- 9 months ago
The pre race for round 2 of the 2001 F1 season at Sepang.
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00:00You sensed it even before the numbers were in. These cars were fast. An explosive collage of color. A violent blast of sound. The heat. Hands working overtime. Trying to stay ahead of the new speed. The excitement of it. The risks. The sheer thrill. New sticky tires. More horsepower. Better weight distribution. And younger drivers. The youngest ever assembled on a Grand Prix grid.
00:30This is a generation brought up with electronics. Technology which has redefined the limit of speed. Redefined it as having no limit at all.
01:00Hello and welcome to round two of the 2001 Formula One season live on Speed Vision.
01:09It's the Malaysian Grand Prix from the CPANG circuit in Kuala Lumpur. I'm Sam Posey along with David Hobbs and Steve Matchett. Bob Varsher will not be here because he is still in Sebring. Now if you were watching yesterday you know that we had problems with the feed from Malaysia. Since then we have been able to get a tape and we will now show you some extended highlights from qualifying.
01:30Well with just 36 minutes left in the session. Rubens Barrichello who had been going very very well all weekend. He had a good day on Friday. He led the timesheets on Friday. Right at the end of the day. Having been up and down near the top.
01:44Just 36 minutes to go. He snags the pole with a very very good time. That was the quickest time of the weekend so far up till that time. A 1 minute 36.3 which was significantly quicker than last year's pole.
01:57So again these cars being quicker than they were last year. Olivier Panning in the BAR Honda was also having a good day. As you can see he was at 5th at that stage. Then Michael Schumacher. Look at that slide. 150 mile an hour slide in turn 12.
02:13He didn't lift though. He just kept humming right along. Coming on to the back straight. Behind the grandstand here. Half a mile long nearly. Down the back of the straight. 190 mile an hour at the end. Into the last corner of the track. Turn 14 which is this long. 180 degree corner. Keeps his foot down on there. Use the curb up. And snags that pole position back.
02:37Just 32 minutes left at this stage. Here you see him in that corner 12 there. Just gets the car so sideways. Incredible how he got that back without overcorrecting. Excellent demonstration of his car control. I've never seen anything like it.
02:55Well with 26 minutes left to go his brother Ralph Schumacher. Now we see him on board and we'll see a full lap later on by the way. Put the BMW power to work on these long straightaways.
03:07The half mile straightaways. The half mile straightaways. 194 miles an hour. Top speed. And he moved into pole position.
03:15Knocking nearly half a second off. There you see. One Pablo Montoya. I'm sorry. There's still Ralph Schumacher.
03:24Here's one Montoya. This guy didn't practice at all on Friday. He got five laps in the books. But they were all in and out laps.
03:32Because they had terrible fuel pump problems. Did 25 laps yesterday morning. And immediately got into the groove in qualifying.
03:40And stuck that car in fourth spot at this particular stage of the game. He ended up sixth.
03:46After an unbelievable day on Friday. I mean this kid's got tremendous potential.
03:50So we look now live at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Halfway around the world as the cars are coming out in their warm-up session.
04:03And you see obviously part of the track. Which is so wide. And that the overtaking is possible almost anywhere.
04:14Now we're going to take a break right now. And when we come back we'll show you the rest of the highlights from qualifying yesterday.
04:21Stay with us.
04:21Welcome back. About 24 minutes to go now before the start of the race. And in the distance you can see very, very dark clouds. It rained here this morning. So it could have a very big effect.
04:32Meantime, however, let us wrap up the review of yesterday's qualifying sessions. David, some guys we haven't seen a lot of this year.
04:40And that's right. And this is one of them. Fernando Alonso, of course, he's the youngest driver in the field. Driving the Minardi.
04:46This has got Michelin tyres on. A new owner, Paul Stoddard from Australia.
04:50He finally got himself on the grid in the 22nd spot there. As you can see he's 4.2 seconds behind the Ferrari.
04:57Then we see Al-John Alessi here in the Prost Acer.
05:01They went very well in pre-season testing. Everywhere they went they were quick and looked very good.
05:06But boy, Australia didn't have much of a day, did they? Not a great weekend here.
05:09Well, the same as the car is sort of 50% last year's double world championship winning Ferrari.
05:14They've really dropped off the pace. I don't quite know what's going off.
05:17I don't understand it. Jano truly here has a huge off.
05:20Just how that car didn't just get completely away from him and break every suspension component. I can't believe it.
05:25It would have wrecked the legality blank underneath it, that's for sure.
05:28I bet it did.
05:29Well, with 14 minutes to go, Rubens Barrichello had his car out on the track and managed to grab the pole with a 135.749.
