THE WORST F1 CARS EVER: Number 3

MASTERCARD LOLA FORD T97/30
YEARS USED - 1997
DRIVERS - Ricardo Rosset (BRA), Vincenzo Sospiri (ITA)
RACES ENTERED - 1 (2 entries)
BEST QUALIFYING - 23rd (Australia 1997)
BEST RACE FINISH - n/a
DNQ's - 2
DNPQ's - 0

What a mess!

Quite possibly the most farcical, most shambolic F1 entry in revent years (well not really, that comes later in this series) but Eric Broadley's Lola operation, making a return to F1 after a 4 year absence and fir the first time as a constructor in its own right, but it would'nt have been this laughable had it not been for the impatient actions of their big money title sponsor.

Since leaving F1 after a disastrous season in 1993, Lola founder Eric Broadley had always wanted to enter the sport in his own right after previous forays had been as a customer chassis supplier for a few independent operations which began with Reg Parnell's Bowmaker Racing operation in 1962, an association that lasted 2 years. Lola did not make a return until former world champion Graham Hill set up his own team and required assistance to build his own new car, the GH1, Lola gave him ample assistance until he had the capabilities to build his cars in house, tragically though for Hill, his ambitions would never get off the ground as his entire team (including himself) were killed in a plane crash testing the GH2 for a full crack at the 1976 season. A single year partnership with American motorsport legend Carl Haas produced little in terms of results before a 5 year association began with Larrousse, this proved moderately successful the highlight being a memorable 3rd place finish for Japanese driver Aguri Suzuki at his home GP in 1990. Then a one year stint with BMS produced nothing in 1993.

But Broadley pressed on with his dream of entering his own team and as early as 1995, Lola had built a prototype chassis and tested it. Broadley wanted to take as much time as possible to get his team properly ready for Formula 1 and things got even better in 1996 when Broadley signed a huge title sponsorship deal with Mastercard and a deal had been agreed to run 4 year olf Ford Zetec engines, the same as what Minardi would be using in 1997, not powerful but good enough to start with provided the car was well built. To make sure of that Broadley lodged an entry for 1998, but then things began to go very pear shaped.

Wether they wanted an excuse to pull out of the deal or not, Mastercard made the ultimate bone headed demand that either the team brought forward their plans by a year to race in 1997 or the big money teal would be torn up, pressured into this situation, Lola agreed, only one problem, this was November 1996, that would mean Lola would have to design, build and test their new car in just under FOUR MONTHS. But manage it they did and thus the T97/30 was born on February 20th, less than 3 weeks before the season opener in Melbourne Australia, this meant there was absolutely no time to run a proper testing program so the new car was practically shipped over to Australia the minute it left the stage showcasing it. A late deal to use Bridgestone tyres was agreed as well as Ricardo Rosset (who made his debut with Arrows the previous year) and Italian rookie Vincenzo Sospiri to drive the car.

And from free practice onwards, the rush job took its toll, the car was substantially underdeveloped, underpowered and overweight, slow in a straight line and near impossible to drive in the corners due to flawed aerodynamics (which would have been corrected in a full testing program), the car was a disaster and an embarassment to Lola and F1 in general, the sponsors Mastercard were widely criticised in the media as a result. The car was nearly 20 seconds off the pace of the leaders in practice. Although improvements were seen in qualifying, they were still over 10 seconds off the pace and with the 107% rule in place, both Sospiri and Rosset as expected both earned a DNQ. But the team and the drivers had every reason to be optimistic that the new car would improve with track time and the prospect of a V10 engine in the pipeline.

But the trip to Brazil would never happen, Lola had run up a debt of £6million, an embarassed Mastercard chucked in the towel, lawsuits began flying in from all directions and the team was no more. And the potential of the T97/30 would never be materialised, it just goes to show that when a sponsor tries to take control of the whole operation, it doesnt always work like it did with Benetton in the mid 1980s and more recently Red Bull. But it was this laughable effort that prompted Bernie Ecclestone to hike up the Formula 1 teams entry fee from £500'000 to £48million.

HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX - Lews Laughing Now?

A little over a month ago, you would have laughed at the prospect of Lewis Hamilton nicking a win at any stage this season, but fast forward 4 weeks and a raft of aerodynamic upgrades later, and the McLaren MP4-24 is a totally new beast, a race winning beast infact as Lewis Hamilton scored a dominant win after initially profiting from the mishaps of others, and that is why yours truly is now nearly £25 better off.

