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.
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.]
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.
star wars' chewy, vader, and the clone soldiers made their presence felt at monte carlo. then, it was absolutely hilarious having the clone soldiers refuelling the red bull 'dark machine', which was powered by the dark force.
actually it was the red bull mechanics dressed as the soldiers. at one scene after david's retirement, one of the mechanics got pissed with the bulky helmet and took it off while pushing the car away. the moment was priceless.
chewy was by far the funniest thing to appear at the pit garage area. i couldn't stop laughing when the tv producer switches images between the f1 cars and then to chewy. man, how could these people work seriously with these characters running around? it's no wonder both red bull cars retired the race!
i think red bull deploy such tactic to distract the other teams. their funny costumes and role playing around the garage, i'm sure, send chuckles to all the other teams along the pit. how can anyone pull a straight face with these characters marching around the place?
as cool as f1 and star wars are individually, they just don't mix. of course, you got to look at them with a open sense of humour. i'm sure for publicity sake, they were making it fun for everyone else. but seriously, what a joke!
jokes aside, fortunately this season's monaco grand prix was as exciting as it could have been. we saw more overtaking maneuvers than there were in barcelona, which was pretty amazing given the ridiculously impossible circuit layout to overtake. however, this glamourous grand prix is sure to stay for a long time to come. even more so after this weekend.
kimi, as expected, dominated the race. surprises from the williams, which was pretty good stuff seeing heidfeld deservedly getting 2nd place. plus i'm extremely pleased with seeing the over-rated webber's ass consistently kicked by heidfeld. webber got to learn to answer the question in the press conference, not to blabber about his entire race (that bloody newb). and of course we saw the fall of renault, hopefully more so into the future to create more competition. finally, yet another lucky scrapping from the ferrari. how many more races can they exepct that to happen? pathetic.
it is indeed right that the ferrari era is all over in 2005. with yet another retirement from a gp, and double no-points, it is just one too many.
the problem doesn't lie with schumacher, the techincal team, or the f2005. these elements remain the strongest and the best among all teams. there is no doubt that the combination of schumacher and the f2005 remains one of the fastest, as it was proven with its amazing fast laps in imola and in barcelona.
the biggest and the only problem is clearly with bridgestone. ferrari tries to protect the name of bridgestone, but it is only a matter of time when they get totally frutstrated with the tyre company. being caught unprepared for the one-tyre regulation, it isn't reacting fast enough to bring the tyres into form. i think you can basically say that this season, bridgestone sucks huge time. here are some obvious problems:
the tyres cannot perform in a single lap qualifying
the tyres also cannot get heated up fast enough
the tyres can't perform in hot conditions
the tyres don't give enough grip
the tyres aren't durable, realible, and tough enough
combine all these factors, and it is championship goodbye! being the only (significant) team testing for bridgestone, it is hard to get enough data to create the perfect tyre for this season. so i think ferrari should be realistically understand that their championship fight, both driver and constructor, is all over. here are reasons why:
rubens f2005 mostly unreliable, slow, and no points
michael can't get enough podiums
mclaren and renault are reliable, fast, and have michelin
six to eight mediocre cars with michelin can beat ferraris
bridgestone
bridgestone
... still bridgestone
so will there be explanations from bridgestone? who cares. it's all for their protection anyways. as for the remainder of the season, i would put my money on mclaren. besides, it would be more fun to see mclaren pull out a come back to catch renault from behind. who wants to bet?
![devoted tifosi losing faith? [www.itv-f1.com]](http://photos1.blogger.com/img/253/2822/400/33212_2.jpg)
![beautiful f2005 [www.f1-live.com]](http://photos1.blogger.com/img/253/2822/400/diapo_255.jpg)
![chewbacca is excited [www.f1.com]](http://photos1.blogger.com/img/253/2822/400/chewy.jpg)
![clone soldiers with darth vader [www.f1-live.com]](http://photos1.blogger.com/img/253/2822/400/soldiers.jpg)
![group pics of the demented [www.f1-live.com]](http://photos1.blogger.com/img/253/2822/400/group_pic.jpg)
