Spanish GP - Ferrari Owners' Club

20.5.06

As the GP circus moved to Spain we Tifosi should have been brimming with confidence, but I always had an uneasy feeling about this race. You can't write off Renault and Alonso, not the way they've been goin', and especially not at his home GP. Also, Schuey and him have been so close at the the other races plus the fact that, as guest reporter Chris Butler pointed out last time, Renault have tested extensively at Barcelona and Ferrari have not. Mind you, it could just be that hindsight is 20/20!

Whatever the reasons, I was right and Alonso took an imperious win from pole with Schuey safe in second 18½ seconds behind. Fisichella was third but again demonstrated that he is just not in the same league as the first two, when Schuey leapfrogged him by pit-stops. Fisichella just does not seem to be able to deliver the flat-out laps for critical periods (especially in-laps) that F1 racing now demands. Massa had another good solid race and finished fourth. I must admit I was unsure about him, but so far so good, although he's never going to be in the top league.

The race itself was interesting from a strategic point of view and the camera work was very good (but the direction less so), especially the in-car stuff and that from a new camera which flew along a cable and followed the cars - more of these please; but there was no racing, apart from Raikkonen's audacious move at the start when he went from ninth to fifth, disposing of both Toyotas and both Hondas. Mind you, this is the sort of behaviour you'd expect from a Mercedes driver and come to think of it Toyota and Honda drivers too (sorry Mum). The lack of racing is because Barcelona has a number of high-speed corners where the cars go as fast as they are able and there are no passing places. This means that a driver just cannot compensate for a poor(er) car.

I reckon the FIA should sponsor a PhD in designing circuits where racing is possible though it would probably be 15 words: "a long straight followed by a tight corner, then another corner going the other way". It would be difficult to bulk that up into a PhD thesis. There were one or two other notable features, like an MFI's front wing fell off - obviously needs bigger self-tappers, and another lack-lustre performance from Button. Honda turned his engine down to save it for Monaco. I'm increasingly embarrassed by my pre-season prediction that they would win the Constructors' title. I thought they were racers but there's been no evidence of it so far.

Fortunately Qualifying was just brilliant. I've pleaded all along for Martin Brundle to be allowed to provide more intelligence and it's increasingly happening. Many years ago the informed observer could see how racing cars were behaving, whether they were understeering, oversteering, or pitching and where their drivers were braking. Incidentally, you could always see when an Alfa had an electrical problem by the loud bang, shrapnel, oil, flames and smoke..... Some of these simple pleasures, like many others in motor racing went away as cars got more sophisticated, especially their aerodynamics. Well at least they did for the onlooker.

Martin Brundle can still see what's going on and I found to my pleasure that I could too - but sometimes only after he'd pointed it out . Oversteer and understeer are back and I could see that funny little push that Raikkonen's McLaren gave as its computer cracked the throttles open for a split-second to stop the rear wheels locking as it slowed down from about 200 mph to 80 in 70 metres with 5 downward gear shifts - the figures might be slightly suspect, but you get the point. Motor racing can still be fun, but you need to know what you're looking at and for that most of us need expert guidance.

Another of motor racing's simple pleasures is observing Montoya as he elevates "hapless" into an art form. This time he missed the final cut in qualifying and spun the car in the race, beaching it on a kerb; he also moaned about the team all weekend. Strangely, job offers for next year are not flooding in... In marked contrast another pleasure was watching Alonso as he coped with, indeed fed on, unimaginable pressure from the mass adulation of the huge crowd and delivered in both qualifying and the race.

Strangely enough, I quite enjoy the sight of F1 cars cruising round burning off fuel, there's the anticipation of just when they will dive into the pits, have a new set of boots strapped on, roll out and nail it! The fuel burning-off bit has recently come under pressure for wasting the planet's resources, the greenhouse effect etc., though if people were really serious about green issues they'd be better following Ken Livingstone's lead and having a go at Mummies taking children a mile to school in huge 4 wheel-drives, but much of the spin is about conspicuous consumptionwhich the F1 Qualifying Cruise clearly is. After a thrilling final session Renault were 1-2 with Alonso well clear of Fisichella and Ferrari were 3-4, with Michael just three thousandth short of Fisi.

Other interesting topics were Ferrari's straight line speed advantage, which various bad sports were putting down to bendy wings but which I am sure is due to the 248's superior lift/drag ratio. The uncertainty of Renault's F1 future previously generated by Renault boss Carlos Ghosn having lost them Alonso, Renault say they are ready to pay for a superstar driver - just who? If he does not retire, Michael will stay at Ferrari and it looks like Raikkonen's on his way to join him.

The Grand Prix Manufacturers Association have finally caved in and signed up with Bernie 'till 2012 and the entrants for 2008 have been announced. Not surprisingly, Prodrive got the last place, they obviously have the necessary talent and resources to do the job and F1 is unfinished business for Dave Richards; Honda are clearly missing him badly. The other entrants included Direxiv, Jordan, European Minardi, AMT Promotions (Carlin Motorsport) and (GP2 team) BCN Competition and such well known motor racing worthies as Craig Pollock's Baram F1, the ALK Group, North Western (entered by law firm Lennox Bywater), Filmty Interactive and Luxrace Tech [who?? - Ed].

Putting aside those none's ever heard of, Jordan, Pollock and Stoddard have had their chance so they can stay disappeared. It would have been nice for Carlin to have been given a go and it must have been very tempting for Max and Bernie to make an example of one of the current teams and dump them. I suggest McLaren would have been ideal. Their MD Martin Whitmarsh recently said that the team should perhaps focus on winning races - am I missing something but isn't that what motor racing is all about? Also, if they'd booted McLaren out, Ferrari could have had Fred in 2008.