2003 Brazilian Grand Prix

Background

The 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix was the third of sixteen scheduled single seater motor races of the 2003 Formula One World Championship, the 32nd edition of the event and the 700th Formula One World Championship round. It took place at the 15-turn 4.309 km (2.677 mi) Autódromo José Carlos Pace in the Brazilian city of São Paulo on 6 April 2003. The bumpy track placed a large amount of strain and g-force onto a driver. To compensate for cars being driven over its bumpy surface, teams employed a computer programme fed into a chassis to reconstruct every movement under undulation. Under a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; Formula One's governing body) regulation mandating Formula One's two tyre suppliers Bridgestone and Michelin to bring a single wet-weather tyre compound to each race to lower operating costs: Michelin brought the full wets and Bridgestone the intermediates.

After winning the Malaysian Grand Prix two weeks earlier, McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen led the World Drivers' Championship with 16 points, six ahead of his teammate David Coulthard in second. Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams, Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello and Fernando Alonso for Renault tied for third with eight points each. In the World Constructors' Championship, McLaren led with 26 points; Ferrari and Renault were tied for second position with 16 points. Williams were a further two points behind in fourth and Sauber in fifth had four points. Following the 2002 edition, race organisers invested $1.7 million in resurfacing 1 km (0.62 mi) of track surface in an attempt to reduce its bumpiness, rebuilt its drainage system and introduced run-off areas in the first seven turns.

In preparation for the race, the majority of teams conducted in-season test sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya (now called the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya) in Spain from 25 to 28 March 2003 and worked to alter the aerodynamic performance of their cars. Sauber and Williams evaluated revised chassis components and both teams assessed their selection of tyre compounds from the Malaysian Grand Prix, optimising the setup of their vehicles to better suit it. A lap of 1:17.288 topped the time sheets for the Williams test driver Marc Gené on the first day. Pedro de la Rosa, the McLaren test driver, set the second day's fastest time, a 1:15.506. Williams's Ralf Schumacher set the quickest lap on the third day, lowering the overall best time to a 1:15.352. On the final day (held in heavy rain in the morning and sunshine for most of the afternoon) Ralf Schumacher remained fastest overall with a lap of 1:17.591. Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta drove a Toyota TF102B for three days at the Circuit Paul Ricard evaluating its tyres.

Private test session

On Friday morning, a two-hour test session took place for teams who opted for limited testing during the season. In variable weather conditions that saw rain fell 90 minutes in, Renault driver Jarno Trulli set the session's fastest lap, a 1:14.262. Antônio Pizzonia was second in a Jaguar and his teammate Mark Webber third. Alonso, Fisichella, Allan McNish, the Renault test driver, Minardi's Jos Verstappen, Ralph Firman for Jordan and Wilson made up positions four to nine. During the session, Pizzonia drove the spare Jaguar after a mechanical fault stopped his race car at the Subida dos Boxes corner. With 36 minutes remaining, Firman abandoned his car in the pit lane with a drive shaft problem. Alonso subsequently spun on the Reta Oposta straight and was beached in a gravel trap at the Descida do Lago turn. His Renault was undamaged.

Practice and warm-up sessions

There were three practice sessions preceding Sunday's race: one 60-minute session on Friday morning and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday morning. In the first practice session, held in torrential weather conditions and saw four drivers record no lap times, Michael Schumacher was quickest with a lap of 1:28.060, followed by Coulthard, British American Racing (BAR) driver Jenson Button, Trulli, Montoya, Barrichello, the Toyota pair of Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta, Fisichella and Heinz-Harald Frentzen of Sauber. Seconds after Räikkönen exited the pit lane, he lost control of his vehicle into the Reta Oposta straight and spun onto some grass. He narrowly avoided a collision with a barrier to his left. With 15 minutes to go, Pizzonia crashed heavily leaving the Curva do Sol turn and struck the barriers on both sides of the circuit on his first timed lap, temporarily stopping the session so that his Jaguar car could be removed from the track. After the session restarted, Alonso slid on the wet track and made minor contact against a wall at the Senna S chicane.

The circuit was sodden for the beginning of the second practice session and dried as it progressed to provide every driver with dry track acclimatisation. Barrichello set the pace with a 1:14.071 lap. Ralf Schumacher, Montoya, Michael Schumacher, Alonso, Räikkönen, Pizzonia, Webber, Coulthard and Heidfeld made up positions two to ten. In warm weather conditions, the final practice session was led by Panis who recorded a time of 1:13.457, ahead of Michael Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, Montoya, Räikkönen, Barrichello, Webber, Ralf Schumacher and Alonso. Several competitors spun during the session; none sustained damage to their cars. Räikkönen paced a 15-minute warm-up session that took place before the second qualifying session with a lap of 1:13.886. Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Montoya, Webber, Button, Ralf Schumacher, Villeneuve and Heidfeld were second to tenth.

