Indholdsfortegnelse for 11/08/2016 i Autosport

IT REALLY DOESN’T SEEM LIKE 16 YEARS SINCE MICHAEL Schumacher finally ended Ferrari’s wait for a first F1 drivers’ world championship after Jody Scheckter’s 1979 triumph. The superteam, led by Schumacher, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne, had to overcome a powerful McLaren squad. Once that had been achieved, however, Ferrari became unstoppable, recording a level of dominance rarely seen in Formula 1. It set the bar to a height the current Italian team still finds hard to reach. The 2000 season, which is the focus of this special issue, had plenty of other subplots. Then-rookie Jenson Button laid the foundations for a stellar F1 career, while the fledgling Williams-BMW partnership should arguably have challenged the Ferrari steamroller more strongly in the years that followed. And outside of F1,…

After 40 laps of the Belgian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher leads from Mika Hakkinen; the two star drivers of 2000 locked in combat in the closing laps of the race. Schumacher’s robust defence has already riled Hakkinen, who took to the grass on the previous lap, but this time round they are closing in on Ricardo Zonta’s BAR. “Planning to overtake Michael there was very difficult, but it was clear that he knew it was the only place I could do it,” says Hakkinen. “So he was defending as much as he could, going to the borderline all the time. So you had to take risks. “I needed to take more and more risks through Eau Rouge. And when I did that, I was wearing the tyres out more, so…

The turn of the ‘New Millennium’ will forever be etched in Jenson Button’s memory. Not because he feared the world would end, or that the Y2K bug would ground aeroplanes and cause worldwide transport networks to grind to a halt. No, for him the year 2000 marks something far more significant – the beginning of his Formula 1 career. Fifteen years before Max Verstappen sent shockwaves through single-seater racing by leaping straight into F1 from Formula 3, Button did likewise – blazing a trail through the international karting scene, Formula Ford and British F3 before arriving at the sport’s pinnacle. Such a move was not that extraordinary back then. Jarno Trulli did it just a few seasons earlier. Bar a handful of F2 races on the side, so had Alain…

AUDI TAKES FIRST LE MANS WIN AUDI’S first win in the Le Mans 24 Hours wasn’t just a breakthrough victory. It was complete and utter domination, with the three Audi R8s run by the factory Joest squad finishing 1-2-3, and the closest opposition 24 laps (almost two hours!) behind. For 2000, BMW, Nissan, Mercedes and Toyota had all withdrawn from the top LMP900 category, leaving the frontengined Panoz roadsters as what appeared to be the closest opposition on paceto the three-car Audi squad, making its second attempt on the race. While its competition withered away, Audi went on a programme of mass development of its new contender, the open-top R8. Powered by a 610bhp V8 twin-turbo engine, it was driven through a new transmission roughly half the size of its…

SAUBER TO TRY NEW FRONT WING AT SPA Sauber will run a new front wing in the Belgian Grand Prix after the summer break. It tried out a new rear wing in Hungary and Germany last month, which is part of an overall upgrade package that includes the front wing, a new floor and other aerodynamic details. F1 2016 ADDS MULTIPLAYER SEASON This year’s official Formula 1 computer game will feature an online multiplayer championship, Codemasters has announced. The feature was widely requested by fans of the game and is part of a raft of new features, including the return of the safety car and a modified career mode. BARRICHELLO TO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Former Ferrari Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello will contest the CIK-FIA World KZ Karting Championship in Sweden…

A NEW RACING INITIATIVE IS SET TO PROVIDE a home for smaller series and promote fresh ideas next season. Classic Sports Car Club founder Richard Culverhouse plans to organise cheap events that can sustain smaller grids than is the case with most clubs. “At the beginning of the year there were groups of people who approached me to put on some race meetings or get them on to events,” said Culverhouse, who has yet to name his new organisation. “Ferrari Classic, for example, don’t have a home [it is not attached to any one club]. It’s the same with some of the MGs and Northern Saloon and Sports Cars series, which struggle to get races at circuits like Cadwell Park, Donington and Mallory. “This is about trying to get an…

