Riding the Storm
McLaren blitzes Monza but faces big trouble off-track
By
NIGEL ROEBUCK
Wins don't come any sweeter than this. In the days building up to the Italian Grand Prix, McLaren-Mercedes was a team under siege, and there was reason to believe that some were not passing up the opportunity to destabilize it in its continuing battle with Ferrari. On the Friday before the race, boss Ron Dennis addressed his troops and asked them simply to concentrate on the job.
They obliged. A McLaren had yet to suffer mechanical failure in a race this year, and the record stayed intact at Monza. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton finished first and second, leaving Ferrari far behind, and after the finish, the normally restrained Dennis was in tears briefly. If you knew him personally, you knew just how much that meant.
A couple of days before Monza practice began, the FIA announced that new evidence had emerged in the ongoing McLaren-Ferrari industrial espionage affair. Therefore, what was scheduled originally as a meeting of the FIA Court of Appeal on Sept. 13 (Competition, Aug. 20) would now be a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council. In other words, the whole question of whether or not McLaren benefited from Ferrari documents, allegedly handed by Ferrari's Nigel Stepney to McLaren's Mike Coughlan, would be debated again and in full.
The original hearing, back in July, found that McLaren-in the form of Coughlan-had indeed received stolen Ferrari material from Stepney but concluded that there was insufficient evidence that McLaren had benefited from it (Competition, Aug. 6). As a result, the team escaped punishment, and Ferrari was outraged. Ferrari appealed the decision immediately, and the FIA announced it would hear the matter on the Thursday after Monza. There now will be what amounts to a whole new trial, and rumors circulated in Italy that McLaren was in for draconian punishment.
Ominously for McLaren, the FIA said it is aware that one or more McLaren drivers may be or have been "in possession of written evidence relevant to this investigation." FIA president Max Mosley wrote personally to McLaren's race and test drivers demanding that they produce any such evidence. Penalties for contravening the International Sporting Code are not cast in stone; they can range from a fine to exclusion from the world championship.
Whatever the outcome, there was sympathy for McLaren at Monza, and if the folks in the stands were inevitably and rabidly pro-Ferrari, the majority of those in the paddock rooted strongly for McLaren. Most felt that the team had come under every conceivable pressure, and in none too subtle a fashion. Immediately before the start of qualifying, for example, a deputation of Modena carabinieri arrived at McLaren's motor home-not to charge anyone with anything but simply to inform the team that it was "under investigation."
Dennis, acting on lawyers' advice, kept silent on the matter throughout the weekend, but he did sanction a press release that revealed the depth of his anger.
"McLaren did receive some contact from the Italian authorities but was not charged with anything. We strongly suspect that the nature and timing of this wholly unnecessary conduct, just before the start of qualifying, was to disrupt our preparation for this important session and Thursday's World Motor Sport Council hearing. McLaren is completely confident that were any proceedings of this type ever to be brought, we would be completely exonerated."
Plainly, Dennis and his colleagues had their suspicions that Ferrari was behind this cheap theater, and few others doubted it, either.
As for Alonso and Hamilton, they carried that anger into their
cars and channeled it well indeed. In both qualifying and the race, they were untouchable.
The world champion, in particular, was in majestic form all weekend. "I arrived here really focused," he said after the race. "There were five races to go, and I thought, okay, I want to win them all. I will go for it."
If this weekend were any accurate guide to his resolution, Hamilton should perhaps begin to worry. All year long, the rookie has seemed the more relaxed of McLaren's drivers, and very often the quicker, too. But he is a rookie, however impressive his results. And, as many have suggested, it may be that the experience and guile of Alonso will triumph as the season enters its crucial stage. Four races remain, and Hamilton now holds only a three-point championship lead.
Such was their performance advantage at the fastest of all current Grand Prix circuits (Alonso's average speed was better than 145 mph) that nothing would have threatened them, but their task was eased further by Ferrari's poor performance. Felipe Massa, the quicker of the two drivers in qualifying, was out almost immediately with a seized rear damper. Kimi Raikkonen had a huge accident on Saturday morning, which compromised him for the balance of the weekend.
"The
car wasn't bad," he said, "but my biggest problem in the race was keeping my head up. My neck really isn't in very good shape." Raikkonen is not of the Nigel Mansell School of Whining and tends very much to play down physical afflictions; if he said he hurt, he hurt.
Unlike McLaren and BMW-Sauber, Ferrari went for a one-stop strategy, and at one stage, it looked as though this might net Raikkonen second place rather than third. When he made his only stop, he came out ahead of Hamilton (but not Alonso), but Hamilton lost no time in reclaiming the place with an audacious move into the first corner. Hamilton couldn't live with his teammate this particular weekend but did enough to keep a slender points lead.
The pecking order of F1 this season is McLaren/Ferrari, and then BMW, so it was no surprise to find Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica fourth and fifth over the line, ahead of the ever impressive Nico Rosberg in sixth for Williams. The ever improving Heikki Kovalainen finished seventh for Renault, and the ever optimistic Jenson Button came home eighth to score a rare point for Honda.
No one could suggest that this was a Grand Prix from the top drawer, but it was one of those days when the result was more important than anything else. The Tifosi, mortified by Ferrari's poor showing, began to leave the circuit 10 laps from the end, but many stayed on to boo Alonso and Hamilton when they walked onto the podium. The drivers could not have cared less; they'd achieved a perfect result in remarkably hostile circumstances, and the day couldn't have been sweeter.
Whether Paris on Sept. 13 will turn out even nearly as well is rather less certain.
RESULTS
TRACK: MONZA
3.6-MILE ROAD COURSE
DATE: SEPT. 9
1. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Mercedes, 53 laps at 145.430 mph avg. speed; 2. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes, 53; 3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 53; 4. Nick Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber, 53; 5. Robert Kubica, BMW-Sauber, 53; 6. Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota, 53; 7. Heikki Kovalainen, Renault, 53; 8. Jenson Button, Honda, 53; 9. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault, 53; 10. Rubens Barrichello, Honda, 53;
11. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 53; 12. Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, 52; 13. Alex Wurz, Williams-Toyota, 52; 14. Anthony Davidson, Super Aguri-Honda, 52; 15. Ralf Schumacher, Toyota, 52; 16. Takuma Sato, Super Aguri-Honda, 52; 17. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari, 52; 18. Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari, 52; 19. Adrian Sutil, Spyker-Ferrari, 52; 20. Sakon Yamamoto, Spyker-Ferrari, 52;
21. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 10 (suspension); 22. David Coulthard, Red Bull-Renault, 1 (accident)
TIME OF RACE: 1h 18m 37.806s
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 6.062s
FAST QUALIFIER: Alonso, 1m 21.997s
FAST LAP: Alonso, 1m 22.871s (156.369 mph)
LAP LEADERS: Alonso, 1-20; Raikkonen, 21-25; Alonso, 26-53
CAUTION PERIODS: 3-5, accident
POINTS LEADERS: 1. Hamilton, 92; 2. Alonso, 89; 3. Raikkonen, 74; 4. Massa, 69; 5. Heidfeld, 52; 6. Kubica, 33; 7. Kovalainen, 21; 8. Fisichella, 17; 9. Wurz, 13; 10. Rosberg, 12
NEXT: Belgium, Sept. 16 (4:30 a.m. Pacific, Speed)
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