Formula One Racing Series
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Formula One Racing Series |
For the 1997/98 Formula One Racing Series (FORS©) Team Ferrari is being lead by Tim Carnahan with a new driver in John Nestor. Amazingly, the team is new to FORS© even though Ferrari is synonymous with Formula One. Together John and Tim hope to bring both the Driver and Team Championships to the great name of Ferrari.
After much consulting with John, who came up with the same set up, we agree on a 60-60-180-120-2-2 on A tires. Our overall strategy will be to run without pitting. This is seen as a risk to Tim, but worth it. Tim chooses a team design to get Tim up to the pole and sacrificed pit crew.
Tim bid points put him in 2nd with Don Tatum in 1st. This is exciting! However, Tim knows that the rest of the pack will eventually get by as the pace Tim sets is for no pit stops! Tim just hope to jam them up. Tire variability come out even, 40. John's, however, does poorly and he losses 2.
Tim's first corner jams many of the cars and could have done better if Tim had speeded up in the corner. A minor mistake, as not abusing Tim's wear is a major consideration. Tim drop back as expected and conserve wear. As cars pull into the pits on Lap 3 the drivers realize that 8 Laps is not going to happen. The question is what lap count will be reached? 5, 6 or 7? At Lap 4 both Ferrari's change their wear plan to account for this and run for it. We lead in Lap 4 as everyone is pitting or has recently come out of the pits. Some drivers used the quick pit stop to get only ½ normal wear. Had the race ended on Lap 5 Ferrari would be in First and Second! But the race kept going for One Last Lap, Lap 6. All the cars had now pitted, that where going to pit. The race was on for the finish. John was trying to hold off the other drivers as he realized his wear situation made his position difficult. John's jamming on Jeff August certainly helped Tim's position, and earned John the guarded respect of Team William's (They now know were to put him). At Peraltada, Tim decided to take the corner at 20 mph over in order to maintain the lead. Unfortunately, although the corner roll was modified by a blue chip, Tim had no wear and thus speed was locked. Chris Lawrence toke the same corner at 60 mph over with two tire wear and no blue chips. He made his corner roll, as did Tim, and passed Tim in the corner. Tim had no way to stop him. Tim ended the race with Tim one space behind Chris taking second and John in sixth.
A very good showing for John's first time race. Tim is happy with the second, but the win would have been sweeter. The track was fun as usual. Our strategy of no pit stops would have worked better if we had not fought with traffic. The wear is too precious to waste. The number of laps was too many as well, should have scheduled 7. Had Tim taken a corner roll in the esses he would have guarantied first place. However, Tim was uncertain, although the risk had been considered, the decision was to hold to the end. Unfortunately, Tim did not and ended up with second.
Used a 60-60-140-100-6-6 on B tires. Two Pit stop planned. Team build of SS:-2/PM:-2/Q:4. Two pit stops planned out fast compared to one pit with 60 Handling. All other cars on the track ran a one pit stop with a 60 to 80 handling.
The pole position was clearly gained by Jeff August with 40 points. The remaining positions were tightly bid against. Ferrari bid low to stay out of the pack. However, with ten cars on the grid this put Ferrari way back in the pack.
Both Ferrari's run this race. Our cars were in the back and fighting up to the front was going to be hard. There were ten other cars on the track, all running a one pit stop strategy (largely using a 80 or 60 Handling). As we work up though the pack it becomes clear that starting at the back of the pack is a very big disadvantage. Driving from the back and in traffic slows the car down by three turns by the first pit stop. The first turn was critical as Tim could have improved position, but was not aggressive enough. The pit exist roll by John did not go in his favor and he was slowed on exist. He pitted while running in third and restarted in ninth. The other driver had not yet pitted. As Tim comes into the pits he considered a one pit strategy and going for C tires for four laps. However, Tim decides to keep to team plans and run with the two pit stops. As we come out of our second pit stop John is 2 to 3 turns ahead of Tim. He spins on corner 1 of Lap 4 trying to stay ahead, and slow down, the cars existing the pits. However, Tim spins and has to play with them. The one stop cars are slowed going around the final lap. While John and Tim are rolling along trying to catch up and pass. John crosses the line with the same percentage of move as three other cars and must simply dice off against each other for 2, 3 and 4. John gets fourth! At the last move for Tim it is a dice game as Dewitt, Tatum, Weber and Tim cross the line on the same turn. Weber get fifth for his speed and Tim and Dewitt dice off and Tim loose to take seventh.