05:39And in every way showed himself to be rivaling this man, Michael Schumacher, on Ferrari.
05:45Both these men turning nearly identical times all throughout the weekend.
05:49Michael Schumacher, however, always the man to watch.
05:53You see there the last turn on the track and they come up across the grid.
05:57You see the hash marks of the grid.
05:58And Michael Schumacher seizes the pole back from Rubens Barrichello.
06:04Now, Michael Schumacher, you can see with his new Ferrari and, of course, the win under his belt,
06:12heads the standings at this point with 14 minutes to go.
06:17But now watch.
06:17Ralph Schumacher standing third at that moment on the track here now, moments later, in his BMW-powered Williams.
06:25And he took the pole at 135.5.
06:30And so a moment of history.
06:32The brothers Schumacher were on the front row of the grid.
06:35But it didn't last long, David.
06:37It didn't.
06:38That was the best that Michelin have done, obviously, this year to date.
06:41An incredibly hot start Michelin are getting off to.
06:44So, after that moment of glory with just four minutes left, Michael Schumacher went out again.
06:50And here you see him going through that tight turn, 14 runs, very wide there, different line to a lot of people.
06:56You can see that from the rubber marks on the road.
06:58And snatches back the pole at a 135.22, nearly two seconds quicker than last year's pole.
07:05Mika Harkonnen has been struggling all day with understeer here.
07:08Comes up, really leaving it to the last second as he goes over the grid.
07:12The checkered flag is out, so Mika Harkonnen ends up fourth.
07:16And Barrichello comes back to try and get that pole position away from his team leader.
07:22Coming down to that last corner, he's got a very good sector time going there.
07:26He, too, swings very wide on that last.
07:29But he takes the shortcut to the flag to try and take off a couple of hundredths of a second.
07:33But it's not to be.
07:34He ends up 99 hundredths of a second slower than Michael Schumacher.
07:37So Ferrari's covering the front row of the grid again.
07:40Schumacher there looking at the tires on his brother's car in Park Verme on the way to the press conference.
07:47Steve, it was all Ferrari and not McLaren.
07:50You see, now this is live action now.
07:52And you see the McLaren problems.
07:54Coltard was eighth fastest yesterday.
07:58Mika Harkonnen fourth fastest.
07:59And there are all sorts of rumors about understeer problems with the car.
08:04Badly balanced that they may not be able to resolve even before Brazil.
08:08In two weeks, they may have to wait to get back to San Marino before they can sort that car out fully.
08:15I don't quite understand what's gone off of the thing.
08:17You've got to give Adrian Newey possibly the best aerodynamicist in the business alongside Rory Byrne of Ferrari, of course.
08:22And quite what's gone off with that understeer.
08:24Of course, they've all had to take front wing off the car.
08:26But it seems to be affecting McLaren much more than it should do.
08:31All right.
08:31We have to get in another break now.
08:34And when we come back, we'll talk about Michael Schumacher's streak of five consecutive victories.
08:39Can you name the driver with the record number of nine straight wins?
08:43The answer on the accurate pre-race show in a moment.
08:50In Grand Prix racing, winning comes hard.
08:54Winning several races in a row, true dominance is very rare.
08:58In his championship years of 1952 and 1953, Alberto Ascari won nine straight races, the most ever.
09:06From 1960 to the beginning of this season,
09:09only three men have managed to put together a streak of five straight race victories.
09:14Jack Brabant driving for Cooper, Jim Clark for Lotus, and Nigel Mansell at Williams.
09:19With his win two weeks ago in Australia, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher joined that elite group.
09:25And today in Malaysia, the German ace goes for number six.
09:28Now here's the list of the longest winning streaks of all time.
09:35Only three men, Ascari, Mansell, and Schumacher, have won five straight races while starting from pole position.
09:42Today, Schumacher again starts from pole, and if he wins, he will be the only man with six victories in a row from pole position.
09:51Quite an achievement.
09:52There you see Eddie Irvine sitting on the grid with his drink bottle in his hand.
09:58No doubt he's got something in there that's going to have some kick to it today.
10:02The temperature's very high, the humidity's very high, and he's in 12th spot.
10:07So not really a happy camper.
10:10There's Juan Montoya who must be extremely happy going over some of the data with his engineers.
10:14We hear that Juan Montoya is absolutely incredible with data collection,
10:19and it's a real sort of, not a computer freak, but he looks at the stuff and really studies it.
10:24What he's got, he's got the same ability as what Michael's got,
10:26of being able to study what Ralph's got on the car
10:29and appreciate what Ralph's settings would do if he was to put it on his own car.
