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Pre Race for Round 14 of the 2001 F1 season at Spa
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00:00he made his grand prix debut here exactly 10 years ago a year later he returned to score
00:12his first grand prix victory to begin a journey through the record book which today sees him
00:17tied for the most grand prix wins 51 with alain prost today he begins a second journey this time
00:25into the uncharted territory beyond existing records it is fitting that the arc of his
00:30greatness should spring from this place where so much racing history has been made and where
00:35is found the most difficult turn in formula one whole room michael schumacher at spa in the belgian
00:41grand prix next
00:57hello everybody and welcome to the greatest racetrack in formula one it's spa francoshawn site of the
01:03belgian grand prix round 14 of the 2001 formula one world championship live on speed vision i'm sam
01:10hosie along with david hobbs bob varsher and with us again after a long time steve matchup well sam
01:16thank you very much it's great to be back we've got some great filming done in europe but there's
01:19there's nothing like doing the live shows back here well we're glad you're with us this is the
01:23accurate pre-race show for the belgian grand prix and for the latest news let's get right to peter
01:28windsor in the paddock where they are still talking about the shake-up at jaguar
01:35thanks sam well yes the decision was announced some 10 days ago now but they're still talking
01:39about here in the paddock at spa and that is the departure the sad departure it has to be said
01:43of bobby rahal from jaguar racing not really surprising given the fact that nikki lauda was
01:49appointed over bobby as chairman of jaguar cosworth and pi research and at the time a lot
01:54of people in formula one said well there isn't really room for two people here and it'll be
01:58interesting to see how the next few months pan out well i wrote a few months ago that i hope that
02:03bobby would not be made the full guys a result of the adrian newey shambles jaguars attempt to try to
02:08sign adrian newey and a couple of races later nikki lauda came up to me and was fairly aggressive
02:13in his words when he said that bobby would definitely be staying at jaguar he's doing a
02:17great job for the team and there's no question of him being made the fall guy well a few months later
02:22he's been made the fall guy it's very sad i think he did a great job he moved family he set up house
02:26in england he was 100 committed to the program even though the operation in america was that successful
02:31this year and it's great it's very sad to see him leave recently apparently at a ford board meeting a
02:36member of the ford family looked jack nasa the the ford chairman in the eye and said who is the
02:41highest paid employee of the ford motor company apparently jack nasa replied well i guess it's
02:46probably me and he said wrong it's a guy called ed irvine who is this guy i think bobby rahal knew
02:51the true answer as to who eddie irvine is and sadly he's lost his job as a result in other news jano
02:58trillian giancarlo fizichella and a swap deal for the 2002 season again no surprise there both effectively
03:04are managed by flavio briatore and in instigating that swap he's actually paying both drivers he
03:10less than he would otherwise have to so a good move from flavio there and for the two italians
03:15i don't think it really makes that much difference actually be quite nice to morph those two guys
03:18because jano is a great qualifier giancarlo is a great race driver but that's another another matter
03:23meanwhile mclaren still deciding whether or not to switch to michelin tires next year we hear there is
03:28now a really strong possibility that will happen if so that will increase ferrari's lot with bridgestone
03:34they'll be the major front runner on bridgestones alone with bridgestone next year which is a great
03:39move for them equally it will probably reduce slightly the williams michelin effort so it's not
03:44been done the deal's not been signed but watch this space for further news well thanks uh peter hey
03:50after the performance of the michelin tires in yesterday's wet qualifying session a mclaren switch
03:55is even more likely now earlier this week came some sad news when we learned of the passing of
04:00a great team owner and innovator ken tarrell began as a timber merchant which led to his nickname chopper
04:10but his real passion was motor racing and it was in racing that he made his name as a car owner
04:15tarrell's debut in formula one came in the late 60s he had a keen eye for talent and he achieved his
04:21greatest success with his discovery jackie stewart the two men teamed up to win three world championships
04:27and 25 races from 1968 through 1973 but tarrell was more than a talent scout he was a great innovator he
04:35introduced this six-wheel car in 1976 the raised noses of today's formula one cars were first seen
