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Sunday, May 07, 2006

ferrari back in the hunt


[nurburgring]

ferrari passed the nurburgring test with flying colors, and they are definitely in the hunt for the championship.

via planetf1.com:
Michael Schumacher has breathed new life into the World Championship race by winning the European GP. Fernando was second, but Michael proved that his victory at Imola was no fluke by out-pacing the Renault during his second stint. Not bad for an old fella...
not bad indeed for someone who is seen to be over the hill and out of the element. michael schumacher looked in control of the race, and he did what was predicted of him. he followed alonso throughout the race, breathing down his neck and never let him off the sight. although the first pit didn't go in their favor, they beat renault in the second, by a mile. fantastic!

not only that, i believe ferrari has deceived the renault crew pretty well in terms of fuel strategy. i don't believe michael came in the first stint at a pre-planned time. i feel that they bring him in to confuse renault, and hopefully get a chance to jump alonso, but at the same time putting in more fuel. we clearly see that michael was able to be out longer in the second stint, and then only pitted for 6.8 seconds. that meant he still had fuel in his car, and didn't need more.

furthermore, nobody actually knew the pace of the ferrari. after imola, everyone thought that ferrari has race pace issues, including renault. however we saw today that ferrari was in fact very quick, and quick enough to keep pace of renault. plus, michael has the fastest lap of the race. so has ferrari played their strategy for nurburgring since imola? now that would be true brilliance.

massa made it sweeter for the team as well, getting his first ever podium. ferrari is now second in the constructor's championship. seeing massa's pace and how he was able to never lose sight of alonso and michael during the first stint, i think the team will be feeling very optimistic for the fight.

ferrari in form [www.f1-live.com]

on the other hand, alonso wasn't very happy on the podium. i think he looked just a bit worried. however he insisted that he is quite confident of the next race, when the tyres are to perform better. besides, it will be home court advantage.

i'm still quite upset with the performance of other teams. mclaren, williams, honda, and even toyota need to step up more! how long will it take for them to finally blow the championship wide open? ferrari is back in the hunt, it's about time the other teams get into the game. all teams are almost there, but reliability and speed continue to be issues.

more drivers need to take points away from alonso, else if michael is to continue winning but alonso continue getting second, it'd take michael 7 races to overtake alonso. now that's just bullshit! kimi isn't so far off, and he definitely can get into the mix as well.

so will ferrari's top form continue? well, only less than one week to find out. it's getting interesting now.

winner of the race:
ferrari did a superb job. refer to above.

loser of the race:
red bull has totally messed up this race. with four cars on the grid, the only finisher is scott speed. liuzzi took out himself and coulthard after the first corner, and klien's car just died. i don't think their current performances justify the amount of money the owner spends on the teams. hopefully they'll get their act together soon, and bring the fun back to formula 1.



previous posts:
nurburgring: nurburgring a real test
imola: renault lost imola
melbourne: renault completes hat-trick
melbourne: jenson grabs pole down under
sepang: sepang revealed more problems
sepang: engine changes dominate qualifying
bahrain: thrilling bahrain
bahrain: an exciting start to 2006


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