10:33Some drafters have got that ability.
10:35Michael's got it.
10:36I work with the same situation with Herbert.
10:37Herbert didn't have it.
10:38Sam?
10:39Well, time now, Steve, for another break.
10:41And when we come back, we'll have the times from the morning warm-up.
10:44Welcome back.
10:50You see Jacques Villeneuve in the car, as is the custom to be in the car well before the start,
10:55but it's just now 12 minutes to go before the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
11:00David, here are the morning warm-up times.
11:02Quite revealing.
11:04Well, of course, the times, as you can see, were a little bit down there
11:06because they had a very heavy rain shower this morning,
11:09and it was drying out during that morning warm-up.
11:11Barrichello taking the best of it.
11:13Michael Schumacher wasn't too concerned.
11:15He tried both cars, the T-car and his own car,
11:18and was on wet tyres all the time, didn't really put too much into it.
11:22But interesting that Schumacher, Ralph, and Montoya there
11:26were fairly well down on the Michelins.
11:28In fact, all the Michelin-shod cars are towards the end of the grid
11:31in that damp warm-up this morning, so I guess they're not hoping for rain.
11:36And as we said earlier, you can see some pretty dark clouds in the sky.
11:40The sun is shining at the moment, but it sure is hot there.
11:44Well, let's take a look now at the Mercedes track map.
11:46Now, this track was intended to be the wave of the future
11:49and to offer solutions to the biggest problems plaguing most current Grand Prix circuits,
11:53which is that they're dangerous and don't offer places to pass.
11:56Now, they succeeded here, but frankly, the track is sort of boring.
12:00To get passing, they made it super wide, which makes the cars look like toys out there.
12:05And for safety, they created huge runoff areas,
12:07which makes everything look so abstract there's no impression of speed.
12:11Sixteen turns, none of them with names,
12:13which further contributes to the track's general lack of character.
12:16But it's wonderfully smooth, it's got a grippy surface,
12:19and it's got the best-looking grandstands maybe anywhere.
12:22Lap speed, about 130 miles an hour.
12:26Well, talking about lap speeds, let's go on board with Ralph Schumacher yesterday
12:31when he took the pole.
12:31This is coming down to turn 14, the last turn.
12:34At 180 degree, well, it's a wide hairpin up to the start-finish line.
12:40He'll reach about 194 miles an hour at the end of this straight.
12:44Let's listen to it.
12:45Turn 1, very tight, 180-degree corner,
12:52which immediately leads into turn 2, a left-hander,
12:56straight into turn 3, and they accelerate all the way through here because it unwinds.
13:01Notice how flat the track is, no ups or downs at all to speak of.
13:05Very smooth.
13:05180 right here as he comes into turn 4, tight right.
13:16This left-hander, as you can hear, is lifting a little bit,
13:18about 135 miles an hour through turn 5.
13:22Turn 6, about 135.
13:237 and 8, around about 100 miles.
13:33Back up to 175 before this tight left-hander, turn 9.
13:40Speeds up all the way through 10, down to 11.
13:44See how far away from the track any objects are that you could run into.
13:50It's super wide.
13:5212 there as he has a lot of luck going, 150 mile an hour corner.
13:57BMW engine, 18,200 RPM.
14:13The highest revving engine out there.
14:20That gives you an idea of what the track is going to look like to these drivers today.
14:24Well, we know that the Sepang circuit is particularly hard on brakes
14:29after those long straights go down to the hairpins.
14:31Here's a couple of things that we picked up on the World Feed,
14:33and we got to have a look.
14:35Look how low the McLaren calipers are on this car.
14:38Slung right underneath at about 6 o'clock.
14:41That is to get the center of gravity very low.
14:43Now, look, we were talking about Ferrari's brakes
14:45and what they might have been doing in Melbourne
14:47that was giving the black dust over Schumacher's car.
14:50Each car of the three Ferraris at Malaysia
14:52have all got their front brakes covered up.
14:54They don't want the world to see
14:56what they've got under there for a duct,
14:58but Speed Vision's technicians have managed to get us still.
15:01This came onto screen only a couple of minutes ago.
15:04We managed to capture this.
15:05That is the Ferrari brake duct that Rory Byrne has designed.
15:08It's something that he was working on and Bennett on about 10 years ago,
15:11and I can remember doing a test with him at Magna Core
15:13when he put it onto the 92 car.
15:15It did about two laps before the front brakes burst into flames
15:18because there was actually no ventilation on it.
15:20So it's something that he's been working on for 10 years to get right.
15:23Finally, it's on the car.
