Preview - San Marino Grand Prix 2002.

This weekend sees the start of the 'European season' in Formula 1, after the 'fly-away' races of Melbourne, Malaysia and Brazil. This weekend the teams will be far more at home as they assemble in the Imola Paddock for the San Marino Grand Prix.

The track has held World Championship events since 1980 when it held the Italian Grand Prix for the one and only time that the race wasn't run in Monza. Since then the circuit has held the San Marino Grand Prix, San Marino being a tiny principality some distance away from the track.

Over the years the track has seen some epic battles but it is a venue that has also seen sadness and incidents. In the late 1980's current BMW Motorsport boss, Gerhard Berger, had a fiery crash at the circuit. Fortunately the Austrian survived. Formula One was not to be so fortunate in 1994. Ruben Barrichello had an horrific accident. Then both Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger lost their lives.

Since then the circuit and Formula One in general has been made far safer and the circuit today is different from the one used in 1994 with the addition of two chicanes. The Imola track is one on the calendar that throws up a unique challenge; that of the Imola kerbs. Basically for a quick lap at Imola the driver has to attack the kerbs. Whilst this might seem simple enough, how well you can attack the kerbs depends a lot on how the car is set up and reacts to being thrown over the kerbing. In is also something that some drivers, initially at least, find a little difficult as it requires some mental reprogramming to get the best of them.

For the teams not only is the weather a bit more familiar, but the European races are better in terms of logistics, as Renault's Pat Symonds explains: ''The start of the European season means it is the first time we get to work with all the equipment and that affects how we operate,'' said Symonds. ''It is significantly easier. We are well set up to work on the fly-aways, but it is much easier with the trucks at the circuit. We can take more equipment and we have one truck dedicated to an engineering office. That allows much better factory communications and a much better working environment, because you don't have an engine starting up in your ear every five minutes!''

But, what's an advantage for one team, is an advantage for all. And so far this season there's been nothing but Schumacher victories. Michael's wins, in two different cars, sandwich Ralf's Malaysian victory. And so the main protagonists in Imola are likely to be Michael Schumacher's Ferrari and the Williams cars.

And what a circuit the Imola is. Though the chicanes mean it's not as much as it was for the drivers, the variety of corners and gradient at the track make for a fun lap. It's the only circuit other than Brazil that is run anti-clockwise. Renault driver Jarno Trulli describes a lap of the circuit:''Approaching the first corner I will be travelling at around 300km/h in top gear and, depending on the wind, this will generally be the fastest part of the circuit.''

''It is very heavy braking into the first chicane and the initial left hand part of it is taken in second gear at just over 120km/h. The right-hand part of the chicane opens out and although I cannot go to full throttle, I do accelerate through it, changing into third gear and taking the second apex at around 170km/h.''

''Straight out of the chicane there is a long left hand curve which is not quite taken flat, so I have to balance the car on the throttle here, apexing in fourth gear at around 235km/h. I reach 285km/h in top gear before braking for the Villeneuve chicane.''

''The first part of this I take in fourth gear at around 205km/h and then, unusually for a chicane, brake again in the middle and drop down to third gear and 150km/h for the right-hander.''

''A very short sprint then leads into the hairpin at Tosa, which is very tight and taken in second gear at just over 90km/h. I need good traction out of this corner as I accelerate up the hill, reaching about 275km/h in fifth gear before entering Piratella, which is a fast swooping corner taken in fourth gear at nearly 180km/h.''

''From here I plunge down the hill reaching 275km/h in fifth before entering Acque Minerale, which is essentially a two-part corner. The first part is taken at around 220km in fourth before braking once again, dropping down to second for the tighter part of it, taken at around 115km/h.''

''Again, I have to accelerate uphill towards the Variante Alta, reaching around 275km/h in fifth before once again dropping down to second gear before taking the chicane at about 150km/h for the right hand part and 125km/h for the left hand part. From here I drop down the hill towards Rivazza at just over 290km/h in top gear, braking very hard on the downhill section and dropping into second gear to take the first left-hander at just over 100km/h and the second one at 120km/h, still in second gear.''

''Leading up to the final chicane I will reach nearly 280km/h in fifth gear before again braking extremely hard for the final second gear chicane which is taken at between 95 and 100 km/h. A good exit from the chicane is on order to cross the line at maximum speed...''

So to the teams: for Ferrari it's goodbye to the F2001, 'last years' car. For the San Marino event both Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello will be using the F2002 car. Though it won on its debut in Brazil, the car did not quite live up to the hype as being dramatically faster than the one it replaces, or than the rest of the field. Could it be that the team has to learn how to set the car up best and get the most from it? Not according to Michael Schumacher: ''You have to look at a car as a complete package. For example, we were very close to the Williams in terms of top speed, making up the power difference through the rear wing, which is one of the strongest components in the new Ferrari. But we must remember that we only won the Interlagos race because the opposition did not get the most out of its machinery, whereas we did.''

That said, Michael is certainly driving exceedingly well at the moment and Ferrari always tries that little bit harder at its home Grand Prix. As for Rubens Barrichello, well he's never going to beat Schumacher, but he will at least have the F2002 to play with. He should produce a solid performance and the Brazilian certainly looking forward to getting his hands on the new machine.