This track is very demanding. It is unclear that our two pit strategy was slower then the one pit strategy. However, starting at he back of a big field, ten cars, was a difficult position to recover from. Bidding higher for grid position may be more important in the future. Another interesting note was John's violation of the pit speed limit rule. John came into the second pit at faster then the 60 mph limit. He had to stop for an extra turn, but figured it was worth it (barely!). This may force the FIA (FORS©) body to consider a two turn penalty instead of the one turn.
60-60-180-120-4-4 with A tires and one planned pit stop. Matt Kraft filled in as a backup Ferrari drivers as John had a previous engagement. The car and strategy was the general rule.
Got fifth on the pole. Was a hotly contested pole. Ferrari is being conservative at this point in the season. More important battles for the grid are yet to come.
The start was exciting. Dewitt started fast and got out ahead of the pack and was never seen from again. Weber tried to jam between two cars and was blocked. All cars suffered wear loss. Tim followed Weber example and made it in. Tim risk turn one on Lap 1 with a blue/white and a blue and made it. He quickly made his way up to third. Tim ends up forcing Henderickson/(McLaren #2) to go 60 over a corner to pass Tim. Ken makes it and makes Tim position suffer for it. Not being in control of your space at Kyalami can be very hard to recover from. Although the race is tight for all positions but first, the race is just a difficult run of using all your wear up in every corner. On the last lap, Tim goes for unmodified corner rolls to improve a seventh place position. At the last corner Tim battles with Jay for position and spin out. Jay takes fourth. Matt takes sixth, adding a point to the Team.
The track is hard to pass if you cannot set up correctly for the eighth corner, before the long straight. Lap strategy is to burn as much wear as possible. With only six laps, this is just not a fun way to race. The course might have greater potential if it was a eight lap circuit and then other strategies could be played. Some pit speed violations where made at Kyalami as well. The good news is that neither William's cars scored at Kyalami. McLaren was second and third, moving their team up. Dewitt's first place put him in contention. The season is still young, but other then Lawrence's 20 points the season is very open. Tim doubt anyone will be giving Lawrence's a brake in the next few races, other then his team mate.
The car setup was a 60-80-200-140-2-4. This was very common design used by many other cars (or minor variants thereof). The team points were -4 to standing start, 10 on Qualification and +2 on the Pit crew. The general plan was to run hard for two laps, pit and run a three lap chase down.
Deciding that the pole was well worth it, John spent 41 and Tim 40 to get 1st and 2nd on the grid! With eleven cars running this was going to be a much contented race.
John has an excellent start! Tim manages to stay one square behind him. The general outcry was "Stop Ferrari!", largely spoken by Ken of McLaren. As we get to Clark chicane, Tim allow cars to pass, if they roll for the corner. John rolls his first corner roll at Clark chicane and gains one full turn on the field. Furthermore, Tim never let anyone have an easy time getting up to John. In the end Tim exit Lap 1 in sixth, while John has maintained a good first place position. As we come on Clark in Lap 2, Tim pushes the corner and repositions himself in second passing Ken and Don Tatum, who unfortunately spins out. Ken comes up on the second chicane and passes Tim with a corner roll. Tim catch Ken at Seena and pass him to end up in the pits one full turn behind John. The William's and McLaren's and Tony go for a pit stop on Lap 3, running a slow Lap 3. John comes out of the Pits astride Tony. As the race moves on Tony, limping for the pits, pushes corners in front of John. John's failure to anticipate Tony's maneuver after a spinout in the second chicane on Lap 3 cost him dearly. John slowed down to get by the wreckage. As we round turn one on Lap 4, John leads with Tim in second on his tail and Brian right behind us. We all had equal wear (roughly) at this point. Brian make a over top speed to pass Tim on the way to Clark corner. Brian runs hard for Clark beating out John for the line (and using more wear). Brian get ahead after Clark with Ferrari running 2,3. However, the William's and McLaren's are out and hunting us down! Chasing down Brian, it becomes clear that his wear is expended and either he does a quick pit on Lap 4 or he runs a very slow Lap 5. However, fortune favored the bold. Time ran out and the race was to be called on Lap 4! Simply because of the better position Tim had in the Seena curve, Tim got second and John third.
