Formula 1
Argentine Grand Prix Report
The race in Argentina this weekend confounded everyone. Before the race, McLaren's Mika Hakkinen had predicted that no-one would come close to the McLarens in the race. Michael Schumacher, however, was predicting that the Ferraris could split the ...
Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The race in Argentina this weekend confounded everyone. Before the race, McLaren's Mika Hakkinen had predicted that no-one would come close to the McLarens in the race. Michael Schumacher, however, was predicting that the Ferraris could split the McLarens. As qualifying drew on it came clear that Ferrari had well and truly made headway with the changes made to the Ferrari, including the new Goodyear front tyres. As a result it was a fired up Coulthard on pole, with Schumacher second. Hakkinen, however, had a torrid time in qualifying and never really seemed to get it together. Irvine looked set at one point to hit pole, until he unexpectedly suddenly hit a 'problem' during a lap which was 0.3 seconds inside Schumachers pole time.
Back from the top two teams the Williams' looked distinctly ordinary, whilst Jordan continued their unpredictable form, with Ralf in the top 6 and Hill inside the top 10. Sauber also hit problems, and Johnny Herbert was not a happy bunny. Several teams ran the rather horrible looking winglets on the side pods, including Sauber, Tyrrell and Jordan.
Come the race and the weather had a chance of rain. Schumacher ran through the pits several times before the start of the race before settling on his race car rather than the t-car for the start. Rumours abounded that the Bridgestones were too hard for the South American track, and that that may cause problems in the race. It looked that the Bridgestone runners wouldn't have any trouble with a one stop strategy, and could probably go a race on them such was the state of the rubber! The Goodyear runners were expected to go for a two stop strategy, and indeed most of them were to do so.
At the start it was the McLaren of Coulthard that lead the way, with a hard charging Schumacher keeping up with him. Only five laps into the race and Coulthard's lead at the front was in trouble. He was not looking good on the track, and suddenly he ran rather wide, allowing a hard charging Michael into the lead. The McLaren suffered damage to the undertray, and whilst Coulthard said that he wasn't happy with the move after the race, it was obvious to all who saw it that really, it was Coulthard's mistake.
From there Schuey started to build up a lead as seen from the McLarens in previous races. This was a massive improvement in form from the Ferrari camp. Whether it is only the slower-twistier tracks that suits the Ferrari remains to be seen. Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile, was in trouble and for the third race in succession he spun off the track.
Behind the top two teams the rest looked distinctly ordinary. Good racing was going on through the whole of the field, and there actually was overtaking! But from the start it was clear that barring bizarre misfortune to the McLaren's and Ferrari's this was to be their race one way or the other, and it really looked good for the Ferraris. The main point of discussion was whether a hard charging Schumacher on a two stop strategy could do enough to make up the difference to McLaren's one stopper. This was soon settled with it rapidly becoming clear that Schuey could easily control the race.
Unusual moments in the race included Jean Alesi tanging with his pit crew and removing one of the daft winglets. It didn't affect his race at all, and out of the two Saubers it was Jeans that was the pace setter, rapidly making progress from his lowley starting point to the top 6. Either the winglets did nothing to the Sauber, or the team have found a major improvement by removing one of them.........
Jean's team mate, Johnny Herbert, meanwhile was not having such a good race. He tangled with Damon Hill and was out of the race. Damon removed his front wing, but managed to keep going, and got to the finish in 8th.
Just outside the top two teams was a hard charging Alexander Wurz, who continues to impress in the Benetton. He made the best of the car over the race, and managed some superb moves on other drivers.
When the champagne was sprayed, Schumacher stood atop the podium flanked by Hakkinen, who finished second, and his team mate Eddie Irvine. Wurz, Alesi and Coulthard rounded out the points paying positions.
For the first time in some time we had real racing going on on the track, rather than everything being decided in the pit lane. Let's hope that this is a sign of things to come!
by Stephen M Baines
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Barcelona Tyrrell Briefing on X-Wings
Next article Spanish GP Race Story
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Mika Hakkinen
Who belongs on F1's Mount Rushmore? Pick your four greatest drivers
Formula 1
Formula 1
Who belongs on F1's Mount Rushmore? Pick your four greatest drivers
Mika Hakkinen reveals why McLaren rivalry with David Coulthard never boiled over
Formula 1
Formula 1
Dutch GP
Mika Hakkinen reveals why McLaren rivalry with David Coulthard never boiled over
Mika Hakkinen urges McLaren not to "rock the boat" with Max Verstappen move
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mika Hakkinen urges McLaren not to "rock the boat" with Max Verstappen move
More from
Ferrari
Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC
WEC
WEC
Monza
13 h
Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
13 h
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Latest news
How Max Verstappen beat Red Bull's own simulation tools with P2 in Brazil
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
6 min
How Max Verstappen beat Red Bull's own simulation tools with P2 in Brazil
Who slept best last night: Toto Wolff
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
26 min
Who slept best last night: Toto Wolff
Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
49 min
Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe