Michael wins in Melbourne!

[Sparky]

The Ferrari won - a fairly predictable result, if the Ten Tenths poll was anything to go by!

A McLaren failure - we expected that too, didn't we?

I sincerely hope the photographer/marshall who was injured by the BAR debris is OK... What was JV thinking?

Minardi finished... Yeah! Good old Alonso. A future star.

A pretty good race. It's gonna be a great season!


1. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1h38'26"533 187.465 Km/h
2. 4 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes + 0'01"717 187.410 Km/h
3. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari + 0'33"491 186.408 Km/h
4. 9 PANIS BAR Honda + 1'02"050 185.516 Km/h
5. 16 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas + 1'11"479 185.223 Km/h
6. 11 FRENTZEN Jordan Honda + 1'12"807 185.182 Km/h
7. 17 RAIKKONEN Sauber Petronas + 1'24"143 184.832 Km/h
8. 19 BURTI Jaguar 1 lap(s)
9. 14 VERSTAPPEN Arrows Asiatech 1 lap(s)
10. 22 ALESI Prost Acer 1 lap(s)
11. 18 IRVINE Jaguar 1 lap(s)
12. 21 ALONSO Minardi European 2 lap(s)
13. 7 FISICHELLA Benetton Renault 3 lap(s)
14. 8 BUTTON Benetton Renault 6 lap(s)
15. 6 MONTOYA Williams BMW 18 lap(s)
16. 12 TRULLI Jordan Honda 20 lap(s)
17. 3 HAKKINEN McLaren Mercedes 33 lap(s)
18. 5 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 54 lap(s)
19. 10 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda 54 lap(s)
20. 20 MARQUES Minardi European 55 lap(s)
21. 15 BERNOLDI Arrows Asiatech 56 lap(s)
22. 23 MAZZACANE Prost Acer 58 lap(s)

[Sparky]

Absolutely terrible news. The marshall has died.
After Monza last year, we all hoped this kind of thing would never happen again. Terrible.

Don't know what else to say.

[Orange]

Please tell me that it wasnt Jaques fault, I am stranded without TV coverage, so please a little *unbiased* account... All I know is that "He didnt know whether to pass inside or outside"
Congrats Schumi!
Minardi now has the Orange blessing! Amazing stuff, sticking in there!

[Sparky]

It's a very difficult one to call, Orange. When Villeneuve was interviewed after the accident, he said he was unsure which way around Ralf he should go, and that Ralf "Just stopped in the middle of the track". JV went almost over the top of the Williams, careered off the track and hit the wall very hard indeed. It would seem that a wheel hit the marshall, as with Paulo Ghislimberti at Monza just five races ago...

[Gerard]

I saw the accident between Ralf and Jacques via the onboard camera of Jacques' car and although I don't know exactly what happened it was obvious there was a huge difference in speed.
One moment Jacques was 3 car lengths behind Ralf, and the next moment he was flying through the air.
I don't know what else to say right now, my thoughts are with the marshall and his family.

[Jay]

I don't think it even matters whether it was JV's fault or not.

The real question is how did the tire hit the marshall. Was he out of place? Too close to the track? The fence not high enough? These are just some of the questions that need to be asked.

[Liz]

Did the tire come off its tethers? That was what happened in Monza. I suppose we will find out all these things eventually.

What happened to Mika? Was it suspension failure - which is what it looks like from the little bit they showed?

[Sparky]

Yes Liz, the BAR's wheel/tyre unit (Left front I think) broke free of the tether and was launched over the fence. And that's after having double tethers mandated this year...

As for Hakkinen's difficulties, Adrian Newey said they believed it was either suspension or brakes, but they weren't sure. I guess we'll find out.

[Mania]

Originally posted by Gerard
I saw the accident between Ralf and Jacques via the onboard camera of Jacques' car and although I don't know exactly what happened it was obvious there was a huge difference in speed.
One moment Jacques was 3 car lengths behind Ralf, and the next moment he was flying through the air.

I think Jacques forgot to brake. He tried to brake later than Ralf, and Ralf was already braking as late as possible to keep Jacques behind him. So it was a racing accident. Martin was talking about the run up to that turn being like a tunnell almost which could explain why Jacques perhaps thought he had more road than he acyually did - Im just guessing that he was blind sighted by the Williams and when he tried to get out of the slip stream to pass Ralf - he was already way to late and rammed into the back of Ralf taking them out. I have the race on tape - Im going to look at it again but I think thats what happened.

[Liz]

Until I found out about the injuries and the death, I thought the scariest part of that accident was how much it looked like Gilles' accident at Zolder. And it is a tribute to the strength of the cars of today that Jacques survived. In a 1982 car he would have been killed.

Considering the forces and speeds involved, is it possible that there is no way to keep those wheels attached to the cars? In which case what do we do? Move the spectators back (or possibly inside a building) and put marshalls in bunkers? Surely there must be a way to guard against this happening.

[Sparky]

I remember DinoIV and I had a discussion last year about the carbon fibre tethers, and we came to the conclusion that they would need to be at least an inch thick in order to have any chance of withstanding the incredible forces involved in collisions.

I don't know about F1 crowds in buildings. Make them stand further back perhaps, or inside a cage (A normal catch-fence with fence-type covering for a roof), but certainly the marshalls, at least the essentail flag-bearers, could be protected by an armoured enclosure. It sounds ridiculous, but it might have to be.

Sadly, I think there could be a hundred deaths, and the risk would never be completely removed.

[Tristan]

It's difficult. Yes, marshalls SHOULD be in little bunkery things. Yes, a PERSPEX wall at the side of the track would probably be more effective that a chicken wire one. Yes, there IS no way you could tether the wheels on COMPLETLY, but I'm going to post that in a different topic.

This topic is called MICHAEL WINS IN MELBOURNE (with an exclaimation mark too!).

Impressed with reliability of Ferrari AND McLaren. I genuinly thought the latter in particular would not make it.

Schumi was EXEMPLORY all weekend, barrel-roll or not. He's GOT to be champ favourite now. I just can't see Mika getting back at him (yet).

Jordan WERE good, shame about Rubinho being unable to slow down on that rather ridiculous attempt at a pass.

Yes, I'm afraid that accident WAS JV's doing, it was up to him to break (but don't worry! I don't hold it against him personally, racing is racing after all!) A tradgic shame that it ended in the way it did.

Prost, as predicted, were dire all weekend (made to look a JOKE by Sauber), as were Jag and Benetton. Will they manage to improve?? Don't forget, the competition will be doing the same....

and as for Minardi...!! Well....!!! Forza forza forza.....