Michael Schumacher donned a black helmet, black visor, changed from his trademark red fire suit and snuck out of Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit astride a motorcycle on Sunday evening to avoid being mobbed by the madly enthusiastic fans after winning a remarkable Australian Grand Prix.
After all the preseason hype and frenzied anticipation, any hopes Williams and McLaren would finally take the fight to Ferrari seemed to lie in tatters. Schumacher and teammate Rubens Barrichello cruised imperiously to another 1-2 success.
True, their performance edge was given a spectacular boost by the unseasonably cool conditions, which played to their Bridgestone tires’ strengths. But by Sunday evening paddock insiders were speculating whether the legendary Italian team might win every race.
F1 doesn’t usually work like that, of course. Yet from the moment the two Ferrari F2004s sailed effortlessly away from the front row, you’d be forgiven for concluding that Schumacher’s seventh world championship was little more than a formality.
Schumacher’s qualifying pace in the new Ferrari was astounding. It was no surprise he started from pole. Last year there was a premium on going for banzai lap times in the Friday session, because earning a slot to run late on Saturday, when the times were reversed, meant you would be out on the circuit when it was at its scrubbed-in best, offering maximum grip. Under a new, controversial format, with the sessions separated not by 24 hours but by two minutes, this was not an issue. By the time the first car ran in the second session there was more than enough rubber down on track to provide the grip anybody could require.
“It’s rubbish,” said Flavio Briatore of the new format. “It’s too long for TV and makes no sense. It needs to be changed. It’s stupid for us, stupid for the spectators.”
Word is that F1 czar Bernie Ecclestone, too, wants it changed as soon as possible. Schumacher won his 71st grand prix by more than 13 seconds ahead of Barrichello, with Fernando Alonso’s impressive new Renault R24 storming home third, though more than half a minute behind the red cars. Then came the Williams-BMWs of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, with Jenson Button doing a good job to wind up sixth in the new BAR-Honda 006.
Barrichello kept Schumacher under strong pressure at the start, only to slow slightly after overheating his brakes in the chase. “It was a tough one,” Schumacher said, “because at the beginning, for the first half of the race before Rubens had some problems, he was pushing very, very hard and it was a really close fight.
“I couldn’t allow any mistakes and it was very exciting, I have to say. But the car is going well, we’ve seen this all weekend long and the great thing from my personal point of view is that I’ve come home with two more points than I scored last year after the first three races. So that’s a good start of the season for me.”
Like all the top teams, the two Ferraris were on a three-stop refueling strategy and sailed through their stops with precision. Alonso quickly got the upper hand over the Williams duo. He slipped through into third place at the first corner, after storming through from the third row of the grid, passing Montoya in the process as the Colombian slid wide onto the grass.
“He tried to brake as late as possible,” said Alonso. “He was on the inside, on the dirty part and he didn’t brake enough to get ’round the first corner. After that I was too slow to fight with the Ferraris and I was a little bit quicker than Jenson and the [two] Williams. I was in the middle of nowhere and didn’t have any big problems.”
The Williams drivers were slightly disappointed by the FW26s’ performance, even allowing for the cool conditions reducing the grip from their Michelin tires. Button, however, looked good in the new BAR, which showed not only welcome reliability but also commendable speed on its race debut.
“My start wasn’t particularly great,” said Button, “and it was very slippery out there, but I managed to hold on for fourth for some time. Ralf was able to get past me in the pit stop when we had a delay with the refueling nozzle.
“Then Montoya got past me out on the circuit. I think we need a little more in the way of race pace but it’s certainly a solid start to the season. We had good reliability, but then so did everybody else.”
Mark Webber also ran well in the new Jaguar R5, hanging on in eighth place just two seconds behind Montoya’s Williams for a time, but he later lost sixth and seventh gears, causing his retirement.
Williams should have been stronger. The upside was the BMW P84 engines ran faultlessly all weekend on this track, the third most grueling from the standpoint of full throttle running (63 percent of the lap) and the need for hard engine braking.
“The worrying thing,” said Ralf Schumacher, “is that at this race we were losing a second a lap compared with Ferrari, which I certainly didn’t expect, and is mainly down to the design of their car as well as some tire graining for us. The whole package needs to improve slightly and this is going to take maybe a couple of races, but I am confident we can make it.”
Two team garages that tiptoed away after the race were those of McLaren and Toyota. The McLaren MP4-19 was painfully off the pace, had poor handling balance and qualified badly. Kimi Raikkonen spun out with an engine failure and a philosophical David Coulthard trailed home a lapped eighth, a minute and a half behind the winning Ferrari. Coulthard could have seen this result coming based on pre-season tests from both McLaren and Ferrari.
“I did the [last] Imola test—-so to an extent I think I’ve always felt I’m the prophet of doom,” said Coulthard with commendable candor. “People get so excited about a single quick lap time during a test, saying ‘oh, we’re quick.’ I have to say ‘hold on a minute, it’s not about one lap in testing, it’s about averaging out all those tests.’ I saw Ferrari’s pace on the 15th lap in a test at Imola and they were a second quicker than anybody.”