The first of which being polesitter Fernando Alonso who got a blistering start but retired after a bungled pitstop caused a wheel to come off, an incident that has banned his Renault team from his home Grand Prix in Valencia, and with safety being at the forefront of everyone's minds after Henry Surtees's tragic death last week and also Felipe Massa's frightening shunt in qualifying (an accident that forced him to miss the start of the race and maybe the rest of the season too) it is no suprise that the FIA decided to take stern action against Renault.

Back to the race though, Hamilton (who started 4th) scorched past Webber early on in the race to take 2nd place, which after Alonso's troubles, became the race lead. His position was further strengthened after Webber's Red Bull pit crew made a mess of his pit stop meaning he would come out behind Kimi Raikkonen, also championship contender Sebastian Vettel suffered an equally bad stop and would later retire with suspension damage after contact early on with Raikkonen. This benefitted a struggling Jenson Button who would go on to finish in 7th spot.

Hamilton's lead was strengthened again when Kimi Raikkonen stalled his car briefly after his 2nd stop giving Hamilton a comfortable enough lead to ease the car home to the finish. ahead of Raikkonen, Webber and the still improving Nico Rosberg. Kovalainen, Glock, Button and Trulli completed the scorers while debutant Jaime Alguersuari (replacing the sacked Sebastien Bourdais at Toro Rosso) had a fine debut beating his teammate Sebastien Buemi to finish a lap down in 15th place.

Also on the good news front, Felipe Massa's condition after his horror Qualifying crash is now not critical but there are now fears his sight in his left eye could have been affected in the crash, if so, this could mean a premature end to his racing career, here's hoping this is not the case and that he makes a speedy recovery and we see him back racing as soon as possible.

RACE RATING - 6/10: An action packed beginning followed by a precessional finish, but a great result

RACE TESULT - TOP 10
1st Lewis Hamilton - McLaren ................ 70 laps in 1h 38m 23.876
2nd Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari ................ + 11.529
3rd Mark Webber - Red Bull ................ + 16.886
4th Nico Rosberg - Williams ................ + 26.967
5th Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren ................ + 34.392
6th Timo Glock - Toyota ................ + 35.237
7th Jenson Button - Brawn ................ + 55.088
8th Jarno Trulli - Toyota ................ + 1m 08.172
9th Kazuki Nakajima - Williams ................ + 1m 08.774
10th Rubens Barrichello - Brawn ................ + 1m 09.256


CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 10 OF 17
DRIVERS TOP 10
1st Jenson Button 70pts, 2nd Mark Webber 51.5pts, 3rd Sebastian Vettel 47pts, 4th Rubens Barrichello 44pts, 5th Nico Rosberg 25.5pts, 6th Jarno Trulli 22.5pts, 7th Felipe Massa 22pts, 8th Lewis Hamilton 19pts, 9th Kimi Raikkonen 18pts, 10th Timo Glock 16pts

CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st Brawn 114pts, 2nd Red Bull 98.5pts, 3rd Ferrari 40pts, 4th Toyota 38.5pts, 5th McLaren 28pts, 6th Williams 25.5pts, 7th Renault 13pts, 8th BMW Sauber 8pts, 9th Toro Rosso 5pts, 10th Force India 0pts

THE WORST F1 CARS EVER: Number 4

AGS FORD JH22
YEARS USED - 1987
DRIVERS - Pascal Fabre (FRA), Roberto Moreno (BRA)
RACES ENTERED - 16 (16 entries)
BEST QUALIFYING - 22nd (Brazil 1987)
BEST RACE FINISH - 6th (Australia 1987)
DNQ's - 3
DNPQ's - 0

AGS were a small French team that competed between 1986 and 1991 although 1987 was the first season in which they competed in all events, and it was with this car, arguably one of the ugliest ever designed, the JH22. It featured an Airbox at the rear (something not seen since the mid 1970's) and was unique in having no sidepods, instead the radiators were designed to look like a set of blinds that ran down the side of the car. It was innovative but pig ugly, add to that a horrendous red and white striped colour scheme and you have a car that was no doubt easy to spot but hard to look at without wincing.

The unlucky soul the team hired to drive the car was Pascal Fabre, a Frenchman who had an unspectacular but solid season in F3000 the previous year where he finished 7th in the championship scoring 1 win at Silverstone. It took a while though as he waited until the last possible moment as he was one of the drivers in the frame for a seat at Ligier to replace the injured and retired veteran Jacques Laffite, when they plumped for Italian veteran Piercarlo Ghinzani, Fabre signed a single season deal with AGS a month before the first race.

