- 8 months ago
The 2nd Friday Practice session for Round 5 of the 2001 F1 season at Barcelona.
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00:00From the circuit to Catalonia, about 30 minutes outside downtown Barcelona, welcome to SpeedVision coverage of Friday practice for round five of the Formula One World Championship, the Spanish Grand Prix.
00:16I'm Bob Varsha along with Steve Matchett. Steve, this is a track that all of the teams know well. Let's take a closer look.
00:22Well, it's one of the best testing facilities in Europe and a lot of the teams do their work there. It's all about understeer and trying to control understeer.
00:31The corners are two, a little bit of four and nine. They're very high speed corners around the Renault there and the Repsol corner to a degree and then Kamsa is the big one.
00:40Very high lateral G-forces, it's going to scrub an awful lot off the tyres. Controlling that understeer is what the engineers work is going to be all about this weekend.
00:49T1, 2 and 3 are the various timing sections of the racetrack and this track also features the longest straightaway in Formula One.
00:56Now, here's a look at the first hour of practice highlights. Pedro de la Rosa in his home race returning to the Grand Prix Wars alongside Eddie Irvine for Jaguar.
01:05But David Coulthard has been the class of Friday practice thus far in the McLaren Mercedes, of course, with the full boat of electronic driver aids returning to Formula One after a seven year absence.
01:17Juan Montoya, however, continues to struggle. The Williams team has been very upfront about the fact they have not optimized traction control and the automated gear shifts.
01:28Those may have contributed to that off for Juan Pablo Montoya, still looking for his first Grand Prix finish.
01:34It's also not been a good day thus far for the Jordan team. Here Heinz Harald Frensen goes off at a very rapid rate, one of two offs at the same part of the track for the German.
01:46He finished the morning session in 14th. His teammate, Jarno Trulli, clutch problems, fairly scraped into the top ten.
01:52Now, Ferrari. This is Rubens Barnekello off and on.
01:56Yeah, and also making an introduction back here is launch control, an automated start procedure.
02:02You just see now Michael Schumacher at the end of the pit lane going through a start procedure to check.
02:06Switches the button on the left of the steering wheel, revs increase, he's checking everything and then he'll just click into first gear.
02:13Off it goes, fully automated. Not a sign of wheel slip and away it goes.
02:18The perfect textbook start, computer. That's what's made the difference there.
02:23Jacques Villeneuve going down the end of the pit straight, big engine block from the Honda.
02:28Now, this was apparently just after an automated start procedure and you see something.
02:33Catherine wheels, bounces off the pit wall, then Catherine wheels into the middle of the screen.
02:37Now, we're on board with Barnekello. Watch his right hand and listen to the upshift notes.
02:42There, did you notice how he took his right hand off the steering wheel to remove the tear-off visor from his helmet?
02:50The automated sequence on the gearbox automatically upshifted.
02:54Now, to watch him as well as we're going around the circuit, he will now preset downshifts coming into the corner with his left thumb as he touches the button just going in now.
03:05The engineers can preset that into the steering wheel, sixth to second or fifth to third, whatever they need.
03:11Here's a look at the session one results. David Coulthard in the McLaren, about a tenth off of the Grand Prix lap record set by his teammate, Mika Hakkinen, at 1 minute 20.262 seconds.
03:22Then the Ferrari drivers, and of course the team of the prancing horse, was saddened this past week, as was all of the motorsports world, by the news of Michele Alboreto's passing.
03:32The 44-year-old, five-time Grand Prix winner, killed in a testing accident for the Audi team at the Lausitz Ring in Germany.
03:39Our thoughts go out to his widow Nadia and their two daughters, and Kelly Alboreto was a true Grand Prix great.
03:46One hour of Friday practice is behind us, and another still to come.
03:50We'll take a quick break and then return for more Friday practice coverage from the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.
03:56Stay with us.
04:03Welcome back to Friday practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.
04:09Bob Barsha, Steve Matchett with you, and the Jordans roll off.
04:14Yarno Trulli, followed by Heinz-Herald Frensen, and there goes Olivier Panis in the BAR Honda.
04:19Typically at Barcelona, a track at which all of the teams test as you look at Juan Pablo Montoya rolling out in the Williams BMW.
04:27Steve, we're not used to seeing a lot of Friday activity.
04:30No, well, the engineers have certainly got all that work cut out.
04:33You know, with the new regulations changing with traction control back in and automated gearbox changes back in and automated differential controls back in,
04:41the engineers have been working overtime.
04:43The electronic gurus are not going to be getting any sleep this weekend at all, I don't think.
04:47And as we mentioned in our first Friday practice show two weeks ago, there are three sets of tires each driver is allowed to use on Friday only in an effort to get the cars out on track to please the fans.
05:00Olivier Panis doing great work for the BAR team.
05:03In fact, it must be said he's been outshining his teammate Jacques Villeneuve, the 97 world champion.
05:08We have to remember that Panis has had some experience in the past of setting up and working the car with traction control on, and it's a relatively new procedure for Jacques.
05:16He will have tested it, of course, but in a race condition, of course, he's never used it.
