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Sunday, April 03, 2005

what a joke


are you fucking kidding me? [www.planetf1.com]:

Following their sluggish start to the new season, the World Champions introduced the F2005 two races ahead of schedule.

While the new car appeared to have more pace than its predecessors, Rubens Barrichello was hampered by a gearbox failure in second qualifying and failed to score a point while Schumi was forced to retire from the grand prix after a transmission failure.

Tellingly, it was Schumi's first retirement from a grand prix in three years.

Nevertheless, the German has insisted that Ferrari were right to bring forward the car's completive debut.

"I think it was very calculating and it was the best decision we could have taken.

"My feeling is that I picked up some debris on the circuit following Fernando, which may have caused the radiator some problems."

While Fernando Alonso's lead over Schumi is now a significant margin, the World Champion voiced a note of defiance before leaving Bahrain to begin what will presumably be another exhaustive spell of testing.

"We now have three weeks [of testing] to give us extra confidence."

"We’re still strong, don’t worry."
andrew davies of planetf1.com reports on bahrain's winners + losers:

Losers
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari DNF

I may be wrong, but I got the distinct impression that on Sunday morning qualifying Schumi took a lot of fuel out of his car to make sure he got his 63rd pole. The look on his face when he got P2 was almost like he’d been sent to the back of the grid.

Knowing that even if he got P1 the Renault was likely to out-traction him into the first corner, the fact that he was on the front row should have been good enough. But no, there was no wry smile, the joy had drained from his face.

The pole record of Ayrton Senna is the last serious F1 record he doesn’t have, barring Riccardo Patrese’s most GPs. Is The Schum hell-bent on getting four poles in 2005...?

In the race the pace of the Ferrari was certainly up with the Renault, though some of that might be down to the fact that both Ferrari drivers had opted for the soft tyre, which Rubens conclusively proved, didn’t last to the end.

Ferrari
They’re not making many friends in 2005. First they refuse to sign a testing ban with the other nine teams – which you can kind of understand given that they have a test track right outside their factory gates.

Then they sign a deal with Bernie Ecclestone that guarantees them the most money in F1 and gives them a veto on any rule change – which is not particularly fair, but then again they are the biggest and most prestigious name in the sport.

But when their cars break down, they never tell you the reason, and any reason they do give is not necessarily that accurate. "Stone through the radiator…?" And when their cars come in to retire, a rarity indeed, all the mechanics form a wall to prevent any TV pictures getting out.

And while all the other teams allow access to team radio, so that TV fans can get a better picture of the race, Ferrari maintain radio silence. It’s no big surprise really, when Bernie ran his digital service in 2002 they were the only team to say no then.

So if there’s a certain sense of schadenfreude about this dreadful weekend, Schumi’s first breakdown in 58 races, the first new Ferrari not to win on its debut in six years, no points for the Scuderia etc, then maybe they’ve brought a little of it on themselves.
briatore adds salt to the wound [www.planetf1.com]:

A buoyant Flavio Briatore described Fernando Alonso's win at Bahrain as 'very, very easy', and claimed that his dominant Renault team had forced Ferrari into making the apparent mistake of introducing their under-prepared new car ahead of schedule.

Briatore's Renault team have won all three of the opening races of the 2005 season to open up a huge advantage over the World Champions.

The Italian's protégé, Fernando Alonso, has been in dominant form, leading from start to finish in the desert and, once Michael Schumacher had retired with a transmission fault, leaving his rivals trailing in his wake.

"After Michael stopped we dominated. There was no problem at all," beamed Flav.

"It really was very, very easy."

The Renault boss was also unsympathetic towards the plight of the malfunctioning F2005, suggesting that Ferrair had been panicked into making a mistake, in the form of introducing their new car before it was ready, due to Renault’s impressive start to the campaign.

"We are pushing Ferrari are very hard," he told ITV. "This [the F2005s' glitches] was the risk. If you have budgeted the car for Barcelona and you bring it out forty days early? For us it is impossible. Ferrari is a big organisation but today we see..."
more jokes:
jean todt's version
no shit!
not so convinced. who are you kidding?



previous posts:
sepang: bring out the new car!!
sepang: toyota f1 rev party
sepang: klcc sauber f1 street demo
melbourne: the wait is over!
pre-season: the viking
pre-season: nose job
pre-season: b.a.r. unveiled a goose
pre-season: sweet sauber
pre-season: evolution not revolution
pre-season: sauber ain't coming