The early part of the race went exactly as planned. And Ferrari did plan for this race! Tim's blocks and denials of lines kept other drivers off of John. Our excellent pole position was well worth the good position. However, the race ended one turn early, causing much distress in the Ferrari team. This was a major disappointment to Ferrari, as at least one Ferrari would be the winner and it was quite possible for the other Ferrari to be in second! Although the William's cars were charging, they would not catch the lead Ferrari and if traffic had jammed them (possibly Weber and Brian) then a second was within reach. However, we had to accept a second and third place! The track was quite enjoyable. It was hard to get away from the pack and stay away. The Chicane bottled people up and caused traffic jams, as expected.
Tim's car was 80-60-180-140-4-2 with B tires and a planned 2 pit stop strategy. John also ran a two stop strategy, but used a 60-80-180-140-8-4 car. There was one other similar design, driven by Brian DeWitt, there were three cars running a one pit stop strategy and one car on a no pit stop strategy. It was interesting to note that all the cars finished very close to one another. All design had a viable chance to make the podium.
Ferrari spent very little points, believing that the lead would often change. And it did. Tim's grid position was 4th and John's was in 6th, which was fine by the team.
Tim's start was a pathetic 2 spaces, even with the 80 accelerator! As we get to the first corner it becomes an early and long battle between Brian and the Ferrari's. In a attempt to pass Ferrari, Brian and Tim clash and we BOTH suffer the loss of 6 tire wear! Brian and Tim typify a battle between Villeneuve and Schumacher, take no prisoners! The crowd goes wild as the tires grind and the passing occurs all over the place. John even manages to spin out in corner 7 of Lap 1 and keep up to pit one full turn ahead of Tim and Brian on Lap 5. Tim leads in the early part, but the wear loss to Brian pass attempt puts Tim back for the first pit. We pit as planned, and watch as the other four cars go past. Tim has a bad pit stop reliability, even though gold chips have been conserved, and lose more wear. John simple gets a slow start. Tim has a rough middle of the race and end up helping John with slips and pulls. As we exit on Lap 5 all three cars are in the same grove! It is just going to be more battling, with the addition of catching up to the other cars! John gains a full turn on Tim and Brian by making a corner roll in the Chicane. Me and Brian continue our battles and position jocking the entire time. The last corner of the last lap was VERY interesting! John chances the Chicane AGAIN in order to win the race from Dick. He spins and is lucky to keep second. Jeff's lack of competitions helps him win 3rd and the fourth and fifth cars cross the line in the same turn. Brian and Tim both cross with the same percentage of our movement and dice for position. Brian wins the dice off and Tim take fifth place! And sad ending to an otherwise exciting race.
Quite surprisingly this race track allowed three distinct design to compete well. Had there been more one pit stop cars or zero pit stop cars then traffic problems would have helped the two pitters. This track is exciting and fun. The fun rivalry that existed between Dewitt and Ferrari was just plan fun to watch and roll with. The number of laps run was right. However, we only had seven cars on the grid.
Ferrari plans were clear that only one design seemed viable. A 40-40-160-60-X-Y. Although most other cars had this design, Jay and Weber did not. Ferrari planned to do no pit stops and run on A tires and not push wear though the 60 corner. Most other handling cars elect to run on B tires.