05:19So he's got his work cut out.
05:21Maybe Panis has got a slight advantage, but, you know, Jacques is a highly skilled driver and he knows he can use everything to get the performance out of the car.
05:27He will do.
05:28I don't think he's a big fan of traction control, but I think he's a part of the sport that's come back in now.
05:33You know, the drivers have to make use of it because it is not going to go away and Jacques will get used to it.
05:40I'm sure he will do.
05:41And as Ferrari technical director Ross Braun said earlier, it is not the end-all and be-all.
05:46You can only maximize the available grip.
05:49That's it in its entirety.
05:51The thing about traction control now, of course, we're now seven years on from when we were last using this in 93.
05:56It was banned in 94.
05:57Look how computer technology has come on.
05:59You look at a laptop or a computer that you would have been using in 1993 compared to what you've got now.
06:04It's a completely different ballgame.
06:06The way that the engineers will be working traction control, it will just be another component of the setup.
06:11What we were talking about before with the gearbox control, that's where the drivers are going to really have to work because it's their direct input into the car.
06:18The traction control system is always set up by the engineers with the laptops back in the garage, getting the car to work, where the gearbox is the big thing.
06:25And remember, you know, you over commit yourself going into a corner, you put too much effort going in, you will lose it.
06:31There's no traction control system in the world will ever say that the car will go off into the gravel trap.
06:35It is traction control, not anti-spin.
06:38Panis was sixth in the morning session at 121.815, nearly a second and a half off the pace set by David Coulthard, but he only got nine laps in.
06:48There you see how he compares with Coulthard through the second intermediate, still 1.4 seconds off of Coulthard's pace.
06:59This track is very abrasive, very hard on tires.
07:02Panis has let off now, wants to come in and have a look, maybe make a change to the car, or perhaps just get a piece of clean racetrack to drive on.
07:13Well, these Friday practice sessions, the times, you have to be very careful how you interpret these times, because we don't know what different tire specifications the teams are running.
07:21We don't know what fuel, which is the big thing, we don't know what they're running.
07:24And of course, also, the teams have now got to use, the drivers have got to use a mechanical system for adjusting the brake wires.
07:30They can no longer use electronic or hydraulic motors to adjust that.
07:33So they've got to get used to setting up the brake wires for individual corners as well.
07:37So you'll probably notice that one sector time will be very quick, the other two will start to drop off, because all the drivers of the teams are doing are concentrating on a third of the track.
07:46We saw Rubens Barichello climbing into his Ferrari.
07:48Meanwhile, his team leader, Michael Schumacher, is on track, coming into this fifth weekend of the season, tied with David Coulthard for the World Championship lead.
07:58Down the long, long front straightaway, the longest in Formula One, and hard braking for a sharp right-hander at turn one.
08:06This is the Elf series of corners.
08:09Then a long right-hander, Renault.
08:13That's the one that's going to put a lot of load onto that left front tire.
08:16That's the one that the tire engineers don't like that part of the circuit very much.
08:21This is Repsol, another long right-hander.
08:24Increasing radius.
08:26Then an uphill dash to Sayap.
08:28Very slow left.
08:34Up through the gearbox.
08:35Sharp left-hander coming up.
08:39And then a right.
08:42Now through Kamsa, and a downhill blast.
08:51He, too, well off the pace set by David Coulthard through the second intermediate.
08:59This is the Bank Sabadell corner, where last year he nearly drove his brother Ralph off the road to allow Rubens Barichello in the second Ferrari through.
09:10Flashing down to the start-finish line.
09:15He'll be well off the pace set by Coulthard, but that was in session one.
09:19This is session two, and we expect the track to get quicker.
09:25Welcome back to Friday Practice.
09:27Be sure to join us Saturday morning at 7 a.m. Eastern Time for live Speed Vision coverage of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.
09:34And then, of course, Sunday morning at 7.30 a.m. Eastern Time, live coverage of the Spanish race itself.
09:41Bob Varsha, Steve Matchett with you.
09:43There is David Coulthard, quickest in the first one-hour practice session, sitting and looking at the times.
09:49It's either that or he's looking at the operation manual for the traction control system, I think.
09:53Well, you bring up a good point as we watch Yarno truly practicing a start.
09:57Listen in.
09:58Right on the rev limiter.
10:05Well, that didn't look copybook perfect.
10:06I'll tell you what he did there.
10:07He wasn't very happy with the way the electronics were working and switched it off, which is why all of a sudden you started to see wheels smoke.
10:12I think, you know, it's a safety procedure in case that launch control doesn't work.
10:17Switch it off and go back to manual.
10:20This is Tarso Marquez a few moments ago, locking them up very early in the braking area, but he got his foot off the pedal before he squared off the tires.
10:29Yeah, I guess what he did there, the engineers must have pre-programmed a downshift and got their sums wrong for that corner.
10:37So I had a quick look at Michael Schumacher through the corner.
10:39This is Rubens Barrichello.
10:41You have to wonder what the Bridgestone engineers have cooked up following the first win for Michelin in its return to Formula One.
