelin – 188
2. Bridgestone - 163

[Adam43]

Originally posted by Super Tourer
10 Tenths Tyre Maker Standings

1. Michelin – 188
2. Bridgestone - 163

Is it me or are these getting closer?

It can be an odd one Magny-Cours. Billard ball smooth that can be tricky with set-up (remember those old Ligier days when they new the way to get round quick!). Will one of the tyre manufacturers get it right? I hear Paul Ricard is very smooth and a little like Magny-Cours. How much I don' know, but maybe Toyota will go well. Although they weren't too hot last year.

[Kirk]

I must say again, these previews are outstanding......
one stop shopping for the entire week leading up to each race. Thanks, ST!

[Super Tourer]

Thanks!

[Adam43]

I don't know why particularly, but I'm looking forward to this race. Its not a favourite track of mine (although I liked it on Microprose GP!), I'm not expecting too much in terms of a radical performance. Perhaps someone might beat the dominant force, but probably not. However I think it'll be a good one.