By Huw Alban
May 7 2002

Austria 2001, was a glorious race for the OrangeArrows team because the team scored (it's only) World Championship points. Jos Verstappen stormed through the field at the start of the race moving up as high as 2nd, to eventually finish 6th. Can 2002 be just as good ? The team struggled throughout the free practice sessions and in the pre-race warm up last year, spending a great deal of time at the back end of the mid-field. Both Enrique Bernoldi and then team mate Jos Verstappen made fantastic starts (helped a little by cars stranded on the grid due to launch control problems), to finish lap 1 in 11th and 7th places. Jos Verstappen made rapid progress through the pack to eventually cruise up behind the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello running in 4th.

A series of retirements and incidents promoted the Dutchman to second position over the next few laps, bringing him out in 7th after his first pit stop. His second stop, running in 5th, brought him out in 8th which became 6th after other competitors made their second stops. Despite late race pressure from the Jaguar of Eddie Irvine, Jos held it together answering the Irishman's challenge to bring the car home in 6th place. Unfortunately it jubilation from this result was short lived as it was to be the team's only championship scoring finish of the 2001 season.

Playing this track on a personal computer reveals it to be a very fast circuit with some challenging sweeping corners. The first corner will be interesting, especially at the start, as it is a tight right hander with only enough room for a couple of cars. The rest of the circuit is pretty straight forward, apart from the last corner but one which is approached downhill and is blind such that you cannot see it until you're right on top of it. I found on the PC games that the back end of my 'play' cars skipped around like fury through that corner - and if you took it a little too tight then you'd find yourself skipping through the gravel trap in a flash.

OrangeArrows should do well here. The Cosworth engine certainly has the grunt, and the team should be in possesion of the upgraded unit used during the Spanish qualifying session. This years car also has much better downforce, and assuming a good setup can be found should be suited to the mix of corners. A question mark still resides over reliability, but the last test at Silverstone went well without any major problems so hopefully progress is being made here.

First practice in Austria gets under way this Friday at 10:00 UK time.