F1-Blog

Italy show who’s boss

Again the Italians have shown the French who's boss. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher romped to a convincing win in the French GP ahead of Alonso in second.

The Bridgestone shod Ferrari showed it's dominance yesterday in qualifying, where the Ferrari drivers locked the front row of the grid up with ease.

Ferrari seem to have had a step up in performance, bringing there 'new' car to the French GP seems to have paid off well for the team, the Ferrari has had some Major additions and changes to it this race, although it is not a 'B' car apparently. Bridgestone have picked their game up as well, as seen by the uplift in performance of the Toyota cars, although the Toyota seems to have improved quite dramatically as well.

Renault seemed to struggle at their home race, Alonso did not seem to be in the same race as Michael.

The only time the Renault car showed any chance of getting ahead of the Ferrari was during the start, however even the fast starting Renault cars need a little space to work there magic. The Magny-Cours track however has a very short run to the first corner.

Massa played rear gunner for the first stint of the race, allowing Michael's tyres to go through their graining period, and for him to run off and hide with a 6 second gap between him and his team mate Massa in second.

Massa pitted first on lap 18, the Ferrari team put a new set of Bridgestone tyres onto the car. The first lap pace of the Bridgestone tyres allowed Massa to hold onto his track position ahead of the Renault of Alonso. Alonso pitted on lap 19, he then fell to 5 seconds back of Massa.

Rubens retired his Honda with what looked like engine issues on lap 19 as well. The Honda car's performance all weekend has been weak. A good quote from Rubens team mate Jenson Button "we (Honda) have a lack of overall speed, that comes from a lack of engine power and from a lack of down-force, that's all we are lacking at the moment, and also we are lacking in reliability" So then Jenson, your lacking a race car when you think about it.

The Toyota cars of Ralf and Trulli showed that the qualifying pace they had was genuine, both cars running long on their first run. Ralf pitting on lap 22 had a problem with the left wheel and his stop ended up taking 17 seconds, dropping him to 7th.

Trulli came under threat from Raikkonen, he held out well, but then it seemed that the McLaren left the Toyota standing coming out of the slow corner approaching the Nurburgring chicane. It was however later noticed that the Toyota was having engine troubles. Trulli retired later on lap 40.

De la Rossa showed that he is not afraid to have a go, he dived passed Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber 'Twin Tower' car at the Adelaide hairpin. Showing that he could handle the step up to race driving now that Juan Pablo has been sidelined.

The Williams cars seem to struggle every race, and this race was no different. Lap 39 saw Webber's rear left tyre de-laminate and throw him into a spin. No sooner had he recovered to the pit lane and replaced the wheel, it happened again. The car was retired as unsafe, and Webber's team mate Rosberg had his car called in to check it over for the same issue. It seemed to be an overheating issue, although if Rosberg's car was not having the same problem it must have been a setup issue with Webber's car.

Alonso was switched onto a two stop strategy, Renault filled the car to the end of the race on lap 42, this made the Renault heavy and allowed both Massa and Ralf to start to catch the Renault.

Ralf then made his stop on lap 46, also on a two stop strategy and came out ahead of the Ferrari of Massa. Massa however stopped on lap 53 and joined the track ahead of Ralf, ending the Toyota teams chances of a podium.  

Michael then made his last stop on lap 55 with no incident. Jenson retired his car on lap 61, ending a bad day for the Honda team.

The Hockenheim grand prix is next, Renault have already said that a revised car will be at the German track. Alonso will be hoping the changed Renault will be able to challenge the Ferrari and Bridgestone challenge, as we will be hoping for a more interesting race.

France Qualifying

The French GP has brought some strange things to light. The firstone is the lack of performance from the Honda cars. Neither of the Honda cars have shown any performance all weakend, and when I say no performance, I mean MF1 levels almost. Button therefore will be starting from 18th on the grid, with team mate Barrichello starting 13th.

Another shock came from the 'Two Towers' BMW Sauber cars. They have been setting the pace all weekend up untill qualifying, where they just did not perform. Villeneuve will start the race from 17th after falling out in Qualy1 and Heidfeld will start 11th.

Other supprises where the good showing of the Bridgestone tyres, they went well on both the Ferrari (1 and 2 on the grid for Michael and Massa) and Toyota teams, who are the other plesant supprise. They have proved the pace they showed in the USA is a real improvement. Both cars made it through to Q3, with Trulli starting 4th and Ralf starting 5th.

The Michelin tyred cars seemed to stuggle with the increased track temperatures. Alonso showed he is still a talented driver, getting the home car Renault onto 3rd on the grid, with his team mate Fisichella struggling to match the pace in 7th.

The McLaren cars showed a decent pace, De la Rossa showed good pace, getting 8th and Raikonen put his car on the 3rd row in 6th.

Coulthard also drove well to get through to the Q3 session, he starts 9th (after the other Q3 runner Rosberg took a 10 place drop for an engine change). He used the Q3 session to work on the balance of the car, never using a new set of tyres, or setting a 'fast lap'.

That leaves us with a good grid for the race tomorow. Will the Toyota's be able to show race pace in the same area as their qualifying pace? Will the Ferrari's run off and hide? or will the home team win out the day. Only time will tell.

Franck in France

It looks like the only French driver in F1 will get to race his home event. Franck Montagny has been confirmed as the second driver in the Super Aguri team.

The French driver is not expected to win the race (obviously), but let's wish him our best for his home grand prix. 

Montoya?

News has reached me (now I am back in the country) that Juan Pablo Montoya has been sacked with immediate effect at McLaren Mercedes.

The word is that the team believed he had broken part of his contract when he announced his move to the Chip Ganassi Racing team during the weekend.

The good news (I liked JPM, so that is bad news) is that the team will run test driver Pedro de la Rosa who I rate quite highly personally.

"Juan Pablo is an exciting driver and immensely likable character who will undoubtedly make a successful transition to the NASCAR scene," said Ron Dennis, boss of McLaren Mercedes. "We have agreed that with so many things happening in Juan Pablo's life right now, he should take some time out of the car and prepare professionally and personally for the future."

So at the base it looks amicable, however it is believed that JPM has 'gone' due to a contract break on his part.

Heidfeld Roll

Eurosport has posted a good set of shots of the roll the BMW Sauber driver had to endure in this weekends USA GP first lap incident.