We elected not to bid hard for the poll. Our positions were John in 4th and Tim in 8th (last)
Tim starts in fourth and quickly fall back to last place with John just ahead. Everyone uses blues and gold to make a "fast" start and Ferrari conserves for later. Jay in a 60 pushes 80 and then pushes to 160 to run away with a early lead. Tim falls further back because his out of the grove. Given that this a a long race with the quite real possibility of some attrition Tim simple waits. Throwing two corner rolls could have corrected the position, but why not wait. At the start Tim could have positioned himself to get a slip of of one of the fast accel cars. But that would have been hindsight. On Lap 3, as the pit stop cars fuel, Tim takes corner 4 at 140 and make it. Ferrari runs 3rd and 4th and running good. The team is pushing to get up to the leaders. Tim leads the race on Lap 5, but is not in as good wear shape as John. Lap 6 begins with Jeff(5 ½ wear), Dick (5 wear), John(7 wear), Tim(7 wear), Chris(4½ wear), Don(5½ wear), Weber(lots of wear), Jay(lots of wear). John spins in corner 6 trying to lock into second. Tim make the same move and lead the team to catch Dick, but he is just (barely) out of range. A push through corner 10 letting John go by fast, if he makes it to catch Dick! John spins in corner 10 and Tim settles in for 3rd. Jeff wins by avoiding traffic. John ended in 7th.
The slow Ferrari start did not help matters, but conservation paid out latter. The handling cars were a must for Estoril. However, the 60 handlers proved faster then the 80 handlers with extra wear. The pit stop cars needed to make too many corner rolls to come out ahead. One problem with the 80 handlers, was that you wanted to go through corner 10 slow, but the speed needed to set up for the corner was usually too fast and you wanted to be fast after the corner. So you ended wasting too much wear in corner 10 with a 80 handler. John felt that the inability to take the 80 corners off line, at 60 speed limit, without suffering a BIG wear penalty, i.e. in a competitive situation, the car can suffer. Running by itself, the 80 handler with the extra wear is superior. However, next time John would run with the 60 handler. Good race that was really decided early by the ability to pace the wear expenditure as you needed it.
Two Ferrari design were decided viable. John ran the muscle car of 60-60-180-140-x-y with a planed one pit stop and trying to make high up on the grid. Tim ran the no pit stop 40-60-160-80-4-4. Ferrari expected only one or two other handling cars on the field. There were a total of five handling cars!
John's bid for the pole worked out as he was in 1st. Tim had backed off spending points end up in last place.
As the first corner bunches up, tim goes for a corner roll in corner 1 and spins on track. No fun for a 40 accel car and Tim just falls further back. John takes off and commands a great lead in the first half. His lap plan and lack off credible competitions gets John into a excellent position. Tim failed to post a fast speed through Corner 2 in Lap 1 while holding hot wear and just falls further back. Tim ends up fighting with Don in the middle of the race and Don keeps on his heels. John exists the pits in 4th and is two back from Weber in first place. John tries hard to get Weber, but spins in corner 4 and ends up taking 3rd while Dick grabs 2nd. Tim end up in sixth while trying desperately, one corner roll with a blue, one corner roll without a blue and and over top speed, to keep Chris back. However, Tim failed the over-top and was forced to let Chris by.
Had Tim known there was to be five handling cars on the field he would have gone with John's muscle car. Tim's 60 decel was used in corner 1 and 2 to slow down from 180 to 120 to 60 and then to speed up again. The design was good, but no other cars wanted to be near it. John's car ran well and had the best chance of winning. Weber got his first FORS win! The Team and Drivers championships are tight!
The team decided that a 60-60-200-140-X-Y was a must for Paul Richard. The drivers both agreed that the 200 top end was far too valuable. Other designs included a 80-40-200 (don't stop me now) and either a 80-60-180 or 60-60-180 which wanted a pull sooo bad. The plan was to pit on Lap 3.
The team wanted to be in the middle of the pack for the start, as we were hopeful to see the lead change. We end up in the 3rd row! Unfortunately, we end up behind to 80 accel cars and fall back behind them! This means that the limited points spent on the grid were not really worth it.
