French GP - Ferrari Owners' Club

GRAND PRIX: France : The Long Haul Continues
by Winston D'Arcy

5.7.05

Following the farcical US GP, Formula 1 has once again been mired in controversy with vitriolic comments flying about in all directions. The seven Michelin teams were "tried" by the FIA and found guilty of "not being in possession of suitable tyres" and "wrongfully refusing to start the race"; a number of other charges were dismissed.

Punishment has been suspended until September and now hangs over the teams like a sword of Damocles - presumably as a guarantee for future good behaviour. The teams have appealed against the decision; however, as things calmed down, it became clear that there was no way that they could have raced in litigation-frenzied America.

Ron Dennis revealed that if they had raced without a chicane they would have been subject to criminal prosecution whether there was an accident or not, because Michelin had advised that the tyres were unsafe. The proposed chicane was a red herring, because the FIA would have had to break their own rules to install it. Apart from this, it would have meant the cars racing on a circuit on which they had not tested - one for which they were not set-up. Bernie Ecclestone has said that the Michelin teams not racing was really the only choice, as who could have really known whether the tyres would have been safe with a chicane or not?

Michelin have put their hands up and admitted they made a mistake, shouldered the blame and offered to compensate the fans. They pushed the envelope too far - but this is inevitable if racing's more than just an empty show.

What was noticeable during the whole episode was the total lack of goodwill and willingness to sacrifice self-interest and make the slightest compromise for the good of the "sport"; but the episode had nothing to do with trying to find a solution - it was and is about the battle for control of F1. The Michelin 7 have offered to stage a non-championship race at their expense (rejected by IMS boss Tony George). One wonders whether postponing the GP itself would have been possible - it never seems to have been even mooted, neither does the possibility of all the teams running on Bridgestone tyres. This would have depended on whether Bridgestone could supply enough tyres, if the necessary testing time could have been arranged and any contractual problems sorted out. It would have been great to see and great for the sport - but no chance.

The USGP certainly gave Ferrari a massive leg-up in the Championships, with Schuey jumping up to third place, just three points behind second place Raikkonen in the drivers' and left Ferrari tying with McLaren in second place in the constructors'.

The other big news was the purchase of Sauber by BMW. It'll be interesting to see if they can make a better job of running a GP team than Williams. It's going to be tough getting over all the penalties their cars incur for overtaking on the warm-up lap, parking in other people's pit slots, pulling out on them from the pit lane, and cutting them up.

Anyway, on to Magny Cours, I enjoy single-lap qualifying (though not the race fuel bit) as you can focus 100% on one car and Martin Brundle's insight and the in-car stuff is great, but you do have to concentrate. However, it's increasingly spoiled by a constant stream of irrelevancies and drivel from James Allen. By all means fill in when appropriate, but when the cars are on their hot laps he should just SHUT UP and let Brundle get on with it!

Alonso's Renault looked fabulous, the way it turned in and changed direction. Montoya's McLaren looked like it had got loads of grip, but his time was poor, he ended up ninth. Team-mate Raikkonen qualified third fastest, but dropped 10 places on the grid as an Ilmor engine had expired in free practice. Trulli was second for Toyota and Schuey 4th and Ruben's 6th, though of course they would go up a grid position because of Kimi's demotion. We'd have to see what the fuel strategies were, but the Scuderia looked good for a podium.

Allen shouted "GOOOOO" at the start of the race (again) - and Alonso simply blasted off into the lead and left everyone for dead. He pulled away at about a second and a half a lap until he had a 30 second lead in time for his first pit stop on lap 20. He re-joined still in the lead and that was that. He led throughout, adjusting his pace as necessary, giving Renault their first French GP win as a constructor since Alain Prost's in 1983. They had, of course, won it several times as an engine supplier including Schuey's 1995 victory for Benetton - the team which was to become Renault, who do seem to have done the best job of the various manufacturers who have bought into teams.

Interestingly, new Renault boss Carlos Ghosn said that Formula One is an investment if you do well and know how to exploit your success, and a cost if you don't. This is exactly the reason to be wary of manufacturers running F1 teams - for them (quite rightly) it is a means to an end, not an end in itself. When business priorities change, or it simply doesn't suit anymore, they will pull out. The real danger is that when one does, it is very difficult for them to be replaced because of the expense - Peter Sauber citing the huge cost of competing in F1 today as a major reason for his decision to sell up.

