World Champions, Again
Japanese Grand Prix, October 12, 2003

By Erik Nielsen
Photos Courtesy of Ferrari Media

When the numbers were all run Sunday afternoon, Michael Schumacher won his record setting 6th Drivers’ Championship. And, with Rubens Barrichello winning the race outright, Ferrari scored another Manufacturers’ Championship, making it five in a row.

Kimi Räikkönen was the only threat this weekend to Schumacher and needed to win the race to have a shot at the title. Try as he did, the weekend did not go his way and he was unable to perform when he had to. His two stop strategy didn’t play out and the runner up slot was not enough to win either the race or the championship.

Rubens Barrichello lead at the start, but was soon passed by Juan Pablo Montoya. The Columbian’s day only lasted 10 laps before the hydraulics in his BMW-Williams decided that they’d had enough. Rubens then drove like a man on a mission, one to save his job.

Michael Schumacher’s race, on the other hand, will be remembered more for the “just enough” performance of the weekend, so untypical of his racing style this year. The German started the race in 14th place and managed to hit Takumo Sato in front of the Japanese’s home crowd and needed to come in for a new wing. Starting dead last, he then led a charge that would eventually net him a single point for 8th place, but not without some drama. Ralf managed to scare all of the tifosi by spinning while challenging his older brother and almost took him out in the process. That last point was enough to cover the championship even if Kimi won the race.

Ross Brawn summed up his feelings on the race with “this was a very tough race, especially with so much at stake. Rubens did a fantastic job at the front, but we wanted to get Michael in the points just to be sure. It was very exciting. That early incident made life more difficult for us but we knew we still had a chance. We had a recovery strategy which worked okay. We did not catch Ralf at the second stop, as he took on less fuel than we did, but we managed to get him at the third one. It was very close and tough today. I think I am getting too old for all this excitement! But you always know with Michael that you have a chance.” The last line only rubbed it in with the other teams.

David Coulthard was on the last step of the podium in a race where he was faster than his much younger teammate. But, because the championship was at stake he had to settle for being behind the Flying Finn. Despite this final 2-3 finish, the silver arrows did not collect enough points during the rest of the season and ended up 3rd in the Constructor’s Championship.

The 4th place of Jenson Button, who lead the race, albeit briefly, and 6th place of Sato-san was enough to allow BAR to finish ahead of the rest of the also-rans this season. While that might not mean much to most of us, when the TV money is divvied up next season, guess who’s going to get a bigger piece of the pie?

Jarno Trulli finished a solid 5th during this last race of the season in his Renault. While not as successful as his teammate this year, at least he finished the last race and wasn’t let down by an engine failure.

Minardi hit par for the course. No points this race. No points all season. Are these guys the next Prost or Arrows?

With all of the rule changes, the FIA got their wish, a much closer championship result. But if you go back and look at all of the season, there still wasn’t much passing, only a couple of teams won consistently, and Jaguar still sucks. No wonder TV viewership is down. Maybe Bernie’s bet on Asia will increase ratings. But only if he can keep the audience he has rather than try to get new eyes on the set will it continue to grow. Unfortunately, the feeling is the business side of the sport is already recognizing that non-tobacco money expects more than just a moving billboard. Maybe Schumie’s record setting year was the high water mark for the sport. For the true fans, let’s hope not.