The Craziest Australian Grand Prix Ever

[Music] it's March 2002 the opening round of that Year's Formula One World Championship we're in Melbourne Australia and we're smack bang in the middle of the period of time where Ferrari and Michael Schumacher dominated the sport where shimmy would qualify on or near the pole position take the lead by turn one and Lead all of us to question what the hell we were going to do for the next two hours provided this car didn't blow up and with rumors that their new car the f-2002 was to be even faster this year it left the opposition shaking like a dog crapping acorns but for the first couple rounds at least they'd be using last year's car so the opposition might still be a factor at that time the two closest teams to Ferrari were Williams and McLaren saying that sentence in 2023 defies any modicum of belief but eh these were different times they were good times both teams had equally potent combinations McLaren had David Coulthard fast and reliable enough provided as Machinery didn't hang them out to dry and in the other sea was Kimi raikkonen in his second year of Formula One and promoted quite quickly after proving what he could do in a Sauber during his debut last year they were the only team carrying Mercedes-Benz engines back then and it had been a happy marriage whilst they were together but when it comes to engines Williams had BMW maybe the fastest engines formula one had aside from maybe Honda and whatever was used to power Alan Jones's mouth that team's drivers were Michael Schumacher's boxheaded brother Ralph who was a plenty decent driver and the other was the formidable one Pablo Montoya he may not have won a Formula One World Championship but don't be fooled people don't be fooled other interesting things heading into the season well there were some Alan Pros team failed to make the grid after running out of money and French support which at this stage Elan was kind of getting used to at least his cars weren't burned outside his house this time but there were still plenty of teams left on that grid with a few of them giving some drivers their debuts salberg gave Felipe Massa a shot the newly formed Toyota team brought in Alan mcniche Jordan who was starting to run out of coin gave to kumasato his chance but the one that everyone had eyes for in Melbourne was the local boy Mark Weber he had a more than decent Junior career and was the first F1 driver from Australia since David brabham in 1994. despite the Euphoria surrounding his debut the fact was this he was driving a minadi a team that had permanent residency on the last row of the grid it was a very bad car and the team didn't even have the resources to fight the food truck parked out back never mind Ferrari who once again took out the front row in qualifying in fact that qualifying session seemed a tad ominous even if qualifying was slightly different back then but hey anything can happen in Formula One and it usually does for example both of the arrows cars decided to lose all their electricity Before the Race even began which for a team desperately in need of cash and results was not so helpful they pushed their cars back to the pits and even had a crew member stranded on the grid as the cars were about to queue up for the start the Ferraris may have been up front but Ralph Schumacher was in a good position he got a good jump filed pastor's brother and was flying literally that was a big crash but while Ralph and Rubens were busy conducting flying lessons between each other the pack behind them decided to one-up their crash by destroying each other something about these pictures seems decidedly unhealthy along with Ralph and Rubens fizzy Keller was out as was Masa and heidfelt and button and panus and mcneesh couple that with the two arrows dumping the electricity on the grid that meant that almost half the grid was dead before the second corner it meant that the Jaguars who qualified at the very back were now up to P5 and P6 the minades were up there too David culthood was leading the race Michael Schumacher was down and fourth reichen then dropped his keys in the foot weld just chaos Insanity Madness When The War Zone was cleared up and the race got underway it was cool thought leading from Jano trilli Montoya and Michael Schumacher Eddie Irvine and the Jaguar clearly had his mind set on his yacht and left a 10 000 mile Gap to the pack ahead not that it would have really mattered much them Jaguars were slower than a sloth and mutt the real battle was up ahead with truly Montoya and Schumacher well make that just truly in Schumacher that may have been an easy pass for Schumacher but he was now faced with the task of having to pass truly which was by no means an easy feat throughout his career Jano truly gained a reputation of Performing what would be known as the truly trained he beat the crap out of everyone in qualifying setting down some awe-inspiring laps but come race day he couldn't cope speedwise held everyone up and formed a train of cars behind him creating one complete ribbon of hell for all those foolhardy enough not to qualify well shumi may have been a four-time world champion at this point but this seemed to step too far for any mortal human being no matter how close he got no matter how much faster he wants no matter how much Ferrari meant to Italy Jano truly didn't care he really was the first Italian born to put the pride of Italia in second place for now he wanted the dark and this worked well until trilly encountered his biggest enemy himself what made this crash more impressive was that back then these cars had traction control you can't even be mad at that point especially given it was later revealed that he had spun on some oil not too much he really could have done about that someone who would have been mad apart from the sleep deprived random mechanics would have been David Coulthard he pulled out a seven second Gap but because the safety car came out all that was obliterated punching the field right at wait what the hell why is the arrows of Enrique bernaldi out there in the spare car he's not allowed out there sure enough it didn't take long for the stewards to figure that out he was disqualified from the race leaving the fate of the arrows team in Heinz Harold franson's hands but he