DAVID LESLIE’S RACE-WINNING VAUXHALL Cavalier from the 1993 British Touring Car Championship will return to competition in the hands of historic ace Oliver Bryant. The RML-built Ecurie Ecosse car won at Thruxton, and Leslie was often a frontrunner, finishing eighth in the 1993 drivers’ standings. Recently found in Norway, chassis 010 has been bought by Ecurie Ecosse members and racers Bryant, Joe Twyman, Alasdair McCaig and Andrew Smith. They have returned the car, which had been used as a track-day machine in 1995 bewinged specification, to its ’93 form. Bryant, who has tested the Vauxhall at Donington Park but not raced a front-wheeldrive car before, said: “Our plan is to run it in the Super Touring Trophy at some point. The opportunity came up to buy it, and the series…

MORE TEAMS COULD JOIN CARRERA CUP Porsche Carrera Cup GB bosses are in talks with six potential new entrants. Autosport reported in July that 2015 Le Mans winner Nick Tandy’s JTR squad is planning to enter three cars in ’17, and Porsche GB motorsport boss James MacNaughton says more teams could join the grid. PLOWMAN RETURNS TO GT IN EVORA Former IndyCar driver Martin Plowman returned to the British GT Championship to share a Lotus Evora with Richard Taffinder at Snetterton last weekend. They completed just three racing laps over Sunday’s two races, with technical trouble culminating in Plowman retiring the car after a fire. DAVIS RETURNS TO CLIO CUP WITH PYRO Ben Davis will return to the Renault UK Clio Cup at Silverstone next month with the leading Team…

AFTER TWO ROUNDS WITHOUT a win, Ricky Collard consolidated his BRDC Formula 3 championship lead ahead of the final round of the season with an exemplary display at Snetterton. None of the weekend’s three races will go down as classics, but that will matter little to Collard, who swept to his fourth and fifth victories of the year to edge closer to the 2016 crown. The foundations for his success were laid on Saturday morning when he recorded pole for the opening race, but only after his Carlin team had sorted a steering wheel issue. Collard’s first pole attempts weren’t stunning, either, but he then reeled off a pair of impressive efforts to set the fastest time, despite a late improvement from Matheus Leist. Qualifying set up the prospect of…

CHAMPIONS WERE CROWNED IN the sweltering heat as the 750 Motor Club hit Cadwell Park, with a number of the Club’s championships racing for the penultimate time in 2016. Robin Gearing had the 750 Formula title wrapped up by the end of the weekend, but it was Bill Cowley who impressed on his return to the series after his crash at Mallory Park, having repaired his severely damaged Cowley MkIV. Cowley changed his gearbox before the first race after it was jumping between third and fourth during qualifying. He started from the second row of the grid, but made a good start and was able to get ahead of Richard Rothery into Coppice. Gearing drove conservatively, opting not to put too much at risk, by letting the quicker Cowley through…

Michael Schumacher’s 2000 drivers’ world championship title was the culmination of a rebuilding programme begun by Ferrari team principal Jean Todt seven years earlier, and which took on a new dimension when the Frenchman hired the German for the 1996 season. Now there could be no excuses. Todt completed the dream team by adding technical director Ross Brawn and designer Rory Byrne. With the pieces falling into place, this talented group came agonisingly close in both 1997 and ’98, before Schumacher’s crash at Silverstone interrupted his ’99 campaign, and left team-mate Eddie Irvine to take the challenge to Mika Hakkinen and McLaren. The Northern Irishman very nearly did it, but it was Schumacher who finally ended Maranello’s 21-year drought in the millennial year. “When I joined Ferrari in July 1993,…

The design of the Ferrari F1-2000 sat between the 1998-’99 cars and the line that followed, starting with the F2001. McLaren had established itself as the team to beat since the narrow-track, grooved-tyre era started in 1998, and the Ferrari showed the influence of what Adrian Newey was doing at McLaren. The key technical leaders, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne, had joined from Benetton in the ’90s, with the structure of Ferrari being influenced by the success of Enstone in the mid-’90s. Ferrari still used technology introduced by John Barnard, who left after the 1997 season, such as gearbox construction and the intricate fabrication systems for other key metal structural parts. But the F1-2000 marked the start of five seasons of dominance for Ferrari, and set a new direction and…

WHILE one British driver was busy making a splash as an impressive newcomer to Formula 1, another bowed out at the end of a trying year with the new all-singing, all-dancing Jaguar team. Johnny Herbert was a race winner with Stewart in 1999, but ended the following season with no points, calling time on a 12-year career at the top level. Team-mate Eddie Irvine was a regular top-10 qualifier over the first six races in Jaguar’s troublesome first F1 car, while Herbert struggled and grew frustrated with persistent unreliability in his R1. He nevertheless qualified within a tenth of Irvine at Monaco. “It was the weirdest race I’ve had,” says Herbert, whose Jaguar deal was the final year of a carry-over contract from Stewart. “I got ahead of Eddie but…