10:49Ralph Schumacher with a brilliant drive in Imola, Italy in the San Marino Grand Prix two weeks ago.
10:57Watching Barrichello around the start finish line.
11:012.149 seconds slower than David Coulthard.
11:04But keep in mind, this is simply timed practice.
11:07This is not qualifying and surely not money time.
11:14There's Mika Hakkinen, holder of the lap record.
11:18Winner for the last three straight years here in Barcelona with his teammate David Coulthard second on all three occasions.
11:25We have to say, Steve, this is a McLaren track.
11:28They always do very well here.
11:30It's difficult to say why.
11:32I'm always amazed at why one team does well at a circuit and people say that the car particularly suits Barcelona or particularly suits Imola.
11:38You know, the cars are so infinitely variable.
11:42You think you'd be able to set the car up for any circuit.
11:44Yet, I don't know if it's just the mentality of the drivers or the mentality of the team.
11:48Seems to be very confident.
11:49But McLaren always do well here, yeah.
11:51Here's our first look at one of the Benetons.
11:55Although Rubens Barrichello is the man being timed at the moment.
11:58Here comes the red Ferrari.
12:00I believe he's down in the La Caixa corner, which is rough Spanish for the word box.
12:09Also the name of a big Spanish bank that was a big supporter of this race for many years.
12:14This is the tenth running of the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.
12:19And McLaren has never been out of the points.
12:22Barrichello dives for the pit lane.
12:24Second quick thus far in the session.
12:31Practice his pit technique.
12:33Well, that's pretty much perfect.
12:38The idea is just to nudge that front jack back about two inches.
12:41And you know that you've got it right.
12:43Any more than that in the front jack man gets a little bit too nervous.
12:46We pick up now with Jarno Trulli.
12:48He looks to be working hard.
12:50He was eighth in the morning hour at 122.194.
12:53But just five laps completed due to a clutch problem.
12:57Rocketing off that fast downhill right-hander.
13:00And he moves into sixth place.
13:02Just 1.2 seconds off of the quick time thus far.
13:12Jordan team, the quicker of the two Honda-powered teams.
13:15They've put the BAR squad in the shade thus far this season.
13:19And truly, you can see, is working very hard.
13:22Fantastic amount of commitment needed by the drivers to get the most out of the car around the circuit.
13:27And again, as we've touched on before, you know, no amount of electronics is going to stop that car leaving the circuit.
13:31If you put too much commitment going into the corner, it'll go off.
13:35There's no doubt about that.
13:36I mean, Trulli was right on the ragged edge of that coming out of the last corner just so we're blasting down the straight.
13:41And that's a good indication of how much commitment you need to get the car to work well here.
13:46Just a tenth off at the first intermediate.
13:51Checking him now at the second at the top of the hill on the infield.
13:56Ooh, he's lost a lot of time.
13:57An additional 1.2 seconds off of what David Coulthard was able to do in the McLaren Mercedes.
14:09This is another circuit where the cars really would like to put some more, have some more wing on.
14:14But as the regulations concerning the aerodynamics have again trimmed the wings back,
14:20this circuit is a high downforce track.
14:23The engineers want to put more wing on to try and control that understeer.
14:26They can't do it.
14:27And, you know, undoubtedly the tires are going to suffer as a result of that.
14:33Good look down the front straightaway as the cars disappear at an incredible rate.
14:38Here's Enrique Bernoldi in the Arrows.
14:41Practice start.
14:42Boy, it is going to be amazing to watch this race unfold when everybody is on electronic launch control.
14:51Now there is Ralph Schumacher who has just set the fourth quick time.
14:55Still eight tenths of a second off of David Coulthard.
14:58The quick man in the session thus far.
15:00But Schumacher comes into this weekend absolutely walking on air after his first Grand Prix victory two weeks ago at Imola, Italy.
15:08And also a tremendous win for the team, the Williams squad, and for BMW.
15:14Their first since returning to the Formula One wars last year.
15:17But Steve, I was surprised to see just the tenth of BMW's long tenure in Formula One before that.
15:22You know, they're a name that's been associated with motorsport for a long while.
15:26And to have been able to get a win and only their second year returning back to Formula One with all the competition, the great competition around them is a fantastic achievement.
15:36No question about it.
15:39The previous victory for BMW came 14 years earlier in a car in Mexico City driven by Gerhard Berger who now runs the BMW program.
15:48There's also a great victory for Michelin in the first season of their return to Formula One.
15:56But as we learned two weeks ago, the Michelin tires need heat to perform well.
16:01And the early forecast for this weekend call for cooling temperatures and even a chance of rain.
16:06And that's exactly what the Michelin engineers will not want.
16:09We know that their compound works so much better when the truck gets hot.
16:13They need about 20 degrees in the tires for working well.
16:16That's the way they're going to want to stop it all weekend.
16:19Good bit slower there for Ralph Schumacher.
16:21Meanwhile, Pedro de la Rosa in the Jaguar has gone sixth fastest.
16:25That's David Coulthard in the McLaren.
16:31And there is Heinz Harald Frensen who got out of the garage this morning and said,
16:36I am not happy. And why should he be?
