Motor Sport/French Grand Prix: Enter, stage left, with a lean and increasingly hungry look, Williams-BMW, writes Justin Hynes at Magny-Cours.
In just seven short days, a Formula One championship that was shaping into a duel between the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher and the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen has been riven by a seismic shift in the balance of power as Williams' Ralf Schumacher, derided less than a month ago in Canada as a makeweight who lacks the aggression to take the fight to his title-holding brother, hushed his critics with a flashing brace of wins, the latest coming at yesterday's French Grand Prix.
Add to that consecutive second places for his team-mate, Juan Pablo Montoya, and a Williams team that looked to have run out of ideas are suddenly the brightest students in the paddock, mastering the intricacies of aerodynamics, mechanical manipulation and the dark art of getting the best from their increasingly superior Michelin tyres.
In the opening phases of this year's title dogfight, the Williams FW25 looked out of synch and out of date in comparison with the juggernaut progress being made by Ferrari.
Ralf Schumacher and Montoya huffed and puffed through the season's opening events. And despite Ralf claiming points at each grand prix, the head scratching went on. The commitment of the drivers was questioned, the chassis was harshly criticised by engine supplier BMW, and at the team's factory, feverish nights poring over data yielded nothing.
Yet, technical boss Patrick Head continued to utter the same mantra: the team merely needed to understand what was fundamentally a very competitive design.
And three weeks ago, with Ralf's second place and Montoya's third place in Montreal, the turnaround began.
Yesterday, in Magny-Cours, the FW25 became a rounded adult, a creation capable of taking on the very best, and perhaps even possessing attributes good enough to win the whole damn thing.
After a start in which Ralf Schumacher and Montoya held the front row spots they had comprehensively locked out on Saturday, the following 60 laps had a faintly academic air. The question was not would the Ferraris catch them, for the Scuderia had struggled all weekend with uncompetitive Bridgestone tyres, but whether the Williams pair could last the distance.
However, despite a problematic early season for the BMW-powered team, reliability has been the one issue over which Frank Williams has not had to furrow his brow. Twenty starts and just two non-finishes, both to Montoya, and one, only one, a mechanical problem, the Colombian's engine blowing in Austria in May (a spin in the wet in accounted for Montoya in Brazil) attest to the package's constancy.
So, with few concerns over durability, Ralf Schumacher's progress to a lights-to-flag victory at the Circuit de Nevers yesterday was simply a case of steering away from error and scrambling through his three pit stops with no calamities.
The only hint of danger came from his own team-mate, Montoya surging forward in second as the younger Schumacher got caught in traffic on the way to his third stop. A knife-edge moment when Ralf exited the pits quickly translated into a return to the status quo of the previous 51 laps as the German held his head and skipped away.
The Colombian denied he had then been told to back off to protect the result and suggested his team-mate was on fresh tyres and he had completed a full lap on his recently taken on rubber. It was a feeble excuse, however, and the suspicion lingers that Montoya was forbidden from pressing his team-mate.
Whatever. The result propels Williams into the heart of the championship struggle.
Next up is Silverstone. Yesterday, the Williams drivers shrugged and admitted they saw no reason why they shouldn't be competitive at the British Grand Prix. But those were snap, party line answers. There's the weather, the tyres, the infinitesimal movement of a thousand variables.
Like the chaos theory that determines the wingbeat of a butterfly in China can cause hurricane-force ripples on the other side of the world, this season's race for the drivers' and constructors' title has been ruled by the arcane, the unpredictable, the music of chance.
This weekend, Williams, BMW, Michelin and the soloists Schumacher and Montoya offered a virtuoso performance. The tune can change in a wingbeat.
For Jordan, it was another disastrous afternoon. After qualifying marginally ahead of the two Minardis on Saturday, Giancarlo Fisichella was forced out of the race yesterday with an engine failure on lap 46. Ralph Firman was left to save Jordan honour by bringing his EJ13 home 15th and second last, sandwiched between the Minardis of Justin Wilson and last man home, Jos Verstappen.
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How they finished:
1 R Schumacher (Ger) Williams ... one hour 30 minutes 49.213 seconds.
2 JP Montoya (Col) Williams ... 1:31:03.026
3 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari ... 1:31:08.781
4 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren ... 1:31:27.260
5 D Coulthard (Bri) McLaren ... 1:31:29.502
6 M Webber (Aus) Jaguar ... 1:31:55.593
7 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari ... one lap
8 O Panis (Fra) Toyota ... 1 lap
9 J Villeneuve (Can) BAR 1 lap; 10 A Pizzonia (Bra) Jaguar 1 lap; 11 C da Matta (Bra) Toyota 1 lap; 12 H-H Frentzen (Ger) Sauber 2 laps; 13 N Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber 2 laps; 14 J Wilson (Bri) Minardi 3 laps; 15 R Firman (Bri) Jordan 3 laps; 16 J Verstappen (Neth) Minardi 4 laps. Did not finish: J Trulli (Ita) Renault 45 laps completed; F Alonso (Spn) Renault 43; G Fisichella (Ita) Jordan 42; J Button (Bri) BAR 21.
Drivers Standings: 1 MSchumacher (Ger) Ferrari 64pts, 2 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren Mercedes 56, 3 R Schumacher (Ger) Williams-BMW 53, 4 J Montoya (Col) Williams-BMW 47, 5 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 39, 6 F Alonso (Spa) Renault 39, 7 D Coulthard (Br) McLaren Mercedes 29, 8 J Trulli (Ita) Renault 13, 9 M Webber (Aus) Jaguar 12, 10 G Fisichella (Ita) Jordan 10, 11 J Button (Br) BAR-Honda 10, 12 H-H Frentzen (Ger) Sauber 7, 13 J Villeneuve (Can) BAR-Honda 3, 14 C Da Matta (Bra) Toyota 3, 15 O Panis (Fra) Toyota 2, 16 N Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber 2, 17 R Firman (Br) Jordan 1.
Manufacturers' Championship: 1 Ferrari 103pts, 2 Williams-BMW 100, 3 McLaren Mercedes 85, 4 Renault 52, 5 BAR-Honda 13, 6 Jaguar 12, 7 Jordan 11, 8 Sauber 9, 9 Toyota 5, 10 Minardi 0.
