Preview Brazil 2000

by Formula-1.co.uk

Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher and the whole Ferrari team arrive at 2.6 mile Interlagos circuit on a huge high following their one-two result at the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Michael Schumacher currently leads the championship, but given Rubens Barrichello’s aggressive start to the season, it is possible that the Brazilian will produce the goods and win the race at Interlagos. This does however make some very major assumptions.

First of all it assumes that Barrichello can beat Schumacher in a straight fight. Barrichello believes that he can, but the jury is still out on this despite qualifying just a tenth behind Schumacher in Melbourne. Secondly, can Rubens Barrichello handle the pressure of his home event? Former team-boss Jackie Stewart is adamant that he can, but once again, we’ll have to wait and see.

Thirdly, and perhaps the biggest hurdle for Ferrari and Barrichello will be the McLaren Mercedes team. McLaren secured the front row of the grid in Melbourne and led the race until their retirement. Test driver Oliver Panis has completed trouble-free running at Silverstone and Mercedes have modified their hydraulic air valve system to ensure that a repeat of their Melbourne failure does not resurface. It should be noted however, that the team tested at Silverstone and not in the heat that they faced in Australia or the heat that they will undoubtedly face at Sao Paulo.

McLaren will be looking for nothing less than a win, despite comments from Mika Hakkinen that his aim at this stage of the season is merely to secure championship points. Hakkinen won the race last year from pole position, despite a gearbox gremlin that dropped him behind Schumacher in the early stages. This year Schumacher believes that he can take on Hakkinen in a straight fight and win.

David Coulthard takes each race as it comes, refusing to look at the championship until later in the season. The Scot still talks up a good fight, but his on-track performance rarely matches that of his team-mate.

While Mika Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello are the drivers most likely to take the race win, there are a number of drivers who could also be right up there should the top drivers and teams so much as slip up.

The bumpy and humid nature of Interlagos will make the race on of attrition. In Melbourne, just nine cars made it to the chequered flag and with so little time between the two rounds of the championship, a similar finishing rate should be expected at Interlagos.

Ralf Schumacher and the BMW Williams team were ‘stunned’ with their podium finish in Melbourne two-weeks ago, as no one expected the BMW V10 to last the distance, let alone be as competitive as it was. A repeat at Interlagos is however unlikely, but both Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button will be hoping finish the race in the top-ten.

Jordan could well argue that they should have finished in third and fourth place in Australia with Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli respectively. The fact is that the EJ10 may be fast, but so far it is not reliable. Trulli tested at Silverstone last week and the team will be looking for a podium in Brazil.

British American Racing finally scored their first ever championship points last time out, with Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta finishing fourth and sixth respectively. The team are aware that they currently lack ultimate pace, but will once again play on their Honda reliability in their quest for more championship points.

Over at Benetton their will be some new faces in the paddock this weekend following the news that Renault have purchased the team from the Benetton family for a cool $120m. Nothing changes on the driver front, but former team-boss Flavio Briatore makes a welcome return to the limelight after a couple of years running the Supertec operation.

While there may not be immediate changes in the team’s performance, Briatore is bound to bring some colour to the increasingly drab pit-lane. The team itself will again be looking for lower end points with Giancarlo Fisichella expected to lead the way from Alexander Wurz.

Jaguar Racing had something of a torrid debut in Melbourne two weeks ago and are not much more optimistic for Brazilian Grand Prix. Rubens Barrichello led the race for Stewart Ford last year, so Interlagos will give some indication as to whether the team have progressed over the last 12 months or whether the Gary Anderson designed machine has not kept up with the competition.

Arrows have had a number of suspension failures with their pull rod A21 chassis. While the car itself may be fragile, it is pretty fast when running. In Jos Verstappen and Pedro de la Rosa, the team have a strong driver line-up and they could well surprise a few people this weekend.

Sauber lost sixth place in Australia when it was discovered that the team had forgotten to measure the dimensions of the 1999 specification front wing. The team were disqualified and neither Peter Sauber nor the hard charging Mika Salo smiled at all…

Prost Peugeot treated the Australian Grand Prix as a glorified test session by their own admission. There is no reason to believe that Interlagos will be any different. Jean Alesi proved that the car can be fast in race trim in Australia, while team-mate Nick Heidfeld brought his car slowly to the flag. Expect more of the same this weekend…

Overall the main players will remain the same. The question is, who can go the distance?

Brazilian Grand Prix Weekend