Looking to the heavens from the top step of the Hockenheim podium in July 2000, Rubens Barrichello breaks down in tears. On his 123rd start, then a record for starts before a first win, the Brazilian has finally taken a Formula 1 victory in the German Grand Prix. It was achieved in what Autosport’s cover called “the craziest race in F1 history”. Saturday had been, in Barrichello’s own words, “the worst day of the year”. Ferrari team-mate and championship leader Michael Schumacher crashed at the end of the final practice session and was using the T-car. When Barrichello’s car suffered an electrical problem on his first flying lap of qualifying, he had to switch to Schumacher’s repaired car. When he finally set a time, it had rained. Eighteenth on the…

JACK SEARS, THE WINNER OF THE first British Touring Car Championship, died last weekend at the age of 86. Sears won the 1958 BTCC title – then known as the British Saloon Car Championship – after a shootout with fellow class dominator Tommy Sopwith. Tied on the same number of points at the end of the season, the duo went head-to-head in Riley 1.5s, with Sears emerging on top. He took a second crown in 1963, this time battling for overall wins in the mighty seven-litre Ford Galaxie. It was Sears’ success with the car, against the likes of Graham Hill and Roy Salvadori, that ended Jaguar’s run as the tin-top benchmark. Born into a well-to-do family – his grandfather trained as a cobbler but evolved his business into a…

Recently there has been criticism, from Vettel, Verstappen and even some drivers whose surnames don’t begin with V, about how ridiculous the blue flags have been. I quite agree – we should get rid of them at once. Many a time recently a grand prix has been threatening to get exciting when the leaders encounter traffic, until you remember that the traffic has to jump out of the way or risk facing a penalty. Much like track limits (which the FIA is finally, albeit belatedly and nowhere near enough, doing something about) it’s another driver skill that’s been eroded by some curious thinking. At the very least, no blue flag should be shown until the lead lap car is within DRS range of the car about to be lapped. Incidentally,…

“Amon retired while leading a GP three times” YOU CAN MAKE A very strong case for Chris Amon being the driver who was most unfortunate not to have won a world championship race. One of an ill-starred group of nine drivers who have led, finished on the podium and had a pole position in Formula 1 points races, the statistics confirm his status. He led seven world championship races for a combined total of 183 laps. That puts him second in the races-led list and top of the laps-led list. The one driver ahead in terms of number of races led – Nick Heidfeld, with eighth – led many of those during the refuelling era and his tally of just 25 laps at the front puts him well behind Amon.…

IMSA SPORTSCAR ROAD AMERICA (USA) AUGUST 7 ROUND 9/12 ERIC CURRAN AND DANE CAMERON combined to win a thrilling race last Sunday at Road America by less than a second from Action Express Corvette team-mates Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa. The two crews are now separated by a solitary championship point with just two races remaining. An even more dramatic GTLM battle ended with points leaders Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner claiming their fourth win of the season. The Mazda Prototype of Jonathan Bomarito and Tristan Nunez once again was the class of the field in terms of pace. Bomarito secured the combination’s third pole of the season and took command of the early stages, but a brave strategic call failed to pay dividends. After losing their advantage following the…

CUMBRIAN LIFEBOATMAN ANDY Park is odds-on favourite to win the Historic Formula Ford 2000 title, but the Reynard driver’s three-year, five-race victory streak at the HSCC’s annual Croft Nostalgia Festival was ended by F2/Atlantic racer Andy Smith, guesting in unrelated reigning champion Tom’s TS Historics Royale RP27 in Sunday’s second stanza. Defeated only once this term – when pressured into a spin by Benn Simms at Snetterton – Park withstood a barrage of attacks from Smith until his rival’s car’s handling went awry in the morning. A cracked chassis rail was the culprit, but it took graft to fix resultant issues at the rear. Smith rewarded the team with a brilliant afternoon win, diving ahead at the hairpin on lap six. “My car was better in the twisty sections,” said…

FOR UK TELEVISION AUDIENCES, the events of the 2000 Formula 1 season relived in these pages were followed exclusively on ITV. And that year marked the start of a significant changing of the guard on the channel as James Allen began taking over as lead commentator from the legendary Murray Walker in a phased handover that started with a surprise stand-in appearance before becoming a ‘job share’ for Walker’s farewell season in ’01. It’s almost eight years since ITV’s tenure as the home of UK F1 TV coverage ended and, although the broadcasting landscape has changed a lot since then, Allen is adamant that most of the ideas introduced during the channel’s 12-year stint in the championship are still evident. “What everybody does today – Sky, the BBC until last…