15:26John Todd, of course, the maestro behind the whole Ferrari rebirth
15:31and renaissance kept this team together through tough times
15:36and now, of course, has managed to keep it together through successful times.
15:40Almost everybody on the team has re-signed for the next couple of years.
15:45We're now about seven minutes away from the time
15:48the cars will be rolling off on their formation lap.
15:51We'll be right back with more live coverage
15:53of round two of the Formula One World Championship,
15:56the Malaysian Grand Prix.
15:58Stay with us.
15:59Welcome back, everybody,
16:21to Speed Vision's live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
16:24I'm Sam Posey.
16:25Now let's get right to today's Audi storylines
16:29with David Hoggs and Steve Thatcher.
16:31Gentlemen?
16:31Well, can Schumacher win six races in a row?
16:36It goes back to our sky before the last time that somebody did that
16:39and, of course, the last time that everybody won five races
16:41and five poles in a row was Nigel Manson 92.
16:46Michael Schumacher's already got six poles.
16:48Can he get six races in a row?
16:50Well, Malaysia's going to be overheating definitely.
16:52It's 113 degrees tack temperature, at least it was yesterday.
16:56If they don't overheat here, they're not going to overheat anywhere throughout the year.
17:00Also, tires.
17:01Michelin seems to have done an excellent job in only their second race.
17:04The Williams are doing excellently.
17:05But if it starts to rain and there are some black clouds in the background,
17:08we could see that start to fall away because Michelin's are not so good as Bridgestone in the wets.
17:13It'll be interesting to see because the BMW-powered Williams cars are Michelin-shod.
17:20The BMW power may be the most powerful engine out here on the grid.
17:24I think we may see some passing down the straightaway by the BMW engine cars.
17:30Let's have a look at Australia a couple of weeks ago.
17:32There you see the two Ferraris on the front row.
17:34Michael Schumacher on the right makes a great start.
17:36Just look behind him, though.
17:37Jano, Trulli, David Coulthard all bunging into each other.
17:40But down into turn one, Schumacher leaves from Harkonnen.
17:43Montoya goes off and then comes back on again.
17:46Then just three laps later, Barrichello goes down the inside of Heinz-Harald Frensen and punts him off.
17:51Much to Heinz-Harald Frensen's disgust, I might add.
17:55Then, on lap five, this horrendous crash between Jack Villeneuve and Ralph Schumacher,
18:00where tragically one of the crowd marshals was killed.
18:03Not a track marshal, a crowd marshal.
18:05Very, very tragic indeed.
18:06Then just a few laps later, Mika Harkonnen's front suspension collapses and pitches him right into the tire wall.
18:13Not a good day for Harkonnen, but he wasn't hurt at all.
18:16Lap 39, one Montoya, who looked like he was set for some points position, blew an oil line.
18:21But the checkered flag for Michael Schumacher.
18:24Then, of course, on the podium, there was no champagne because of the death of the marshal.
18:27Don't go away.
18:29Welcome back.
18:32About 20 seconds to go now before the cars roll off on the formation lap.
18:37And obviously, what's in everyone's mind is the possibility of rain.
18:40These clouds have gathered very quickly here in the last 20 minutes or so.
18:45It would have a very dramatic effect, of course, on the race because of the difference in the Michelin performance in the rain
18:51and the Bridgestone performance in the rain.
18:54Ferrari's, of course, on Bridgestone looking very good.
18:57Car's about to roll off.
19:01Magnificent overhead view of the twin grandstands.
19:06And let's take a look at the starting grid.
19:08David?
19:08Okay, the Lexus starting lineup here.
19:10On the pole for the 34th time in his career, six in a row, Michael Schumacher.
19:14And alongside him, just 99 hundredths of a second behind him, his teammate Rubens Barrichello, fastest this morning by far.
19:21On row two, Ralph Schumacher in his third spot for only the second time in his career on Michelin tyres.
19:26Alongside Amiga Hakenen, not enough downforce, but he did make a strong run at the end.
19:31In fifth spot, Jarno Trulli.
19:33He was a bit disappointed after being fastest yesterday morning and very quick all the weekend.
19:38Alongside him, Pablo Montoya showing his true potential with zero practice on Friday.
19:44Then, Jack Villeneuve.
19:45He said the car was better than Melbourne and seventh is still good for the race.
19:49David Coulthard alongside him, not used to being back here on the grid.
19:52Said not enough downforce when he needs it and it makes it very difficult.
19:56Heinz Harald, for instance, says he missed my opportunity when the track was at its best grip level.
20:01And so he's down there on the fifth row.
