After the lack of performance in Spa and some quotes attributed
to Irvine that Ferrari was slowing down the development of this
year’s car*, one could start to worry that Ferrari was going to
give up. But Luca di Montezemolo has just said some things which
I think were intended to motivate the technical team by pointing
out to them that blaming the drivers would not get them off the
hook:
        http://www.totalf1.com/news/1999/aug/31.html

"If the drivers don’t have the car, they can’t win," he said.
"And at Spa, they didn’t have the car, we all saw that. We have to
believe in this championship. So I’m calling now for the fullest
possible technical support for the drivers."

*: ok, one would expect that those were only excuses from Irvine, but:

 1 – it was not anything which has not been alleged before. At the
   end of 1995 Alesi complained that in the later part of the season
   Ferrari didn’t provide some evolutions (their excuse was that the
   budget was exhausted) that he and Berger had asked for. But those
   evolutions quickly appeared once Schumacher started to test.

 2 – it is of course in Ferrari’s interest to help Irvine now. But
   considering that, if Irvine were to win the championship, then
   the wisdow of spending $100+ million with Schumacher since 1996
   could be questioned, it might not be in the interest of the
   careers of some of the people there.

BTW, while checking if the Ferrari web page had something on this
(I didn’t find anything), I saw that they will be testing at Monza
from September, 1st (Wednesday) to the 3rd (Friday), with 3 cars
and Irvine, Salo and Schumacher.

BTW2, the same article has a photograph of what may be the 2000 BAR
livery. Sponsors are 555 (main), Motorola (front wing), Becks
(rear wing) and Sonax:
http://www.totalf1.com/images/cars/1999/BAR/2000bardesignbig.jpg

–
http://www.mat.uc.pt/~rps/f1/  a born-again-tifoso
        Mark Sandman – Morphine, RIP (July 3th, 1999, Italy)
.pt is Portugal| `Whom the gods love die young’-Menander (342-292 BC)
        Europe |    Villeneuve 50-82, Toivonen 56-86, Senna 60-94

ok Häkkinen is now on fourteen points ahead of David
Edmundo Irvine ain’t competition with Schumacher-Ferrari

Monza results 1) Coulthard 2) Häkkinen 3)  Frentzen
why? – Häkkisen pitstop goes a bit long …:-)
somebody fiddles with laptop computer beside car a bit long

Nurnburg result 1) Coulthard 2) Frentzen 3) Häkkinen
what pays? … well, fuel pump doesn’t give any on first try and
Häkkinen has to make one extra pitstop on next lap

Malaysia result 1) Coulthard 2) Frentzen 3) Irvine — Häkkinen gives up
position 8 – why?
electronic gearbox loses all except second & third

Suzuka result 1) Coulthard 2) Irvine 3) Barrichello – Häkkinen 6
why? – two extra pitstops because each time one of reartires
will start lose pressure on next lap – Bridgestone investigates tires
but cannot find any fault

Coulthard gets WC

Häkkinen gratulates Coulthard of honest and sportsman like competition

Häkkinen announces to challenge next year WC (because he has made
binding contract with McLaren)

September 2000 D. Coulthard leads F1  40 points – Häkkinen
is second – Häkkinen announces his retirement from F1 at the end
of season

/Jukka

Will RTL broadcast the 2000 F1 season ?

–
_______________________

Vasco Costa (SPEEDBOY)

Almada, Portugal

vasco…@hotmail.com

ICQ # 28072048

I take it you’ve seen the picture at
http://www.formule1.nl/races/images/99/bel/bardesign2000excl.html showing a
new livery for the BAR-Honda on a piece of paper in Bernie Ecclestone’s
hand.

