S7 E10: Australia 2002 - Start chaos and Webber's Minardi heroics
Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories
The Race Media Ltd
4.9 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2023
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The 2002 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne proved a race of dramatically contrasting fortunes for the Schumacher brothers, with Ralf suffering a spectacular first lap retirement and Michael proving a year-old car was no barrier to success.
Edd Straw and Ben Anderson join host Glenn Freeman to pick over the details of a classic race, which featured one of the most iconic first-lap crashes in F1, a somewhat unexpected victory for Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, and home hero Mark Webber’s unforgettable debut drive to fifth for minnows Minardi.
A host of other big stories that were doing the rounds in F1 at the time are also discussed, including one outfit’s attempts to get onto the grid with assets from the defunct Prost team, and why Ferrari chose to bring their old car to the season-opener rather than their brand-new one.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.7 | 2002 is remembered as one of the most dominant seasons of the peak Michael Schumacher Ferrari era |
| 0:16.6 | and to many that also means its recorders are not very entertaining or memorable year. |
| 0:21.3 | But it was a season that got off to an explosive start in Australia, |
| 0:25.1 | with one of the biggest and most iconic first corner crashes in F1 history, |
| 0:29.8 | taking place just seconds into the new season. |
| 0:33.0 | That set the scene for a race of attrition where home hero Mark Weber |
| 0:36.4 | scored points on his F1 |
| 0:38.2 | debut, driving for the unfancied and by this time Australian-owned Minardi team. Meanwhile, |
| 0:44.7 | at the front, Ferrari and Michael Schumacher came through all of the madness to take an ominous |
| 0:50.4 | victory, comfortably defeating everyone despite not even bringing their new car to the first race of the year. |
| 0:56.7 | I'm Glenn Freeman and joining me for the final regular episode of this series of Bring Back V-Tens of Ben Anderson and Ed Straw. |
| 1:04.0 | Ben, you can have the opening question first. |
| 1:06.5 | When you think at a 2002 Australian Grand Prix, what's the first thing that comes to mind? |
| 1:12.1 | It has to be the shunt and particularly some infamous still images of Ralph Schumacher's |
| 1:18.2 | Williams and seeing the bottom of it as it flies over Rubens Barakale's Ferrari. I remember |
| 1:23.5 | thinking the start of that season, not another, not another Ferrari Schumack a year. |
| 1:30.9 | And for Barrakele to be on pole, I was thinking, |
| 1:33.5 | okay, yeah, this might be exciting. |
| 1:35.3 | And then, of course, you know, |
| 1:36.9 | Ferrari getting wiped out at the first corner of Melbourne. |
| 1:39.2 | Normally, that would be a course for celebration, |
... |
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