16:38He had gone off track twice and was very lucky to walk away from the second one.
16:42He went across the gravel trap and hit the tire wall hard.
16:46His teammate, meanwhile, had clutch problems.
16:49So the Jordan team has a lot of work ahead of them this weekend.
16:51Back now to David Coulthard. Final corner.
16:55Very fast right hander. Basically flat out for these drivers.
16:59And he resets quick time.
17:010.281 seconds under his best of Friday morning.
17:06And a new track record here at Barcelona.
17:09Coulthard very much on his game.
17:12Coming off a pole position and a second place finish two weeks ago in Imola, Italy.
17:17Earlier this week, he fired a shot across Michael Schumacher's bow saying,
17:20Michael is not impervious to pressure.
17:23We'll be back.
17:33Welcome back to Barcelona as Friday practice continues.
17:36The second of two one-hour sessions.
17:38Mika Hakkinen looks like is going to try a practice start.
17:41Listen.
17:48Not a hint of smoke coming off the tires.
17:50And the thing that's impressive about that particular practice start is how quick Hakkinen drew up to the line, managed to activate the start launch control system and then took off.
17:59And I think that's going to make a big advantage on Sunday.
18:03Now, the amount of drivers that we know that have used launch control in the past and the amount of new drivers that have never used it is going to be a big factor on Sunday.
18:11And an indication there, that's exactly what you want to do.
18:13You don't want to get confused with the launch control system.
18:15You don't want to start changing the diff settings by accident or hitting the radio button.
18:19You want to get up, hit launch control, go.
18:21And that's what Hakkinen did.
18:23Although I must say, all the purists are going to have a problem with all those cars ratcheting away on the rev limiter before the driver triggers the launch control.
18:31And keep in mind that the launch control only works when it's activated.
18:35The driver still has to put the whole thing in motion.
18:39And with maybe six, seven drivers in the field having any experience of using launch control in anger in a race, it could be a very interesting start come Sunday morning.
18:51This is Michael Schumacher.
18:53There were rumors that Ferrari weren't quite up to speed on their electronic driver aids.
18:58But the team has been keeping very mum about it.
19:05Checking the time, fully 3.3 seconds off Coulthard's time.
19:10But that is not necessarily an indication of anything untoward.
19:14No, it's not again.
19:15We have to remember exactly what these sessions are on the Friday.
19:18It's very much a practice session.
19:19It's very much at this stage trying different tire compounds.
19:22We'll see later on in the session the times will start to drop, I guess, because we're going into the qualifying mode when the team's trying to get the car set up for tomorrow.
19:29But at the moment, with all the new electronic gadgetry on the cars, this is a time really when the engineers are working overtime in the pitch.
19:36You know, the car will do five laps, come in, change all the settings, another five laps, come in, change all the settings.
19:41Very, very difficult to get any sort of flow and ebb with the times to know what it means, who's going quick and who's going slow.
19:48You just saw Luciano Berti, the Brazilian, in his new drive with the Pross team, replacing Gaston Mazzucani.
19:54And here is the man who replaced him in the Jaguar, Pedro De La Rosa.
19:58He will drive at his home Grand Prix this weekend, currently in sixth spot.
20:05And now he comes up to speed.
20:07The Jaguar team wanted experience in the car.
20:14Even though De La Rosa hasn't had a long Grand Prix career, it was certainly longer than Berti, who is a rookie this year.
20:21And new Jaguar team boss, Nicky Lauda, wants that experience in the car all the time.
20:26He revealed recently that De La Rosa actually had a contract with the Pross team, but broke it to join Jaguar.
20:33And rather than let De La Rosa go back, Lauda offered Berti, who immediately grabbed at the deal and is now driving the Pross, replacing Gaston Mazzucani, as I mentioned.
20:45While De La Rosa is in the Jaguar that he wasn't scheduled to take over until next season.
20:52Mika Hakkinen has gone third quick while we watched the Spaniard De La Rosa.
20:59And De La Rosa, you can see in his body language, really putting a lot of effort into controlling the understeer on this car.
21:05You can see how the steering is going left to right as it's really fighting the car.
21:08Huge amount of understeer on the Jaguar.
21:10Again, I think this is another point that's worth mentioning about traction control.
21:13That traction control, it gets rid of an awful lot of power out of the engine.
21:18And the engineers don't want to do that if possible.
21:20So what they're trying to do this time around is set the car up so traction control will just work to a limited degree on corners where they've got a problem.
21:28So that's, again, a more of a sophisticated way of looking at it than they were seven years ago.
21:33Boy, there's a corner, number 13, where you do not want a lot of understeer.
21:37It is very quick.
21:38Downhill right-hander De La Rosa improves, moving into the number five spot.
21:43About a second on fast man David Coulthard.
21:46We'll be back.
21:48A little over a week ago, I had the honor of hosting the 2001 International Motorsports Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Talladega, Alabama.
21:58You can see that ceremony Sunday night, April 29th, at 10 p.m. Eastern, midnight Pacific, here on Speed Vision.
22:06This is Juan Pablo Montoya practicing a start.
