Brazilian Grand Prix Review

As could be expected, the focus of the weekend was largely on Michael Schumacher. In his final Grand Prix before retirement, he needed a miracle to win the World Championship. But as if Japan had not been enough to show that the sport is greater than the man, after so many years of Schumi's famous reliability and luck, just as Ferrari once again looked like dominating the weekend, come the third segment of qualifying fuel pick-up problems left him stuck in the pits and mired in 10th on the grid.

Since he needed to win with Fernando Alonso not scoring a point, in hindsight the title was over then and there, but it set the scene for an astonishing farewell drive. First he survived the first corner when he got squeezed down the inside by the BMWs, who took their 'Thanks Michael' message on their rear wing throughout Friday and Saturday a bit too seriously by nudging each other off at turn 4, finally allowing the Ferrari by. He then took a generous Rubens Barrichello, and locked his radar on the Renaults.

He rounded Giancarlo Fisichella, who proceeded to help his team-mate's championship challenge for the first time all year by, inadvertently no doubt, slicing the Ferrari's rear left tyre with his front-wing end-plate, and forcing Schumi to do a slow lap, pit early, compromise his two-stop strategy, and come out very fat with fuel around 65s - and almost a lap down - behind Felipe Massa out front. But it was as if Schumi needed to be placed in even deeper adversity to show us for the last time just how brilliant he is.

There was no podium, there was no championship, but a 4th place finish was remarkable nonetheless, especially when he was only 24s behind the victorious Massa, a time deficit that was largely accounted for by his slow lap with his puncture. As Flavio Briatore admired afterwards, Schumi was simply "flying". He set what was the fastest lap of the race at the time on his out-lap after his second stop, and then shaved over two tenths off that on the second-last lap of his F1 career. This was indescribable stuff.

Put it this way, from his championship challenge looking like a dead loss after qualifying, and certainly after his puncture, he fought back to a position where, had Jenson Button taken Alonso off in the dying stages of the race, Michael would have been elevated to 2nd, Massa would have ceded the lead, and Schumi would have walked off with the title. That's how close he got. And Michael's in good company finishing 4th in his last Grand Prix. Mika Hakkinen did so, and what's more, so too did Juan Manuel Fangio.

In a way though, his race encapsulated his season, with early setbacks like his DNF in Australia, a brilliant chase, but peppered with the odd mistake along the way - for he did run wide onto the marbles and lose time at least twice during his burn from the stern at Interlagos, just as he will look back at his faux pas in Hungary and Turkey. And then, with its displays of exhilarating speed and skill, its fair share of controversy, and its dose of villainy, Schumi's 2006 rather encapsulated his entire F1 career.

A little bit forgotten in Schumacher's farewell flourish was the victor of the day, Massa rounding off a quite fine second half of the season overall in which he matched Schumi for pace at times and showed a much more mature head and an ability to be consistent. 3rd in the championship was deservedly his as he controlled this race from start to finish, with superior pace but within his limits, becoming the first Brazilian to win his home GP since Ayrton Senna in 1993.

They didn't walk off with the championships in grand style, but Renault took the double-double - both the drivers and constructors' titles for the second year in succession. It was a perfect send-off for the McLaren-bound Alonso, and for departing sponsor Mild Seven (who has been with Benetton/Renault since 1994), and for Michelin of course. Like last year, the second half of the season for them hasn't been pretty as they have defended a championship lead, but they got the job done and that's what counts.

Unlike last year though, when McLaren simply didn't pose a consistent enough challenge, Ferrari and Schumacher were a much more mighty foe, which made Renault's second half of the year look much more ordinary, but having said that they also had officialdom seemingly against them. And the facts speak for themselves, for Alonso scored one more point this year than he did last season, despite there being one less race. As a team, Renault scored 206 this year, compared to last season's 191.

Deserving champions they were, then, and to show that they were maximising to the end, they put Alonso on a fairly aggressive strategy at Interlagos. Out of the leading cars, he pitted later than all but the BMWs at his first stop, and he was the last to pit at his second stop, which put his qualifying lap which netted him 4th on the grid into sharp focus. Without putting a foot wrong, 2nd place secured his second title, making him the youngest ever double champion, and only the eighth man to win back-to-back crowns.

It was all in contrast to Fisichella, who it must be said has retired only twice all year but finished every other race in the points, a very good achievement, except that Alonso did exactly the same. But get this: Fisi only finished on the podium five times out of those 16 points finishes, and four of those were 3rd places. Out of his 16 points finishes, Alonso only twice finished outside 1st or 2nd! 6th at Interlagos was another limp showing for the Roman, whose promises about an upturn for 2007 will have to be seen to be believed.