04:42on one of his cars this weekend many people offered their memories of ken tarrell he was stormy
04:51but he was the only one of us who to be blunt ever really stood up to bernie and he was a tough
04:57character gave more than he got most of the time in focal meetings he was worth his weight in gold and
05:04he was a true entertainment some of the times wonderful man such a real legend great for this sport
05:11will be so difficult to replace i had the utmost respect for this very great man it was very sad for
05:17me really because i realized without him no jackie eggs last week at the silverstone historic gathering
05:27as a tribute to his mentor jackie stewart drove the 1971 tarrell in which he won eight races and a world
05:34championship
05:37tarrell a man i also had the utmost respect for is survived by his wife nora his sons ken and bob and
05:43their grandchildren ken tarrell was 77 he will be much missed
05:47welcome back to the accurate pre-race show for the belgian grand prix now there's an elaborate
06:05system of timing and scoring in formula one and here is peter to explain what the teams are all seeing
06:11on those monitors well sam as good as spar is for watching it's a fantastic spectator circuit
06:18it's still difficult to beat somewhere like this i'm inside the compact motorhome i could actually
06:22be inside any of the motorhomes here in the paddock because they all have access to this incredible
06:26tag heuer siemens timing system and all the teams of course have this in the garage as well
06:32but it really paints an incredibly accurate picture of what is going on on the track at any given moment
06:37lots of different colors lots of numbers so let's try and go through it obviously the blue numbers on
06:41the left are the current order of play michael schumacher's fastest in this session and i should
06:46say here that it's friday it was dry at the beginning of this session and it's raining now
06:50so cars are starting to go out after quite long breaks in the pit lane so that's the order they
06:54finished in the drive michael from truly from barichello msc differentiates of course from rsc his
06:59brother ralph most of the others are pretty obvious bernoldi alonzo montoya etc etc across the top here we
07:07have obviously the best lap the driver has done so far they're all of course in the dry and then
07:12across here in purple the best time or speed achieved in sectors or speed traps so far throughout
07:18the lap okay up on the pit wall now this shows you the sort of information they get on the pit wall
07:24amongst the teams now this is a different channel which in the motorhomes and in the media center they
07:28don't have access to this shows this is the order at which they've just crossed the line but the
07:33interesting thing here is it's another top speed that's an extra bonus speed trap nobody else gets
07:38to see except the team people and that is a speed trap just at the exit of the famous eau rouge corner
07:44in kilometers an hour again of course but if you monitored that you would see at the end of the
07:48three days who is the fastest guy through eau rouge in theory obviously another screen here showing
07:53lots of information it's got track temperature air temperature uh the probability of rain wind speed
07:58humidity air pressure and so forth and on these monitors here right now you can see what it's like
08:03some of the on boards and you can see another shot here they're practicing their starts you see the
08:06rev uh display here 13 000 we're on a ferrari it's barichello's ferrari 15.5 as it really fit in
08:14i'm not sure you can see that on our feed but it's great to watch here on the pit wall
08:21i guess it would be sam we should point out that those timing screens came into play at yesterday's
08:26qualifying in which the lap times tumbled as the track dried despite a local yellow at stavelo for nick
08:32heidfeld sauber mclaren protested the final results arguing that the interval times on the screen
08:38showed that 17 cars had violated the rule requiring the drivers reduce speed in the area of a single
08:44waving yellow flag but officials checked the record from the timing and scoring screens which includes
08:49incremental timing from stations roughly every 200 meters or so around the track and compared those
08:54results with telemetry tracings from the affected cars before they decided that everyone had in fact
08:59lifted if not slowed and so they denied ron dennis's protest those decisions of the stewards
09:05we should point out are also displayed on the screens it's really a great system now thanks a lot
09:09bob when we come back we'll talk to drivers about spa many of them consider this to be their favorite
09:14track it's michael schumacher's favorite but after clinching his fourth world championship in
09:19hungary two weeks ago he may rank the hungaro ring high on his list as well here's what michael said to
09:24his team over the radio after his victory guys um i don't have the right words for you at the moment