The start is slow for Tim AGAIN! Tim tries to do an early pass on Tony Jones and Brian Dewitt, our friends at Fuji, and gets blocked out! Surprise! Tim falls to the back and starts to push through the crowd. Fuji and Ferrari do battle in the back and Williams and McLaren do battle in the front for the early part of the race. Weber take off in the lead and runs with clean air. Jeff August and the Fuji's pit on Lap 2 and Ferrari moves on buy. The remaining cars pit on Lap 3. Tim pits one turn behind John Nestor and Nestor pits two turns behind Weber. Tim pushes the last curve and the curve at the end of the straight to get into 4th on the Last lap. John Weber and Nestor fight for 1st and 2nd! Dick Higgins comes in a safe third, as Tim does not have enough wear, or blue chips, to catch him. Ferrari ends in a 2/4 position grab.
The team points get very tight as Williams and Ferrari are tied up, even though Ferrari has NO wins to it's record. John and Tim both have two second places in their records. Tim fought hard with Chris, but was too slow in the 80's and needed to push to catch up. Ferrari fell victim to a slow start with fast cars behind us. Our 200 mph top gave us an advantage over the 180 mph top speed. The first, second and fourth place cars where all 200 mph top speed. Had Tim made a fast turn in the 80's he may well have taken 3rd. It was a good race and a fun track. Although Fuji caused early grief, it was brief. Ken raced well, however, his 180 mph top was not up to the track, even with 12 more wear (Ken ran on A tires).
Although the race ran a 80-60-140-120-X-Y car on A tires, Ferrari felt that a 60-40-140-80 on C tires with 3 pits could also run well. Ferrari felt that the 40-40-140 was not a viable option. An alternate design Ferrari did not consider was the 60-60-160-120 car. This car turned out to be a formidable competition for us. Pit strategy was to pit three times and the when depended on the battling with traffic and tire variability.
John used all but one of his last wear to gain the pole (Over spent as it turned out - The pole was NOT heavily contested as first thought!). Tim settled for a 8th out of 9 and spent no points.
Well the start went as good as Ferrari could have hoped. With DeWitt behind Tim, Ferrari was able to keep clear of the Daemon Fuji team, now joined by Jay. Both Ken and Weber tried to block Tim's attempt to pass them, however, Tim gets by. Nestor kept an early lead and Tim jumped in 3rd half way into the first Lap. Tim's 80 accel pushed him into the lead and his lap plan helped to screw up those people following him. Only John and Tim were running 80-60-140 cars! The "Lead sled" as Ken would call it. Tim finds himself one full turn behind John and Jeff August between Ferrari. Getting up to them has cost Tim enough wear that Tim does not go after Jeff, but instead back off to go for a pit on Lap 3. Dick is all over Tim in the first three laps, as is Jay. Nestor pits on Lap 2 running hot and lets August grab the lead. Jay catches up to Tim with a blue, but no extra wear. Tim pushes the 120's to get ahead of Jay and set up for the pit on Lap 3. On Lap 3, Tim pits with Dick, Jay, Ken and Jeff. With a good pit roll and a fast acceleration out of the pits Tim exists and runs ahead of all but Jeff, who is one full turn ahead of him. Chris get in Tim's way and forces and slow Lap 4 and thus Tim decides to go for a pit on 6 and 8. This is only a good idea if the race runs the full ten laps. The timing has been good and it looks like ten laps can happen. John has a spin while coming out of his second pit with Ken. Jeff pits on Lap 6 with a two turn lead on Tim. Jay uses two blues to catch up to Tim on Lap 6. Tim has a disaster of a pit exist on Lap 6 and do not exit the speed limit area on the first turn. This costs Tim mightily and he needs to push harder. Tim get two extra wear on the pit on Lap 6, but since Tim will be pitting in two turns, this leaves Tim with lots of extra wear. Tim spins in Loews on Lap 7 and loses one full turn and lots of wear (big deal) and two blues! Jay has been a thorn in my side. Tim pits (as planned) and falls in 7th, but with a full set of wear! Tim comes up on lots of cars with very little wear and fights back to run dead even with Jay on the last move. Both Jay and Tim test their reliability to go 160mph on the last move and cross the finish line in the same turn! Jay and Tim dice off to have Jay beat Tim (98 to 72 (-20 makes it 52)) and Tim get fourth and Jay third. John finishes one turn behind Jeff and and takes second. Jeff was able to avoid traffic and had a relatively painless victory. John's spin after his pit was critical. Chris finished sixth!
