27.6.06
Canada was an interesting race of attrition as it was fought out in extreme
heat, with "marbles" strewn around the track meaning that there
was only one line for much of the race. A number of drivers hit the walls,
even Schuey grazed one at half distance, but Alonso put his only mistake
of last season behind him to take a perfect win from pole, meaning that
he's delivered a perfect work performance over the last 12 months. Not
many people can say that, though Bernie marked him down on his "soft
skills", so he probably won't get his NVQ in racecar driving.
Raikkonen generally drove well, but made the same mistake twice at
the hairpin, going off-line and onto the marbles and fish-tailing out
of the corner. The second time was on the penultimate lap and Schuey
pounced to steal second place, a Safety Car period having bunched up
the field. It's hard to blame Raikkonen too much as one felt that he
was driving above the performance of his car and did not have the supreme
confidence in his McLaren that Alonso had in his Renault.
Canada is a one or two stop race, Massa was on the former strategy,
but Schuey had a weird sort of a 1½ stop strategy, going for
nine laps longer than Alonso. This suggests that Ferrari knew Michael
could not challenge for pole even if he'd been on the same load as Alonso
and they hoped the extra fuel would help him pass some of those in front.
Unfortunately, this strategy was largely negated by his getting trapped
behind Trulli for many laps, however Michael was helped by Fisi getting
a drive-through penalty for jumping the start and he eventually managed
to pass Trulli on lap 24.
Trulli brings us on to the question of the driver market. He has been
re-signed by Toyota though his fast qualifying / slow racing technique
is only of real value if your team's other driver qualifies in front
- which Ralf did not. Ralf himself had a bizzare race, trundling round
in and occasionally spinning a Toyota with no rear-end grip, his antics
causing Jacques Villeneuve to hit the wall. Goodness knows what he was
trying to prove, perhaps he thought that dogged perseverance in the
face of insurmountable odds will help him to keep his drive next year!
Brother Michael's decision whether to retire or not is said to be the
key to the whole driver market, though Martin Brundle is convinced Raikkonen
is already signed to Ferrari - and he should know. Let us hope so as
apart from Schuey he seems to be the only one capable of challenging
Alonso, who's deal with the Grey Side was done and dusted before the
season even started.
The overpaid and under performing Montoya looks unlikely to retain his
McLaren seat next year and may only stay in F1 at all if he takes a
massive pay cut. The Editor seems to think that he's a possible at Ferrari,
which is intriguing, I can't see him as any other than an occasionally
quick but frequently destructive force and certainly no team leader.
Moves such as when he barged past Schuey on the first lap in Canada
make him appealing as a racer, though he collided with Rosberg shortly
after, pitted for a new nose and then put it into the wall on Lap 57
- yet another unforced error of the sort which he makes frequently and
which the true greats do not.
Nico Rosberg had an interesting weekend. He was lambasted by his team
mate Webber and Barrichello [who? - Ed.] for ruining their qualifying
laps by blocking. He qualified an excellent sixth, jumped Schuey (no
less) on the first lap but his collision with Montoya put him out. This
was a 50/50 incident, but when Montoya pulled the same move on Schuey
the latter was canny enough to realise that discretion was the better
part of valour, took to the grass and survived to come home second.
Rosberg has shown that he has pace from the word go, he's now learning
ruthlessness. There are a few more lessons to learn, like MS's backing
the pack up on the formation lap to put more temperature into his tyres
and also into the engines of those in front, but it's only a matter
of time. A couple of seasons to knock the rough edges off and Nico'll
be ready for Ferrari though how they'd cope with his father, who exhibits
Karting Dad Syndrome at times, is hard to imagine. I admire Keke enough
to believe that he'd get it right eventually, unlike "Our Nige"
in Formula BMW with his lads.
As for the others, Fisi jumped the start, got a drive-through penalty
and then went into afternoon cruise mode. He's been re-signed by Renault
which must be a banker as he's no team leader. Talking of cruisers,
Crazy Dave, who has been known to display the tendency, had a good race.
He was last on the grid after an engine change, made his way through
the field until he was ninth behind Button. He jumped his hapless fellow
Brit to take the final point two laps from the end. Whether Coulthud
was galvanised to do so by a wake-up call from his engineer is not clear.
Honda's bad performance has resulted in Geoff Willis becoming the second
Technical Director to be displaced in a Japanese-owned team this season,
choosing to resign after being moved sideways in favour of Shuhei Nakamoto
in a management re-shuffle. It'll be interesting to see how the Japanese
copes with the very Western culture of F1.
Listening in to the teams' radio certainly adds an extra dimension,
such as Scott Speed threatening his mechanics on the grid with dire
retribution if he later found that his Cossie had been allowed to get
hotter than team-mate Liuzzi's. This may have been irony, which I didn't
think Americans did. I don't think racing mechanics do it, so they probably
just think he's a Richard Edward.
I'm glad that ITV are following this column's recommendations and are
introducing more technical content. I enjoyed Martin Brundle's piece
on oversteer and understeer, though he did look a bit wide-eyed at times
when zooming round a soaking Slirosne in a Dead Bull! Anyway, keep up
the good work Martin!
On now to Indianapolis, the venue for Ferrari's great win last year.
Let's hope for a repeat performance this year. It looks like both championships
are lost, but the Scuderia have vowed to fight to the finish.
Forza Ferrari!
PS
I've just noticed that the top
five in this race were the same as in the last!