09:35but yeah i mean simply amazing and we all love it it's so lovely to work with you guys
09:44well i'll say i don't know the right words i simply i love you all i love you all thank you
09:54welcome back you see some last minute preparations olivier pennis there getting ready for the belgian
10:00grand prix this is the 49th running of this race ferrari has won 11 of them mclaren 10. now over the
10:07weekend we have talked about what a great racetrack spa is and how thrilling it must be to drive
10:12eau rouge flat out a rouge has been changed this year slightly organizers have moved a wall back
10:17and replaced a gravel track with tarmac in theory it is now a safer turn still presents and is still
10:24a favorite of present and past drivers i don't think the wall the remove the wall makes it easier to drive
10:33it's just a lot safe and is it flat through that yeah for us it's easy flat
10:38today it has been modified in such a way that uh instead of having to shift and break at the bottom
10:45of the straight before the corner now you just go flat out and i went to see it this morning
10:52and i think it's really diabolic diabolic yes love the circuit it's a fantastic challenge big a lot of
11:00people talk just about eau rouge but there's there's blanchement poo on there's a lot of fast corners here that
11:04you really feel on the edge of of the car the weather plays a part as we stand here it's just
11:09started to rain so we can expect that maybe this weekend sparta me is not not so special than this
11:14to other drivers i prefer suzuka it's a perfect circuit for the other family member for me it has
11:20never really played off that well the other family member of course michael schumacher has won
11:27four races here although not consecutively steve there have been some hassles on the grid well we
11:34were just watching some uh film come down on the world feed there earlier on just before montoya was
11:39released from his garage the mechanics were shown an awful lot of concern before putting the body
11:43work on around the air box and the fuel tank the the area just behind the fuel tank bulkhead we
11:48couldn't see it because of the angle of the way the camera was pointing but montoya was pretty late
11:52coming onto the grid which is not a normal situation for him he likes to get on fairly early so
11:56you know i don't want to be pessimistic but certainly there was a lot of concern being shown
11:59around montoya's car and of course he's a heavy favorite bob the morning warm-up kind of indicative
12:05i think of a new order of things that we didn't see in qualifying because of the weather it is a bit
12:11of a scramble in the morning warm-up and there is nigel mansell the 92 world champion talking with
12:16rubens vaticello mansell seen most recently on our sunday night race week news program crashing one of the
12:23minorities at a formula one day out at donnington park in england last week but it's good to see
12:29old nige around wonder if those are his sons he's interesting yeah his children they were just toddlers
12:35when you and i saw them years ago in france yeah time flies bob tell me about it
12:43well time as you speak time now for another break and when we come back we'll take a lap around spa
12:49with the redoubtable david hoffs stay with us
12:55speed vision's coverage of formula one is sponsored by acura experience performance today at your local
13:02accurate dealer
13:03welcome back to spa francos shan there's a distinctly american sense to this place because
13:19both phil hill and mario andretti in the years of their world championships won this race and it was
13:24key to both of their championship campaigns and of course dan gurney also won it with the eagle you see the
13:30magnificent view of the place eau rouge is off there on the left now let's take a look at the
13:36mercedes track map now steve says this track bulges with soul and it is certainly a solemn place one of
13:43the most destructive battles of world war ii having been fought here and the track itself having claimed
13:47the lives of so many drivers 180 mile an hour climbing turns at eau rouge call for soul for sure this
13:54is the longest track in formula one and the track with the most elevation change now these days many of
13:59the formula one circuits seem interchangeable with each other not spa and now to talk you around
14:05a lap here's david hobbs david well we're on board here with rubens barichello coming across the start
14:10finish line they get up to nearly 180 before they break very hard for la source one of the tightest
14:16hairpins in formula one 35 miles an hour in first so here on it's all downhill to the bottom as we cross
14:24the river at eau rouge and there you see the corner before you tremendous spring compression there cars
14:29bottoming out flat out through the corner difficult lose a lot of speed but you need to keep as much as
14:35you can up because this camel straight here is very steep uphill on board now with john lacy good
14:42overtaking spot here into lake home as mika harkin could tell you from last year this is the malmody
