Bahrain Grand Prix - Ferrari Owners' Club

GRAND PRIX: Les Bleus du Bahrain
by Winston D'Arcy

6.4.05

The main point of interest for the tifosi going into this race was whether Ferrari would field the F2005 and if so, whether it would it be quick enough as the F2004M was clearly struggling in the heat of Malaysia.

The good news was that they did after a colossal effort, and it looks to have potential, but the bad news was that it looks a bit of a handful at the moment and it’s fragile. Michael was quick, qualifying in second place, but retiring on lap 11 with hydraulic failure. Poor Rubens only completed a handful of laps before the race due to gearbox problems, but at least he brought it home in the race. Thankfully, these are early days both for the tipo and the new tyres developed specially for it.

In Q1, the car looked fast, but a bit wayward and it took a virtuoso performance by Schuey to be third. This run displayed his unique talent to deliver a better performance than the car warranted. It all looked very lively but he was able to hustle it along faster than it really wanted to go. It’s been a while since we’ve seen this, but it reminded us that he’s still the greatest!

By contrast, Alonso and the new Renault looked like Schuey and Ferrari used to in recent years, blindingly fast, clearly with loads of grip, grunt and everything else, with the car glued to the road in the fast corners, swooping into the apexes of the slower ones, almost no braking distance and minimal time off the throttle before the driver could nail it.

MS got up to second after Q2 but we never found out how much fuel he was running, or if Alonso had anything in hand as he stroked it to an untroubled win after the German retired. Rubens’ performance too was encouraging. He started dead last after his practice and qualifying problems, was up to 10th on lap 3 and pitted after a number of the others, which means he wasn’t running light. However, things went wrong after his second stop and he gradually dropped down the field, losing the final points-scoring place to Coulthard on the last-but-one lap. It was later revealed that he’d used his rear tyres too hard, which is hardly surprising as he didn’t have the chance to set the car up to his liking.

Toyota had another good race, with Trulli placed second in Q1, but bumped down to third by MS in Q2; he finished second in the race, benefitting from Schuey’s retirement. Ralf messed up in Q1 and the team ran him light in Q2 to try to gain a few places on the grid. This he duly did, rising from 11th to 6th and finishing fourth in the race.

Raikkonen took the final podium place for McLaren but it was Pedro de la Rosa, his team mate for the weekend, who was the “Driver of the Day” for most people, drafted in to replace Montoya who’d been injured in a tennis or motorbike incident, depending on who you believe. Ron Dennis explained that he did not place contractual restrictions on drivers’ leisure activities, considering that a “no drive – no money” clause should give them sufficient pause for thought before getting up to anything too risky!

Whatever the reason, de la Rosa was a more than adequate substitute for the underachieving Montoya. Not having raced since 2002 and running first in Q1, he did not let the sand-strewn raw track beat him and he qualified 9th, just a tenth of a second behind his illustrious team-mate and actually moved ahead of him after Q2! De la Rosa was one of three no.2s to out-qualify their team-leaders with Heidfeld beating Webber (Williams) and Klien beating Coulthard (Red Bull).

Raikkonen passed de la Rosa on the first lap, but after that his race was a highly entertaining sequence of events as he closed on the car in front and made various feints and lunges, eventually overdoing it and dropping back, before reeling them in again before getting past. He dealt with Button, then Rubens (whose tyres were shot by then) before closing in on Webber. There followed more extrovert driving (which he only got away with thanks to the Bahrain circuit’s generous run-off areas) with Webber firmly but fairly shutting the door, before Pedro put a two-or-three corner sequence together which ended up with him taking track space away from Webber; who had no choice but to cede. Webber had flat spotted his tyres in an earlier spin, but so had de la Rosa, who came home a well-deserved fifth, having set fastest lap. Great to see someone having a go and doing real racing!

What made all this more entertaining was Martin Brundle’s commentary as he seemed to coach him through the moves after expressing his mounting frustrations at de la Rosa’s earlier antics. Brundle clearly sees and knows a lot more than he says. It makes you wonder if he’s been told to “dumb it down” for the TV audience. I love all that “carrying speed” and “missing the apex” stuff. Maybe he could do a more technical and analytical programme for a more discerning audience? Toyota’s Mike Gascoyne’s comments were good too. There's a lot of really clever stuff going on in F1 and help is needed for viewers to understand and appreciate it fully, though it’s hard to see this happening in an era where manufactured "stars", vacuous celebrity and trivialisation fills most of the media.

