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The outcome of the Canadian GP was largely decided by incident and accident. The Renaults qualified third and fourth and out-dragged the front row from the start to lead, with Fisichella in front. He retired through hydraulic failure on lap 32, handing the lead to team-mate Alonso. He had been increasingly frustrated at Fisichella’s lack of pace as the McLarens homed in on them and, six laps later, clipped the wall with a rear wheel and retired. Interestingly, this was the first time we’ve seen the Championship leader crack under pressure. Montoya inherited the lead for McLaren ahead of team-mate Raikkonen. Button, who had started from pole, was running third until he too, put it into the wall causing the Safety Car to be deployed. The McLaren team failed to call Montoya to pit in time. Raikkonen did come in and took the lead behind the Safety Car. Montoya came in a lap later, was refueled and barged his way into the queue behind the Safety Car, possibly overtaking Coulthard, which would not have been allowed. What definitely was not allowed was that he left the pit lane when the red light was on and consequently was black-flagged; thus the cooler-headed Raikkonen won, reducing his points’ gap to Alonso, though it’s still substantial at 22 points. Coming home next were…Schuey and Rubens! So was the Canadian GP the turning point for Ferrari? There have been eight Grand Prix this year and this was the seventh from which we had no expectation of a Ferrari win - we suspected it, but didn’t know it in Oz. I had a flat feeling about the race going into it, and it’s the same now, even though Ferrari were second and third and the current tyre regulations mean that it could well have been converted to a one-two finish, like the good old days (last year). But it’s not like the good old days at all, the difference between
then and now was that the Ferrari was the quickest car; in Canada they
inherited the places by driving hard, keeping out of trouble and keeping
going to the end. The F2005 is still not competitive, and the Canadian
Grand Prix was not a turning point. Says who? Jean Todt, that’s
who. He claims there were a number of improvements, but it’s hard to see what they were. Schuey’s free practices ranged from 5th to 16th fastest (including 7th and 8th fastest on Saturday). Qualifying provided temporary joy when he was second, but this quickly evaporated when the question of fuel load was taken into consideration. In the race he stopped first, confirming that he’d qualified light. He finished second, but was running sixth for most of the race and four of the cars in front of him retired, crashed or were disqualified. He also set only the 6th fastest average lap time. Rubens qualified dead last again after a gearbox failure but the team took the opportunity to start him from the pit lane where they could alter the car and fill it up with fuel before he started. His place in the average lap time charts? He was 7th, just behind Schuey, so this represents a fair summary of the level of Ferrari’s competitiveness. MS said that the team had done a fantastic amount of work over the weekend, but it seems that the basic car/tyre package is as recalcitrant as ever. This, together with the amount of work undoubtedly going on it Italy, suggests a fundamental flaw which is not going to be rectified, no matter how many development bits are fitted. Canada was the first of six races in eight weekends so it’s hard to see how a major improvement can be effected. At the end of this period, the season will be nearly three-quarters over and this is the last year of the current formula, so Ross Brawn’s recent statement to the media that the Scuderia will shortly be switching the majority of development effort to the 2006 car makes a lot of sense. However, Ferrari is not giving up; Roy Byrne has been given the brief to apply lateral thinking to the problem of single lap performance, currently Ferrari/Bridgestone's greatest weakness. With a small improvement in that direction, combined with the Scuderia’s basic strengths in driver ability, strategy and organisation, there’s every reason to expect similar, if not better results to Canada later in the season. This is particularly so because the teams are more even, and the races are more open, than I can ever remember; all of the “works engined” teams are capable of taking podium finishes if not yet challenging for wins on sheer pace. We should see a Ferrari win this season, but it seems extremely unlikely
that they will regain their previously dominant position. However, Schuey
is now up to 5th in the drivers’ table, just 3 points behind third
place man Trulli, and Ferrari are up to 5th in the constructors’
table, just 2 points behind Toyota and Williams, who are tying for third.
Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
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