Insiders från Bira på Atlas (fetinglång men intressant!)

[Lemon]

Disclaimer: all of the information below was verified as much as possibly could. However, this is not a fully done investigative report and I ask that you take it with a pinch of salt. I provide no guarantee that it's 100% accurate.


OK, so what did exactly happen on Sunday? The undisputed fact is that Rubens Barrichello slowed down meters from the finish line to allow Michael Schumacher to take the win. It is also undisputed that he has done so because of team orders. But how and why did this transpire?


Ferrari
=======

Some 14 days before the Austrian Grand Prix, Fiat and Ferrari managements have made the final decision to float Ferrari at the earliest possible date. The floatation is necessary to literally save Fiat, whose current debts are estimated at several billion euro (their net loss in 2001 alone was about 1.5 billion euro. See http://www.atlasf1.com/news/2002/ma...p/id/7232/.html for more details). Thousands of jobs are on the line, and much is riding on the Ferrari IPO, which - while guaranteed a success - could significantly reduce Fiat's losses and contribute to its long-term financial health plan.

The decision passed Fiat's board of directors a couple of days ago, on Tuesday. However, the decision itself had been debated for over two months, and the final decision, as noted, was made about two weeks ago.

IPO preparations are heavily reliant on marketing and exposure. Ferrari, a company who never advertises and sees its motor racing involvement as its advertising campaign de facto, entered a different modus operandi for 2002: the F1 World Championship season does not end in October; it must end much sooner than that.

Ferrari need their IPO portfolio to say "Has recently won the World Championship" rather than "Is currently leading the World Championship" or some such.

The orders in Sunday's race were not given to secure the World Championship; they were given to secure an early wrapping to the World Championship.

As Luca di Montezemolo said on Monday: "I am sorry for the emotional fans who are not yet convinced - but they will be so tomorrow." The day after, Fiat announced the IPO decision. Luca truly believed that, if the fans understand this was done to ensure success - not only in the WC but also in the IPO and eventually the saving of Fiat (a huge factor in the Italian industry) - they will understand.

It should be also noted that the target "audience" for the IPO portfolio is hardly the hard-core racing fans. Marketing blunder or not, wrapping up the WC will be far more important than the sacrifices made on the way. It is doubtful to begin with that the sport actually lost out, their logic says, but it's quite certain that Joe Doe in the assembly line in Fiat will be able to keep his job because of this.


Michael Schumacher
==================

Prior to the Austrian Grand Prix, Michael was enjoying his calmest, least stressful season ever. In San Marino, during qualifying, he didn't think it's worth coming out for an additional run, when Rubens Barrichello was 1st and he was 2nd. "Let Rubens have it, I don't care," he said. "No, Michael," Ross told him. "You go out there now and beat that time." (this conversation was also quoted on TV, actually).

But in between Spain and Austria, Michael was made aware of the new task at hand: win the WC quickly and dominantly. The "Record Equalling Fifth WC" banners are already being printed as we speak.

Michael is Michael. You tell him to put in fastest laps and make up 25 seconds in Hungary 1998, and he says OK and puts in an impossible sequence of fastest laps and makes up 35 seconds. The team tells him 'dominate', he says OK. He doesn't phylosophise about it. That's why for so long people joked about him being a robot. You could say it's his Germanic character. But either way, that's how he is.

At Austria, in qualifying, things didn't work out. Michael wasn't working well, and neither was his car. He later apologised to the mechanics in the post-qualifying briefing for "screwing it up." It was obvious that the "vacation" is over.

Before the race, briefing was normal. They decided on a start and refuelling strategy, and didn't talk about team orders or wins. That was either taken for granted or was left open for "we'll see."

In any event, a couple of laps into the race, with Michael close by behind Rubens and both drivers opening a gap of almost 2 seconds per lap, Ross Brawn told Michael to keep at bay. Don't race each other, was the word.

Michael is Michael. You tell him to keep at bay and he goes into cruise mode.

Michael pitted for the last time on lap 63 - eight laps before the end. During his pitstop, he was told by Jean Todt that Rubens is going to move over for him so could he please close up the gap. Michael did not argue - he didn't say anything other than his usual "OK", in fact.

Coming out, he was about 4.1 seconds behind Rubens.
On lap 63 he was 3.7
On lap 64 he lost a little bit of time behind Heinz Harald Frentzen and the gap was 3.8
By lap 67 it was 3.4

Jean Todt passed a note to Ross Brawn. There are conflicting reports on what it said. One of the reports says it stated Rubens is not slowing down and Michael has too big a gap. Michael was asked to push and Rubens was asked to slow down.

