Michelle Sebri's F1 career (2002-201?)

[Whiteshore]

Michelle Sebri was born on February 13, 1982 in Lyon, France, from an early age, she dreamed of becoming an F1 racing driver and her father bought her a go-kart at the age of 6. She started racing go-karts at the age of 8 and won domestic karting championships starting in 1993 and won the European Karting Championship at 15, next, she went up to Formula Renault and won the European Formula Renault 2.0 championship at the age of 17 and moved up to British Formula Three at the age of 19 and lost the championship by a single point, but she had gained the attention of Peter Sauber, boss of the Sauber F1 team and in a test to determine who would be partnering Nick Heidfeld at Sauber, she outpaced Felipe Massa by 0.2s and gained the 2nd Sauber seat, so by the age of 20, she had become a Formula 1 driver and was already seen as a "promising" driver who could push her car to the limit.

Michelle Sebri during winter testing showed alot of potential as she pushed the Sauber-Petronas car to it's limits as she often posted times which would qualify her car in the top 10 in the test tracks which would also hold races and she often was faster than her team mate. In one occasion, while testing at Catalunya, she did a lap which would have qualified at 3rd place had it been a qualifying session. Some observers had already said that she was a "future world champion" with her talented if somewhat aggressive driving. In other news, Eddie Irvine has had a dispute with Jaguar team management and Dario Franchitti will get a one-off drive at the Australian Grand Prix as the team management had agreed that Irvine would race at Malaysia.

OOC note: I'm calculating this mostly in my mind.

[Whiteshore]

2002 Australian Grand Prix

Ferrari had ended 2001 as an utterly dominant force in Formula 1 and no one expects them to be beaten at the top with the technical regulations being relatively unchanged. Sauber has for a 2nd consecutive year ran a rookie in one of it's seats with Frenchwoman Michelle Sebri pairing Nick Heidfeld as the first female F1 driver since Giovanna Amati's stint with Brabham.

For Sebri, Australia meant the first taste of real Formula 1 and it would be seen by F1 pundits as average as she qualified the C21 midgrid at 8th place with her fellow rookies close to the back of the grid. But she certainly was promising as she out-qualified her team mate Nick Heidfeld by 0.21 seconds.

Grid
1. Rubens Barrichello
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Ralf Schumacher
4. Kimi Raikkonen
5. David Coulthard
6. Juan Pablo Montoya
7. Giancarlo Fisichella
8. Michelle Sebri
9. Jarno Trulli
10. Nick Heidfeld
11. Oliver Panis
12. Jenson Button
13. Jacques Villeneuve
14. Heinz-Harald Frentzen
15. Dario Franchitti
16. Takuma Sato
17. Allan McNish
18. Mika Salo
19. Pedro Dela Rosa
20. Mark Webber
21. Alex Yoong
22. Enrique Bernoldi

Race

At turn 1, in the first lap of the Australian Grand Prix, Ralf Schumacher, in a first-lap pile-up, eliminated 7 cars including pole-sitter Barrichello with the order at the end of the first lap being Schumacher-Coulthard-Montoya-Raikkonen-Sebri-Panis as they survived the first lap mayhem caused by Ralf Schumacher. David Coulthard took the lead on lap 3 and held in until lap 11 when the Mercedes engine failed with Montoya taking the lead in the race with Sebri running in 3rd with Oliver Panis in 5th but Panis would have his electronics fail in lap 21, taking away valuable points from BAR. Montoya would lead the race until lap 46 when a late stop for fuel dropped him to 2nd with Michael Schumacher taking the lead and winning at the Australian GP. In the back, both Arrows were disqualified on lap 17 and Minardi hung on to finish in the points.

Final Results
1. Michael Schumacher 1:34:786
2. Juan Pablo Montoya +14.642
3. Michelle Sebri +19.536
4. Kimi Raikkonen +21.205
5. Mark Webber +1 lap
6. Mika Salo +1 lap
7. Alex Yoong +3 laps
8. Pedro De la Rosa +5 laps
DNF. Dario Franchitti +10 laps Hydraullics
Jarno Trulli +19 laps Collision
Oliver Panis +36 laps Hydraulics
Heinz Harald-Frentzen +42 laps DSQ
Enrique Bernoldi +42 laps DSQ
David Coulthard +46 laps Engine
Rubens Barrichello +58 laps Collision
Ralf Schumacher +58 laps Collision
Giancarlo Fisichella +58 laps Collision
Nick Heidfeld +58 laps Collision
Jenson Button +58 laps Collision
Jacques Villeneuve +58 laps Collision
Allan McNish +58 laps Collision

Standings after the race

Drivers Championship
1. Michael Schumacher-10
2. Juan Pablo Montoya-6
3. Michelle Sebri-4
4. Kimi Raikkonen-3
5. Mark Webber-2
6. Mika Salo-1

Constructors Championship
1. Ferrari-10
2. Williams-BMW-6
3. Sauber-Petronas-4
4. McLaren-Mercedes-3
5. Minardi-Asiatech-2
6. Toyota-1