Manufacturers Championship leaders, WilliamsF1, won the race last year with Ralf Schumacher scoring his first victory. Team and driver are looking very good this season and Ralf is certainly talking in bullish terms: ''Michael has won enough in his life. He's my biggest rival for the title. I have to attack him and beat him. I can win the world title, so I'm not going to let him pass me.'' He has recently told BBC Sport Online.

Ralf Schumacher also thinks that he should have been on the top step in Brazil, as he explains: ''To be perfectly honest, I would like to claim a victory that I missed in Brazil. The San Marino track suits me, with lots of fast parts, and of course last season I achieved my first victory there, so there is no reason why we shouldn't be very competitive again. In any case, Ferrari showed at Interlagos that their new car is quicker than the old one, so we must do our best and work hard for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team to be successful in Imola.''

Juan Pablo Montoya, on the other hand, probably thinks that Schumachers full stop have won enough races, and will be gunning for victory for himself. His start to this year has been a little wild however, and if he has another incident with Michael Schumacher at the start of the race, regardless of who is at fault, then heads will be in hands at the WilliamsF1 camp. The Columbian does seem to be talking up being ready to play dirty with Michael Schumacher type tactics. Unfortunately there is only one person who gets away with playing dirty in Formula One, and if Montoya tries it on he could find himself with more than a drive through penalty. A 'drive in movie' penalty perhaps? What would be great for F1 is if Montoya could take the race to Schumacher Snr at beat him on tactics, an acknowledged area of Schumacher and Ferrari expertise. Either way, all eyes are sure to be on the Ferrari and the Williams at the start of the race to see if there are any altercations.

Over at McLaren and team boss Ron Dennis still needs to get the team's act together to be challenging for victories. The cars have been reliable in testing, but unreliable come race day. The thing is, we've seen this before with Adrian Newey designed McLarens. Both drivers are working well. David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen really should be challenging for victories this year, and certainly have had the tyres to do so as Williams has shown.

For Coulthard, he was happy with his third place at Interlagos as it was his first points finish of the year: ''I was pleased to be back on the podium in Brazil for the West McLaren Mercedes team. The result demonstrated that we are moving in the right direction and I am now able to begin my 2002 Championship challenge in earnest.'' As for Kimi, he will be hoping that he does not see a repeat of his 2001 race. Driving for the Sauber team, his steering wheel came off in the middle of the race. Not exactly what you'd want to happen.

At Renault things continue to look good. The troubles of last year seem to have been well and truly ironed out for the car, and in particular driver Jenson Button is looking back on form. Whilst Flavio Briatore will not yet have to book his meal on the moon, the Renault team boss said a Renault victory this year was as likely as him enjoying a meal to a lunar backdrop, the team is likely to be challenging for points once more, with both drivers, and podiums can't be too far off.

Jaguar stand a surprising fifth in the manufacturers championship. This is more due to the woes faced by the other teams rather than due to any greatness of the Jaguar car. Niki Lauda doesn't expect great things from this weekend: ''Imola, however, will be tough. Not only might the cooler weather affect tyre performance, but the low downforce nature of this circuit makes for a bigger challenger than Brazil. We have made some good progress in recent weeks, but there isn't a significant new development on the Jaguar R3 for Imola. It will be a few weeks before we see a noticeable step forward in aero terms and in the meantime, we will continue to extract the best from the package we have. Our windtunnel is now operational and coupled with Ben Agathangelou's arrival from Renault F1 in three weeks time - Jaguar Racing's new Head of Aerodynamics - there is a renewed optimism going into the European rounds. R3's reliability record speaks for itself and from the progress we made in Brazil, it's clear that there's a lot of untapped potential in this package. Our immediate aim, therefore, is to understand how we can extract more pace from the R3 and this is why the arrival of our own windtunnel is so critical towards achieving this goal quickly.'' That said, both Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa will continue to do a good job and will be sure to seize on any other team's misfortune.

Sauber enters its 150th Grand Prix with not such a great start to the season. Massa and Heidfeld have been putting in fair qualifying performances and the car is capable, but there have been too many race incidents for the team thus far in the season. For a team that of late has used 'young guns' at the helm of their cars the team is all too aware of the stresses the circuit can put on the drivers as Willy Rampf - Sauber's Technical Director explains: ''Imola is a power circuit where we run a high percentage of full throttle, but because there are so many slow chicanes it is also very hard on the brakes. That makes setting the car up mechanically even more critical. You need to maximise mechanical grip, traction and braking efficiency, and these days the drivers regularly see peak decelerations in excess of 4G.''

Nick Heidfeld remains cautiously optimistic for the race: ''Imola is a nice track, even with all the chicanes. I like the fact that it is not all flat, but has climbs and downhill sweeps to vary the flow. It's tough to overtake there, and the circuit places big demands on braking, traction and mechanical grip as well as aerodynamics, but I think we will go well there.'' As for Massa, it's one of his favourite circuits, which is always a help for a driver: ''Imola is one of my favourite circuits. I know it really well from my days in the Euroseries F3000 Championship. It's a beautiful track that I really enjoy driving on, so I'm looking forward to challenging strongly for some more points.''

