"It is a shame," said Campbell-Walter Jamie Campbell-Walter has spoken out against having the Ferrari restricted, the Briton having received a similar penalty on his Lister Storm during his championship-winning year in 2000. His results then were: 1st, 1st, 3rd, 1st, no score, 1st, the last of which was at Zolder when he received his penalty. He and Julian Bailey then went on to score: no score, third, second, first to clinch the championship by 8.5 points. "It is a shame," said Campbell-Walter. "I was hoping they wouldn't do that. We had it in 2000, it wasn't nice, and they haven't been quick, just lucky. The competition has fallen by the wayside." We'll wait to see the results in Anderstorp and Oschersleben. Will the Ferrari be cut further if it wins again? Or, if not, will the restrictions be lifted? |
Andrew Cotton |
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Made to look easy for the Ferrari boys So it has all been made to look easy for the Ferrari boys. What, then, is the penalty that has been slapped on them? Looking at article 78 of the sporting regulation itself, there is plenty of room for manoeuvre, but there is no opportunity to appeal. The rule states: In order to maximise equality of performance, the Bureau reserves the right to adjust the following: -a) Minimum weight of the car -b) Air restrictor sizes Any changes to air restrictor sizes must be made within 20 days (including the day of notification) after the date of notification of the FIA's official decision. If the deadline falls in the middle of an event, then the change must be made for the beginning of that event. -c) Fuel Tank Capacity. The loosely worded rule raises a few questions. By how much can the restrictor be reduced? What does a team have to do to have its fuel tank capacity reduced? Is that in store for the BMS team Ferraris if they win any more? And the last question: If, like Hezemans and Kumpen, you have no points on the board, based solely on race results, can you have your fuel tank capacity and air restrictor size increased, and your car made lighter? |
Saleen has been proven to be fast Of the other teams, Franz Konrad's Saleen has been proven to be fast with Jean- Marc Gounon and Walter Lechner Jnr at the wheel, but suffered from gearbox and gear selection problems before the team invested vast quantities of money to rectify them for Brno. The Graham Nash Saleens had two fuel pump failures in Magny Cours, one on each car, and lost its lead car with Tommy Erdos on board before the race due to a practice crash at Enna. The Creation Sportif Lister Storm team has yet to achieve the results it deserves, but the team is concentrating on putting the structure in place. It has the backing, it has the cars, now one blue and one yellow, it has the drivers in Bobby Verdon- Roe, Marco Zadra, Jean-Marc Gounon and Paul Knapfield, it has the speed. It just doesn't have the luck ingredient. Fifth in Barcelona, seventh at Magny Cours, Verdon-Roe mistakenly gave up third position when he waved through the Ferrari thinking he was being lapped at Enna, had engine problems at Donington, and crashed out at Spa. |
Mike Hezemans and Anthony Kumpen the strongest line-up Already out at Spa was the Hezemans Chrysler Viper, another that has some of the most shocking luck. In Mike Hezemans and Anthony Kumpen, the team has possibly the strongest line-up on the grid, certainly a match for Biagi and Bobbi, but a gearbox failure at Magny Cours, a blow-out at Enna and another at Brno, a transmission failure at Donington and a mighty crash for Hezemans at Spa pock- mark their season. Last year the pair scored just one victory after just about everything broke on their car, encouraging them to switch to their team-mates' Viper for this year. With similar results, apparently, and they have yet to put a single point on the board. Other unusual events that have conspired to give Biagi and Bobbi such a big lead include the sudden retirement of Jean-Denis Deletraz from the second Lister, leaving the team and Andrea Piccini in financial limbo, and the withdrawal of the reigning champion Larbre team due to the collapse of its principal sponsorship deal. |
Are not supposed to win with 100kg of success ballast One explanation, and it sounds reasonable enough, is that you are not supposed to win with 100kg of success ballast on board. If you do, and the Ferrari did at Brno and Donington, organisers need to have a further method of restriction. This is fine up to a point, but if the opposition crash, break down or bang into each other, what is the Ferrari supposed to do? The Biagi/Bobbi Ferrari is not the fastest car on the grid, certainly not in qualifying anyway. Third on the grid at Barcelona, they were on pole at Magny Cours, sixth in Enna, third in Brno, sixth in Donington and third at Spa. The Saleen is faster, and so too will be the Lister when the British team receives its new engine. After this cut, the Ferrari pair must be looking for a top-10 qualifying position and consider achieving it to be a result. From there, can they race to another win? Certainly it is possible if the others continue their performances shown so far this year. The Lister has had terrible luck, having an errant piece of bodywork fly up into Jamie Campbell-Walter's face at Barcelona, a throttle cable break at Magny Cours and a steering rack go at Donington. At Spa, the race where Campbell-Walter and Kinch were hoping to turn their season around, Bas Leinders hampered their chances when he put the car into the wall early on during the weekend, for which the Belgian received the sack. Campbell-Walter was aiming for points at six hours in the rain when his windscreen wipers failed when he crashed heavily at Eau Rouge. |
Ferrari 550 Maranellos have their air restrictors cut The BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranellos will, at the seventh round of the FIA GT Championship at Anderstorp, have their air restrictors cut after Thomas Biagi and Matteo Bobbi won five of the six rounds this year, and the team has a 41-point lead in the teams' championship. The Italian pair lead the drivers' championship by 11 points having failed to score anything at Spa, but the FIA has decided to impose a performance restriction on the championship leaders none the less. Some may say it is about time too, but if you dig a little, you will see that, like last year, it is the opposition that has handed it to the championship leaders on a plate and the question arises - should the Ferraris have been cut at all? |
Ferrari to run with smaller restrictors London, September 4, 2003 Ferrari 550 Maranellos have their air restrictors cut Are not supposed to win with 100kg of success ballast Mike Hezemans and Anthony Kumpen the strongest line-up Saleen has been proven to be fast Made to look easy for the Ferrari boys "It is a shame," said Campbell-Walter |