The track was much more fun this year. The fighting kept the race interesting to the very end. Monaco teaches you to drive smart in traffic or die as the wear you waste is wear you need. The 60-60-160 where much more of a threat then Ferrari had planned on. The one use of the 160 top was to come though the second 60 at 100 mph and the jump up to 160. Ferrari lost 3 points to Williams in the Team competition. However, it is far from over! Ferrari still has a chance to win the Team, but the driver championship will require a few wins by Tim (not likely).
Ferrari settled on a 60-80-180-140-X-Y car. A 120 handling was considered, but deemed to week in the pits and pushing corners, even with the additional 6 wear. Although the handling cars look good, they were not up to the same as the 60-80-180 cars. Because of John's starting position on the pole he would go for more golds then blues and Tim choose an equal number of both.
Tim felt that being near the front was important. The traffic at Interlagos can kill you. Tim started in forth, behind a slow 40 accel handling car, the only one on the field. Tony Jones bought the pole, but had a 160 top end (not good enough after turn 2.
Tim jumps on the start and quickly get into 2nd behind Tony. As Tony sets up on the straight past Curva 2 Tim overtake him and gains a lead in the race that he keeps until the turn on the second lap, where Dick Higgins passes him. However, the set-up is such that both Dick and Tim pit at the same time and space. Dick has only a 2 reliability and does not exit the pit as fast as Tim. Tim is back in the lead and runs from the chasers of Dick, Jeff August and John Nestor pulling up a quick forth (up from 9th!). Jeff tries to pass us, but spins in the corner and runs out of contention. Dick then catches Ferrari and passes them. However, Ferrari pushes their top end to catch Dick and force him to spend too much wear. Tim pushes a corner with a blue and passes Dick to set up for the finish. Once Past Dick, Tim and John run for the finish line in an exciting finish that end with both Tim and John crossing the line with only 0.19 seconds difference! Tim wins and John takes second.
Ferrari gains 16 points in the team competition and both drivers go up to first and second in the drivers championship. Williams is the closest competor, 9 points down! However, the drivers championship is very close and the coming races will determine BOTH championship (Unless everyone crashes --- Michael where are you?). The race itself was the norm for interlagos. The assessment that only 2 blues and 2 golds is too few proved right. While the extra wear was helpful, bad pits and the inability to push in the corners caused many problems for the competition. However, the racing was close.
Ran a 40-40-140-60-4-6 while Ed (John's replacement driver for Barcelona and Albert Park) ran a 40-40-140-60-2-8 for the extra chances. While the strategy was to do no pitting, Ferrari had hoped to see others try to pit. The successful and majority of cars on the field were all of the same type.
For Barcelona and Albert Park Ed would have no qual point to spend. His position would be from the back of the pack. Because it would not be possible to control the grid in both races, Tim choose to spend 4 point at Barcelona to retain the most points for Albert Park. It was generally agreed that at Albert Park the start could make all the difference. This turned out to be wrong. Tim started from 8th while Ed started from 11th on a field of 12 cars!
Barcelona was a predictable race. While the fighting was intense, the lead no pit car was able to stay out of traffic and win the race. While the last lap was interesting, most of the rest of the time was spent watching the battles and trying to stay out of the way of spinning cars. I was joined at the hip the William's driver Jeff August towards the end. In order to get second place I needed to take a corner roll, with a blue, in turn 13. I made it and was now positioned to take second from Jeff. Jeff needed to make a corner roll in Turn 15 to catch me, which he did. Jeff then had a car with a higher top end and thus out ran me to the finish line.