Back on track, Schuey got stuck behind Trulli, who held him up badly. He pitted on the same lap but was short-filled to get him in front of the Toyota driver. Meanwhile, the McLarens were carving their way through the field and Raikkonen, on a two-stop strategy, made his first stop last of all the runners. He emerged in second place which he held to the end. So, he qualified third, started 13th, stopped last, but still had the pace to finish second. Schuey ran fourth behind Alonso and the two McLarens until Montoya retired on lap 46 with hydraulic failure and he inherited 3rd. He set the fourth best average lap of the race, behind Alonso and the two McLarens, so this suggests the race result was a true reflection of Ferrari's pace at the moment. Worryingly, he was only able to set the seventh fastest lap behind the three previously named, Button's BAR and Coulthud's Red Bull.

The race was largely a matter of waiting for the pit strategies to unravel - a bit like watching the hand-overs and staggers evolve in a 4x100m relay race. Disappointingly, there was little on-track action and there wasn't even any telescoping-up of the cars as their tyres wore out.

At the end Schuey, in third, was the last un-lapped runner, Button scored the first points for BAR this year, both Toyotas were in the points, Fisichella was 6th for Renault, after a stall in the pits and Villeneuve took the last point for Sauber. Rubens was 9th, suffering from brake problems and traffic.

This time, it was a Bridgestone team's turn to suffer tyre problems. Both Minardis retired when their left rears collapsed. It later emerged that both cars' valve caps had not been re-fitted following a pit stop - a pretty girl must have walked past their pit, and back again. The cars looked "difficult" throughout the weekend too, so maybe Paul Stoddart should attend to his own business rather than everyone else's.

Jean Todt:

" This weekend we were among the best in qualifying, but we were unable to match that in the race. Michael finished third and clearly could not have done better. The cars ahead of him were simply quicker. After just a few laps, Rubens found he had a problem with the brakes, which made his race very difficult. As the laps went by, he kept dropping down the order, ending up outside the points. We are disappointed because we hoped to be much more competitive."

Michael Schumacher:

" It is true that I lost a lot of time stuck behind Trulli for eighteen laps and that meant that Montoya got past me. Without that early delay, our strategy might have put me ahead of Kimi. In fact this race was all about different drivers on different strategies, but today we did not quite match the pace of the leaders. I had one moment when I ran wide at Turn 3 and then I also came under a bit of pressure from Fisichella, when he was running lighter than me, but he never got too close."

Rubens Barrichello:

"It was a terrible race for me. After four or five laps, I began to have a problem with the brakes which meant the car was hard to drive. Then, in the first run of pit stops, I was unable to get ahead of Trulli and so I always found myself behind cars that were potentially slower than me. The brake problem got progressively worse and I kept slipping back so that I wasn’t even able to pick up a single point. I am very disappointed."

RACE RESULTS - FRENCH GP
70 Laps. Weather, Hot, dry

Classified:
Pos	Driver	Team		Time
1.	Alonso	Renault	(M)	1h31:22.233
2.	Raikkonen	McLaren	(M)	+ 0:11.805
3.	M. Schumacher	Ferrari	(B)	+ 1:21.914
4.	Button	BAR	(M)	+ 1 Lap
5.	Trulli	Toyota	(M)	+ 1 Lap
6.	Fisichella	Renault	(M)	+ 1 Lap
7.	R. Schumacher	Toyota	(M)	+ 1 Lap
8.	Villeneuve	Sauber	(M)	+ 1 Lap
9.	Barrichello	Ferrari	(B)	+ 1 Lap
10.	Coulthard	Red Bull	(M)	+ 1 Lap
11.	Sato	BAR	(M)	+ 1 Lap
12.	Webber	Williams	(M)	+ 2 Laps
13.	Monteiro	Jordan	(B)	+ 3 Laps
14.	Heidfeld	Williams	(M)	+ 4 Laps
15.	Karthikeyan	Jordan	(B)	+ 4 Laps

World Championship Standing, Round 10 :
Drivers:			Constructors:
1.	Alonso	69	1.	Renault	89
2.	Raikkonen	45	2.	McLaren	71
3.	M. Schumacher	40	3.	Ferrari	69
4.	Trulli	31	4.	Toyota	53
5.	Barrichello	29	5.	Williams	47
6.	Heidfeld	25	6.	Red Bull	22
7.=	Webber	22	7.	Sauber	13
7.=	R. Schumacher	22	8.	Jordan	11
9.	Fisichella	20	9.	Minardi	7
10.	Coulthard	17	10.	BAR	5
11.	Montoya	16
12.	Massa	7
13.=	Monteiro	6
13.=	Wurz	6
15.=	Villeneuve	5
15.=	Button	5
15.=	Karthikeyan	5
18.=	Albers	4
18.=	de la Rosa	4
18.=	Klien	4
21.	Friesacher	3
22.	Liuzzi	1