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Sunday, May 29, 2005

ferrari to make or break


although ferrari's championship fight was supposed to have started in barcelona, unfortunately bad qualifying, bad tyres, and bad luck continued to haunt the team.

at nurburgring, we've reached the ultimate junction where it is either 'road back to success', or the 'path to humiliation'. if they have found back their form, then there's hope for the better days and to overtake the points. yet if they fumbled one more time, then it is indeed over no matter how well they do in the future. this catching up business is just too pointless.

devoted tifosi losing faith? [www.itv-f1.com]
after second qualifying was scrapped, it seemed though ferrari didn't take advantage of this new rule, in the qualifying sense, as both cars qualified poorly. however, we can no longer predict what will happen after qualifying as now the cars have different fuel level. it did help mix up the grid a little more, with heidfeld getting a well-deserved pole. way to go 'ickle'! now you just need to hold off the 'iceman' through the first corner.

my only prediction: ferrari have different fuel strategy, rubens being lighter will make one more pitstop than michael.

[continue after the race... with fingers crossed.]

beautiful f2005 [www.f1-live.com]
updates [10:45pm]:
if you still think that formula 1 is boring, then where the fuck have you been? it is fucking exciting!

but back to the subject of this post. the ferrari finally made it as they have 'chosen' the road back to success. both the cars looked fabulous, reliable, durable, and fast. although still very far behind as compared to the front runners (ie renault and mclaren), but the good news is it is finally getting there.

third and fifth is an acceptable result for ferrari at nurburgring, albeit a little bad luck at the beginning of the race having caught out by the accident. they were, in another perspective, lucky to have escaped it totally without any damage. the tyres looked good, but they still need to get fast laps out faster and to qualify better.

my prediction of rubens making more stops was spot on. i figured that the team was playing with different strategies and maybe use this as a plan for future races. we can see now that the f2005 can be faster with less fuel, and can still be durable enough to make it to the podium. this should be something they need to look into for the future.

of course the disaster of the race was kimi. with one lap to go, the inevitable suspension damage finally gave in. this would definitely be a huge blow to kimi's confidence. however i don't quite understand why he was pushing so hard after his pitstop. he went off too many times, locked up his tyres too many times, and made unnecessary overtaking of the backmarkers too many times. instead of nursing his car, he abused it like an unintelligent robot. it'll be interesting to hear their response.

good news though for rubens as he gets to make it to the podium, and it also gives michael an extra point. however it is bad news for ferrari's championship contention as renault and alonso climb higher on the leader board.

if only the renault is more unreliable, else ferrari's make is too little too late.



previous posts:
monaco: f1 and star wars don't mix
barcelona: the era is all over
imola: from zero to hero
imola: f1 aero upgrades
bahrain: what a joke
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


[tagged: , formula 1]