Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 19

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The State of the Paddock: The 2000 Preseason

Welcome back to The Tyrell Challenge, where we enter Y2K on a very high note. Last season, it was a long series of Top 10 finishes, constant stream of points and even a front row lockout to close out the season. Now, some of the fantastic results were circumstantial, but fantastic results are fantastic no matter how you put them, specially for a team that was a backmarker team in 1998.

Those results are in the past, however, it is the 2000 Season and many things have changed, even if a little bit. Lineups have adjusted, so have the team department managers and, more importantly, the performance rating of every car. We have a lot of information to cover, but first, let's enter the 2000 season proper.


I don't know, but we'll try our best.

The Team Lineups

Nice to see all of you guys again. Maybe you don't see anything different. Let me point out the difference in terms of changes:

  • Olivier Panis: Arrows Driver 2 in 1999, Williams Test Driver in 2000
  • Luca Badoer: Williams Test Driver in 1999, Ferrari Test Driver in 2000
  • Jorg Muller: Arrows Test Driver in 1999, Arrows Driver 2 in 2000
  • Ricardo Zonta: Ferrari Test Driver in 1999, out of F1 (Probably back to FIA GT)

Not much change. Jorg Muller did enough to impress after replacing Panis for about half the year. Of course, he was stacked up against the underperforming Johnny Herbert. We'll see if he can channel that same energy this year.

Due to my meddling, both Ricardo Zonta and Marc Gene have long term deals with "No Team". We'll just assume they have lucrative deals on other categories and won't come back to F1 for a while (Please assume with me). I'll also use their contract to simulate The Michael and The Mika's contracts with their teams.

Once again, Ferrari probably have the best lineup on the paddock. Last time, I thought that lineup wouldn't work, but it clearly did. Ferrari have their priorities set correctly. Next best lineup is arguably Williams. However, last year their car was horrible, so they couldn't fight for anything. McLaren are interesting in that their Test Driver is arguably better than their Driver 2. 

As for Tyrell, not much change. This will be Takagi's final year on the team. I'd like to do something nice for him for these 2 years of work. We'll deal with the driver rating changes in the final section. 

The Team Head Personnel

Let's go left to right. We have one of the best Commercial Managers, and then a bunch of average Department Managers. From this table, we can know which teams will be good in 2001. The Technical Director and Chief Designer, in that order, influence the performance level of next year's car. 

I can tell you Stewart will probably be very, very bad next year. Prost, courtesy of Lord Newey, will improve drasticall. Ferrari might start trailing off and McLaren might climb. Us ... well ... we'll start the 2000 and 2001 seasons with mid cars. The deals of Postlethwaite and Gascoyne are over this year. I'll be looking around to sign better people.

The Mechanics department is ... I wouldn't worry too much about them, though I'll still look to improve there.

The Team Entry List and Main Sponsors

First, Arrows is running Hart engines, but at this point in time (in real life), Arrows OWNS Hart, so I'll just call the engines "Arrows" engines. And of course, no need to put the name of your engine supplier if YOU are your engine supplier.

Second ... these names! Galoisses McLaren, Red Bull Tyrell (the most ironic knowing what Tyrell is right now), Avex Sauber, B&H Williams and Winfield Jordan. And, of course, Scurderia Ferrari Marlboro Ford.

OK, let's take a deeper look. First, engines. Minardi decided to follow us to the Mugen-Honda camp. Ferrari Ford is amusing. Prost is back to Peugeot power, but they don't get their Works deal back. Mecachrome/SuperTec is yet to comeback to F1.

Now, the Tires ... I'm ... concerned. 7 Bridgestone teams, including last year's title contenders + Benetton v 4 Goodyear teams, all potential midfielders and backmarkers + Tyrell. Let's just say I'm considering jumping ship to Bridgestone.

Not much to say in regards to Fuel, other than the fact that we use the same Fuel mixture as Ferrari does.

The Suppliers

Fuel


The changes compared to the start of last year.
  • Agip: +1 Engine Tolerance
  • Elf: -2 Engine Tolerance (Not as Planned™)
  • Mobil 1: -2 Engine Tolerance
  • Petrobras: -2 Performance, -2 Engine Tolerance
  • Repsol: -4 Engine Tolerance (Geez)
  • Shell: No Changes
  • Texaco: No Changes
  • Total: No Changes
Of course, Elf regresses when I expected them not to. No one is using Petrobras fuel. Jordan is using Repsol fuel, Arrows is using Texaco fuel. Expect at least one DNF from either Jordan or Arrows on every race.

Tires


The changes compared to the most updated 1999 tire spec.

Bridgestone

  • Hard: +1 Grip, +1 Stiffness, +1 Temperature
  • Soft: Max Resistance, +1 Stiffness, +2 Temperature
  • Inter: +1 Grip, +1 Resilience, +1 Stiffness
  • Wet: +1 Grip, +1 Temperature

Goodyear

  • Hard: +1 Grip, +1 Resilience, +1 Stiffness
  • Soft: +1 Grip, +1 Resistance, +1 Stiffness, +1 Temperature
  • Inter: +1 Stiffness, +1 Temperature
  • Wet: +1 Resilience, +1 Stiffness, +1 Temperature

Now that I look at this ... the tire balance is shifting. The Hards are quite even. The Bridgestones are more durable, the Goodyears are more heat resistant. Advantage None.