On lap 68 Rubens set his first lap in many into the 1:10. Michael at the same time set the fastest lap of the race. The gap was down to 2.5.

On lap 69 Rubens set a lap just 1 tenths slower than the previous, 1:10.3. The gap went down to 1.7.

It went down to 1.1 on lap 70.

And only on the final couple of corners of the final lap did Michael catch up to Rubens. "Do I overtake him?" he asked. "Yes, do it." was the reply.

Michael is Michael. He just did it.

And it wasn't until he reached Parc Ferme that he realized the whole thing has boiled into a humangous scandal.


Rubens Barrichello
==================

Rubens was up for contract renewal in Monaco. Talks about a new contract began about a month ago, in San Marino. And they weren't scheduled to be wrapped up before Monaco, should the two sides decide to continue working together. And, both sides were looking at other options at the same time.

Ferrari weren't absolutely sure they want Rubens for another year, and Rubens had a couple of offers, reputedly one from Toyota. Rubens wanted better terms - for one, he wanted a longer contract than one year. His previous contract, in 2000, was for 2 year with another year's option for the team. Last year the team exercised that option and Ferrari wanted to extend the existing contract, as is, for one more year. Rubens wanted two years and a few better terms.

When the decision on the IPO came in, it became abundently clear that Rubens could become a hindrence in their plan to wrap up the WC quickly. If they don't resign him, he's a free agent who can do whatever he wants. If they fire him mid-season, it will leave them vulnerable. This wasn't a time to rock the boat, and all of a sudden Ferrari made a u-turn in negotiations. Within seven days (!) the new contract was signed and sealed, and a couple of days later - in Austria - announced to the press.

The new contract is different from the previous. It has clearer stipulations with regards to team orders and, for example, includes a reciprocatory clause that states that in the event that Rubens leads the WC, his teammate (be it Michael or anyone else) will assist him. It also states that, in the event that Rubens is required to give up a win, he will be compensated with a win in return later in the season or, if circumstances don't offer that opportunity, he will be financially compensated by the end of the year.

In short, Rubens's new contract makes him every bit the team player - but also every bit the benefactor should he be in a situation to claim it. In other words, he is no longer #2 unless he is actually not in realistic contention in the WC.

A week before the race, Jean Todt told Rubens about the planned IPO and its meaning. It was a pep talk, more than anything, to give Rubens a sense that he is part of something big. Almost the making of history, if you will. He was also made clearly aware that from here on, all efforts are put on wrapping up the WC early. He will need to help, and Rubens said he will.

As mentioned before, no concrete talk was made before the race about how or whether Rubens will give up a win. And, as mentioned before, once the race was underway, Rubens - like Michael - was simply told to keep position and that's that.

Rubens pitted on lap 62. He was told in his pitstop that he will need to let Michael win. Rubens was calm and said OK. Some say today that Rubens could have, and perhaps should have, made the effort to allow Michael to overtake him when Michael came out of the pits, or within a couple of laps later at least. But Rubens wasn't told when to let Michael through. He was simply told to do it, and the rest of it was left to him.

Prior to his final pitstop, Rubens's average lap time was 1:09.7. When he came out of the pits, his laptimes were:

63: 1:09.896
64: 1:10.357
65: 1:09.815
66: 1:09.927
67: 1:09.839
68: 1:10.209
69: 1:10.313
70: 1:10.273
71: 1:13.004

He was clearly not going to let Michael overtake him until the final yards. He was either rerunning the "I've just got team orders and I want the whole world to know about it" scenario from last year, or - as he said later - was hoping Michael would say no. After all, this is the first time ever that he dominated Michael all weekend. Surely they could make an exception to the Grand Plan of things to let him have it just this once?...


There are many people inside Ferrari who now feel that Rubens has made the team look like fools for the sake of his own ego. There are also many people inside Ferrari who now feel that Michael was wrong in his retreat on the podium and in the press conference demeanour.

"They made us look like fools," is something some are saying aloud.

[Lemon]

Vete fan om jag köper det där om Fiat-prylen. Badwill är alltid badwill och det var garanterat fler än hardcore racing fans som blev upprörda i söndags. Annars tycker jag Biras sammanställning var mycket intressant.

[Hampus]

Visst, badwill är alltid badwill (motsäger iofs att all publicitet är bra publicitet) men jag tror inte Ferrari hade trott att det skulle bli sån uppståndelse över det. Jag köper resonemanget.

Om det här stämmer, vilket det förmodligen gör, så är det ett bra exempel på att det ofta ligger något stort bakom.

