Formula One Features — July 2001

The Hockenheim Formula 3000 event may end up being seen as the event which decided the Formula 3000 title in favor of Justin Wilson. The Yorkshire driver was leading the championship when the teams gathered at Hockenheim - but not by much. He was four points clear of Mark Webber. But on the first lap of the race Webber's hopes took a plunge when he ran into the back of Darren Manning at the first chicane. He went back to the pits but the damage was done. Mark went home with no points. Wilson took six and so increased his lead to 10 points with only three rounds remaining. The quest is not hopeless but it is going to be tough unless Wilson makes a mistake.

Why Jackie Stewart's knighthood took so long is a mystery. Besides his three World Championships and a record tally of 27 Grands Prix victories, not to mention a blameless lifestyle conducted with dignity and honor, no driver in history ever did more to boost the chances of survival in a sport that was a widowmaker in his heyday.

If I had a dollar for everybody who's moaned to me over the last few days about just how boring the British Grand Prix turned out to be, I wouldn't be sitting here writing this column.

The ideal crash barrier is no barrier at all. However, the only applications of this in motor sport that I can think of are at Bonneville and the Black Rock desert, used for Land Speed Record attempts. At these sites there are several miles in every direction between the track and the mountains and, even through a telephoto lens the vehicles seem a very long way away from the spectators and viewers. Barriers are necessary on race circuits to enable spectators and TV cameras to get close enough to the action, without being exposed to the danger of being hit by an out of control car.

Two victories in a resurgent year for BMW Williams have allowed Ralf Schumacher to realize one burning ambition - his maiden Grand Prix success - and to push himself alongside elder brother Michael in the spotlight. It's also brought in a much-needed new contender to break up the Ferrari-McLaren monopoly at the top of the F1 tree.

Ten years ago the DAMS team was the one to beat in Formula 3000. In 1990 Jean-Paul Driot's team won the title with Erik Comas and there was a second title in 1993 thanks to the efforts of a rising star called Olivier Panis and a third in 1994 with Jean-Christophe Boullion. But then things began to go wrong. There was only one win (for Tarso Marques) in 1995 and it was not until 1997 that the team won again - thanks to the efforts of Jamie Davies at Enna-Pergusa in Sicily.

The 2001 British Grand Prix is out of the way, as is Britain's general election, and now it is time for Sir Jackie Stewart to take himself back to Westminster to ask for money to create his vision of Silverstone.

For almost every great Grand Prix driver in recent decades the initial steps to the top have been the same, whether you are Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher or Kimi Raikkonen: karting followed by Formula Ford.

Take away the screaming headlines, and there's one person who has consistently spoken about our sport with common sense since first tipping up at Silverstone and giving the jitters to Hill, Schumacher, Coulthard et al. The hair color may be less dramatic, and he may not have stood on the middle step of the podium for some four years but Jacques Villeneuve remains as relevant a mouthpiece for motor racing as ever he was.

Word was that Mika Hakkinen was considering retirement from the sport that yielded him two World Championship crowns. But now it is that he won't be going after all, and that he has chosen to stay and fight. So what's going through the talented but troubled Finn's mind right now?

Bill Gates and his software gurus at Microsoft have proved that being able to write computer code gives one a good opportunity to earn $billions and gain enormous influence over a large number of people and corporations. This principle holds true on a smaller scale in motorsport, and in Formula 1 in particular. When the FIA scrapped all driver aids and active suspensions in 1993, the code writers, who were becoming pivotal members of teams, did not disappear from the sport but went underground for a while.

So Mika Hakkinen might be toying with retirement. Even if he doesn't decide to quit after this, the most disappointing season of his F1 career so far, he surely can't be too far away from calling it a day.

Super Nova Racing driver Mark Webber won the Magny Cours Formula 3000 race, his third victory of the year. He is now within one point of championship leader Justin Wilson and would have been ahead if Wilson had not overtaken his team mate Tomas Enge on the very last lap of the race after a long battle for second place.