Still, Honda ended the season unable to show world-beating form, and Barrichello finished his first year at Honda still looking like he was yet to get fully settled, with yet another weekend in which he qualified well but fell down as the race progressed. What would be more galling for him - to see Massa win in Brazil in his first home race for Ferrari, whereas he tried 6 times, including in Ferrari's title-winning heyday, but couldn't do it once, or to finish the year with Button scoring almost twice as many points as him?

McLaren did indeed end the year winless, a dramatic fall from grace if you consider that they had arguably the fastest car in the field for most of last year. Raikkonen started on the front row, but usually this year if he has qualified well it was because of a lighter fuel load. There was not much more he could have done in the race; he beat Fisichella and Barrichello whose strategy was roughly the same as his. An apparently unsentimental man, this being his last race for McLaren would have given him little motivation.

Rather, seeing the speed of the red cars he'll be jumping into next year would have simply made him want to get this year over and done with. Pedro de la Rosa finished his 8-race stint this year with his 5th finish in the points, but it was another case of a so-so qualifying, a one-stop strategy like in Turkey, and a solid but thoroughly boring drive. One almost gets the feeling that being allowed to finish the year in Brazil was thank-you from the team before they team Lewis Hamilton with Alonso next year.

BMW came to Brazil just one point ahead of Toyota in the battle for 5th in the constructors' championship, and they did all they could to give the position away to the Japanese manufacturer. Heidfeld and Kubica squabbled into turn 4 on the first lap, the collision damage eventually forcing Nick in for a nose change, and possibly ultimately contributing to his spectacular suspension failure on the front straight. Kubica, meanwhile, was the only man de la Rosa's one-stop strategy managed to beat home.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Williams
Capped off execrable year with teammate collision!

The real hero back in the pack, and perhaps the second best drive of the day behind Schumi, was Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri. 10th place out of 17 classified runners was the fledgling team's best result all season. It was a truly storming drive, combining strategy and sustained speed. Finishing off what has generally been a year that has rebuilt his reputation, Taku had the measure of both Spykers, all four Red Bull machines, his own team-mate, and even Heidfeld when the BMW dropped out late on.

Sato's fastest lap put him an incredible 9th in the fastest lap standings, and he was in with a genuine shot at points in a race that was not high on attrition. Just to show that it was as much the car as the driver, Sakon Yamamoto in the other SA06 was 7th in the fastest lap rankings, and even faster than Barrichello! It shows that Sakon does have pace - but why couldn't he show it more often? Overall then, a race to remember for Super Aguri, which twelve months ago did not even exist as an F1 team. Super indeed!

It was also another laudable effort from Scott Speed in the Toro Rosso, who once again looked a slightly better bet than team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi in the race even though the quicker Italian made the second part of qualifying and the American did not. The difference is that, although as we have been saying all year both of these drivers have their rough edges, Speed has shown definite signs of growth as the season as progressed, whereas Liuzzi's undoubted talent isn't translating into improvement.

Red Bull's complete and utter apathy dragged on into Brazil, and it was reflected in David Coulthard's performance, as 19th in qualifying marked the worst ever qualifying performance of his career. Both he and the team completely plateaued after their podium in Monaco back in May, and that's frustrating for us observers who like seeing teams and drivers giving their best and putting on a good show. Robert Doornbos tried hard in his three-race stint, but it was a no-win situation with zero to be gained.

It was a very painful way for Cosworth to bow out of F1, earning Williams our 'Reject of the Race' award, and it summarised a season for them that could only be described as ugly. A good engine but a struggling chassis and hopeless reliability points to a more endemic problem that isn't going to be simply solved by Toyota engines next year, by new title sponsor AT&T, and by Patrick Head returning to more of a hands-on role with Sam Michael focussing more on things at the factory. Can Williams ever turn it around?

And, to finish off, there was little of interest happening down Spyker MF1 way, although in Venezuelan Ernesto Viso they had their 5th different Friday driver, and the first Venezuelan in F1 since Johnny Cecotto in the 1980s. A two-stopping Christijan Albers comfortably beat home the one-stopping Tiago Monteiro, whose rather undistinguished season ended with a spin in qualifying that meant he set no time. Surely Spyker have got their eyes set on 2007 when hopefully they will run fully under their own name.

And so that rounded off the 2006 season, a season that saw the first inter-generational championship battle since Niki Lauda versus Alain Prost in 1984. It will also, of course, go down in history as Michael Schumacher's farewell year, as this giant of the sport bestrode the championship one final time. It was a great chase even if Schumi didn't get there in the end, but Alonso's title sealed once and for all the changing of the F1 guard. Thanks for reading throughout the year, and stay tuned for our Season Review!