Australian Grand Prix Review

Three races - one sixth of the season down already, mind you - is enough for some trends to emerge. Those who are saying that this is the closest season in many years are spot on. With the rapid resurgence of Toyota and the sooner-than-expected emergence of BMW Sauber as a force, there are now 7 teams, 64% of the field, in with genuine podium prospects each round, with Red Bull still yet to come on strong. That is not only unheard-of in recent times, it is a mouth-watering prospect.

Having said that, the closeness means tight situations, it means stress, it means people pushing to the limit, it means people going over the limit. And the team which is surviving the mayhem and the flotsam best remains the World Champions Renault, and in particular reigning title-holder Alonso. As has been well-documented, Renault are midfield as far as spending is concerned, but come the race weekend, there is simply no substitute for a cool head and some racing savvy.

Fernando already has 28 points out of a possible 30 and a 14-point buffer, whereas 13 points then separates the next fourteen drivers! Renault already have a 19-point lead over McLaren. On performance they may not dominate, but on results they do. There are some ominous overtones of last season in how the French team and their Spanish lead driver are skipping away to an early lead. They may avoid going down to the last few races when Alonso’s impending move to McLaren might have a psychological effect.

Yuji Ide surpassed his own mediocrity with no less than four off-road moments in the first 15 minutes in the Super Aguri, including one spin that brought out the red flags, while of course the second segment was halted after Felipe Massa’s wild accident. It meant a huge last-gasp rush to set times in both Q1 and Q2, with Rubens Barrichello the notable sufferer in Q1 (having also had the insult of being held up by Ide on his first lap), and Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg in Q2.

It simply astounds why not more drivers are setting banker laps, possibly on scrubbed tyres, early in Q1 and Q2. The advantage that a more rubbered-up track can give later in the segment, and the advantage of saving tyres and engine mileage, does not fully offset the risk that the segment could be red-flagged so late that there is not enough time to set a flying lap, or even if there is time for one or two flyers, that you could be held up by slower traffic at critical moments.

It was a demonstration of Renault’s tactical nous that Alonso was one of the first quick men to set times in both Q2 and Q3. Then in the race itself he was simply supreme, once team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella had removed himself from the reckoning at the start, and once it was clear that both Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen simply didn’t have the pace to match. On the radio snippet broadcasted he said he was “relaxed”, and his engineer said he was “chilled”, and that said it all. For the rest, it was chilling.

Alonso has a tremendously long way to go before he can match the achievements of Schumacher, so comparisons at this stage are not worth making. But it is interesting that while his forceful aggression in terms of driving technique emulates the great German, he also has the stealthy touch of an Alain Prost, in the way that he will just keep staying out of trouble, bring the car home, and mercilessly rack up the points while rivals get caught up with fighting each other.

He has not suffered an unsolicited mechanical failure in a race since the Belgian GP of 2004. The same could not be said for Fisichella. The Italian’s stall that aborted the first start, relegated him to starting from the pit lane instead of the front row, and obliged him to fight his way back through the field, was not his fault. Nor the fact that his car’s telemetry failed in the first stint, his clutch was dysfunctional for much of the third stint, and his middle stint was stifled by understeer.

But what still keeps Fisichella away from that top echelon of drivers is that he lets these things affect the quality of his driving. His spin under the first safety car near the scene of the Massa wreck was rather silly. And then for his own race engineer Alan Permane to come on the radio and tell him during that second stint that even with understeer he should not have been several seconds off Alonso’s pace is a damning indictment that one does not hear in relation to the very best, and it calls into doubt his title credibility.

Even if the MP4/21 is not a rocketship like last year’s car was, at least it seems to have the reliability which has recently been the team’s major bugbear. But is Kimi totally happy and totally motivated at the moment? The speculation about where he’ll be next year never ceases. Maybe he’s finally sick of not having a car that’s fast and reliable enough to deliver him the title, and sick of the uncertainty that McLaren offers him. Or maybe, like last year, he just finds it hard to get fully going during the fly-away races.

Juan-Pablo Montoya was arguably the faster of the pair over the course of the weekend, having somewhat woken up from his own slumber that had led to quiet performances in Bahrain and Malaysia. But in typical JPM fashion, with the speed came the wildness. The spin in qualifying 3 hurt his good set of tyres and cost him a place or two on the grid, and his lose coming onto the grid on the warm-up lap was amateurish. He was fortunate that Fisichella stalled and he could resume his place up the order.

The Colombian then found himself in close scraps throughout the race, and crucially behind his team-mate when they both pitted for the second time under the safety car, only for Raikkonen’s front wing change to delay JPM. Eventually his tank-slapper coming out of the last corner caused his electrics to shut down, possibly because he had accidentally engaged his pit-speed limiter, as the flashing light on the back of his car momentarily came on. All in all, the pace was there, but it was a shambolic race.