So his car’s lack of speed came as no surprise. McLaren, which enjoys an estimated $300 million budget, will have to explain to its elite group of blue chip sponsors why the car proved so disappointing.
McLaren chairman Ron Dennis said, “It was certainly a race which reflects a significant differential between one tire manufacturer and another. And while the majority of the quick cars are on Michelin, you’ve got a lot of them struggling for grip.
“The ambient temperature dropped so low that we suffered, probably more than most as our own performance wasn’t up to where we thought it should be. I am absolutely sure that we have the resource and expertise to resolve the issues. How fast [we can do that] we will have to wait and see.”
In the Toyota camp the TF104 lacked downforce, leaving Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis struggling two laps down at the finish. The paddock gossip suggested they had been so concerned about the pre-season form of their new car, they tested it secretly back-to-back with last year’s machine. The old car was reportedly quicker.
Not so the Ferraris. This could be a long summer for the competition.
Results
Albert Park
3.295-mile road course
March 7
1. Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, 58 laps at 136.087 mph avg. speed; 2. Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari, 58; 3. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 58; 4. Ralf Schumacher, Williams-BMW, 58; 5. Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW, 58; 6. Jenson Button, BAR-Honda, 58; 7. Jarno Trulli, Renault, 57; 8. David Coulthard, McLaren-Mercedes, 57; 9. Takuma Sato, BAR-Honda, 57; 10. Giancarlo Fisichella, Sauber-Petronas, 57;
11. Christian Klien, Jaguar-Cosworth, 56; 12. Cristiano da Matta, Toyota, 56; 13. Olivier Panis, Toyota, 56; 14. Giorgio Pantano, Jordan-Ford, 55; 15. Felipe Massa, Sauber-Petronas, 44 (engine); 16. Nick Heidfeld, 43 (gearbox); 17. Gianmaria Bruni, Minardi-Cosworth, 43; 18. Mark Webber, Jaguar-Cosworth, 29 (gearbox); 19. Zsolt Baumgartner, Minardi-Cosworth, 13 (electrical); 20. Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren-Mercedes, 9 (engine)
TIME OF RACE: 1h 24m 15.757s
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 13.605s
FAST QUALIFIER: M. Schumacher, 1m 24.408s
FAST LAP: M. Schumacher, 1m 24.125s
LAP LEADERS: M. Schumacher, 1-58
CAUTION PERIODS: None
POINT LEADERS: 1. M. Schumacher, 10; 2. Barrichello, 8; 3. Alonso, 6; 4. R. Schumacher, 5; 5. Montoya, 4; 6. Button, 3; 7. Trulli, 2; 8. Coulthard, 1
NEXT: Malaysia, March 21 (1:30 a.m. Eastern, Speed)
http://www.autoweek.com/
After all the preseason hype and frenzied anticipation, any hopes Williams and McLaren would finally take the fight to Ferrari seemed to lie in tatters. Schumacher and teammate Rubens Barrichello cruised imperiously to another 1-2 success.
True, their performance edge was given a spectacular boost by the unseasonably cool conditions, which played to their Bridgestone tires’ strengths. But by Sunday evening paddock insiders were speculating whether the legendary Italian team might win every race.
F1 doesn’t usually work like that, of course. Yet from the moment the two Ferrari F2004s sailed effortlessly away from the front row, you’d be forgiven for concluding that Schumacher’s seventh world championship was little more than a formality.
Schumacher’s qualifying pace in the new Ferrari was astounding. It was no surprise he started from pole. Last year there was a premium on going for banzai lap times in the Friday session, because earning a slot to run late on Saturday, when the times were reversed, meant you would be out on the circuit when it was at its scrubbed-in best, offering maximum grip. Under a new, controversial format, with the sessions separated not by 24 hours but by two minutes, this was not an issue. By the time the first car ran in the second session there was more than enough rubber down on track to provide the grip anybody could require.
“It’s rubbish,” said Flavio Briatore of the new format. “It’s too long for TV and makes no sense. It needs to be changed. It’s stupid for us, stupid for the spectators.”
Word is that F1 czar Bernie Ecclestone, too, wants it changed as soon as possible. Schumacher won his 71st grand prix by more than 13 seconds ahead of Barrichello, with Fernando Alonso’s impressive new Renault R24 storming home third, though more than half a minute behind the red cars. Then came the Williams-BMWs of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, with Jenson Button doing a good job to wind up sixth in the new BAR-Honda 006.
Barrichello kept Schumacher under strong pressure at the start, only to slow slightly after overheating his brakes in the chase. “It was a tough one,” Schumacher said, “because at the beginning, for the first half of the race before Rubens had some problems, he was pushing very, very hard and it was a really close fight.
“I couldn’t allow any mistakes and it was very exciting, I have to say. But the car is going well, we’ve seen this all weekend long and the great thing from my personal point of view is that I’ve come home with two more points than I scored last year after the first three races. So that’s a good start of the season for me.”
Like all the top teams, the two Ferraris were on a three-stop refueling strategy and sailed through their stops with precision. Alonso quickly got the upper hand over the Williams duo. He slipped through into third place at the first corner, after storming through from the third row of the grid, passing Montoya in the process as the Colombian slid wide onto the grass.