As expected though, the "innovations" on the JH22 did not work at all and in Fabre's hands, it was consistently the slowest of the qualifiers with only the hopelessly slow Osella's keeping Fabre's AGS off the very back of the grid and/or even DNQing. But that did not concern the little AGS squad one jot, they only wanted to build a car that was reliable and could finish races, a feat they certainly achieved, in the reliability stakes throughout the 1987 season, AGS could not be equalled, only that the car nearly always finished 6 or 7 laps down, the closest the car got to the leaders in Fabre's hands was in Belgium where they finished 5 laps down, a performance good enough for 10th place.

Unfortunately though for AGS, Osella began to get their act together and qualify better, plus Coloni had entered for the first time meaning that there was the possibility of cars failing to qualify, and now AGS looked vulnerable. Predictably Fabre suffered his first DNQ in the 11th round in Italy, 2 more DNQ's followed in Portugal and Mexico after which the team lost patience and fired Fabre, in his place came a promising young talent in the form of Roberto Moreno to complete the final 2 races of the season.

With Moreno driving, the JH22 (now very much a second rate piece of machinery) suddenly looked competitive which led many to believe that Fabre was out of his depth in F1, and this resulted with by far one of the best drives by an also-ran at the season finale in Adelaide Australia, and this waqs the race that finally, the AGS's impeccable reliability would bear fruit, after Ayrton Senna's late disqualification, Moreno was promoted up to 6th to give AGS their first ever world championship point.

Unsuprisingly, the team ditched the JH22 for 1988 with their next car, the JH23 following a simpler and more conventional design, they didnt score any points with the car, but at least it was more competitive, qualifying regularly in the midfield in the hands of Philippe Streiff.

Innovative ideas are always welcomed in the world of Formula 1, but the JH22 was a clear sign that not all new ideas work and in the hands of a small and poorly funded operation like AGS, the resources with which to recify these flaws are non existent without having to build a completely new car.

THE WORST F1 CARS EVER: Number 5

RIAL FORD ARC2

YEARS USED - 1989
DRIVERS - Christian Danner (GER), Volker Weidler (GER), Pierre-Henri Raphanel (FRA), Bertrand Gachot (FRA), Gregor Foitek (SUI)
RACES ENTERED - 16 (32 entries)
BEST QUALIFYING - 17th (Brazil 1989)
BEST RACE FINISH - 4th (Phoenix 1989)
DNQ's - 18
DNPQ's - 8

This is a new series of mine where i will look into what i think are the worst of the worst in terms of Grand Prix machinery, of which I have selected 5 to talk about, why they failed so miserably could burn down to a number of factors like lack of development, poor engine, poor design and reliability and even management failures. The first car i will talk about which falls in at 5th place on the list certainly falls under the "lack of development" title.

RIAL first entered Formula 1 the previous season in 1988 with a single car for Italian veteran Andrea De Cesaris, they were run by quite possibly the hardest nosed team principal F1 has ever seen, the volatile German alloy wheel magnate Gunter Schmid who had a moderately successful 7 year stint with ATS in Formula 1, the best year of which was 1982 where with Manfred Winklehock and Eliseo Salazar, ATS managed to pick up 4 points and finish 12th in the constructors championship, Schmid also gave future race winner Gerhard Berger his F1 debut too before pulling out at the end of 1984 after his engine supplier (BMW) refused to prelong their contract.

But back to RIAL and their 1989 car, the ARC2, this car was basically an improved version of the 1988 car, the ARC1 designed by Gustav Brunner. It was a simple, neat and quick package which never once failed to qualify in De Cesaris's hands, only once did he fail to qualify outside the top 20 and even managed a 4th place in Detroit, giving RIAL 3 points and a finish of 9th spot in the constructors championship, this did not come however without problems and many run in's with the FIA and the stewards and also Schmid's temprament too which was a factor in Brunner taking his design talents to the rival German squad Zakspeed.

The ARC2 however did have Brunner's input though, this was because it was a revamped ARC1 to meet the new aerodynamic and engine regulations (e.g an airbox.) De Cesaris by now had left the team as it expanded to 2 cars for 2 German drivers, Christian Danner and sportscar star Volker Weidler. Because of the expansion to 2 cars, only Danner's was entered for full qualifying forcing Weidler into the pre-qualifying lottery.) Weidler though was clearly out of his depth in F1, clearly missing his roots in sportscars and failed to pre-qualify on every occasion. Danner did not fare much better even though he did qualify the car on 4 occasions, the best of which being 17th spot on the grid in Brazil and a points finish in Phoenix, another 4th place.