14:47chicane s bend downhill now to rivage this is a tricky little corner because it's still going
14:54downhill all around tremendous amount of understeer as you can see there from a lacy's car pick up to
14:59about 125 down here back to about 100 105 through this left-hander which is pretty important because it
15:06leads you onto this short but downhill straight into puhon this is a very very entertaining corner
15:12go in at about 130 and by the time you get to the end of it here 180 degrees later you're back up to
15:17about 170. hard on the brakes for fangio this is a right and left hand here taken at about 100 miles
15:24an hour in third quick stab on the old gas up a gear then down a gear for stavolo back on board now
15:31with barricullo go in there at about 110 by the time you get to the end of stavolo about 130 miles
15:38an hour as you rejoin the old main road uphill now all the way to blanchement a very very fast
15:45left-hander a lot of run-off room now didn't used to be much run-off room in the old days and again
15:49about 200 miles an hour right here before you brake hard for the bus stop down to second crashing over
15:55the kerbs using every inch of space available slightly quicker exit than the entry and there you are
16:01back to the start finish line a very very entertaining 4.4 mile track to say the very
16:06least and ironic that in such a huge racetrack the paddock is jammed into one tiny end of it down
16:12there at eau rouge the minute paddock and garages there is ralph schumacher who will start from the
16:17number two position alongside his teammate juan pablo montoya and steve matchup moments ago you and sam
16:22were talking about some rather intense activity going on around that car let's take a look at some
16:27video tape as montoya moments ago surveyed his car with his engineer yeah this is something that came
16:32in just while we're going around the track map with david there you can see the mechanics if you look
16:36beyond in in in the background they're just putting the helicopter tape the final finishing touches onto
16:40the bodywork so i think pleased to say we can all agree that uh you know that there's no panic down on
16:46that car now if there was a situation before it left the garage that's all over and dusted one hopes
16:51mika hockin in there adjusting of course he had that incredibly fantastic win here
16:59last year passing michael schumacher with just a couple of laps to go and hanging on after coming
17:03back from a spin on the wet part of the track at stavolo well we're coming up now on seven minutes
17:10from the time the cars will be rolling off on their formation lap and we'll be right back with more
17:15live coverage of the belgian grand prix from spa stay with us
17:29welcome back to our live coverage of the belgian grand prix i'm sam posey now let's get right to
17:55today's audi story lines with bob varger david hobbs and steve matchup well sam michael schumacher
18:00comes into this race with two goals the first was to get his first ever pole at spa and he was
18:05unsuccessful his second goal is to pick up his 52nd career grand prix win which would break a tie with
18:11alan pross for first all time with four victories and a disqualification from another one i'd say his
18:17chances are pretty good the race for the championship is over for both constructors and drivers but the race
18:22for second is strong and hot we could have two brothers coming first and second that we could have
18:26two ferrari drivers coming first and second and if the williams team do well they could snatch second
18:31place away from the clown well it's sparse so it's no great news to think that it might rain at some
18:36stage during the race latest news is it could rain within the hour so watch out for some of the cars that
18:41are not going quite as quick at the start because they might have some softer spring softer roll bars
18:46to help them get through their rain soaked and latter stages of the race well steve they say that every
18:50corner here is touched by motor racing history and winning here virtually enshrines a driver david
18:55coldhart is the only one ever to have won at spa who isn't a world champion and that goes all the
19:00way back to the 1950s well let me go back to michael schumacher's 52nd win by reminding you of his 51st
19:07two weeks ago in hungary he made things difficult for his mechanics by bounding over a gravel trap
19:12needing some repairs on the grid but they got it done and at the start schumacher led the
19:17column of cars on the clean line david kultar to qualified second was on the dirty line rubens
19:23batakello got him in turn one and watch for eddie irvine his race ended in turn one through the
19:29jaguar off the race track michael went on to win his 51st career win clinching his fourth world
19:35championship for ferrari their third straight constructors title afterward there was much
19:41championship celebration we'll be back
19:43celebration we'll be back
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