Sério?

Wrong Strategy Costs JV Dear
It wasn’t reliability that let down Jacques in Melbourne but strategy as he could only finish ninth - one place outside of the points...

Lining up sixth on the grid, hopes were high for the first race of the 2003 season. A high-scoring points-finish looked a reasonable prospect so long as the BAR005 could make it to the finish but, in the event, it was the team’s pit-stop strategy that was ultimately to prove its undoing.

Although not as challenging as he had been on Friday and Saturday JV looked settled and comfortable for a points-finish for much of the race until it emerged that he required three pit-stops and not two. It was a costly strategy.

A more glaring mistake was the sight of both BARs stationary outside the garage, with Jenson Button having to wait while JV was been refuelled. Problems with the radio was the cause of the gaffe, with JV unable to hear his pit-stop call.

It was just one of a host of remarkable incidents during the race, which was eventually won by David Coulthard with Michael Schumacher, for once, not on the podium.

Afterwards Button - who finished behind Jacques in tenth - complained that the team had opted for the wrong tyres in drying conditions at the start of the race and described being at a stand-still in the pitlane as “embarrassing”.

While not as fast as they had been for the first two days, the team’s relative pace and today’s reliability are clear causes for optimism.

Yet the bottom line is that this was an opportunity scorned.