22:16There he goes.
22:17Now, that noise that sounded like a misfiring engine is not really the traction control at work there.
22:22That is just the rev limiter on the engine there to stop the engine blowing itself to pieces.
22:26It didn't look like a particularly good getaway.
22:28As I mentioned earlier, the Williams team has confirmed they are a bit behind in the development of their electronic packages.
22:34But it's probably worth pointing out, Steve, that there are different kinds of ways of achieving traction control.
22:41Yeah, there are all sorts of parameters on the engine that the engineers can play with.
22:45You can change the fuel.
22:47You can retard the ignition.
22:48You can close the throttle down.
22:49As a very primitive method, you can even spark cut the engine, which is where all that popping and banging used to come from.
22:55But there is so much, there are so many ways of controlling it that it's impossible, really, to detect when traction control is being used.
23:03And, you know, I know some of the drivers don't like it, and I can understand why, and I can understand some of the purists being upset with it.
23:10But it's what we've got, and we have to get used to it, and the drivers have to make best use of what they've got on the car.
23:16This is Michael Schumacher, currently fourth.
23:19The inside of that right front tire seems to be pretty well abused.
23:26Well, we know that Michael Schumacher likes to set the front of the car up with a lot of camber.
23:30That is, the tires leaning in at the top, and that moves the contact patch towards the inside shoulder of the tire.
23:36So it's an indication of how much camber Schumacher's running on the car, and we'll start to see that increase as the laps go onto that,
23:43that the inside shoulder will wear more and more.
23:45That was a Colombian flag waving, urging Juan Pablo Montoya on.
23:50You see, the car is not quite as quick as Enrique Bernoldi, who set the fastest straight line speed thus far in the arrows.
23:58He was through the speed trap at the start-finish line.
24:02317 kilometers per hour.
24:05Probably a good bit quicker than that at the end of that front straightaway before they hit the braking zone.
24:12Okay, I think you can get about 205 mile an hour out of these machines just before you have to slam the brakes on.
24:18And, of course, the wings are taking a tremendous pounding.
24:21And it was at that point in the off-season where Luca Badoa had that big accident test in the Ferrari,
24:26where the suspension collapsed right down at the bottom of the straight there, 200-odd miles an hour.
24:31Ooh, Montoya flying up onto that curbing and gathering up the car.
24:36Incredible to watch the way these cars change direction.
24:41And he is fully three seconds off of David Coulthard's time through that intermediate point.
24:47Now he starts the downhill plunge from the New Holland corner.
24:57Odd to name a corner at a Spanish racetrack for a tractor made by Ford, but there it is.
25:02Across the line he comes.
25:04Four and a half seconds, slower than David Coulthard.
25:07But, once again, he is working on his own agenda.
25:11Good look across this racetrack.
25:17Now here's Jean Alessi in the Prost practicing his launch control starts.
25:25And his head just jerks back in the seat.
25:27It might not look such an impressive start because of the lack of tire smoke,
25:31but Alessi's head snapping back is a good indication of the amount of performance
25:36coming from that engine when it shoots off the line.
25:38Oh, Juan Montoya appears to have lost an engine.
25:43Currently 11th at 122.020, but he will lose valuable time
25:49because, of course, the T car is not allowed to be used in Friday practice.
25:54So the Colombians' mechanical woes continue.
25:58And if it is, in fact, an engine meltdown, that could be a big problem this weekend.
26:02We'll be back.
26:08Welcome back to the Circuit de Catalunya.
26:15Bob Varsha and Steve Matchett with you for Friday practice on Spanish Grand Prix weekend
26:20here on Speed Vision.
26:21Here is Eddie Irvine, our first look at the Jaguar team leader.
26:25As you see, 19th place in the practice times.
26:28That puts him well behind his new Jaguar teammate, Pedro De La Rosa, thus far this weekend.
26:34De La Rosa up in the top six.
26:39But once again, we should reiterate, Irvine may be working on a completely different program.
26:45Later on, the engineers will combine their thoughts to arrive at a setup that both Irvine and De La Rosa can use.
26:52Irvine's driving much smoother in comparison to his teammate.
26:57I think the car's reacting much better.
26:59I don't know if they were working on different tires.
27:01I guess that's what it is.
27:02And I'm guessing here that Irvine's using the softer compound.
27:05But the understeer seems to be nowhere near as dramatic as what it was his teammate.
27:09That's for sure.
27:11Irvine heads for the pit lane.
27:12A few moments ago, David Coulthard put in another couple of laps but did not improve on his session-leading performance of 1 minute 20.107 seconds.
27:25You can hear the car puttering along on its rev limiter, getting back to traction control.
27:30For a long time, it was thought that some teams were illegally using the pit lane speed limiters to arrive at traction control.
27:39Those Michelins appear to have taken a pretty good pounding.
27:42Yeah, they do.
27:43And, you know, it's difficult to say whether or not all the performance was coming out of those tires there with the way that Irvine was driving the car.
27:52But certainly, he seemed to have a much smoother line in comparison to De La Rosa.
27:55And my guess is softer tires have helped there.