This track is harsh! It invokes penalties to those pushing the corners and can knock you seriously off line. Particular care needed to be exercised at both turn 4 and 5. Many spins and jams occurred there. Turn 12 was also entertaining as the cars would sit on the line. While not getting second was a disappointment, Tim still ended in the race in the lead for the Drivers Championship, as was the Team! Ferrari was out in front. The race at Albert Park would determine the final standings. The season came down to the Final race. Nothing was certain and Ferrari had a good chance to keep the lead!
The two designs was a 80-60-180-140-4-2 and a 80-80-160-140-4-4. Ed drove the 80-80-160, while Tim drove the 80-60-180. The 80-60-180 would need to spend wear for both Turn 3 and sometimes Turn 1. Since the cars would pit once and push the start, a reliability of 4 was demanded necessary.
Dick Higgins of McLaren was able to retain enough qual points to take the pole from me, while Tim got second on the grid. Ed was in the back again. Luckily, Dick had a 60 accel and if everything went right, Tim could push out in front!
Tim's push at the start did not pay off, while the push to 100mph worked, Tim lost one space on the standing start table! This caused Dick and me to fight though the first two corners and to have the second row run up on us! The second row of Brian Dewitt and Chris Lawrence. Surprisingly, they were both willing, and able, to throw corner rolls and do forced passing to get by. Tim ended up on the short stick in 4 forth and watching them pull away (by 1/2 turn). Being behind Chris was worse because his racing line disagreed with Ferrari's. Tim settled in and stayed with them. As luck would have it Chris pitted one turn ahead of Tim, while Dick and Brian had slowed down to pit in the same turn as Tim. So it was that Tim left the pits, on lap 3, one turn in front of Brain and Dick and one turn in behind of Chris. Dick and Brian did not have good pit stops. As the race progressed, it looks like Tim has a solid 2nd place, just one turn behind Chris, who will win the race. However, IF Tim takes second place then the Driver Championship goes to Tim and the Team trophy goes to Ferrari. John Weber had found himself able to give both Chris and Tim a hard time as they run past him. Weber did not make life hard and let Tim drive by. Curiously, Jeff August and Tony Jones where on a 3/2 pit instead of the 2/3 that the lead cars where in. Tony was able to run faster then Jeff and made an unmodified corner roll to get past Dick and Brian. His next reasonable target was Tim. Tim saw him coming up and correctly identified Turn 14 as the point of decision! Tony, with lots of wear, pulled up beside Tim and Turn 14. Tim only had 1 wear left and no blues (Tony had long ago used his last blue). Tim had the line and Tony the wear. If Tony goes 80 in the corner he rolls for it. If Tony goes 60 and Tim goes 60, Tony gets though the corner off line and Tim is stuck in the corner taking 3rd. Tim goes 80 and throws his last wear and roll the corner. If he make the corner, then he can get though the next corner without any wear. He spins on the track! The race is over for him. Tony and the rest go flying by. Tim has lost the Championships on one unmodified corner roll and watches the race and season end from the grass. A very good race.
Albert Park was a dicey track. If you were in your lap plan, there was not much maneuvering room. If you where in traffic, all sorts of trouble could be yours. Williams ran a line that interfered with Ferrari, they would go though turn 6 and 9 at 60 mph and block the corner, if you where too close. This was most unfun. There are few places where the Ferrari plan even allowed for much variation. Pushing a 4 reliability car was NOT a good idea. Even if you pushed you top end, you where likely to be slowing down right after it!
For the 97 season Ferrari ends up in second place a mere four points behind Williams. Tim ends up second in the drivers only three points from Chris! The season ends in a tight battle. The drivers from first to sixth where all within five points. John Nestor ended up fifth! A very good standing for his first season.
The Ferrari images come from http://www.ferrari.it. These images are copyright of Ferrari S.p.A. and are used with their permission. Re-use of these images must be obtained through Ferrari.
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