Toyota had reason to leave Melbourne feeling not only pleased but vindicated. It had been a remarkable turnaround from the Bahrain disaster three weeks back, to being on the podium after a very opportunistic drive from Ralf Schumacher. Not to forget that Ralf actually incurred a drive-through for pit lane speeding, but, brought back into play by the second safety car period after his brother’s accident, he was aggressive on the restart and catapulted himself into a podium position.

This was not without controversy though, as he appeared to pass Nick Heidfeld’s BMW after the safety car had been deployed. Admittedly, Heidfeld had snookered himself behind a Midland, and the BMW probably wouldn’t have had the pace to hold off the Toyota, but that was not the point, and it was a surprise that not more was made of this incident. But, to give him credit, Ralf had been genuinely quick throughout practice, and all that hard work in testing to get heat into the Bridgestones was paying dividends.

Jarno Trulli was stricken with a bad dose of the cold, and some bad luck in qualifying when a collision with a bird kept him out of segment 3, and he was probably glad to end his race on the first lap after his somewhat clumsy collision with David Coulthard. But there’s no escaping the fact that his team-mate is responding better to the TF106 and getting a clear ascendancy. The number of point-less races in a row now has climbed to 7 for the Italian, and the rot has to stop soon or else some tough questions will be asked.

Sure, the start of 2006 had not gone to plan, but the Melbourne result proved that under the Englishman’s technical direction the team had been able to lift itself off the floor in record time. Plus he had a well-known rapport with both drivers. The official line is that Gascoyne differed from other team leaders in terms of the “technical direction” of the team. Given his record, and the money they paid for him in the first place, if that were the case then the team should have submitted to his direction instead.

Alternatively, it has been suggested that Gascoyne clashed with some of the bigwigs in the Toyota head office, which just adds fuel to those who criticise the involvement of manufacturers in the sport, the foremost of which is FIA president Max Mosley. It’s interesting that, in the wake of there being 22 submissions for the 12 spots on the 2008 entry list, Toyota’s John Howett was the first to come out in criticising the FIA for not giving them enough security, and threatening to withdraw.

When Toyota came into F1, everyone said that it was only a matter of time before they succeeded because they have climbed to the top in every category they’ve entered. Could F1 be the one realm where they will leave without victory? By so easily getting rid of a prize asset like Gascoyne when there’s no one else in the team capable of filling his shoes, and by making noises about withdrawal, you wonder what Toyota’s goals are and whether they’re actually going to be serious about achieving victory.

Starting 19th after his engine change, Jacques’ heavy one-stop fuel load dropped him so far back that he couldn’t make best use of the safety car compressions. But it’s Villeneuve’s return to something like his feisty best which has been pleasing. Vitantonio Liuzzi may still be claiming that JV ran him off and gave him no room, and that may or may not be true, but that’s the kind of no-quarter-given, wheel-to-wheel aggression that spells an on-form Jacques. And I’m glad to see that even if it means a bent Toro Rosso.

In contrast to the upturn in fortunes for Toyota and BMW, it was a miserable race for Honda that ended with Button’s car on fire metres from the finish line, when he was on course for no better than 5th in a race he was ‘supposed’ to win. Right from the start it was obvious that Button wouldn’t have the pace. Once again the strategy calls did him no favours, and given the two-race engine rule he was told sacrifice three points rather than drop 10 places on the grid at Imola, a traditionally strong track for the team.

That was understandable, and further proof that the two-race engine rule is ridiculous to the extreme, but three points are three points, and not often do you see genuinely serious contenders give up valuable scores. You ask if Honda is serious about winning, and if they actually know how to do it. In hindsight, their cock-a-hoop reaction to Button scoring pole, when he was clearly running comparatively light, was quite pathetic. You don’t win Grands Prix by fooling yourself into thinking you’ve got the package.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Honda Racing
Button slides down and retires; Rubens AWOL

Red Bull wasn’t really in the hunt in either qualifying or the race, but Coulthard inherited 8th after Scott Speed was given a 25-second penalty for overtaking DC after the yellow flags had come out for a safety car period. One of the stars of last year’s Melbourne race, it was really a rather uninspired outing for the Scot. Christian Klien’s day ended early with a nasty accident going into turn 9, possibly a result of damage from tangling with Massa at the first corner.

With BMW and Toyota rapidly on the improve, Red Bull need to ensure that they don’t get left behind. It was probably not in the game plan for the sister Toro Rossos to be right up there with them. The incident between Coulthard and Speed, with its unsavoury denouement in the stewards’ room afterwards, shows the current tension between the main team which is perhaps not quite performing up to expectations, and the upstart ex-Minardi team which is doing better than anticipated.