Minardi didn't have too great a time in Brazil, and to be fair, they've probably had their time in the points this year. Mark Webber will once again outshine Alex Yoong, of that you can be certain. The young Yoong is well aware of this however and is working hard to improve, with particular focus on his fitness. In his own words ''So although Mark has been quicker so far, I do see a light at the end of the tunnel and am very motivated to get there. My engineer, has a lot of experience and with that knowledge we are learning what needs to be done to get me more competitive. It's been good that he and I are getting along fine and that we are working well together to get me quicker and more consistent.'' And for the team it's their shortest journey of the year as they are based just 20 minutes away meaning that there's no call for them to make use of team boss Paul Stoddart's Jumbo jets for this race.

Toyota will be looking to continue its reliable run this year. The team is still surprised to be doing so well relative to the far more experienced players, though this arguably has more to do with the difficulties faced by some of the other teams rather than the speed of the Toyota F1 car.

As team boss Ove Andersson elaborates: ''I could not believe we again finished in the points in Brazil. The team really deserved that result for their hard work. I think everyone at Panasonic Toyota Racing is very pleased with the general reliability of the car, but we are still long way away from finishing in the top ten without the cars ahead of us dropping out. Our windtunnel in Cologne is now up-and-running, producing parts. We have made some aerodynamic changes for this weekend's race, so we shall see what that brings.''

Driver Allan McNish has never raced at the circuit, but did at least test there last year with the developmental Toyota F1 car. Lead driver, Mika Salo is looking forward to the race and reception he will receive from the Italian fans who remember the fine stand-in performance he did for a broken-legged Michael Schumacher in 1999. Salo notes: ''After Brazil we have reason to be confident and I hope we can get the same sort of result this weekend. I enjoy racing at Imola and I finished top six there in 2000. We have made some modifications to the car, particularly with the aerodynamics. Allan had a good test in Imola with the team last year, so we will not arrive completely blind. I'm looking forward to it.''

Jordan and BAR will be wondering 'what if' the latest evolution of their Honda engine will produce sufficient power to propel them towards the front end of the grid. Things have not looked good for either team this year, and Fisichella, Sato, Panis and Villenueve have yet to score any points.

Many are reasoning that the cause of the Jordan and BAR poor performance this year is the Honda powerplant. New spec for this weekend but even Honda themselves aren't expecting too much from it, as Shuhei Nakamoto - Race and Test Team Manager, Honda Racing Development - explains: ''Although we've had a tough start to the season we're determined to keep fighting. We're introducing a new evolution of the engine for Imola, which, although it isn't a huge step, is a definite step in the right direction. Our aim is to produce the best engine in Formula One and ultimately win the world championship and I am confident that we are taking the first steps to achieve our goal.'' Long term goals there, and surely it's a bit late in the day for Honda to be taking its first steps?

Another team that has yet to open its points account this year is the Arrows concern. All they need is a touch of reliability and the team with either Heinz Harald Frentzen or Enrique Bernoldi could well put on a good show. Heinz-Harald Frentzen is pleased to be returning to Europe and enjoys the circuit and its atmosphere. He said: ''I'm looking forward to the start of the European season and Imola is a great place for it to start. The track is pretty special with some big braking areas and that gives us a new set of challenges. It is a strategic track and it should suit us well. I enjoy racing there, especially as the tremendous enthusiasm of the Italian fans makes for a great atmosphere.''

Tyre wise, last year Michelin took the victory in its debut season and this clearly riled the Japanese Bridgestone concern. Much time and effort has been expended so that the manufacturer does not see a repeat of this. Hisao Suganuma, technical manager of Bridgestone Motorsport, explains: ''We are aiming to keep the momentum going at Imola, not least so that we can put the 2001 race behind us. Even though we had five cars in the top six last year, the tyres we offered for the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix did not perform as well as we expected so we have spent a lot of time analysing their performance to identify why that was the case. In short, the soft specification was too soft and the hard was too hard. We have also looked more closely at the characteristics of the track - the surface, the types of corners and the level of speed - and from that developed a compound and construction that we believe is targeted just right.''

Equally, over at Michelin, Pierre Dupasquier has also been busy: ''The start of the season has shown clearly that Michelin hasn't been idle at Clermont-Ferrand during the winter months. The compounds and constructions we will use at Imola are markedly different to those we ran in Brazil and incorporate a blend of new ideas and elements of what we have learned in the past. Michelin and its partner teams will have to reacclimatise to using this kind of tyre, but we have time on our side.''

With both tyre teams working so hard and Williams and Ferrari both looking so good it's sure to be a good race. Tips for the race? Watch to see what Montoya does, but on current form Ralf looks to be the leading Williams contender. Equally it cannot be underestimated that although the race is designated the 'San Marino' Grand Prix, it is undoubtedly located in Italy. So watch out for Ferrari. All said, victory will probably go to Schumacher. One of them at least.