But the car suffered hugely from appaling reliability when in qualifying trim and a lack of development from mid-season onwards, it passed the best before date practically after the 1st race of the season. Danner's 4th spot in Phoenix though at least saved the car from pre-qualifying allowing Weidler to progress into the final 30 qualifying sessions for the rest of the season. That was when though Schmid's temper reached boiling point, it was clear that for RIAL to maintain a level of competitive respectability, they needed a huge revamp of the current car or a new one altogether but Schmid simply refused to accept this fact and insisted that the team soldier on with the hopelessly uncompetitive ARC2, he even began to have a say in car setups for each race and then blamed his drivers for not qualifying the cars using his setup suggestions, the whole team was now bordering on farcical, never mind the cars.

After the Hungarian GP, it all got too much for chief designer Stefan Fober who left after Schmid demanded he paid an FIA fine out of his own pocket, Weidler was also sacked after one DNQ too many and was replaced by wealthy journeyman Pierre-Henri Raphanel, this did not help matters as he also failed to qualify the car on every outing he had, even the hiring of a new designer (Christian Van Der Pleyn) was a waste of time because the car had fallen so far behind in the development stakes in the first place. After yet another DNQ in Italy, Danner walked out on the team too to be replaced by Gregor Foitek. He lasted only 1 practice session after a massive shunt left the FIA wondering how on earth the ARC2 had managed to pass the crash tests.

Overall the ARC2 proved to be RIAL's downfall as they unsuprisingly shutdown after the 1989 season, their year proved one thing, Conservatism in Formula 1 is a deathwish, keep with the development pace or you will become the laughing stock of the grid.

FORMULA 1: Bourdais fired after consistent poor showings

Ever since Turkey, its been the worst kept secret in Formula 1, but today Toro Rosso confirmed the inevitable that the French driver and multiple Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais got his marching orders from team principal Franz Tost.

And to be honest, in my view, this had been coming for a long time, ever since he was hired to drive for the team for the 2008 season, Bourdais was immediately shunted into the shadows by his more illustrious teammate Sebastian Vettel, thats despite a stunning drive in his very first race in Australia where he was running 4th until problems late on. From then on, apart from just missing out on a podium finish in Belgium, Bourdais was consistently outclassed by both Vettel, then Buemi and even the Force India's and just didnt look at ease or in his proper place in Formula 1. Infact, in qualifying for the German GP, he was nearly 1 and a half seconds adrift at the back of the field behind the next best driver, that really was the final nail in his coffin. Had he come in as expected a few years down the line when he excelled in the old feeder category Formula 3000 instead of trying his luck in America, his prospects may have been more fruitful.

But instead Bourdais goes down in my opinion as one of a select few of F1 failures that had failed to live up to the hype and just goes to show that consistent success in lower and/or equivilent Formulae does not guarantee success at the highest level of them all, Formula 1.

So then where does this leave Toro Rosso's number 11 seat to partner the promising Sebastien Buemi? Well if reports are to be believed, then there is one all but confirmed, the Spanish youngster Jaime Alguersuari, the current British Formula 3 champion who if he gets the drive will beat New Zealander Mike Thackwell's 28 year long record of the youngest ever F1 participant, the former F2 ace was just 19 years and 5 months old when he took to the grid for Tyrrell in Canada 1980. But its not just the young spaniard that has been reported to take the seat.

One of which would cause shock both in F1 and the World Rally Championship, the reigning 5 time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb. A move as such as this would be a world first but he does have circuit experience, he has competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours for a start and has had many F1 tests for the likes of Renault and Red Bull. Another is the Japanese driver Takuma Sato, who has been in the F1 wilderness after the financial demise of the Super Aguri team last year and had tests for Toro Rosso over the winter. The other driver in the frame is Bruno Senna, who was all set to bag a drive with Honda before they made their shock announcement that they would quit the sport.

GERMAN GRAND PRIX: Strewth!!, An Aussie wins

Well it only took 130 races over 8 years stuck in the midfield but finally Mark Webber is a Grand Prix winner. He didnt just win, he destroyed the opposition to win despite suffering a drive-through penalty for dangerous driving at the start. Rubens Barrichello was the big loser as Brawn's 3-stop gamble failed to pay off despite a blistering start from the veteran Brazilian. All this means is that Webber becomes only the 3rd Australian driver to win a Grand Prix, and also the first to do so since Alan Jones won for Williams at Las Vegas in 1981.