27:58But, you know, the soft tires are going to be no good if they go away after five laps and don't come back.
28:03As we check the times with the waning minutes of this second one-hour Friday practice session approaching,
28:13it's interesting to note, despite the fact that the electronic driver aid packages are back on as we watch David Coulthard,
28:21his teammate Mika Hakkinen refers to it as, we're back to gizmo time.
28:25At the top of the timesheets right now, the McLarens are first and third, the Ferraris second and fourth.
28:31So the king is dead. Long live the king.
28:35No change.
28:38Coulthard trying to better his own Friday leading performance.
28:43A little bit slow at the first intermediate.
28:46Consider that a year ago, David Coulthard raced to the podium here in Spain just days after that devastating plane crash
28:53that killed the pilots of his private jet and broke a rib on Coulthard,
28:58on Coulthard as well as injuring his then-fiancée Heidi Wieschlenski and his personal trainer.
29:03It was an incredibly courageous performance to come here and race and dedicate his performance to the memories of the dead pilots.
29:12A Coulthard seems to have a completely different mindset this year.
29:18He looks, he looks a completely different character and his body language in the car again is suggestive that the car is working beautifully around him.
29:24He's done an awful lot of testing in his time as well and he's, I think his ability to use the electronics is coming to the floor as well.
29:33And certainly the McLaren team have got their electronics package to work particularly well around this circuit.
29:38That's for sure, judging by what we've seen so far.
29:42And not to put too fine a point on it, but David Coulthard, in addition to coming in off a pole performance two weeks ago
29:49and a runner-up finish in the San Marino Grand Prix, he is also outperforming his teammate Mika Hakkinen,
29:55who has considerably more experience with traction control.
29:58We'll be back.
29:59Welcome back to Barcelona.
30:06Michael Schumacher on track.
30:08Here's a replay of him getting it just that little bit wrong, but dirt tracking it.
30:13They can still slide the cars despite the return of traction control.
30:19Which takes us back to the point made by Ross Braun, the Ferrari technical director earlier this week.
30:24It doesn't create traction.
30:26It just helps you to optimize what's available.
30:31And now, of course, the teams are able to optimize the differential settings as well.
30:35Before, although they were hydraulically controlled, the pressures inside the differential,
30:40the drivers were not allowed to make any adjustments as the car was circulating around.
30:44Only the engineers could do that either in the pits or during a pit stop.
30:48But now, of course, the engineers can also play with all the variables of the pressures in there
30:52so they can load and unload the diff plates for different corner-to-corner.
30:55So, you know, the electronics guys we touched on at the top of the show,
30:59for them, it's really round one of the World Championship.
31:02All the work that they did developing all the non-traction control software
31:05has just been taken out of all the controllers and binned them.
31:08For them, it's sort of kickoff of the season time.
31:11And it's not all give to the Formula One teams.
31:14Along with this new package of electronic aids, some things have been taken away.
31:18As you watch Michael Schumacher,
31:20pulled within a second and a half of David Coulthard's time.
31:24For example, the teams are no longer allowed to have power-assisted brakes or steering
31:32in order to avoid teams using computer-controlled brakes or steering.
31:37This is Ralph Schumacher, currently sixth, as you see.
31:41Seems to be the biggest thing that the FIA's regulations have gone in for
31:45as we just watched the McLaren go through another start procedure.
31:48Hacking it in the car.
31:50And again, how quick he comes to the line can activate the launch control software and get away.
31:56It's going to make a big difference on Sunday afternoon.
31:59When those guys are sitting on the grid and the tension's up and the heat's up
32:03and everybody's getting ready to push off from their line, it's going to make a big difference.
32:06There you see the clock at the bottom of the screen.
32:08Less than 15 minutes to go in the session.
32:11This is Heinz-Harold Frensen in the Jordan Honda.
32:15Ron Dennis, the major domo of the McLaren Mercedes team,
32:19has been walking around with a very satisfied smile on his face this weekend.
32:24I think McLaren feels they really have something for everyone this weekend.
32:31And why not?
32:32When you come into a racetrack where you've been 1-2 the last three years in succession,
32:38you have every right to feel confident.
32:41Well, McLaren have got some excellent engineers.
32:43Everybody knows that.
32:44We all know that the organization around McLaren is massive.
32:47Their electronics expertise is massive.
32:49And this is probably one reason why they're looking so good this weekend
32:52as they've got the electronic situation sorted.
32:54Remember at the start of the season, it was Ferrari that really vetoed the return of traction control until now
32:59because they wanted to concentrate on getting the right electronics package together.
33:03Paul Stoddard from Minardi come out with an interesting comment.
33:05He said, you know, it's one of the simplest things we do.
33:08You know, you write traction control software.
33:09It's probably a few grand's worth of technology.
33:11You put it into the car and you go racing.
33:13Well, in fact, it's not that easy.
33:16You know, it's like saying the Minardi is an equivalent race car to the Ferrari or the McLaren.
33:20You can build a race car, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the best out there.
33:23And Ross Braun's idea of traction control and all the electronic sophistication is very different from how Minardi see it.