Webber finished sixth, the only Williams to make it, Heidfeld’s BMW engine expiring on lap 25, a poor reward for his fine fourth place in qualifying. Massa was seventh for Sauber and his team-mate Villeneuve 11th after being hit by Coulthard whilst on track to take the last point. Red Bull again showed promise, but Klien was unable to start when his engine wouldn’t fire up on the grid, but at least the former’s point was some compensation for the team. BAR had another dismal weekend, with Sato’s brakes and Button’s clutch failing with more whingeing from the Englishman (why does this ring a bell?).

All-in-all Bahrain was an enjoyable race, with another masterful performance by Alonso. The only thing we have yet to see is his ability to withstand pressure whilst fighting for the lead. Hopefully, Schuey and the F2005 will soon provide this spectacle.

Jean Todt:

''The race was as tough as it was disappointing, but we have also learnt that the F2005 is competitive. It is clear that we have a lot of work to do to improve its overall reliability, along with our partners, first and foremost Bridgestone. The net result of these first three races outside Europe is certainly a negative one and not up to our standard. However, I am convinced that we are totally capable of recovering in time for the race at Imola, where we will race in front of so many of our fans."

Rubens Barrichello:

" I had only driven four timed laps before the race and then I made up ten places in just a few laps. In qualifying, the tyres were great over the single lap and they were good in the first part of the race. However, after that I began to get too much oversteer as the tyre degraded badly and my lap times therefore got slower. Some of that problem came from the fact that with hardly any running over the two previous days, I had to use Michael’s set-up and I think I could have done better if I had been able to chose a set-up better suited to my driving style. We now have three weeks before Imola and we will be testing in Barcelona which is very hard on tyres and we must work very hard to understand our problems in this area and with the reliability of the car. We have time to improve"

Michael Schumacher:

"For sure, I have to be disappointed with not finishing the race. But on the positive side I can look at the fantastic effort made to bring the new car here and it was absolutely the right decision. Up until I retired, the car was very competitive and I am sure it will be even more so in the coming races. I retired because I had no hydraulic pressure, so I could not change down through the gears, which is why I went wide and had to use the run-off area. We worked hard to get the new car here and now we must continue to do the same to develop it further."

RACE RESULTS - BAHRAIN GP
57 Laps. Weather : Hot, dry

Classified:
Pos	Driver	Team		Time
1.	Alonso	Renault	(M)	1h29:18.531
2.	Trulli	Toyota	(M)	+ 0:13.409
3.	Raikkonen	McLaren	(M)	+ 0:32.063
4.	R. Schumacher	Toyota	(M)	+ 0:53.272
5.	De La Rosa	McLaren	(M)	+ 1:04.988
6.	Webber	Williams	(M)	+ 1:14.701
7.	Massa	Sauber	(M)	+ 1 Lap
8.	Coulthard	Red Bull	(M)	+ 1 Lap
9.	Barrichello	Ferrari	(B)	+ 1 Lap
10.	Monteiro	Jordan	(B)	+ 2 Laps
11.	Villeneuve	Sauber	(M)	+ 3 Laps
12.	Friesacher	Minardi	(B)	+ 3 Laps
13.	Albers	Minardi	(B)	+ 4 Laps

World Championship Standing, Round 3 :
Drivers:			Constructors:
1.	Alonso	26	1.	Renault	36
2.	Trulli	16	2.	Toyota	25
3.	Fisichella	10	3.	McLaren	19
4.=	Coulthard	9	4.	Williams	13
4.=	R. Schumacher	9	5.	Red Bull	12
6.=	Barrichello	8	6.	Ferrari	10
6.=	Montoya	8	7.	Sauber	2
8.=	Raikkonen	7
8.=	Webber	7
10.	Heidfeld	6
11.	De La Rosa	4
12.	Klien	3
13.=	Massa	2
13.=	M. Schumacher	2