An even better starter was Lewis Hamilton who benefitted from a much improved McLaren aerodynamic package to jump up from 5th on the grid to lead into the 1st corner, only for to suffer a puncture which in the end caused him to finish a lap down in 18th and last place, but this weekend at least did signal a return to competitiveness for McLaren. Ferrari also showed their improvement too after a bold fuel strategy from Felipe Massa enabled him to grab 3rd place.

Nico Rosberg though was one of the unsung heroes of the race, starting from way down in 15th place, he nailed his start and thanks to his long first stint on the fuel strategy, he found himself up in 4th place, a position he held until the finish. The young German son of former world champion Keke has now surpassed his best eer season total with 8 races still to run thus showing Williams's continued improvement.

But if anyone needed a good pick me up, it was Adrian Sutil, starting from a career best 7th place, he ran competitively in his Force India and had managed to get himelf up into a net 2nd place before yet another heartbreaking collision with Kimi Raikkonen, the same man that destroyed his points finish dream in Monaco last year.

But the day belonged to Mark Webber who produced a drive of sheer brilliance to score victory despite being penalised for dangerous driving early on, early pacesetter Barrichello though was left to look upon an opportunity missed and went public in his disappointment at his team's strategy afterwards claiming "my team showed the right way to lose a race."

Despite this though, Jenson Button still hols a 21 point lead in the championship.

RACE RATING - 7/10: A breath of fresh air to see an eventful race this season, and also to see one of the most popular winners in living memory.

RACE RESULT - TOP 10

1. Mark Webber - Red Bull ................ 1h 36m 43.310
2. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull ................ + 9.252
3. Felipe Massa - Ferrari ................ + 15.906
4. Nico Rosberg - Williams ................ + 21.099
5. Jenson Button - Brawn ................ + 23.609
6. Rubens Barrichello - Brawn ................ + 24.468
7. Fernando Alonso - Renault ................ + 24.888
8. Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren ............... + 58.692
9. Timo Glock - Toyota ................ + 1m 01.457
10. Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber ................ + 1m 01.925

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS AFTER ROUND 9
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP - TOP 10
1st Jenson Button 68pts, 2nd Sebastian Vettel 47pts, 3rd Mark Webber 45.5pts, 4th Rubens Barrichello 44pts, 5th Felipe Massa 22pts, 6th Jarno Trulli 21.5pts, 7th Nico Rosberg 20.5pts, =8th Timo Glock 13pts, =8th Fernando Alonso 13pts, 10th Kimi Raikkonen 10pts

CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st Brawn Mercedes 112pts, 2nd Red Bull Renault 92.5pts, 3rd Toyota 34.5pts, 4th Ferrari 32pts, 5th Williams Toyota 20.5pts, 6th McLaren Mercedes 14pts, 7th Renault 13pts, 8th BMW Sauber 8pts, 9th Toro Rosso Ferrari 5pts, 10th Force India Mercedes 0pts

RETROSPECTIVE - 1975 Spanish Grand Prix

Formula 1 has had its fair share of controversies and political infighting, especially in recent years with the FOTA threat of a breakaway championship (which thankfully did not materialise) and the infamous FISA/FOCA all out war which culminated in the mass boycott of the San Marino Grand Prix in 1982. But only rarely (especially in todays world) does a race come under threat in the interests of the safety of the drivers. This could not have been more true than in the week leading up to and including the race weekend of the Spanish Grand Prix of 1975. It was a shame that the bitter row that ensued that weekend helped put an end to arguably one of the finest tracks ever to grace a Grand Prix, the street/mountain Montjuich Park circuit near Barcelona. With its sweeping fast turns and terrifying crests negotiated at top speeds putting enourmous stress on car aerodynamics, it was a dangerous track, yet one which provided a challenge drivers relished.

But the focus of the weekend was the pathetic organisation of the whole event, after posts were not embedded properly into the ground and only loosely bolted armco barriers, the circuit was a potential deathtrap, the drivers took this up with the race organisers after conducting a thorough inspection during their traditional walk around the circuit and afterwards called a strike of all the drivers union members which made up over 3 quarters of the 26 car grid. Forced into action, the organisers sent the track marshals to work on the track overnight to fix the problems, to help out, the teams even sent over groups of their mechanics to lend a hand. Unfortunately though the circuit's safety precautions were still not fully completed and the standard of marshalling was also called into question by the drivers too. The drivers union insisted that unless the problems were fully rectified and better trained marshals were brought in from neighbouring circuits, they would refuse to race.