The Softs are more clear. Max Grip and Resilience on the Bridgestones makes this obvious. Advantage Bridgestone.

Goodyear's wet weather dominance continues. On the Inters, the Bridgestones are stiffer and heat resistant, the Goodyears outright have more grip. It'd say Advantage Goodyear, since Grip is the most important rating.

As for the Wet tires, Goodyears have more Grip, Bridgestones are considerably more heat resistant and are stiffer as well. Advantage Bridgestone ... arguably.

I have to really think through which supplier we'll try to sign for next year.

And now, the one you were probably expecting ...

Engines

Since the FIA called for a No Change, the engine suppliers will be taking the best engines they (THEY, important note) developed last year. To summarize

  • Mercedes, in my eyes, has the 2nd best engine on the grid. Max power, great reliability, lightweight and can be pushed without the engine vibrating to death or trying to kill the driver. The main issue? It overheats way too easily, so you can't push it during the race too much.
  • Ferrari has the best engine, outright. Not by far, but it is better than the Mercedes. You can't push it as aggressively as the Merc, but it is lighter, has a better cooling system all with the same power output as the Merc. Only Sauber is using this beast, so they can evolve that engine without worrying about anyone taking advantage of the upgrades.
  • Peugeot's engine is ... interesting, probably the 3rd best. Fuel efficiency and Weight are a concern. Reliability is borderline perfect, the cooling system IS perfect, and the power output is surprisingly good. I wouldn't mind running that thing.


  • Mugen-Honda ... could be worse. Very fuel efficient, great cooling system, very lightweight and can be somewhat pushed. However, it is seriously down on power and reliability is suspect. Now, last season reliability wasn't that big of a concern because we took care of the engines, but I'd be worried. I'm still waiting for that increase in Power, but NOW we can do something about it.
  • Ford is like Mugen-Honda. It's not much different. More fuel efficient, lighter and easier to control than the Mugen-Honda, with very similar cooling efficiency. The trade-offs are slightly lower reliability and the engine is more likely to shake itself to death.
  • I won't bother talking about Mecachrome, no one uses Mecachrome, for good reason.

  • Hart/Arrows is basically all the bad aspects of the Mugen-Honda and Ford PUs combined. Similar power output, slightly worse fuel efficiency, heavier. It can be pushed more, both in acceleration and RPMs, but reliability is suspect. Probably the worst engine around, and it isn't ... that horrible.
As an aside, I'm impressed by Arrows' insistence. They keep signing Arrows engines and I don't know why. That will probably change this year ... should ...

Anyway, that's the basic rundown of the paddock. There are only 2 aspects remaining. The first ...

The Team Performance Ratings

Just like last season, to the left we'll have the performance at the beginning of 1999, at the middle the performance at the end of 1999, and to the right the performance at this current point, the 2000 preseason.

Last year, I established the three tiers. "Those who can", "Those who want" and "Those who can't". 

"Those who can" are, of course, the big 3. Ferrari has the best car design by far ... but McLaren and Benetton have Merc power, which makes up the difference. They'll make up most of the wins and points finishes.

"Those who want" are Sauber and (arguably) Tyrell. They could, maybe, sneak in a win and score points often.

"Those who can't" are ... everyone else. Tyrell is closer to this group than it is to Sauber so ... up to you where you want to put them.

What really hurts us on this tier is the low Power our engines output. We either get engines with more power, or we improve the car's design. We'll do both.

Nice to see Minardi improve, and a lot!

Finally, we have ...

The Driver Rating Changes

Williams

  • David Coulthard: +1 Overtaking, +1 Concentration
  • Eddie Irvine: None

Ferrari

  • Michael Schumacher: +1 Concentration.
  • Jacques Villeneuve: +1 Speed, -1 Skill, +1 Concentration, +1 Experience

Benetton

  • Mika Salo: +1 Speed, +1 Wet Weather
  • Emmanuel Collard: None

McLaren

  • Mika Hakkinen: None
  • Heinz-Harald Frentzen: -1 Speed

Jordan

  • Giancarlo Fisichella: None
  • Esteban Tuero: None

Prost

  • Damon Hill: -1 Skill, +1 Overtaking
  • Rubens Barrichello: +1 Concentration, +1 Stamina

Sauber

  • Jean Alesi: None
  • Shinji Nakano: +1 Speed, 

Arrows

  • Johnny Herbert: +1 Overtaking
  • Jorg Muller: None

Stewart

  • Ralf Schumacher: -1 Speed
  • Jan Magnussen: +1 Skill, +1 Overtaking

Tyrell

  • Pedro Diniz: +1 Overtaking, +1 Wet Weather, +1 Stamina
  • Tora Takagi: +1 Concentration

Minardi

  • Ricardo Rosset: +1 Wet Weather
  • Mario Haberfeld: +1 Wet Weather
And that's it for our preseason. Hope you liked this chapter. If you want to proceed to the season opener, HERE, have a link.

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