DownUnderSteer: Silverstone

By David Galton-Fenzi

Lotus Wins again....

For long periods of the race their cars were the fastest on the track, but yet again, it didn’t translate into the results they deserved (need). Grosjean (or as the Speed channel calls him - Ro Gro) was stunning. After pitting on lap 2 to have his nose replaced, he charged back through to finish in 6th place, effectively running the race distance on two sets of tyres. Admittedly, he got a bit lucky to get the slower softs out of the way quickly, but his pace was phenomenal despite nursing his tyres (once again) longer than everyone else. You can’t help but feel the big result is just around the corner, but how many times have we said that already?

Ro Gro aint slow

Maldonado Still Can’t Drive

That is all.

McLaren are Losing the Development Race

Modern Classics

The British Grand Prix - Silverstone 2003

By David Galton-Fenzi

In this column we’ll take a look at the epic races of the modern era. Races that were so unforgettable that they deserve to be retold and re-lived, and to celebrate this week’s British Grand Prix we’re looking at a Silverstone classic, the day Rubens made them all look very ordinary.

The Story So Far

I’m sure it doesn’t actually feel that long ago but we’re going back 9 years here. The Wachowskis (Don’t call them brothers any more...) were ruining everything in 2003 by releasing both Matrix sequels, and in sports a young Swiss player by the name of Roger Federer had only just won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. Seems like an age ago now doesn’t it!

Formula 1 was at war! Well, it was in the midst of a full blown tyre war anyway, waged between the French rubber of Michelin who supplied McLaren and Williams and the Japanese Bridgestone who supplied Ferrari. Since coming back into Formula 1 in 2001, Michelin had struggled to seriously challenge the might and experience of Bridgestone with any consistency. In 2003, for the first time, they had seriously raised their game and cars fitted with their rubber were legitimate contenders, and thank god, because I’d rather have injected the ebola virus straight into my eyeballs than sit through another whitewash championship like the previous one.

How bad was it? Well, after Michael Schumacher had finished shitting over the entire 2002 schedule, (He finished on the podium in every race. EVERY FUCKING RACE!) the FIA decided to change the scoring for all future Grands Prix, with the intention to keep the championship closer for longer. So instead of the top six drivers scoring, with 10 points for a win, then 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the lesser places, the points now went all the way to the eighth place finisher; 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

The scoring changes and Michelins improved tyres worked a treat, and by Silverstone in 2003 the championship had developed into a four horse race. Obviously Michael Schumacher was involved, gunning for his fourth straight title (and sixth overall - the greedy bastard!) but Kimi Raikkonen in his McLaren and the two Williams’ of Juan Montoya and Ralf Schumacher were pushing him hard, with the standings looking like this;