Unfortunately though, instead of heeding to the drivers requests, the organisers decided that the drivers action was a breach of the circuit's contract with the sport's governing body and threatened legal action against all the drivers and teams if no race took place, there were even rumours that General Franco's military police force (the Guardia Civil) would threaten to impound the cars in their makeshift paddock for the same reasons.

Thus blackmailed into racing, the drivers reluctantly agreed to race although 3 drivers recorded ridiculously slow laps in qualifying and withdrew after one lap of the race itself in protest against the race organisers, one of these included Emerson Fittipaldi, the reigning world champion at the time.

STARTING GRID
ROW 1: 1. Niki Lauda (Ferrari), 2. Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari)
ROW 2: 3. James Hunt (Hesketh), 4. Mario Andretti (Parnelli)
ROW 3: 5. Vittorio Brambilla (March), 6. John Watson (Surtees)
ROW 4: 7. Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell), 8. Tom Pryce (Shadow)
ROW 5: 9. Rolf Stommelen (Hill), 10. Jean-Pierre Jarier (Shadow)
ROW 6: 11. Jochen Mass (McLaren), 12. Ronnie Peterson (Lotus)
ROW 7: 13. Jody Scheckter (Tyrrell), 14. Carlos Pace (Brabham)
ROW 8: 15. Carlos Reutemann (Brabham), 16. Jacky Ickx (Lotus)
ROW 9: 17. Mark Donohue (Penske), 18. Tony Brise (Williams)
ROW 10: 19. Roelof Wunderink (Ensign), 20. Alan Jones (Hesketh)
ROW 11: 21. Francois Migault (Hill), 22. Bob Evans (BRM)
ROW 12: 23. Lella Lombardi (March)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WITHDREW: Emerson Fittipaldi (McLaren), Wilson Fittipaldi (Fittipaldi), Arturo Merzario (Williams)

The race began and the further it went on, it descended into a complete farce, like i said 3 drivers withdrew afer just 1 lap in protest leaving 23 cars to battle it out. Polesitter Niki Lauda crashed out at the first corner with Mario Andretti, Regazzoni was also involved in the melee but managed to continue thus handing the lead to James Hunt ahead of Andretti who had managed to keep his car running, Watson, Stommelen, Brambilla and Pace made up the top 6.

Then on lap 4, Jody Schecker suffered a massive engine blowout in his Tyrrell which dumped oil onto an already treacharous circiut, failing to see the marshal's warnings, both Jones and Donohue crashed out on the oil and 2 laps later, the same fate had befallen leader Hunt therefore handing Andretti a shock lead despite his damaged car. John Watson's Surtees dropped down the order after spotting a vibration in one of his tyres and then on lap 16, Andretti crashed out with a broken rear suspension handing Rolf Stommelen the lead who then shared the honours with Carlos Pace producing a decent scrap for 1st place. After lap 18 all the crashes were taking their toll on the field, only 13 cars were running within a respectable race distance of the leaders. The top 6 read Stommelen, Pace, Peterson, Mass, Ickx and Reutemann, Peterson would crash out while trying to lap a backmarker on lap 23 promoting Jarier to 6th place

And then at the beginning of lap 26, disaster struck. As Stommelen went over the crest on the start finish kink, his carbon fibre rear wing strut gave way and the rear wing flew off, after hitting the barrier on the left, he careered over to the right, Pace crashed while trying to avoid Stommelen, then the Germans car leapt over the barrier and into the crowd killing 4 people while Stommelen got out alive with a broken leg, cracked ribs and a broken wrist.

Wierdly (and i hasten to add, Stupidly) despite the presence of the medical crews at the scene of the crash and marshals trying to remove the mountain of wreckage from the circuit, the organisers refused to bring out the safety car, Mass passed Jacky Ickx for the lead on lap 28 before the race was halted just one lap later as race was descending into a farcical deathtrap. Jochen Mass was declared the winner for his first (and what would be only) Grand Prix victory ahead of Jacky Ickx, Carlos Reutemann, Jean-Pierre Jarier and Vittorio Brambilla in 5th, but in 6th place, history was made as Lella Lombardi had survived the mayhem enough to sneak up into 6th place and score the first and only points finish for a female driver, but as the race was called 8 laps short of half distance, half points were awarded.