“He tried to brake as late as possible,” said Alonso. “He was on the inside, on the dirty part and he didn’t brake enough to get ’round the first corner. After that I was too slow to fight with the Ferraris and I was a little bit quicker than Jenson and the [two] Williams. I was in the middle of nowhere and didn’t have any big problems.”
The Williams drivers were slightly disappointed by the FW26s’ performance, even allowing for the cool conditions reducing the grip from their Michelin tires. Button, however, looked good in the new BAR, which showed not only welcome reliability but also commendable speed on its race debut.
“My start wasn’t particularly great,” said Button, “and it was very slippery out there, but I managed to hold on for fourth for some time. Ralf was able to get past me in the pit stop when we had a delay with the refueling nozzle.
“Then Montoya got past me out on the circuit. I think we need a little more in the way of race pace but it’s certainly a solid start to the season. We had good reliability, but then so did everybody else.”
Mark Webber also ran well in the new Jaguar R5, hanging on in eighth place just two seconds behind Montoya’s Williams for a time, but he later lost sixth and seventh gears, causing his retirement.
Williams should have been stronger. The upside was the BMW P84 engines ran faultlessly all weekend on this track, the third most grueling from the standpoint of full throttle running (63 percent of the lap) and the need for hard engine braking.
“The worrying thing,” said Ralf Schumacher, “is that at this race we were losing a second a lap compared with Ferrari, which I certainly didn’t expect, and is mainly down to the design of their car as well as some tire graining for us. The whole package needs to improve slightly and this is going to take maybe a couple of races, but I am confident we can make it.”
Two team garages that tiptoed away after the race were those of McLaren and Toyota. The McLaren MP4-19 was painfully off the pace, had poor handling balance and qualified badly. Kimi Raikkonen spun out with an engine failure and a philosophical David Coulthard trailed home a lapped eighth, a minute and a half behind the winning Ferrari. Coulthard could have seen this result coming based on pre-season tests from both McLaren and Ferrari.
“I did the [last] Imola test—-so to an extent I think I’ve always felt I’m the prophet of doom,” said Coulthard with commendable candor. “People get so excited about a single quick lap time during a test, saying ‘oh, we’re quick.’ I have to say ‘hold on a minute, it’s not about one lap in testing, it’s about averaging out all those tests.’ I saw Ferrari’s pace on the 15th lap in a test at Imola and they were a second quicker than anybody.”
So his car’s lack of speed came as no surprise. McLaren, which enjoys an estimated $300 million budget, will have to explain to its elite group of blue chip sponsors why the car proved so disappointing.
McLaren chairman Ron Dennis said, “It was certainly a race which reflects a significant differential between one tire manufacturer and another. And while the majority of the quick cars are on Michelin, you’ve got a lot of them struggling for grip.
“The ambient temperature dropped so low that we suffered, probably more than most as our own performance wasn’t up to where we thought it should be. I am absolutely sure that we have the resource and expertise to resolve the issues. How fast [we can do that] we will have to wait and see.”
In the Toyota camp the TF104 lacked downforce, leaving Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis struggling two laps down at the finish. The paddock gossip suggested they had been so concerned about the pre-season form of their new car, they tested it secretly back-to-back with last year’s machine. The old car was reportedly quicker.
Not so the Ferraris. This could be a long summer for the competition.
Results
Albert Park
3.295-mile road course
March 7
1. Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, 58 laps at 136.087 mph avg. speed; 2. Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari, 58; 3. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 58; 4. Ralf Schumacher, Williams-BMW, 58; 5. Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW, 58; 6. Jenson Button, BAR-Honda, 58; 7. Jarno Trulli, Renault, 57; 8. David Coulthard, McLaren-Mercedes, 57; 9. Takuma Sato, BAR-Honda, 57; 10. Giancarlo Fisichella, Sauber-Petronas, 57;
11. Christian Klien, Jaguar-Cosworth, 56; 12. Cristiano da Matta, Toyota, 56; 13. Olivier Panis, Toyota, 56; 14. Giorgio Pantano, Jordan-Ford, 55; 15. Felipe Massa, Sauber-Petronas, 44 (engine); 16. Nick Heidfeld, 43 (gearbox); 17. Gianmaria Bruni, Minardi-Cosworth, 43; 18. Mark Webber, Jaguar-Cosworth, 29 (gearbox); 19. Zsolt Baumgartner, Minardi-Cosworth, 13 (electrical); 20. Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren-Mercedes, 9 (engine)
TIME OF RACE: 1h 24m 15.757s
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 13.605s
FAST QUALIFIER: M. Schumacher, 1m 24.408s
FAST LAP: M. Schumacher, 1m 24.125s
LAP LEADERS: M. Schumacher, 1-58
CAUTION PERIODS: None
POINT LEADERS: 1. M. Schumacher, 10; 2. Barrichello, 8; 3. Alonso, 6; 4. R. Schumacher, 5; 5. Montoya, 4; 6. Button, 3; 7. Trulli, 2; 8. Coulthard, 1
NEXT: Malaysia, March 21 (1:30 a.m. Eastern, Speed)
http://www.autoweek.com/