USA och oljan är ett annat bra exempel... Kuwait, Argentina, Saudi-Arabien, Irak, Afghanistan...

_________________
Buuuu Ferrari! Buuu!

<font size=-1>[ Detta Inlägg ändrades av: Hampus den 2002-05-18 11:09 ]</font>

[AndersF1]

Hmm, tycker nog det är en del som haltar i det där och det verkar mest vara byggt på egna spekulationer och rykten, inga fakta ö.h.t.. Om man t.ex. tar vad som stod på lappen, "One of the reports says...". Det luktar mest egna gissningar då jag skulle tro att endast Brawn och Todt verkligen vet vad som stod där. Sedan tvivlar jag på att Rubens skulla ha inskrivet i sitt kontrakt att han får bli försteförare om han t.ex. skulle ta fler poäng än [Schumacher] i Australien och alltså ligga före i tabellen.

När det gäller själva grundiden kan det förstås vara en målsättning, om än inte helt avgörande för om Fiat skall gå i kk eller inte. De kommer ju ändå att behöva minst ett halvdussin lopp till innan de kan säkra VM-vinsten, så jag har svårt att se att det skulle påverka en IPO som meddelades i måndags. Dessutom är det väl minst sagt tveksamt om stora aktieköpare köper aktier med utgångpunkt ifrån när Ferrari kommer att vinna förar-VM. Nog för att aktiehandeln är lite känlomässigt styrd, men lite mer grundläggande analyser ligger nog bakom ett stort köp.

[llowgren]

Tycker också att annalysen att det skulle höja aktievärdet om WM var klart tidigare känns lite fel. Ingen med minsta intresse av F1 har väl kunnat undgå att upptäcka Ferraris dominans, inte bara i år.

Hur som helst så måste denna sopa ha sänkt värdet betydligt. Ferraris tifosi som andra fabrikanter bara kan drömma om har gått emot dem, värdet på försäljningen av kepsar minskar. Dessutom och kanske ännu värre så har händelserna visat på brister hos Ferrari ledningen. Den har inte kunnat komma med en mot attack för att lugna fansen, detta är svagt. All puplicitet är bra om man kan visa på sina styrkor, dvs visa åtgärder direkt i samband med pupliciteten.

[Crazy F1]

jag vet inte vad jag ska tro, men det skulle inte förvåna mig om det mesta av det som stod var sant, vcissa modifieringar kan ju självklart förekomma...

[Crazy F1]

glömde...

En sak är iså fall intressant(om texten stämmer)....Om det faktum stämmer att Todt och Brawn bara behöver säga till MS att åka snabbare än Rubens och han gör det, så har ju killen en helt otrolig självkontroll och jag tvivlar på att någon kan ha SÅ STOR kontroll över sig själv....ok att han är grym åå att köra bil, men han gör väl så gott han kan jämn eller???

Det är ju icoh för sig skumt att han pp sitt sista kvalförsök i spanien kunde köra 9/tiondelar snabbare än vad han gjort tidigare under kvalet....Mycket möjligt att Ross snackade med honom på radion.

Det är en sak till jag undrar...varför går han ur bilen och försvinner ett tag och sedan hoppar ner i bilen igen....och kör snabbare då??

[Zetor]

Det kan väl vara så att Ferrari inte vill visa hur överlägsna
dom är. 02:an i kombination med Shummi kanske är 3 år före
dom andra i kapacitet!
Var det inte Pastis som sa att det ser ut som om han är ute och ''söndagskör''när det är race.

[Bernie]

Säkrar Ferrari Titeln tidigt i år kan de mycket väl bli en kanonbil även nästa år och inte bara en förbättrad F2002

[Joakim Quensel]

On 2002-05-17 23:02, Luca di Montezemolo said on Monday:

"I am sorry for the emotional fans who are not yet convinced - but they will be so tomorrow...

...if the fans understand this was done to ensure success - not only in the WC but also in the IPO and eventually the saving of Fiat - they will understand...

...but it's quite certain that Joe Doe in the assembly line in Fiat will be able to keep his job because of this.

Pinsamma uttlalanden från Montezemolo, har han verkligen sagt detta??? Speciellt det där sista om Joe Doe är ju ett oerhört patetiskt.

Tror att det är välidigt sannt att Ferrari-ledningen är oerhört arga på Rubens. Han fick ju verkligen dem att se ut som idioter. Michael räddade dock lite av sitt eget anseende genom sitt agerande på podiet, men han är nog också egentligen arg på Rubens tror jag.