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Articles by Darren Galpin
| A Very Curious Crisis - Sun 02nd Apr 2006 |
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At last we saw motor racing, with drivers having to overtake to win. And what a series of overtakes – Montoya driving around the outside of Button, Webber sticking strong moves on his contemporaries, and Alonso drafting Button. It more than made up for the point to point racing that made up the first two Grands Prix. Let’s have more of the same please next time around.
Ferrari seem to be in a very curious crisis at the moment. They were suffering from a lack of speed all weekend, which meant that their drivers were pushing hard to overcome the problems, yet even given this their performance was somewhat extraordinary, with a degree of performance sometimes there, and sometimes not. I hesitate to use the term inexplicable to describe this, as with the degree of telemetry on the vehicles I’m sure that Ferrari have a very good idea about what the problem is, but if you are on the outside the performance in the Australia leaves you a little non-plussed.
Consider the early performance of Michael Schumacher – this is all we can do really, following Massa’s attempts to gnaw off the rear of Klien’s Red Bull and Rosberg’s Williams. In the first half of the race he was mixing it with the Toro Rosso’s of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed, with Liuzzi putting a pass on Michael, and Speed following close behind. You might consider there to be a degree of mitigation involved, in that the rev-restricted V10’s in the Toro Rosso’s have better torque characteristics when accelerating out of the slow corners which predominate at Albert Park, yet even so Schumacher was five seconds slower per lap than race leader. Later though, when in clear air, he was able to catch the next driver by up to a second per lap. Go figure! As he pulled out these times and tried desperately to catch the next driver, he understeered wide onto the start straight, hit a bump in the grass and piled into the wall, spinning wildly across the track and shedding bodywork and tyres as he went. It was an ignominious end to a desperate race. At no point did the Ferrari look like being remotely competitive. This lack of competitiveness seems to be affecting the driving of Schumacher adversely, and his driving looks rattled, no matter what is quoted in the press about his off-track demeanour. It’s a situation in which Schumacher has not been for several years, and it is to be seen how he will cope over the coming year. Much more of this and heads can be expected to roll within Ferrari.
Questions also have to be asked over the new rules regarding engines following the spectacular engine blow up to Jenson Button in the final corner of the final lap. The rules state that if you retire during a race, you can put a new engine in and not suffer a ten place penalty on the grid on the next place. If you do cross the finishing line, then even if your engine breaks on the slowing down lap, you get a ten place penalty on the grid. Button could have coasted across the line and finish in sixth position and got himself three drivers and manufacturers points, but instead he pulled over, stopped 30 metres before the finishing line, and finished 10th, one lap down and officially retired. Thus he sacrificed the three points, but doesn’t suffer a penalty in the next race. This can’t be what was intended by the FIA, and is an artificial end to what was a good effort. Gone are the days when a driver would get out of his car and push it across the line – why suffer the 10 place qualifying penalty if you do?
Another driver you have to feel a touch sorry for is Giancarlo Fisichella. He stalled on the first grid, necessitating a start from the pit-lane, and he made a reasonable job of working his way up the field. However, mid-race his chief engineer came on the radio to tell him that he had the same car as leader Alonso, the same tyres, the same set-up and the same strategy, so why was he two seconds a lap slower? This was broadcast to millions worldwide, and must have done absolute wonders for his drivers confidence. You can imagine the comments that he will get after the race as well. Up to the race itself, Fisichella had been very fast, out qualifying Alonso, so it was back to appalling luck as usual for Fisichella. Given that Alonso is the driver who is leaving at the end of the year, it is a wonderful piece of man management to be so brutal with Fisichella. He seems to be mentally fragile at the best of times, and beating him up is hardly the best way to extract the performances needed.
And so Alonso rolled on to yet another win, with Räikkönen second, and Ralf Schumacher a surprising third, having suffered a drive through penalty for pit-lane speeding but having made the best of four safety car periods. It is an indication of what Toyota might do. However, you need to bear in mind that he would have been nowhere near had it not been for the safety cars. They are spending an awful lot of money, and shouldn’t be relying on such strokes of fortune to get the points. No doubt copious amounts of more yen will be flowing their way to move them still further up the grid.
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