Despite his win, Jochen Mass was not pleased one bit, on the podium he came close to assaulting the race organisers as they waited to present him with his trophy. After this, Formula 1 never returned to Montjuich Park for a Grand Prix and the race was moved to the safer Jarama track near Madrid. Formula 1 would not return to Barcelona for another 16 years.

RACE RESULT - TOP 10 - AFTER 29 OF 75 LAPS

1. Jochen Mass (McLaren) ................ 42m 53.700
2. Jacky Ickx (Lotus) ................ + 1.100
3. Carlos Reutemann (Brabham) ................ + 1 Lap
4. Jean-Pierre Jarier (Shadow) ................ + 1 Lap
5. Vittorio Brambilla (March) ............... + 1 Lap
6. Lella Lombardi (March) ................ + 2 Laps
7. Tony Brise (Williams) ................ + 2 Laps
8. John Watson (Surtees) ................ + 3 Laps
9. Rolf Stommelen (Hill) ................ + 4 Laps (Crashed out)
10. Carlos Pace (Brabham) ................ + 4 Laps (Crashed out)

THE FORMULA ONE SILLY SEASON 2010

Its that time of year again when team bosses are starting to make plans for next season and with 3 new teams entering the fray, the driver merry-go round is set to be the most frantic it has been for many years.

With the top teams not expected to change much in terms of their driver lineups, there is set to be a few changes further down the order after almost no driver movement in the 2008-09 off season apart from the retirement of Red Bull's David Coulthard allowing Sebastian Vettel to switch from Toro Rosso to Red Bull. All this meant that Sebastien Buemi was the only rookie on the grid for 2009. But with 3 new teams on the grid, the rookie count could rise dramatically as the F1 entry list rises to a guaranteed 26 cars for the first time in 15 years, i'll look at each team and see what driver options they could take up, these are in order of championship position at the moment so ignore the race numbers.

BRAWN GP
1. Jenson Button
2. Rubens Barrichello or Anthony Davidson
With Button leading the way, he will be a driver in demand but after working with the same group of mechanics for nearly 7 years and the fact he took a pay cut to stay with the team formerly known as Honda, its a safe bet to suggest he will be in a Brawn once again in 2010. The 2nd seat though is dependent on the future plans of the popular Rubens Barrichello who if he decides to call it a day will leave a vacant seat with Honda/Super Aguri refugee Anthony Davidson most likely at the top of the Brawn wish list, apart from that, I really cant see any other possibles.

RED BULL
3. Sebastian Vettel
4. Mark Webber
Barring a catastrophic fall out between now and next March, Red Bull's line-up will stay the same.

TOYOTA
5. Jarno Trulli
6. Timo Glock or Kazuki Nakajima or Kamui Kobayashi
The Toyota squad have enjoyed their best start to a season for 4 years and as the phrase goes, "if it aint broke dont fix it." But Toyota have longed to see a home grown Japanese driver get into one of their cars and if that were to happen, it would be Glock's seat most under threat from one of Toyota's young protoges Kazuki Nakajima (now at Williams) and Kamui Kobayashi, the reigning GP2 Asia champion.

FERRARI
7. Felipe Massa
8. Kimi Raikkonen or Fernando Alonso
Massa is not in danger of losing his drive with the Italian legends but if a change were to happen regarding Ferrari's 2nd car, then it would probably be the sensation of the winter, former double champ Fernando Alonso has been sounded out as a possible Ferrari driver ever since he left Renault at the end of 2006, couple that with reported discontent with his current Renault car and Raikkonen's increasing lack of motivation and a move to Ferrari (although being denied continuously) is certainly not a long shot

WILLIAMS
9. Nico Rosberg or Kazuki Nakajima
10. Kazuki Nakajima or Niko Hulkenberg
Williams have had a solid 1st half of 2009 finding themselves in the top 5 with a quick car and in Nico Rosberg, a man in form scoring all of Williams's 17.5 points so far making him well on target to beat his previous seasons best total of 20 points in 2007. Rosberg is nye on guaranteed a seat at Williams in 2010, if he wants it that is. Rosberg has been long yearning to drive a race winning car, he has faith that Williams can produce one, but whether that will be quick enough for his liking is another matter and if a big manufacturer team comes in, ROsberg would seriously consider. If Rosberg were to leave, then Kazuki Nakajima would naturally fill their number 1 drivers slot, Nakajima has no points so far in 2009 but most of that is down to pure bad luck both in strategy and circumstances, like in Turkey when he lost a net 4th place with a faulty wheel nut cover. Also if Rosberg goes, Williams have a ready made replacement waiting in the wings for the 2nd car in the shape of the 2007 A1GP champion and reigning European F3 champion Niko Hulkenberg.