On several levels the incident and how it played out afterwards was unsatisfactory. On one hand, as he enters elder statesman status, DC is increasingly moulding himself as F1’s moral police, and he risks starting to sound like a grumpy old man. On the other hand, Speed’s liberal use of expletives in the stewards’ room (which earned him a $5,000 fine) and in the press is freshly candid from one perspective, but from another perspective it’s also brash to the point of cringe-worthy.

Speed’s demotion from what would have been his and Toro Rosso’s first-ever point was the insult that added to the injury of Liuzzi’s heavy crash, after Tonio had caused a stir by passing Michael Schumacher down the inside going into turn 3. Schumi had not made it easy either, squeezing Liuzzi right to the edge of the track, but the Italian held his ground and nerve, and did not brake too deep into the corner. This team was Minardi last year, after all. Incredible.

Michael denied that the move had anything to do with Toro Rosso’s Cosworth V10, and just as we all thought the equivalency uproar had died down, it appears as though MF1 and Super Aguri are going to ask the FIA to ban Toro Rosso from scoring constructors points as long as they use detuned V10s. The current formula may be advantageous to the Italian team, but if so it’s not by much, and it seems like a tweaking of the rev limit is much fairer than to muck around with the way points are handed out.

If anything Midland ought to get their own ship in shape first before complaining about Toro Rosso’s V10s. The capacity is there, the cars seems decent, there’s some money available, on paper the drivers are good, but there’s not much about MF1’s performances that impress at the moment. Both pilots are proving disappointing. Tiago Monteiro has been outpaced by Christijan Albers and not driven like the rookie of the year from 2005. Albers, with multiple offs during the Melbourne weekend, remains a liability.

Ironically, given that the M16 chassis is powered by the Toyota engine, in view of Gascoyne’s sudden departure from Cologne, Midland followed suit with Adrian Burgess leaving midweek. In this era where Alex Shnaider and Colin Kolles rule the roost, first Trevor Carlin left in the middle of last year, and now Burgess has walked out as well. The talent pool at Silverstone is nothing to write home about, and they simply could not afford to lose people of this calibre.

In the lead-up to Melbourne, Motorsport News in Australia labelled Super Aguri as everyone’s second-favourite team. Aguri Suzuki’s hard-triers brought both cars home for the first time. Takuma Sato has not responded to the test of character by pushing too hard and going off the track. Instead, he has been solid and dependable, and his early stint when he ran 12th, ahead of Barrichello, was mightily impressive. Continuing in this vein will do wonders for rebuilding his reputation.

Poor Ide in the other car though looks increasingly like a fish out of water. His practice, qualifying and race pace was, frankly, embarrassing. He is clearly in the team because of his nationality rather than his ability or track record. The pity is that Super Aguri are by and large impressing, but they could do so even more if they had a second driver who was equally able to help them punch above their weight. Especially now that a new car looks like it won’t come on stream until mid-year.

The team may have been on a high after Bahrain, but a new reality is setting in. Right now, Ferrari are just another team in the mix with McLaren, Honda, Williams, Toyota and BMW snapping at Renault’s heel. In Australia they were only the third fastest Bridgestone team behind Williams and Toyota, and that trend may be repeated at other tracks. This year’s car is definitely a significant improvement over the troubled F2005, but for the moment the era of Ferrari domination looks truly over.

Jean Todt has been quick to defend Felipe Massa in the press, and while the first lap incident with Klien and Rosberg may have just been a case of wrong place at the wrong time, his accident in qualifying really was a poor bit of driving. Everyone knows the young Brazilian’s got the speed. Everyone also knows he can get a result once in a while. What Ferrari needs to support Michael and to help take the team back to the top is someone who can get results week in, week out, and right now Massa’s not that man.

That fuel load propelled Mark into a hometown lead after every other top runner had pitted, and when his gearbox seized he had another six laps to go before his first stop. Although a win was out of the equation, a podium was definitely on the cards, and maybe even 2nd given Raikkonen’s ordinary pace. Williams have not been accustomed to long, heavy runs, so that was encouraging, but added to Rosberg’s failure to get past Q2 and then his first lap retirement, it was a sad weekend all round.

The speed has been there for Williams, but the reliability has not. That was a problem throughout winter testing, and it obviously hasn’t been cured. They only have 5 points to Renault’s 42. The other factor is that Cosworth simply won’t have the same budget as the manufacturers to develop their engine, so if there was any time to capitalise on the inherent pace of the Williams Cosworth package, that time was now. One hopes that, when Imola swings around, they might still have some time left.