McLAREN-MERCEDES MP4-15 WILLIAMS-BMW FW22 BENETTON-SUPERTEC B200 JORDAN-MUGEN HONDA EJ10 THE REGULATIONS The 2000 rules were largely unchanged from 1999. This was the third season of the narrow-track regulations, introduced in 1998, that reduced the car width from 2000mm to 1800mm. Three-litre V10 normally aspirated engines were regulated, with both front and rear tyres featuring four grooves. JAGUAR-COSWORTH R1 ARROWS-SUPERTEC A21 PROST-PEUGEOT AP03 BAR-HONDA 002 SAUBER-FERRARI C19 MINARDI-COSWORTH M02…

Aonce-dominant team looking to recapture past glories joins forces with an engine manufacturer returning to F1 after a significant absence. We had that story with McLaren and Honda last season, but also with Williams and BMW back in 2000. At that time a few podiums and a distant third place in the constructors’ championship didn’t seem like too much to write home about. However, McLaren-Honda’s struggles in 2015 help to emphasise just what a good job the folk from Grove and Munich did 16 years ago, given that it was the start of their new relationship. “BMW got the engine quite right from the beginning,” recalls Gerhard Berger, who oversaw the manufacturer’s F1 programme with Mario Theissen. “We finished on the podium in the first race, and I think everything…

1 AUSTRALIA (MELBOURNE) 1 MICHAEL SCHUMACHER Ferrari F1-2000 2 RUBENS BARRICHELLO Ferrari F1-2000 3 RALF SCHUMACHER Williams-BMW FW22 2 BRAZIL (INTERLAGOS) 1 MICHAEL SCHUMACHER Ferrari F1-2000 2 GIANCARLO FISICHELLA Benetton-Supertec B200 3 HEINZ-HARALD FRENTZEN Jordan-Mugen Honda EJ10 3 SAN MARINO (IMOLA) 1 MICHAEL SCHUMACHER Ferrari F1-2000 2 MIKA HAKKINEN McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 3 DAVID COULTHARD McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 4 BRITAIN (SILVERSTONE) 1 DAVID COULTHARD McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 2 MIKA HAKKINEN McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 3 RALF SCHUMACHER Williams-BMW FW22 5 SPAIN (BARCELONA) 1 MIKA HAKKINEN McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 2 DAVID COULTHARD McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 3 RUBENS BARRICHELLO Ferrari F1-2000 6 EUROPE (NURBURGRING) 1 MICHAEL SCHUMACHER Ferrari F1-2000 2 MIKA HAKKINEN McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 3 DAVID COULTHARD McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 7 MONACO (MONTE CARLO) 1 DAVID COULTHARD McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 2 RUBENS BARRICHELLO Ferrari F1-2000 3 GIANCARLO FISICHELLA Benetton-Supertec B200 8…

WORLD TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RIO HONDO (RA) AUGUST 6-7 ROUND 8/12 JOSE MARIA LOPEZ’S TIME IN THE WORLD Touring Car Championship has been nothing short of sensational. After two dominant title triumphs he holds an almost untouchable points lead with four rounds of the season left to run, and going into last weekend’s Argentina round had won 27 times since making his debut in 2013. But before the summer break, it seemed as though there was something missing. Lopez had gone four races without a podium, let alone a win. It could not be more fitting, therefore, that on his final WTCC appearance in front of his home crowd at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit – the scene of his first WTCC victory and three other home triumphs after…

NASCAR SPRINT CUP WATKINS GLEN (USA) AUGUST 7 ROUND 22/36 DENNY HAMLIN SECURED HIS second win in this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup, surviving a hectic final few laps of the Watkins Glen road course race. It was the second and final road race of the season, after the Sonoma round in June. The 90-lap battle around the New York circuit lasted longer than expected due to a series of caution periods during the latter stages. The final caution came with four laps to go, and Hamlin led the way from the final green flag. This caution became a red flag period with clean up required for Kevin Harvick and David Ragan, as they got into each other on a restart, leaving oil on the track. The stoppage lasted for almost…