McLAREN MERCEDES
11. Lewis Hamilton
12. Heikki Kovalainen or Nico Rosberg or Pedro de la Rosa or Paul Di Resta
McLaren by their standards have had a rotten year, their worst in 14 years, and all of that stems towards their 2009 car, arguably the worst F1 car ever to roll out of a McLaren factory. This is shadowing over reigning champion Lewis Hamilton's raw talent and shows that even the best can struggle. Hamilton's loyalty to the McLaren team however rules him out of moving on as he i feel has total faith in the team that his 2010 challenger will be a big improvement allowing him to challenge for race wins again. The 2nd seat though is debatable as the team is mulling over whether to keep Heikki Kovalainen or replace him with a more experienced pro-Hamilton incombant Rosberg or one of their line of test/young drivers.

RENAULT
14. Fernando Alonso or Romain Grosjean
15. Romain Grosjean, Nelson Piquet Jr or Lucas di Grassi
Alonso leaving Renault for a 2nd time would be a hammerblow to Flavio Briatore's team, Piquet however is grinding down Briatore's patience at an alarming rate and of all the drivers on the grid is the most likely to find himself out of a drive. So if Alonso leaves, it could be all change at Renault with 2 hard charging GP2 drivers at the top of the list to come in, Romain Grosjean and Lucas di Grassi.

BMW SAUBER
16. Nick Heidfeld
17. Robert Kubica
Despite a poor 2009 so far, the drivers are blameless with reasoning for their poor performance lieing with the teams over-development of their KERS system (which has now been scrapped) and neglecting somewhat their aerodynamic performance. Expect both Kubica and Heidfeld to stay put.

TORO ROSSO
18. Sebastien Buemi
19. Sebastien Bourdais or Jaime Alguersuari or Brendon Hartley
Expect changes here, Buemi has had a solid debut season and without any mishaps should stay on, meanwhile Bourdais has done little to suggest he has improved on his 2008 form, 2 of Red Bull's young program drivers are waiting int he wings should Bourdais be dropped. They are the reigning British F1 champion Jaime Alguersuari of Spain and Australia's Brendon Hartley

FORCE INDIA
20. Giancarlo Fisichella or Vitantonio Liuzzi
21. Adrian Sutil or Vitantonio Liuzzi or Karun Chandhok or Narain Karthikeyan
Force India's driver situation is a lot simpler than most teams, in the perfect world, the experienced Fisichella and the young Sutil have both had solid starts to the season despite scoring 0 points yet but with test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi and 2 of Vijay Mallya's favourites waiting in the wings, the situation could soo change if either or both dont score points.

CAMPOS META
22. Vitaly Petrov or Marc Gene
23. Jaime Alguersuari or Javier Villa
One of the 3 new teams, Adrian Campos has stated he would prefer to have an all Spanish lineup, but considering he has had a long association with the Russian driver Vitaly Petrov, this puts him in the frame for one of the 2 available seats especially considering he also will bring with him valuable russian sponsorship cash. As for a possible Spanish driver, 3 names come to mind, firstly Alguersuari (if he doesn't land an STR drive), then also Javier Villa, an experienced GP2 campaigner and also marc Gene, a man with 10 years of F1 experience, the current Ferrari tester and also a former driver with Campos in the junior formulae.

MANOR
24. Paul Di Resta or Anthony Davidson or Rubens Barrichello
25. Gary Paffett or Adam Carroll or Roberto Merhi
Manor have rumoured to be reconsiderign their F1 entry in light of the change in the budget rules, lets hope its not true as this could be the most interesting entry of them all from a British prospective. It is likely they will follow Capos's ambitions and go for an all patriotic lineup. Paul Di Resta, Anthony Davidson, Gary Paffett or the Irish driver Adam Carroll all come to mind. They could also go foreign too in the shape of a rising stars currently on their books in the F3 Euroseries, Spain's Roberto Merhi.

USF1
26. Graham Rahal or Scott Speed
27. Scott Speed or JR Hildebrand or Jonathan Summerton or Charlie Kimball
The new USF1 squad are likely to want an all American lineup which doesnt give them moch to choose from in terms of good road course drivers. Past experience though could be key which is why Scott Speed is a possibility, the most likely of all though would be the young Graham Rahal.