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Qualifying for Round 12 of the 2001 F1 season at Hockenheim.

Only the first 30 minutes of the session are on as my tape cut out during recording.
Transcript
00:00Hello, everybody, and welcome to SpeedVision's live coverage of qualifying for the 12th round
00:23of the Formula One World Championship, the 49th running of the German Grand Prix, the
00:2725th time they have run at the Hockenheim Ring. Hi, everybody, I'm Greg Kramer, along with David
00:31Hoff, Sam Posey, and David, last year the story in qualifying was moisture on the track, keeping
00:36the times well off the previous best time, a bit different today. It certainly is. Yesterday
00:41was absolutely spectacular here, but today is still hot and sunny, and you can see the
00:45temperatures, 85 track temperature, 98 degrees, but there are, there is a threat of some thunderstorms
00:51coming in, but I don't think they're going to disrupt our qualifying this afternoon. There
00:55you see the track swooping out into the forest. Tell us a bit about it, Sam.
00:59Well, David, it's not a very inspiring looking track in the diagram, is it? Just out and back
01:05with a little squiggle around the pits on the right. But I love this track. It's brutally
01:10fast and always seems to produce exciting races. Only Spa is longer than Hockenheim, and only
01:15Monza has as few curves per mile. Just before the Clark chicane at the bottom of your screen,
01:20the cars reach the highest speed they run all year. They've been doing almost 220 miles
01:25an hour here in practice. It's the ride of the Valkyries, all right, with 22 V10s screaming
01:31away. Absolutely. And there is Tarso Marquez. First out there, get an idea of the trees around
01:37this track. It's set in deep, deep forest. The only cleared area really is the stadium area
01:42where the grandstands, the pits are. Then the Altebahn runs through the forest. But this
01:46is a very wooded part of southern Germany.
01:50It's interesting. In the Thursday press conference, BMW's Dr. Mario Thiessen had, I think, some
01:54revealing information on the track. There are four different spots where the cars exceed
01:59200 miles an hour. The first one, that run that, Sam, you were talking about up to the
02:02car curve, he said there are 16 seconds on full throttle. The other three areas, 10 to
02:0715 seconds on full throttle. 60 to 70 percent of the lap is on full throttle. That's remarkable.
02:12Let's take a look at the morning practice times. And while Eddie Irvin was fastest in
02:15practice, things changed, didn't it, for today?
02:18This morning, it did both the BMW-engine Williams cars on Michelin tires right up there at the
02:23top of the time sheet. Significantly quicker than the last dry pole in 1999. Eddie Irvine,
02:29who was quickest yesterday afternoon, has dropped down to 7th. Panis again showing up his more
02:33accelerated, his more esteemed teammate. John Lacy still running pretty good in the frost.
02:40Ricardo Zondra, of course, standing in there for Heinz-Harl Frenzen. There, of course,
02:44is Nicky Lauda, now in charge of the Jaguar team. Over Bobby Ray Hall, I think. It's very difficult
02:54to tell who the hierarchy is there. The point is, they seem to be getting on very well. And
03:02they're bringing the car up, too. The car is definitely coming up. Very good leadership at Jaguar.
03:06It's nice to see that they turn to two racing people to achieve it.
03:11Well, I think they, perhaps, very well understand how you have to evolve a car to get it to where
03:18you want it to be, and that, you know, just huge chunks of time don't just follow your way. And
03:22they're, since they've been in that role before, they're fairly calm about it, and just go about
03:27it in a very workmanlike and therefore efficient manner. Now, that comment you had, Greg, about 60 to
03:3370% of the time on full throttle. That means that for 60 to 70% of the time, you want as little
03:38downforce as you can possibly have as you go down these long straights. But there are some
03:42crucial areas, this being one of them, the off curve, where you could do with a maximum amount
03:48of downforce. And the big thing here, the tactical thing here, is how these teams work out their
03:53best compromise on downforce, because you come into these chicages, which are, ooh, relatively
03:59slow corners. Obviously, you need a bit of downforce, but where you really need the downforce
04:04at those corners is coming into them at 200 plus. You touch the brakes. You really could
04:08do with all the downforce in the world. And also, right here on, through the, into the stadium,
04:15you really want a lot of downforce all through here. So you just absolutely have to strike the
04:20best compromise. Very, very difficult for these teams to do. This track has a history
04:24of using up virtually, virtually every component on the car. One of them, the rear tire degradation,
04:29you slide the car, break the, the rears loose on the throttle coming out of the canes. With
04:33traction control, some of the engineers say that may be minimized, but the other scenario
04:38still is involved. Carson Marquez briefly gets to claim the provisional pole. He'll like
04:42that much more qualified to come here at Hockenheim.