20:03And alongside him is Olivier Panny in the second one of the VAR Hondas.
20:06He's very positive.
20:07Said he made it from the state and cost it a couple of spots.
20:09Nick Heidfeld.
20:10Seems to be, he said, our limit.
20:12But we did well from tenth in Australia.
20:14Alongside him, Irvine in the Jaguar.
20:16Says couldn't get a clean lap, but it probably wouldn't have made any difference anyway.
20:20Then, John O'Lacy with Michelin tires.
20:22Says he needs more aerodynamic help to reach our potential.
20:25Alongside him, Kimi Riekenen.
20:27He said, lost time in practice with a broken suspension.
20:30Then, second of the Jaguars, Bertie.
20:33He says he's not pleased with where we are.
20:34He's got very poor balance.
20:36And alongside him, of course, Fischer Keller in the first of the Benetons,
20:38who is incredibly disappointed with the whole effort this weekend.
20:42Then, Jenson Button, his teammate, says he felt he didn't get the best out of the car.
20:47And obviously, that shows by his lap times.
20:49Alongside him is Josper Staffan in the Arrows, who says he's very disappointed with the power available.
20:54Then, you have Mazzucani in the European Minardi.
20:59Alongside him, Tarso Marquez.
21:03And then, we have Alonso in the Minardi.
21:07The youngest driver in the field.
21:08Alongside him, Bernaldi, who got pushed down to the back of the grid there
21:12with an infringement on his wing after practice qualifying yesterday.
21:16Well, as they come around, you see what faces them, which is a long, long straightaway,
21:21a good half of that half mile straightaway, before a very, very tight turn one,
21:26where the brakes will have to go on extremely hard.
21:29You see the Ferrari front row there, with Schumacher, of course, in the center of the screen.
21:34Those men are ready to go.
21:36The tension here, incredible.
21:38We're going to take now a look at the weather.
21:40You can see how incredibly hot it is.
21:42The main feature is that sky in the background.
21:45Blue an hour ago, now grey.
21:48And no shadows there, you can see on the grid.
21:50Now, you notice there's a gap on the grid there, where Frensen should be.
21:53Frensen got off the grid late, and will be starting the race at the back.
21:56Now, watch, there's a problem with the Bannerton also.
21:58The Bannerton is out of position.
22:00Absolutely no idea what he thinks he's doing there.
22:03Oh, boy, this is going to really power things up.
22:04In that heat, this is the last thing they want, right?
22:06Absolutely the last thing they want.
22:07We know that the car's radiator, the ducts, are all stuffed with dry ice,
22:11and we're expecting a lot of that to come out of the one, two, and four corners.
22:14But I don't think this is going to be an aborted start.
22:18There's no way that they're going to start the race
22:19without Bannerton's slung shot across his grid position like that.
22:23Oh, I wonder how he got there.
22:27It's Fisher Keller.
22:28So, more experience of the two drivers has somehow got himself out of whack
22:36getting into position on the grid.
22:38So, this is going to cause a lot of confusion and a lot of distress to these people
22:42because it is very hot, as we just saw, 92 degrees.
22:45These engines do not like standing there for long on the grid running
22:49because they get very hot very quickly.
22:52Do you know, I've never seen that before,
22:54where a driver has never taken his grid position.
22:56I haven't either. I wonder if the thing stalled on him just when he was trying to...
22:59But he wouldn't have made that grid position anyway.
23:01One possibility, of course, is that he was not guided.
23:04They have people to guide you into your correct positions,
23:07and they may lack experience down there.
23:10It's only the third GP they've held.
23:11Now, there's John Wheatley over on the right-hand side,
23:14their new chief mechanic on the race team.
23:16John was the test team chief mechanic last year
23:18and has been promoted to race team chief mechanic.
23:21It's only his second race, and he has had the most dismal two races so far.
23:26Steve, notice how low the Renault engine is in that car.
23:30See at the back there how it slopes way down?
23:32That engine is a very, very flat, low engine.
23:36Well, this is a bit of luck for Heinz-Hauer Frenzen,
23:37who apparently can take his place again,
23:39and Fisci Keller is the man who's got to go to the back.
23:42As we look at Michael Schumacher there being got ready for the race,
23:45we're going to take a quick break,
23:46and we'll be right back from the start in four minutes.
23:48I'll see you next time.
23:49I'll see you next time.
23:50Be right back.
23:50Bye, bye.
23:51Bye.
23:51Bye.
23:51Bye, bye.
23:52Bye.
23:53Bye.
23:53Bye.
23:54Bye.
23:56Bye.
24:07Bye.
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