LEADING SINGLE-SEATER TEAMS Arden and MP Motorsport are considering expanding into the revamped Eurocup Formula Renault series next season. Both squads currently compete in GP2 and FIA-backed Formula 4 championships, and believe the Eurocup could be a good stepping stone for drivers. Last month, Renault Sport announced that the Eurocup calendar would increase from seven events to 10 in 2017, as well as there being more races per weekend (see Autosport, July 21). The French firm also pledged to fund two leading Eurocup drivers in their 2018 programmes and make them Renault Sport Academy members. The changes have led both Arden and MP to seriously consider an entry. Arden general manager Julian Rouse said: “The changes make it look more interesting for us. The number of rounds and races-per-weekend increasing…

ROSS GUNN WILL REMAIN IN the Beechdean AMR’s GT4 line-up for the remainder of the season to help Jack Bartholomew fight for the squad’s third consecutive drivers’ championship. Reigning GT4 champion Gunn began the season sharing Andrew Howard’s GT3-spec Aston Martin Vantage, but was placed alongside Bartholomew for last weekend’s double-header at Snetterton when the GT3 was ruled out because of damage and regular GT4 driver Jordan Albert had to step aside. Gunn and Bartholomew took a race win and a second place to elevate Bartholomew to within 2.5 points of championship leaders Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson in the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55. The series’ final round is a two-hour race at Donington Park on September 10-11. Beechdean head Howard said: “Ross will stay in GT4 for the remainder…

MIKE MOSS IS LOOKING TO CONTINUE developing his unique BMW 1M E82 Coupe after the car made its competition debut. Moss ran the car, believed to be the only one of its kind, in the Croft round of the Britcar Endurance Championship at the end of last month. He used the race as a test session, as the car had only been out on a circuit once before. He is likely to use this weekend’s Britcar round at Silverstone as another test, before seeking drivers for October’s Oulton Park event.…

A BRACE OF VICTORIES FOR BARWELL Motorsport’s Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw swung the balance of the British GT Championship title battle dramatically at Snetterton, as TF Sport pairing Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston were left ruing a bodged race-two pitstop that cost them a shot at a first win since the start of May. Practice suggested there was little to choose between the two crews and their sister cars – a reading that was confirmed in qualifying, with Spa race winners Jon Barnes and Mark Farmer (with Farmer at the wheel) nabbing pole for the first race in the #11 TF Sport Aston Martin, and Keen giving himself and Minshaw the best starting position for the second encounter in their #33 Lamborghini Huracan. But though the fight for supremacy…

NIALL MURRAY STRENGTHENED HIS Formula Ford 1600 National Post ’89 title bid at Anglesey, backing up his Brands Hatch brace with another at the conclusion of a thrilling finale. Murray had to work for his second win after fellow front row starter Jake Byrne jumped him into Turn 1. But the points leader fought back at the Banking to take control of the race and cantered to the win, leaving Byrne a lonely second. Yet all eyes were on the battle for third in a train of cars, as Chris Middlehurst relentlessly held off the challenge of Patrik Pasma and Chase Owen. Middlehurst looked safe after Pasma collided with Owen, but the fast-advancing Kevin O’Hara came from 24th on the grid to almost steal third at the line. In the…

THE SAKERS OF PAUL ROSE AND Steve Harris made late moves for first and second in the CNC Heads Sports Saloons race. Garry Watson’s Westfield led Joe Spencer’s Locosaki initially, but after Rose got the better of Harris from the start he then split the lead duo on the second lap. Watson held on in front for six more laps before Rose made the decisive move into Old Hall. The Westfield driver retained second, until his car cut out exiting Lodge on the last lap. Harris went by but Watson managed to fire up again to retain third, from Spencer, Dave Harvey’s Locosaki and Ric Wood’s BMW M3 GTR. Lee Bowron and Michael Blackburn’s XR3is made an early break in the first combined XR Challenge/Scottish Fiesta race, until Bowron spun…

The race that sticks in my mind is the 1972 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand with the Matra. It was the first race for the MS120D. We’d been having all sorts of problems with the engines and when we got to Clermont there were no F1 engines available so we had to use a sportscar engine. It had three-ring pistons, while the F1 engine had two-ring pistons, and a few other differences. The F1 engine was quoted as having 30 or 40 more bhp, but once in the chassis the sportscar engine was probably giving more power because it allowed the oil to scavenge better. The MS120D felt very good straight out of the box. Right from early on I knew we had a pretty good chance. I was right…