04:49Speed Vision's coverage of Formula One is sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, located on the web at mvusa.com
04:59and by Bridgestone, a grip on the future.
05:04Welcome back to Hockenheim, everybody. Gentleman to our good fortune, German TV loves super slow-mo
05:09replays. And we're going to be enjoying these all session long.
05:12And you see Tarso Mark is going over the curves. You can see the incredible forces put through these
05:17cars. The tires just wobbling about there in the air. And the tire not making a lot of contact with the
05:24ground half the time. It's hardly driving at all. It's some sort of stunt performance to take the cars
05:31through these chicanes. Lurching over these curbs. And of course, a tremendous amount of chassis
05:37setup goes into making these cars handle over those curbs. Well, in fact, isn't that one of the
05:43reasons that they've stayed with the 13-inch rim and the big fat sidewall on those? Because that's
05:48where they get some of the suspension that actually cushions some of that. Oh, right. I mean, you don't
05:52see any of those real low profile. Talking about low profile. Tires only like you do on these high-performance
05:59streetcars. Very, very high profile on these Formula One tires because that's where 90% of your
06:04springing comes from. An immense crowd on hand as always here hoping for something spectacular from
06:10one of the Schumachers or perhaps from BMW or Mercedes. We'll find out when we come back.
06:15Welcome back to Hockenheim, everybody. Right now, Jos Verstappen is on track. We understand teammate Enrique
06:30Bernoldi is out as well. Otherwise, pit lane relatively quiet at this stage. A lot of the teams waiting.
06:36Obviously, German TV is so ecstatic about these two guys on the track. All we're looking at is a picture
06:41of the pits. But now we are actually seeing Verstappen, who's started his flying lap. This is that long run
06:47down to the Jim Clark curve. It's just 16 seconds on full throttle. Can you imagine the turmoil going
06:54on in that V10 engine and all that power being forced out? Top Gear, of course, gets a tremendous pace in here, too. They probably have to have strength and gear cluster slightly for that sustained run at those high speeds and high power.
07:09It's interesting. They have made detailed changes to the track through the years to slow it a little bit. Back at 91, the last speed was 1.37.
07:17Last year, it was 1.45. Without changing the overall configuration, I think they've tightened up the chicanes.
07:26With this current configuration, just as a reference point, in 1998, Mika Hockenheim had the fastest pull time at a 1 minute 41.838.
07:34Now, as we saw the times from this morning, they're all well underneath that already at a 1.39.1 for Ralf Schumacher.
07:40So, obviously, the continuation of just this remarkable tire development, his car's going faster than ever.
07:49He's well underneath, as you would expect, Marquez, time.
07:51Going into the stadium, where all the people are, just look at them all. I mean, there was a good crowd on hand yesterday.
07:56Boom!
07:57Well, that's that low downforce.
07:59That's that low downforce.
08:00Exactly. Look at the little skinny wing. I mean, sometimes they've got as many as three planes on those rear wings.
08:05We'll see those in Hungary in three weeks, the triple. Absolutely. Everything.
08:10Singing and dancing downforce.
08:12You definitely go from the sublime to the core blimey between here and Hungary, because minimum to maximum downforce.
08:18So, 1.42.7 pole position this afternoon.
08:22Now, it has got a lot hotter since this morning, but this morning, Ralph did that 1.39 and change.
08:27He could easily do a 38 or even a high 37 for pole this afternoon, unless the temperature is too high and sucks too much horsepower out of the engine,
08:37although the track temperature will probably help the tires.
08:39Obviously, there's a point where you go over the top for the tire help from temperature.
08:45And, of course, in the race tomorrow, that's going to be more important.
08:48Obviously, Arnold Trulli, we just had a look at there sitting in the car.
08:51And before Trulli, we saw some shots of banners, which we understand there's some banners there that say,
08:57Jordan, go home, or something to that effect.
08:59Obviously, a very controversial decision to fire a German driver on the eve of the German Grand Prix.
09:06That's what's called good PR.
09:08Yeah.
09:09Not well received, that's for sure.
09:11Bernoldi on the lap right now sees over Verstappenstein, but not by that much through the Agip curve and now into that stadium section.
09:21Interesting corner here, really.
