FIA Formula One World Championship - Round 3
Brazilian Grand Prix, 29 - 31 March 2002 Preview

PREVIEW
Brazilian Grand Prix, 29 - 31 March 2002

[2001 RACE PHOTO]

[B]Honda

 

Schumacher to Race F2002!
Sunday, March 24, 2002

In a surprise statement Ferrari this afternoon announced that Michael Schumacher will race the 2002 specification F2002 for the first time next weekend in Brazil.

The decision was taken by Luca di Montezemolo and Jean Todt following a positive report from the Technical and Engine Directors following the week of testing in Barcelona.

"The development programme on the new car, which has gone ahead over the past few weeks means we have been able to take the F2002 to the Interlagos race," explained Todt. "The new car has proved to be quick and reliable. We will send one F2002 car to Interlagos, chassis 220, which was given a shakedown test by Luca Badoer at Fiorano this morning."


Press picture
Source: Earl Alexander

"The car will be allocated to Michael Schumacher, who will have a modified F2001 as a spare car," Todt continued. "Rubens Barrichello will have two modified F2001s at his disposal for his home race."

This choice means the team is able to make the best use of the different cars, available over these few weeks, both in testing and in the Grand Prix themselves.

As stated by Todt, Luca Badoer was in action today at Fiorano for the Italian Champions, shaking down the very F2002 that Schumacher will use at Interlagos. Badoer completed 16-laps, including one on the short course, setting a best of 59.487s.

The car will be shipped to Sao Paulo tonight, arriving Tuesday but Michael Schumacher still has the option to revert to the older design should the new car hit trouble.

SOURCE: www.dailyf1.com

 

hey, i'm Brazilian

 

S2000D; Another nice job! You ought to post it on the off-topic Sports thread. There are a bunch of F1 fans there.

 

Chipster,

Thanks for the compliment!

I post here because there is more exposure on S2000 Talk than in other areas of the site.

The design of the S2000 directly benefits from Honda's involvement in Formula One and I'm trying to bring more S2000 owners and enthusiasts into the Formula One fan fold.

However, feel free to post a link to here from there.

 

I wish Honda was more competitive this year in F1. They seemed to have over-estimated the importance of keeping the engine light, which has sacrificed relibility somewhat. I just hope they kick Toyota's ass.

 

Schu'y getting a newer, presumably faster car, does not strike well for the competition. Honda engineers really have their hands full this year with Toyota's surprise start.

 

Ferrari's strategy of using F2002 for Schuey and F2001 for Rubens with both having F2001 chassis as spares is a smart one!

 

Engine lightness..closely guarded secret..but some are rumoured to be just over 200 pounds! Rather amazing! And the weight needs to be as low as possible, and the motors are structural members too. Tricky...lots of tradeoffs.

Montoya and Schuey are likely to have some fun. BMW is confident that they will run well again. Last year Montoya passed Michael dramatically at the rolling restart and was later rear ended by the flying Dutchman.

Reliability and power are related...if you don't have enough power, you need to rev the engine to the nth degree to try to make up for it, which kills reliability. A vicious circle. That was part of Mercedes trouble in Malaysia where their under 800 HP motors both expired. Now that they have 2 way telemetry, the teams adjust rev limits as required. For example BMW cut their limiter by 250 RPMs at the last race where they comfortably finished 1-2. This dramatically increases expected engine life.

Stan

 

Montoya will shine in this race. That is my prediction. Schu can take his newbie '02 Ferrari and stick it up his ass. j/k fellas...I want my fiance to read this since I'm tired of hearing her talk about how dominating Ferrari is going to be, once again, this year. Argh!!!!