F1 Tv Schedule

AS A ROOKIE DRIVER ON A RELATIVELY new team--this is only the second season in F1 for Panasonic Toyota--Brazil's Cristiano da Matta wasn't expecting an easy time. And he hasn't found one, either. Last year, Brazil's Cristiano da Matta won seven races in CART on his way to the series championship. In the first half of his rookie F1 season, da Matta's best finish was sixth place at the Spanish Grand Prix.

"Formula One has been exactly what I expected," says da Matta. "It has been as difficult and competitive as I thought it would be. We were a bit too optimistic at the beginning of the season by trying to qualify in the top 10 and finish in the top eight, but we have to set high goals for ourselves. If we can't reach them, we have to work harder."

Da Matta is the fifth CART champion to make the move to F1 in the past decade. Michael Andretti came to F1 in 1993, where he struggled to be competitive with the McLaren team. Jacques Villeneuve won the CART championship and the Indianapolis 500 in 1995, joined the competitive Williams Renault F1 team in 1996, won four races in his rookie season, and became World Champion in 1997.

Alex Zanardi raced with midlevel F1 teams from 1991 through 1994 before winning two CART championships. His return to F1 with Williams in 1999 flopped. Juan Pablo Montoya took the CART championship in 1999 and the Indy 500 in 2000 and then made the move to the F1 ranks in 2001. Through June, he had two career Formula One victories.

Before heading for F1, da Matta spoke with Montoya. "I spoke with Juan a little bit about what the differences are between CART and F1, the differences between the cars in each series, and which series was more difficult to get used to," says da Matta. "But we didn't talk about why he did or didn't succeed. In F1, that depends quite a bit on your situation."

Da Matta's situation finds him on a team with a lot of potential. Because the team is still new, it is going to take time for it to perform at its peak.

Toyota entered F1 in 2002 after an exhaustive testing and development program. All in all, it did a respectable job in its first F1 season. The fact that Toyota's best Finishes in 2002 were a pair of sixth places is more of a testament to how F1's competitiveness than a lack of preparation on the part of the team.

Toyota mystified some F1 observers when it released Allan McNish and Mika Salo, who had been with the team through most or all of its development stages--and hired da Matta and Frenchman Olivier Panis as their replacements.

Panis, who has made more than 125 Grand Prix starts over eight seasons--and has served as a test driver for McLaren--brought a wealth of experience to Toyota. "It is very, very easy to work with Olivier," says da Matta. "He is a nice guy and has his feet on the ground. We exchange a lot of information."

Da Matta's development has been hampered by having to learn his way around a lot of tracks he's never seen before. New F1 rules mean that da Matta gets in only one hour of practice before the first qualifying session on Friday afternoon.

F1 teams were offered a new testing option this year. Those that agreed to a limited private testing schedule during the season are permitted to test for two additional hours on the Friday morning of each Grand Prix weekend. The benefit for those teams is that they get two extra hours to set their cars up for that specific track and race; the downside is that they can't do unlimited private testing.

Large teams who test more days 100 days out of the year such as Ferrari and McLaren had no interest in signing up for the two-hour Friday morning test option. With its massive test program, Toyota wasn't interested either. In the end, Jaguar, Renault, Jordan, and Minardi agreed to take part in the new option. Da Matta says he could use the extra time to learn the tracks.

"Not doing the Friday testing is a big handicap for me because I only have one hour of track time before the first qualifying session," says da Matta. "It is extremely difficult The team tries to compensate by giving me a lot of testing miles at other tracks. But if you had asked me what I would have preferred in my first year, it would have been the two-hour testing. That would have made it a lot easier to learn the tracks and to set up the car."

As a consolation, da Matta has to look toward the longview. "Our plan is a long-term one," says da Matta "By the end of this season--when I know all the tracks--I am going to be better prepared for next year than I would have been had I been doing the two-hour practice."

The pace in F1 is relentless and race weekends are hectic. Montoya warned da Matta about all that. "He told me that the most difficult thing is that you have a very short time to adapt to a lot of things," says da Matta. "He said that even though the speeds and the horsepower and a lot of things are very similar between the two series, everything else is different, such as the way of working, the size of the teams, tracks, cars, the grooved tires, the car weight, the electronics. He told me to get the maximum out of every test and every time I am in the car and when I'm with the team, to try to learn as much as I can. It was a very, very intense preseason."

One of the more difficult things for da Matta to adapt to has been the tires. To reduce cornering speeds, F1 rules call for a grooved tire that provides a lot less grip and traction compared to the slicks used in CART Champ cars and most other racing series. With their fires and specific aerodynamics, F1 cars are skittish beasts.

"The driving style is different," da Matta says when comparing F1 and Champ cars. "In a F1 car, you drive into the corner while still on the brakes a lot more than Champ cars. Also, the midcorner period in a F1 car is a lot smaller than what it is in a Champ car. So the driving style is quite different. These cars are different to any other car I have driven before from Formula Ford to Champ cars, and you have to readapt your style and that takes time. That is one of the reasons why any transition between CART and F1 is very difficult."

When the offer came to move from CART to F1, da Matta says it was difficult to leave his CART team. "I wasn't going to turn down a F1 opportunity," he says. "The biggest doubt I had was because of the Newman-Haas team, all they did for me in the two years I was there, and the relationships I have with the team--not only with Carl Haas and Paul Newman, but with the whole crew."

Da Matta still keeps close track of what's going on in CART via the Internet, telephone calls, and TV.

The driver is particularly looking forward to the United States Grand Prix on the F1 track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on September 28. "I lived many years of my life in America and I have many friends there, so it is almost like a home race for me," says da Matta. "I'll have a special feeling when I race Formula One in Indianapolis."

Looking ahead to the rest of the F1 season, da Matta is more business-like. "I still have a lot to learn." He admits. "I feel like I have a lot more potential in me. I have to keep my head down and keep working."

If he does, da Matta could start to have that special feeling on every stop on the F1 tour.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

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