09:23It's just kind of a double apex out and then right back down again.
09:27He's coming up right in here is where Ralph Schumacher had an off yesterday in practice,
09:32and Coulthard went off in practice this morning.
09:35So these guys are all trying pretty hard.
09:39Well, Bernoldi actually picked up some time in the stadium to take current pole away from his teammate,
09:47Jas Verstappen.
09:48Things on the track still relatively quiet.
09:51It's going to get a lot busier, so we're going to step away, get another break taken care of.
09:55We'll be right back to Hockenheim.
09:56Speed Vision's coverage of Formula One is sponsored by Cadillac, the fusion of design and technology.
10:09And by Prudential Financial, a rock solid leader in financial services.
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10:20Welcome back to Hockenheim.
10:21Michael Schumacher actually now puts the remote down for the monitors and starts getting ready.
10:25It appears to get in the car as we have Luciano Berti is on the track in the Pro Stacer.
10:31We haven't missed anything.
10:32He's the only guy out right now.
10:33Others, of course, getting close.
10:34There's Eddie Irvine, the revelation of Friday practice, about ready to go.
10:38And the track temperature, guys, has just exceeded 100 degrees.
10:42So the temperatures generally continue to edge upward.
10:46So pretty good track temperature for these guys to get in there.
10:49Obviously, in Formula One, you have these tire warmers, so they go out with warm tires to start with.
10:53But we're obviously going to see a major flurry of activity.
10:56The Schumacher brothers are both dressed up and ready to go.
10:59David Coulthard's being strapped in.
11:01Raikkonen's in his car.
11:03So I would say we're going to see a lot of intense action in a minute.
11:07And then, of course, they'll all be worried about the traffic.
11:09So far, pole positions have gone only to three drivers this year.
11:13Michael Schumacher dominating things with eight poles.
11:16David Coulthard, two.
11:17And Ralf Schumacher, one.
11:19If you think, you have the sense that Ralf Schumacher operating with that BMW power
11:23could be a very, very strong factor.
11:25Heading for number two, I think, today.
11:27And so could his teammate Montoya if the brakes went his way.
11:31I think it was a pretty remarkable performance by Ralf Schumacher this morning,
11:35considering he really, David, missed that entire second practice session on Friday
11:39and yet came out and was not only fastest overall,
11:42but a good three-tenths quicker than his teammate.
11:45Yeah, he had an exceptional run because, as you say,
11:48he missed most of it through a key afternoon yesterday.
11:52Did you see that difference in top speed, David?
11:54Everything between Berti and then he crossed Asa with...
11:57and Verstappen.
11:58It was at 12 kilometers an hour.
12:01It's unbelievable, the difference here.
12:03And at that end of the grid, if you will,
12:06you saw, too, that Berti was up by about four-tenths of a second,
12:10so he's on a fairly quick lap.
12:11And Schumacher, obviously, getting ready to go as is Coulthard.
12:15We'll continue to watch Berti here heading into the Senecker.
12:20The pro set-up apparently has a good deal more downforce than the Arrows Asia Tech.
12:27Wouldn't you say, David?
12:28The car looks a lot more stable.
12:29It looks a heck of a lot more stable,
12:31and that explains why he's 12 kilometers an hour slow down.
12:34It's very good.
12:35Particularly with that Ferrari engine,
12:38it should be a very good power plant.
12:40Obviously, helping him by those split times there.
12:43It's obviously helping him.
12:44It looks very stable, isn't it?
12:47The general pecking order of engines right now,
12:49two-thirds of the way through the season,
12:51is BMW with the most power,
12:53Ferrari in the middle,
12:54and Mercedes third with everybody else in a sort of bunch behind.
12:59It's hard to sort out the differences when the teams are not...
13:04that are so indifferent.
13:06Now Berti right there, that 141 that he just threw in,
13:10that 141.6, I believe, is quicker than Hockinen's time in 98.
13:14So they're already subbed the fastest time ever set here in this configuration,
13:19and that is with Luciano Berti.
13:21Now, you know, as we watch one of the replays here talking about the stability,
13:24you'd have to think, Sam, wouldn't you,
13:25that the Ferrari slash Petronas engine probably would be the next one in line?
13:31Yes.
13:32The fourth best, so to speak.
13:34Hard to say, though, when you get down there,
13:36because there's so many variables.
13:38I think the Honda entrance probably a really fine piece.
13:42There's Mika Hockinen.
13:44Not yet made the decision to leave,
13:46although it looks like they're dropping him down off the jacks.