was disqualified earlier after passing a red light at the end of the pit Lane he might have felt stupid but it was nothing compared to coolthard who took an unscheduled lawnmower Adventure Before the Race got back underway again he fell down the order and now Montoya was all over the back of Schumacher heading down into turn one he takes him on the outside beautiful move granted that BMW engine was a freaking rocket but still this was but a Slither of why people loved Montoya in Formula One it was similar to what he did in Brazil the year prior the dude was musted Montoya was now leading Schumacher's second and Irvine in their god-awful Jaguar was third for about 13 seconds before the McLaren of Kimi raikkonen scythed on through Iceman wanting to prove to the world why he was a worthy successor Tamika hakanan that he can be the next Finnish Formula One World Champion up front the battle went on Montoya versus Schumacher to insanely talented drivers going at it hammer and tongs Montoya had talent and a BMW engine behind him but shumi had a bit more than that the Ferrari had more downforce but also he was clever cunning and sometimes a little bit too aggressive he knew he had to get past Montoya partially because he wanted the win but also because the McLarens were getting closer and closer and closer on lap 17 he performed the Switchback and passed Montoya for the lead this was racing but it presented a little bit of a problem Michael Schumacher was now leading the race with a fast car ah crap that's it game over behind him sato's race was over due to Eddie Jordan spinning 30p on Alex was still mowing lawns although that was more down to his gearbox going on strike and jacquesville nerve's rear wing vacated the car and gave him quite a sizable crash and what all of this meant was that in fifth place was Hometown boy Mark Webber driving a minadi he was running in the points an impossibility even if they were the only cars running in the race yet here he was potentially getting points on debut in the worst car on that grid and after 33 laps coulthard's gearbox finally had enough and was vindictive even in death breaking down on the most awkward part of the racetrack making DC the most miserable Scotsman in the entire world the gargling gearbox in their mclarry was music to the ears of Mark Webber as he came in for his pit stop it was exactly what he needed what he would not need is say a 30 second pitstock which would delay him and potentially throw him down the order luckily he didn't get that it was a 35 second Pit Stop issues with the fuel filter cap meant he was thrown into the clutches of his teammate Alex Jung but he wouldn't be the threats instead mikasala in the Toyota started to Reign him in and there were still 20 laps to go up the front shimmy just put in lap after lap and just drew away from everyone else same old a trend that would be oh so familiar to anyone watching Formula One in the early 2000s not that I'm complaining about it but it did basically mean that the race was now for second Montoya or raikkonen both of whom were being trounced in lap time by Pedro De la Rosa and the other Jaguar who was five laps down why exactly the greatest driver never to be considered great was in the scenario was beyond anyone's comprehension although he was way down on the cars ahead of him he was effectively stuck where he was and with Schumacher a mile ahead and the Montoya riking and battle stabilizing the cameras began to focus on the driver in fifth foreign with a handful of laps to go Mark Webber was holding position but only just his traction control was trying to run away from him and he had lost seventh gear that made his worst car on the grit even worse and back in these times points were only dished out to the top six drivers and despite the fact that manadi were a team that thought points only existed in fairy tales they knew they had to make this count because every Point matters if Weber got two points instead of one it could potentially rake in 25 million dollars in prize money at the end of the year and maybe make this team live to see another day so team owner Paul Studdard who was also an Aussie said to Weber in no uncertain terms do not let him pass the him he was referring to was mikasalo who was drawing closer and closer until eventually with three laps to go he was right on him Martin brundle reckons it was game over and I think everyone else did too Weber however decided Nar mate not happening he defended with all his mice but it really did seem the resistance was used two laps to go Salah spun the crowd rejoiced those their tracks I'd say that it was the one time that the crowd was louder than those deafening V10 engines up the front Schumacher took another Victory to start off the season Montoya was second raikkonen was third Irvine somehow got his Jaguar into a place that had no right to be in and sometime after they crossed the line came Weber Advance Australia fear you've done it boy fear Dinkum although it must be said Salo got Mighty close to whip before he crossed the line all that gesturing and celebrating almost pulled off a Bjorn vertim dare but who cares the worst car on the grid got points two points maybe but two crucial points at that and it was just a great performance from a rookie who had the weight of the world on his shoulders well it kind of seemed that way the occasion was such that Weber and Studdard had an impromptu Podium celebration after the race which they would be fine 50 000 Euros for but everyone knew that the hassle was worth it the whole moment was worth it people were scaling to catch fences to celebrate what was a great day in Aussie Motorsport and it all came after attrition disqualification Madness Brilliance and resistance against a Panasonic billboard this was the craziest Australian Grand Prix ever but it was also one of the very best foreign [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 268,589

Keywords: f1, formula 1, f1 2002, formula 1 2002, australian grand prix, australian gp, 2002 australian grand prix, 2002 australian gp, mark webber, mark webber debut, webber debut, webber minardi, mark webber minardi, minardi points, mark webber first race

Id: OJmSiF4FY4c

Length: 12min 7sec (727 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 30 2023