Qualifying

The torrential rain observed in practice prompted several drivers to express concerns they would lose control of their vehicles and crash. Around 20 minutes before the first qualifying session, Coulthard, a senior member of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, Trulli and Michael Schumacher wrote a petition mandating the FIA cancel the session if there was no improvement in the track conditions. The petition was signed by a majority of drivers; it was later disregarded after it was unable to be sent to everyone in time and race officials had deemed the circuit safe to drive on after the rain tapered off before qualifying commenced. BAR's Jacques Villeneuve said the petition was detrimental to Formula One, "What would it bring to Formula One for us not to go and qualify? People would think that we are just a bunch of sissies. We can't do that. We are paid a whole lot of money and it would be an insult to the fans."

There were two one-hour qualifying sessions, one on both Friday and Saturday afternoons. The World Drivers' Championship standings set the first session's running order (first to last) with the second run in reverse of the first session times (slowest to fastest). Each competitor recorded one timed lap in each session and the starting order was determined by the second session's quickest laps. The level of standing water fluctuated during the session. Webber took provisional pole position on a drying track with a 1:23.249 lap. He was 0.138 seconds faster than Barrichello in second, who had pole until Webber's lap. Räikkönen, the first driver to set a lap, was third and his teammate Coulthard, fourth, made a driver error at Bico de Pato corner. Michael Schumacher aquaplaned shortly after leaving the pit lane and took fifth. Panis's Toyota was not setup for the wet-weather conditions and took sixth. Villeneuve was seventh; Pizzonia, eighth, drove the spare Jaguar and aquaplaned on the start/finish straight.

Alonso, ninth, was circumspect, as Frentzen, tenth. reported an adequate car balance. An incorrect setup put Da Matta 11th. The wet-weather conditions restricted Trulli to 12th and an unbalanced car in slow speed corners left Ralf Schumacher in 13th. An oversteer and lack of grip restricted Fisichella to 14th as Verstappen extracted additional performance from his car to finish in 15th. Heidfeld was circumspect through the Arquibancdas turn en route to 16th. Montoya in 17th lost control of the rear of his Williams under braking and went onto a concrete run-off area at Ferradura corner. Firman in 18th drove with the rear of Jordan's spare car attached to his race vehicle. Wilson avoided a spin on the start/finish straight and was 19th. Button was the only driver not to set a lap time: he had a sudden oversteer when he ran onto a damp white line denoting the track boundaries, and aquaplaned at almost 145 mph (233 km/h). Button went through two polystyrene boards, removed his car's rear wing and abandoned the attempt. The session was temporarily stopped to clear on-track debris.

Qualifying classification

Notes

^1 – Jenson Button was left without a time in Q1 because he drove off the track and stopped the attempt.

^2 – Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Olivier Panis set identical lap times in Q2. Since Frentzen set the time ahead of Panis, he was ranked ahead of him.

Race

On the morning of 6 April, McLaren sought permission from the FIA to change Räikkönen's engine after a crack in its casting was detected via telemetry. The FIA authorised the engine switch after it analysed data proving the engine was damaged. Telemetry from BAR also detected damage to Villeneuve's engine and were also allowed to change it. Rain was forecast for the race; at the start the track was flooded because of a torrential downpour that fell from at 11:00 Brasilia Time (UTC−02:00). 120,000 spectators attended the Grand Prix. It was due to commence at 14:00 local time, before the FIA race director Charlie Whiting delayed it for 15 minutes, to enable standing water to be drained from the circuit. Event organisers permitted teams to alter the setup of their cars to run on a sodden track, specially the wings and ride heights. The standing water caused heavy spray and impaired visibility, and all vehicles used wet-weather tyre compounds. The track's deficient drainage caused a large amount of water to cascade from a slope onto the tarmac surface at the inside of the bottom of Curva do Sol corner and made it susceptible for cars to aquaplane.

The race began behind the safety car, with no formation lap; notwithstanding the slow speed drivers struggled for grip on the flooded track surface. Some drivers (including Verstappen, Frentzen, Pizzonia, Panis, Fisichella and Firman) elected to make pit stops for fuel under safety car conditions in an attempt to avoid having to make a second pit stop later in the race. After the rain had stopped, the safety car drove into the pit lane at the end of lap eight, and cars were allowed to overtake. Barrichello bunched up the field on the approach to the start/finish line; the manoeuvre failed to work and Coulthard passed him for the lead under braking for the Senna S chicane. Barrichello was circumspect for the rest of the lap as Webber and Räikkönen pressured him. Further down the order, Montoya moved from ninth to fifth. Heidfeld became the Grand Prix's first retirement on lap nine when his engineers informed him over the radio of an oil feed problem that cut out his engine. He pulled off to the side of the track to ensure that no oil was deposited on the racing line.