At first I thought it was a pity that they went with 555, and not Lucky
Strike, but suddenly it hit me; If they were going with 555, why would they
not make the car blue with yellow stickers, like they always do? The car in
the pictures is white or silver, with 555 in blue. Could it be that they’re
giving dual liveries a second try? Maybe, if they make both cars white (or
silver – actually it looks a bit like chrome to me), they could claim that
the livery is the same. Then they could put 555 stickers on one car and
Lucky Strike on the other. We’ve already seen McLaren putting "David" on one
car and "Mika" on the other this year, so it’s obvious that both cars don’t
have to be *exactly* alike.

I suspect that if we could see the next page in Bernie’s hand, it would show
pictures of the same car with Lucky Strike stickers, and that Craig Pollock
has given this material to Bernie in order to get a ruling well before they
actually start painting the cars this time.

If my suspicion is right, I say good luck to BAR! It would be sweet
vindication, IMO, if they actually pulled it off.

A side note; I wonder how long it’ll be before BAR announces Motorola,
Beck’s and Sonax as their new sponsors, now that the picture’s been leaked.

P.S. If all of this is already in the article, I’m sorry, but I don’t
understand a word of Dutch.
—
Jon Petersson (http://jon.svenskabio.com)
Allez Jacques! Hyvä Mika! Vai Pedro! Go Damon! Forza Giancarlo!

BBC Teletext is reporting that, after testing today at Monza, Michael
Schumacher said he was still getting pain in his leg and ruled himself
out of the remaining European GPs.

–
David Betts (dav…@motorsport.org.uk)

"Believe me, when you did well against Stirling, you knew you’d really
done something: he was the greatest I ever saw – by a long way" –
Richie Ginther

The Ferrari Gallery:
http://www.zing.com/album/ff/ff/b3/7/ffffb37f.html

Here are today’s test times from Monza:

1. M. Hakkinen West McLaren Mercedes 65 1:25.152
2. R. Schumacher Winfield Williams 58 1:25.222 +0.070
3. D. Coulthard West McLaren Mercedes 72 1:25.314 +0.162
4. M. Salo Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 38 1:25.584 +0.432
5. G. Fisichella Mild Seven Benetton Playlife 67 1:25.882 +0.730
6. O. Panis Gauloises Prost Peugeot 43 1:26.148 +0.996
7. J. Trulli Gauloises Prost Peugeot 33 1:26.178 +1.026
8. A. Zanardi Winfield Williams 48 1:26.188 +1.036
9. R. Barrichello Stewart Ford 44 1:26.261 +1.109
10. E. Irvine Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 40 1:26.304 +1.152
11. P. Diniz Red Bull Sauber Petronas 68 1:26.342 +1.190
12. J. Herbert Stewart Ford 38 1:26.373 +1.221
13. A. Wurz Mild Seven Benetton Playlife 90 1:26.842 +1.690
14. M. Schumacher Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 25 1:26.894 +1.742
15. D. Hill Benson & Hedges Jordan 61 1:27.215 +2.063
16. J. Alesi Red Bull Sauber Petronas 37 1:27.336 +2.184
17. L. Badoer Fondmetal Minardi Ford 48 1:27.800 +2.648

_______________________

Vasco Costa (SPEEDBOY)

Almada, Portugal

vasco…@hotmail.com

ICQ # 28072048

Does anyone know where OFFICIAL FIA results for races are posted?
They are not on the FIA site.

Thanks,
Sean

Normally I’d put spoiler space in here, but as it’s well after 48 hours
after the race they aren’t really required. Besides, I’m going to spend the
first couple of paragraphs talking about the coverage rather than the race
so you’re probably safe anyway.

I have been in Tenerife for the past 8 days so I was forced to watch the
race on one of the few channels available to me. I missed qualifying and
free practise of course (and so I didn’t see <SPOILER DELETED> until I got
home and watched my video). I wandered down the street looking into bars for
one showing the race and found one showing it on RTL. Maybe if I walked
further I could have found one showing it on Canal+, but I didn’t want to
miss the start.