13:48When that monitor goes up in the air, you can expect to see him out.
13:51We understand Jacques Villeneuve now has taken on to the track as well,
13:55so we were looking for a quick lap.
13:57Now, that's a car that has not looked at all stable, certainly in the practice
14:01and either this morning in the morning practice session today either.
14:06The bars just do not look that good here.
14:09Tarsal Marquez.
14:10What's that?
14:12Watching the monitors.
14:13Hock is back as Auto Sport headlined after his win.
14:18Oh, Hock is not back there.
14:20Something's not running right here.
14:22Now, um, twice he had hydraulic problems yesterday
14:28and had to take him back into the garage.
14:31So, obviously, he's got some problem with that vehicle to get it going,
14:36which, of course, has happened to McLaren five times this year
14:40out of the first ten starts.
14:42McLaren failed to take the green light.
14:46Correct position.
14:47Of course, yesterday, they wheeled Mika out twice and had problems.
14:51To bring him back, right?
14:52Yeah.
14:53Obviously, you've got the continuation of the same problem, by the way.
14:55Yeah.
14:56Now, here's Villeneuve, by the way, and this is what I was talking about.
14:58Watch him now as you were.
15:00Unless they cranked in a lot more downforce than they ran yesterday
15:03or this morning, watch him.
15:04Particularly through the chicanes.
15:06That car does not look at all comfortable to drive.
15:08Now, Hock is released.
15:10I think the answer is Villeneuve does have more downforce.
15:13Look pretty stable.
15:15The one engine, of course, that you might wonder where is it is the Porsche engine.
15:19Here's a great company that makes wonderful engines.
15:22Not in racing at the moment.
15:24They're having a wonderful Renn Sport reunion up at Lime Rock this weekend.
15:28We say hi to all those people that are up there now.
15:30And I talked to Fred Schwab, the president of Porsche North America, yesterday,
15:35and I put him on the spot and asked him when Porsche was coming back.
15:38He said, we're coming back, but I can't tell you when.
15:41But it would be fantastic to see them back making an engine for Formula One.
15:46That would be fabulous.
15:48Villeneuve now, by about a little over a tenth of a second, has provisional pull.
15:53And there is David Coulthard.
15:58That white line right about just went under that darkness there.
16:02That is that second split.
16:04Villeneuve at a 1-14-2.
16:05And Coulthard went under it by a second.
16:07Wow.
16:08Boy.
16:09That's decisive.
16:10Well, it always happens in qualifying.
16:15You see the first guys go out.
16:17They kind of warm things up for everybody.
16:19And then there's the first blow by a major contender.
16:22And it's always decisively faster lap.
16:25Coulthard with three pole positions this year.
16:29If he stays that second up, oh, and he's, oh, 1.6.
16:34He's in the 39s already.
16:371-39-8.
16:39That's his quickest lap of the weekend by nearly a second.
16:43He was at 1-40.6 this morning.
16:463-9-8 this afternoon.
16:48There's the cue.
16:49HÃ¥konen, Panis, Zonta.
16:51They head down into the stadium section.
16:53These are all their outlaps.
16:55And it's a little crowded there.
16:57And Zonta actually on a hot lap.
16:59And it's not anymore.
17:00That's over as he came right up on Panis.
17:03And Panis didn't let him through and still doesn't.
17:07Zonta, of course, replaced Heinz Harald Frensen in Canada.
17:13And Heinz Harald was having headaches and so forth.
17:16And so he's, and he finished seventh in his first outing for the team.
17:21So there's every reason to look forward to his performance here.
17:24Certainly Eddie Jordan hopes that the view of having fired Heinz Harald Frensen
17:28would put in a good show.
17:30Yarno Trulli makes his way down to the stadium.
17:35He got a real bum rap on that lap.
17:37Yeah, you would have thought Panis.
17:41Well, Panis, I guess, may have thought he was also on an out lap.
17:44But...
17:45Well, I think Panis was himself being there.
17:47Second for Trulli by half a second to Coulter.
17:59That's pretty typical so far this year.
18:02The Jordans have flattered only to deceive over and over again.
18:07Good qualified performances, or at least adequate ones,
18:10have not been backed up in the race.
18:15Speed's there.
18:16Other reliability, isn't it?
18:18Oh!
18:19Oh, lurid.
18:22Oh, look at that great shot.
18:25The telephoto lenses here are just incredible, aren't they?
18:28Oh, look at that time, folks.
