F1-Blog

More races next year

It seems that Imola, the historic Italian circuit and home to Ferrari may have been thrown a lifeline for next year.

The FIA had shown a timetable for races, and one of the German and Italian races were left off the 17 race calendar.

However it has been announced by the FIA, that the teams have unanimously agreed to increase the races to 18 next year, allowing for the San Marino GP to possibly put back on the schedule.

The circuit however needs to make changes to the paddock and pits to get approval for the race.

It looks like the addition of the circuit was brought on by Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari and Fiat president, after discussions with the FIA, Bernie and the Italian Prime Minister.

Luca said "For us it is very important that Imola remains". So it looks like it will.

If however the circuit cannot make the changes deemed required, there are other circuits that could take the race instead, one of the possibilities is Honda's Suzuka circuit in Japan.

Schumi on top again

Michael Schumacher has boosted Ferrari's 2006 hopes by winning the San Marino GP at Imola. It however was not all good new for Ferrari, Michaels car struggled after the first pit stop with what looks like troubles with his Bridgestones.

The Ferrari team chose to run more new tyres in qualifying than Renault and it seems they have suffered due to that decision. The Ferrari number 1 driver seemed to be 2 seconds of the pace during his second stint, and at least 1 second a lap off the pace in the third run.

He did however win due to a tactical mistake made by the Renault team. Renault called Alonso in for a fuel and tyre change while he was stuck behind Michael. However this proved a mistake as Alonso was then held up on his out lap by traffic and Ferrari were fortunate enough to bring Michael in on the following lap after a decent in lap. This allowed the Ferrari to just get out in front of the Renault basically sealing the race due to the difficulty of overtaking.

Qualification

Qualification ended in Imola with a few surprises to mull over. First off (and not really a surprise) Ferrari performed well at their home race with Michael getting his first pole of the season, and Massa finishing the session in fourth.

The one turn up for the books was not the performance of Button in the Honda, or even the Honda in general. No it was the resurrection of Rubens Barrichello's season with his 3rd on the grid.

The other 'not quite expected's' are. Renault - The team certainly did not perform as was expected, as Pat Symonds said "We are either going to go long in the first session, or we are slow". Championship leader Alonso will start from fifth on the grid with Fisichella starting eleventh even though he had an uprated engine available to him.

Toyota definitely performed above their previous attempts, Ralph will start from sixth even though he struggled on Friday with car issues, and Trulli will start from ninth, the first time this season both Toyota cars have been in the final qualifying session.

Europe starts

The European leg of the season kicks off this weekend with the Imola GP. Why is this important? well the European leg of the season usually sees the introduction of the parts that the production and design teams have been working hard on at home while the race teams have been abroad.

We now know from the news and rumours going around already that Imola is going to be an important GP. Renault have admitted to a new evolution on Fisi's engine (Alonso will have to wait a GP or take a 10 place penalty). Toyota admitted before the season started that a team was working on a 'European' car, so expect a step up for them. Williams and engine partner have said they have worked out what the issue with the Cosworth reliability was, and fixed that; and that's already one of the best V8's on the grid performance wise. Honda have put 'countermeasures' in place to solve the exploding engine syndrome that Button suffered. To add to that BMW have increased power to their V8, and Red Bull / Toro Rosso have plenty of money to do something.