33:31And of course, they lost Tad Chapsky who's gone back to Benetton now, the former Ferrari electronics guru.
33:38So they've had to replace him.
33:39And the loss of one key guy like that can put the program back enormously.
33:43All very well saying Ferrari got 650 odd employees, but there's only two or three people at the sharp end,
33:48the cutting edge of the electronics as far as electronics go.
33:51And that's the guy they need to replace.
33:53The Jordan dives for the pit lane.
33:56Here comes Michael Schumacher.
33:58The Jordan certainly looks squirrely.
34:00It's a lot warmer now than it was this morning.
34:02That track may be getting slippery.
34:04Schumacher, no improvement.
34:06The Ferrari remains fourth on the time sheets.
34:13The Jaguars being pushed back into the garage.
34:16Meanwhile, the TV cameras are gathering down at the end of the pit lane
34:20where Giancarlo Fisichella is practicing his starts in the Benetton Renault.
34:27And away he goes.
34:28We'll take a break and return to Barcelona.
34:30David Coulthard still quickest.
34:43Welcome back to the Circuit de Catalunya,
34:46where Pedro de la Rosa has been delighting his Spanish countrymen
34:50in his return to Grand Prix racing with the Jaguar team,
34:53running in the top six for much of this second one-hour session.
34:58Meanwhile, Rubens Barichello practicing his start.
35:09It appeared to work fairly well.
35:11I'm sure if Rubens is practicing something that he might use coming out of the pit stop,
35:14because we noticed that the refueling flap was open there
35:17and closed as he left the pit lane,
35:19which is exactly what you'd expect after a refueling stop.
35:21You don't want that to happen on the grid.
35:22You don't want to be sitting there at the start of the race on Sunday
35:24with the refueling flap open.
35:26Absolutely.
35:27Here's de la Rosa again.
35:29His best speed through the trap at the start-finish line,
35:33310 kilometers an hour.
35:35That's about 192 miles an hour,
35:37although he was just 305 that last time through.
35:40Enrique Bernoldi in the arrows with that Asiatek,
35:43the former Peugeot V10 engine,
35:45the fastest in this session at about 197 miles per hour.
35:51Remarkable the way de la Rosa has outpaced his teammate Eddie Irvine,
36:01although as I mentioned earlier,
36:03Irvine may be working on other aspects of the car
36:07that don't allow him to get a quick run in.
36:09It'll be interesting to see if they allow Irvine to run on low fuel
36:14with fresh rubber and set a time before this session is over.
36:18Well, if the team is working well and it's working in harmony,
36:21of course, what they should be doing is pooling that information from both drivers.
36:26So if you've got two drivers that are prepared to work with each other,
36:29and not all the teams have,
36:30but if you've got two guys that are prepared to work with each other,
36:32you can optimize the time by getting one guy to try one thing
36:36and the other guy to try another thing.
36:38You optimize the two cars, you get the results together and think,
36:41OK, guys, that's worked.
36:42Let's put that on both cars and try that.
36:44That's how a good team should work.
36:46Rosa got off the gas for a moment there.
36:50Meanwhile, picking up Rubens Baracello in the Ferrari.
36:56Oh, man, way out by that white line.
37:02Well, no question Baracello is trying hard,
37:05lighting up the right front as he climbs through the Repsol corner.
37:10Five minutes to go in the session, so we should see some qualifying practice along here.
37:23Maracello right out on the curbing.
37:26Still six tenths of a second outside Coulthard's performance.
37:42Interesting to see if Coulthard's time stands up because he was very quick this morning.
37:47Just peeled a couple of tenths of a second off of it in this afternoon's one-hour session.
37:52And if he remains at the top of the charts when he is ostensibly working on race setup,
37:57that would be pretty extraordinary.
37:59Meanwhile, Eddie Irvine has gone to second quick, answering my question with a lap at 120.615.
38:07And there is Irvine, obviously on a cool-down lap.
38:15Our picture's coming from Spanish television.
38:19There you see the numbers.
38:22It's still half a second off of what Coulthard did in the McLaren.
38:26Well, we know at this stage of the Friday practice sessions that it's very easy now the cars are in qualifying session
38:32to get as much fuel as possible out of those cars and trim the thing right down.
38:36And the fuel in the cars when you're doing race setup and the difference when you're doing a qualifying setup
38:40is pretty immense to the lap times.
38:42And I think Jaguar trying to get as much exposure as possible in these closing few laps.
38:48Saw a yellow flag at the top of the hill there just before Irvine ducked into the pit lane.
38:53I'm not sure what that was for.
38:55Look at the width of the pit lane here in comparison to where we were a couple of weeks ago at San Marino Grand Prix.
39:03It's about three times as wide.
39:08Spinning down through the times, Michael Schumacher bumped back to fifth.
39:11De La Rosa, though, still right there in sixth and the other Jaguar.
39:15I wonder if Jaguar has something for the Grand Prix field this weekend.
39:18And look at those tires that just pulled the car back inside.
39:21They were certainly a new set of tires that were on that car.
39:23Hardly any wear on them at all and certainly no graining.