On lap ten, Räikkönen overtook Barrichello for second at the Senna S chicane and lost third when Montoya passed him later that lap. There were overtakes further down the field on that lap. Ralf Schumacher moved past Trulli for sixth and Pizzonia passed Verstappen for fifteenth. On the 11th lap, Räikkönen closed up to his teammate Coulthard and passed him to take the lead on the approach to the Senna S chicane. Not long after Montoya overtook Coulthard for third at the end of the Reta Oposta straight that leads to the Descida do Lago corner. That same lap, Ralf Schumacher and Trulli made contact, causing the former to spin. Webber then overtook Barrichello for fourth and Michael Schumacher did the same on his teammate soon after for fifth. Ralf Schumacher began to recover lost positions with an overtake on Villeneuve for tenth on the 12th lap. At the front of the field, Räikkönen had increased his lead over Montoya to five seconds by lap 14. On the same lap, Montoya reported a loss of rear tyre grip to his team over the radio and ran wide leaving Junção turn. Coulthard overtook Montoya for second.

Post-race

Because Alonso was in hospital, Räikkönen and Fisichella appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. Räikkönen believed he was lucky to be awarded the victory: "I think that it came so quickly that we didn't make the decision quickly enough but in the end it was the right decision, so thanks to the team. It was a difficult race because the conditions were so bad and the safety car was out so often, but I'm pretty happy." Fisichella said he was disappointed with the race's situation: "first of all for Fernando, I hope that he's alright and then also because I won the race but the rules say that when there is a red flag, the result is taken from one lap before (two laps in fact) so I am very sorry about that but I never thought I would finish in second position so it's a great day anyway."

Alonso received messages of well-being from the public and rally driver Carlos Sainz. He was discharged from hospital after 12 hours, and returned to Madrid on the morning of 8 April to begin physical therapy for the following San Marino Grand Prix. Alonso commented on the accident: "I thought my race was going pretty well. But then I came round the final corner to find debris everywhere and I had nowhere to go. I think I hit a wheel, and the next thing I knew I was headed for the barriers." He attributed the HANS device for preventing him from sustaining more serious injuries. Webber was not required to take a medical test and performed 60 push-ups to persuade his physiotherapist he had suffered no long-term complications from his crash. He called it "the biggest accident I've had in a Formula One car" and revealed his neck and knees took most of the force from the impact: "I haven't been in a race that crazy before and it's the most damage I've done to a Formula One car. I've knocked two corners off before but nothing like this."

After their crashes, Schumacher and Alonso were reported to the FIA by an observer within the governing body; the stewards could not question Alonso in Brazil as he was in hospital. Schumacher was interviewed by Whiting at the San Marino Grand Prix pre-event drivers' meeting on 17 April. Two days later, Alonso and Schumacher met with Whiting individually; he cautioned the two over their future driving standards and did not further reprimand them.

Villeneuve said he felt the drivers and not the track conditions contributed to unsafe racing: "It is down to the drivers to be less crazy in those conditions and there was some crazy driving out there. Some drivers were overtaking under the yellow flags, halfway through the race I saw Alonso overtake under the flags. I think that is the kind of driving that leads to big accidents." After his first race retirement since the 2001 German Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher stated he was unworried over the possibility of him winning his sixth World Drivers' Championship: "In terms of the championship, obviously it would have been better for us if Fisichella had won the race in Brazil instead of Raikkonen, especially as Giancarlo drove a good race anyway. But the gap to the championship leader is not so big, given there are still 13 races, so there is no need to be concerned about it." Barrichello said he would continue to strive to win the Brazilian Grand Prix and was frustrated to learn a fuel problem caused his retirement: "I feel an enormous disappointment but I am not losing hope. I will not stop racing until I win in this country."

Timekeeping error

The Jordan team and Whiting discussed the discrepancy with the official timekeeping by timekeepers TAG Heuer and the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) concluded that this was sufficient to warrant an investigation. Whiting flew to London from Brazil on the morning of 8 April and launched the internal investigation into the result of the race. He was concerned about a possible timekeeping error and asked representatives from TAG Heuer and the three race stewards for the Brazilian Grand Prix, to attend a meeting at the FIA headquarters in Paris on the morning of 11 April as part of compliance with Article 179 (b) of the International Sporting Code.

Oral arguments as well as timing and video evidence gathered by Jordan were presented to a FIA court in Paris, which, on 11 April, awarded victory to Fisichella. McLaren declined to file an appeal. This was Fisichella's first Formula One win and the Jordan team's last. An unofficial ceremony was arranged for during the next race weekend at Imola, where Räikkönen and Ron Dennis handed over the winning driver's and constructor's trophies to Fisichella and Eddie Jordan.

Race classification

Notes

^3 — Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Ralph Firman, Antônio Pizzonia and Jos Verstappen started from the pit lane.

Championship standings after the race

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.