Suzuka showdown comes at high price

   Copyright c 1998 Nando Media
   Copyright c 1998 Reuters

SUZUKA, Japan (Oct 27, 1998 - 22:03 EST) - Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix may
prove the most exciting race of the season. It will undoubtedly be
expensive. According to some calculations, the race could even be the
costliest ever.

While the eyes of the world will be keenly focused on the public battle
between Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher, the team accountants are
likely to have been left with furrowed brows at the cost of the contest.

It is going to be an all-out battle between the two drivers and the two
giant teams of the sport, McLaren and Ferrari.

Add to that the respective car manufacturers which back each team,
Mercedes-Benz and Fiat, and the warring tyre suppliers Bridgestone and
Goodyear, and the scene is set for a truly exciting and no-costs-barred
contest.

The cost has, in part, been exacerbated by the five-week gap between the
penultimate race of the season, the Luxembourg Grand Prix at the
Nuerburgring on September 27, and the Japanese race.

This was caused by the cancellation of the Portuguese Grand Prix, which was
dropped from the calendar because the track owners had not completed
necessary and expensive safety work in time.

Its absence from the calendar left teams with more time on their hands than
usual to improve and alter their cars.

Both conducted almost non-stop testing programmes, with Ferrari notching up
almost 30 days of running at Mugello in Italy as well as at their private
track in Maranello.

The overall cost of such an effort is difficult to estimate, since money is
a closely-guarded secret in the sport.

But taking into account the staffing levels of 2,000, drivers' expenses,
testing expenses, repairs, use of cars, engines, tires, hotels and travel,
the team would be unlikely to get much change out of ($33 million) over the
last month.

It appears that no price is too much for a team searching for their first
drivers' world championship since South African Jody Scheckter triumphed 19
years ago.

McLaren have been busy too. Although they do not have the luxury of their
own test track like Ferrari, and therefore have had to hire the Barcelona
circuit for their pre-event testing, there have been fewer people running
the show.

Their costs are unlikely to have been quite as extravagant.

The same cannot be said of the British team's tyre suppliers Bridgestone.
Estimates put their outlay in the closing quarter of the season at $30
million -- that works out at more than $116 million for the year.

But what about the cost of the race itself?

The Japanese Grand Prix is one of the most expensive of the year for the
teams and both McLaren and Ferrari will have to pay for three jumbo jets
filled with up to 30 tons of equipment, as well as transporting the 60 to
80 team members who will stay in expensive hotels during the event.

In fact, the arrival of the race will leave both teams breathing a sigh of relief.

It means that when the cars go out for the first time on Friday morning,
most of the costs will already have been paid.

It will also give the teams their first indication whether all the work
done in testing -- and around $83 million they have spent together -- has
been worth it.

But Schumacher will be aware of the perils of spending too much money prematurely.

Last October, in the aftermath of his botched attempt to knock Jacques
Villeneuve out of the European Grand Prix at Jerez, he was forced to
dispose of one million baseball caps and T-shirts proclaiming him as
"The 1997 world champion."

He is unlikely to make the same costly mistake again -- on or off the track.

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