39:28Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR Honda slowly down the pit lane.
39:31Looks like he's going to try a practice start as well.
39:34Now he's waving everyone aside.
39:39Well, he's going to that little bit of the pit lane there to do a practice start.
39:47And he hasn't got that.
39:48You can see his displeasure there with the launch control.
39:51And if that happens on Sunday, he'll have a stop go penalty for jump in the start.
39:54There's no doubt about that.
39:56But BAR electronics engineers have got some work to do there to get that ready for Sunday.
40:03Finally, he gets it underway.
40:07As we mentioned, Jacques Villeneuve, despite his 1997 World Championship, is not experienced at using electronic traction control or the launch control.
40:18And he has not been particularly over the top in his support of the concept, it should be said.
40:24Ralph Schumacher currently seventh in the BMW Williams.
40:28Just a couple of minutes to go in the session now.
40:36See if we have some more quick times.
40:39Now here's a replay.
40:40This may be the reason for our yellow flag at the top of the hill.
40:43Ralph Schumacher off across the gravel trap and back on.
40:48And Olivier Panis has now weighed in with the fourth quickest time of the day at 1 minute 20.826 seconds.
40:59Here's Mika Hakkinen, stranded on course it would appear.
41:02This is just down in the S's at the end of the long front straight in the Elf corners.
41:14One minute to go in the session now.
41:16There you see the clock.
41:17Hakkinen rolling again.
41:22We're beginning to see marbles building up on the outside of the racing line.
41:29Here comes David Coulthard.
41:30As the tire war heats up, Michelin having drawn blood at the San Marino Grand Prix two weeks ago.
41:40Bridgestone working to get back on top.
41:43And that means softer tires.
41:45And likely we will see bits of that rubber, the marbles, building up on the racetrack.
41:54David Coulthard with that time set, as I mentioned, very early in this one-hour practice session.
42:01Appears to be right on top of his game again this weekend.
42:05And the car is working beautifully.
42:09There's none of that sort of left or right stabbing at the steering wheel that we've seen before,
42:13certainly on the Jaguar of De La Rosa driving around earlier.
42:16The car is working beautifully around here.
42:19Once again, I'm struck by the way he is handling not only the field,
42:23but in particular his teammate, Mika Hakkinen.
42:25Who is usually right up there at the top of the time charts in every session he participates in.
42:36Checkered flags are out.
42:38The session is over.
42:39David Coulthard has dominated Friday practice here at the Spanish Grand Prix.
42:45Here's a look in the Jaguar garage.
42:47In the hat is Pedro De La Rosa.
42:49No doubt delighted to be back driving a Formula One car for the money and not just for testing.
42:56He is currently seventh.
42:59Has to be absolutely ecstatic.
43:01David Coulthard making his way around.
43:04One of the Benetons there with him.
43:08He will dive for the pit lane and then the drivers will head for the motorhomes to sit down and examine the computer tracings.
43:15Try to find a set up for tomorrow afternoon's qualifying.
43:22Coulthard appears to be off the power.
43:24There are several cars still out there at speed.
43:28So he'll have to be careful.
43:32Eddie Irvine remains in the number two spot.
43:35Rubens Bonackello third, then Olivier Panis and Michael Schumacher.
43:38Akenen is sixth.
43:40De La Rosa, as we saw a moment ago, seventh.
43:42Ralph Schumacher, eighth.
43:45Followed by Jacques Villeneuve.
43:47And Yarno Trulli in the Jordan.
43:51Here's a look at the full field from timing and scoring.
43:57De La Rosa coming out for a curtain call.
43:59Now he appears to be talking to his team.
44:02Here is Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari.
44:08A lot of questions about the Ferrari team.
44:11Have they lost the plot over the last few weeks?
44:14I think the situation with Ferrari is exactly the situation with McLaren.
44:19They're two big organizations.
44:20You can never count either of them out, hey?
44:23The session is over.
44:24We'll be back to wrap things up.
44:28Back at Barcelona, Nicky Lauda in the red hat and Eddie Irvine
44:32explaining how he put the Jaguar up into the number two spot
44:35in this second one hour practice session.
44:37David Coulthard, however, the dominant leader on this Friday.
44:41You know, I think the situation with Irvine is clear
44:43that they were running with hardly any fuel in the car.
44:46They were probably running on fuel vapor.
44:48And they had a very new set of tires
44:49and they wanted all the exposure for the team they can.
44:52Worked very well for them, though.
44:54Saw Juan Montoya in the number 13 spot
44:56despite losing the engine in his Williams.
44:59Jenson Button, despite the arrival of electronic driver aids,
45:03still struggling at the back of the pack in the Benetton.
45:05Be sure to join us as we bring you live coverage of qualifying
45:10for the Spanish Grand Prix.
45:12That will be Saturday morning at 7 a.m. Eastern time.
45:15And, of course, the race on Sunday.
45:17Our pre-race coverage beginning at 7.30 Eastern.
45:20Until then, I'm Bob Barsha for Steve Matchett.
45:21See you this weekend in Barcelona.
45:25So long, everyone.
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