I was fairly impressed with RTL from the build-up. Admittedly the only
German I can remember is "Vie common am besten zur Bahnhoff bitte" and how
to count up to ten but I was nevertheless impressed that they had a Jordan
in the studio and had Nikki Lauda as a guest on the show. I thought, this
has got to be good.

Except when the first ad break came on. And stayed on. For what seemed like
ten minutes. And when we came back, there was no recap, no nothing. And this
happened 3 or 4 times through the race. I will never say a bad word against
ITV again.

Also I noticed how much of my enjoyment of Formula One comes from the
commentators; from Murray & Martin joking about, from James Allen digging
the dirt in the pits and Louise Goodman – yes, I missed Louise! – chatting
to the drivers when they fall out. It was the most boring two hours I have
ever spent watching TV. Now I know why the "outsider" finds F1 so dull. It
was a whole different race watching it on ITV when I got home, admittedly
just as dull a race but the coverage was excellent and I didn’t mind
watching it at all.

WARNING: you are now entering SPOILER territory.

Firstly, those BAR accidents. Wow. I’m amazed that neither driver was
injured! Much kudos to the BAR team for getting two cars onto the grid for
the off, shame one of them never made it but congratulations to Villeneuve
for breaking his duck.

About the McLaren incident at La Source… well not much to say really, it
was a racing accident as far as I;m concerned. If I were forced to lay blame
I’d put it on Hakkinen’s shoulders but I don’t think that’s needed;
certainly Mika was angry with David – you could tell by the way he was
conspicuous by his absence from the champagne-fest and his manner in the
post-race press conference. It remains to be seen how this shakes out. I’m
glad that McLaren are letting their boys fight it out on the track.

Nice to see Zanardi driving near the top of the field for a change, and Ralf
did himself proud once again.

Not a lot else to say really. Hardly anything happened in the race I
watched!

    Paul.

        Well, well, well… how time flies when we’re having fun.
Just to let you know that the time is SOON coming up to decide whether
to join us for the 2000 rasf1 Grandstand in Montreal.  The way I (and
6 others so far) see it, you know that you’re going to go to the race
so you might as well sit with a bunch of newsgroup buds rather than
with some complete strangers who’ll only spill your beer.

        So, if you’d like to join this merry group (and really, why on
earth wouldn’t you?), just surf on over to:

        http://members.home.net/dougf1

        …and see all the fun we had this year, the good folks
already signed up for next year, and a nifty "mailto:" link that
actually works!!  Or if you’re willing to sign up sight unseen, just
reply to this message (email please) and tell me who, how many, and
where from.

        The plan is to order tickets by the beginning of October so
that doesn’t leave much time to figure out total people and vote for
grandstands, etc.

—————————————————–
All about the 2000 rasf1 grandstand at Canada
http://members.home.net/dougf1/
—————————————————–

According to the Ferrari website Barrichello has signed a contract with
Ferrari. To me that sounds like the most stupid thing he could ever do.

At the moment he is driving for a team that is trying to find it’s way to
the top and making progress year by year. For next year the situation seems
to look even better since the budget for the team will again be much higher
and the support from Ford has allready been very helpfull in making
progress. Another year with even more reliability and maybe even a first win
will give RB a status like MH who stayed with McLaren even in tough days and
is now getting his reward.

What is going to happen now. EI has been the second driver for years and RB
will not get a  better position either.  Being new in a team you need time
to find your pace and time is something Ferrari does not have so there will
not be any fair competition in the team.  The only thing that can work in
his advantage is if Mr. Wheelbanger is not returning but that seems very
unlikely. I would say RB is walking away from his responsability and is
choosing the easy way out hoping that luck comes his way while driving for
Ford(or whatever the name will be next year) was a way for him to proove
that he can really become a valuable man to a F1-team. If Irvine takes RB
place, which is more than likely, he seems to be in the best
position………

Bartus(who tried to avoid any qualifications in this posting that might make
the moderators  dicide to destroy 8 minutes of his valuable time)