18:29Oh, for second off.
18:30Wow.
18:38Oh, my goodness.
18:391.3 for Schumacher underneath the current fast time.
18:43Oh!
18:44And that one...
18:45That's it.
18:46And that one set, that's going to put him easily into the 138s
18:49if he can maintain that speed through the stadium.
18:52There's Harkin, he's going to pick up the pole.
18:54And he dropped the tire off doing it, down a half at 139.2.
18:57Here comes Schumacher.
18:58That pole is not going to hold up very long.
19:00Oh, my gosh.
19:01Ah!
19:031.3.4.
19:04Unbelievable.
19:05Almost a second faster, just from Harkin.
19:07Harkin had about, what, three seconds to celebrate his...
19:12Montoya's on the track, and Michael Schumacher
19:15makes his way out of the garage as well.
19:18Is the Ferrari going to have the muscle to do this this weekend?
19:21It's going to be pretty doubtful, that Ralph Schumacher.
19:25Look at the response.
19:26Look at the response.
19:27Yeah, you wonder who they're rooting the most for.
19:29Oh.
19:30Ralph, with his BMW engine.
19:31Michael, because he's winning the championship.
19:34You know, it's a tough choice, or one of the Mercedes engine guys.
19:38A big crowd on hand, and of course, Germany really is suddenly reaching a huge ascendancy
19:44in Formula One, with two of the top drivers, the brothers, Michael and Ralph Schumacher,
19:48with the Mercedes and the BMW engines.
19:50I mean, they're in a hugely strong position in Formula One.
19:53You know, these speeds are reaching the time of the...
19:58Williams, Frank, you see Sir Frank there, set back in 1991 with the full, you know, active suspension cars.
20:06Yeah.
20:07And that's how fast these guys are going.
20:09And the track is, if anything, slower today than it was then, with the reprofiling of some of the chicanes.
20:15Of course, these cars have had a massive amount of downforce, and grip taken away by narrowing the track and narrowing the car,
20:23and, of course, grooving the tires, and just...
20:27If these were back to the old wide track slick tire cars, they'd be doing about a 33.
20:32Oh, it'd be unbelievable at that point.
20:34That's Schumacher.
20:35Now, remember, he's on his out-lap, a warm-up lap.
20:37We're waiting to hopefully get a glimpse here of Montoya, who should be on a fast lap.
20:42Of course, the fascination here will be with Schumacher.
20:46Boy, listen to the noise.
20:50Yeah, here comes Montoya.
20:55Looking very good through the Oscar there.
20:57Everybody been running right out to the white line.
20:59See how he does on this split.
21:01He was 800s up on Ralph at the first intermediate sector.
21:06Not much, but still quicker.
21:12Very smooth through there.
21:14There's Schumacher now starting his lap.
21:18Big reaction.
21:20Yeah.
21:21Huge reaction.
21:22Huge stadium.
21:23Through that Nord Curve now, you know, you talk about some tracks.
21:27What's the most crucial corner?
21:28And you could argue that the Nord Curve is as it leads on that longy straight.
21:31But I don't know that there's not a crucial corner in this one.
21:34You've got to get out of those chicanes anywhere to get down those next long chutes.
21:37When you think of the number of qualifying, the front row has been settled by less than ten to the second several times this year.
21:46Very good lap.
21:47Off by a tenth.
21:50So he lost out in that final sector through the stadium.
21:55And that's where that compromise on aerodynamics really comes into play.
22:01Well, Michaels looks nicely balanced, doesn't it?
22:03Boy, he had a lot of room to spare there.
22:05Yeah.
22:06Well, we'll soon know whether we have a legitimate battle for the pole on our hands or whether the BMW power is going to carry over there.
22:19Up and over the curbs in the center.
22:21Curve.
22:22Watch for that intermediate now.
22:24Coming up.
22:27Close.
22:28Not even close.
22:31Eight tenths off at that point into the stadium.
22:36Oh, and a lockup.
22:39Runs a little wide there.
22:40Obviously, he has a little bit of work to do, one of the thing, on the set-up at this stage.
22:47Unless he works some absolute magic in the stadium section.
22:50We'll watch for it.
22:51Oh, drops a tire over in the gravel.
22:54Fourth.
22:55Eight tenths off.
22:56Of the provisional pole held right now by Ralph Schumacher.
23:03So, we think Michael will be heading back to the garage and getting some earnest discussion with the engineers to solve the problem.
23:10We'll be back right after this.
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