French Grand Prix Review

Ferrari had the best package in France as they did in Indianapolis. Despite the undoubted qualities of the Renault R26, Michael went so far as to say that the 248 F1 is the fastest car in the field as long as it is set up correctly. The proof was in the results, as Schumi and his crew overcame a dramatic fire in Saturday practice, pipped team-mate Felipe Massa for pole despite having a heavier car, made a clean start, and sauntered to an unchallenged victory with the fastest lap of the race for good measure.

By his second stop, he was already virtually a full stop ahead of Alonso, and with this being his 8th French GP victory, it was the first time that anyone has won a particular race that many times. His tally of 88 Grand Prix victories is now only four shy of the combined total of Alain Prost plus Ayrton Senna. Schumi is now only 17 points behind Fernando with seven races to go. With seven to go last year, Kimi Raikkonen was 36 points behind Alonso, and no-one was prepared to write-off the championship just yet.

But Michael could and should be closer still. Clearly, given the shenanigans between he and his Spanish rival during the now-shorter third segment of qualifying, there is an important psychological advantage to be gained. Catching up four points thanks to a Ferrari 1-2, on a day when Alonso was not struggling as he was at Indy, would have been a mental blow, especially when at that rate Schumi would catch Fernando before season's end, whereas he won't make it by only catching up two points at a time.

As it was, perhaps Alonso was always going to two-stop, in which case they pulled a sucker-punch on Ferrari by bringing him in for the first time early, around the same time as the Ferraris, with still fuel left to spare, to make it look like he was three-stopping. Or, seeing that Fernando had no hope of beating either Ferrari on the same fuel strategy, Pat Symonds deliberately gave his man a few extra litres at the first stop, giving them the option of either two-stopping or three-stopping come the second stop.

Either way, it was a tactical stratagem by Renault, but it could have been easily foiled if Ferrari had simply put a bit more fuel in Massa's car at the first stop, given that Alonso was not going to get past in the pits and, with the Ferrari's raw speed and the title on the line, given that Alonso was unlikely to try a risky passing move on the track either. That could have given Ferrari the option of putting Felipe onto a two-stopper at his second stop, that would have guaranteed second place.

It was that kind of strategic flexibility that, for example, won Ferrari the 1998 Hungarian GP, or the 2004 French GP, when Michael suddenly changed from a three-stop plan to a four-stop itinerary in order to beat Alonso. Sure, they were dealing with Massa here and not Michael, but they wouldn't have been asking Massa to go any faster, and the Toyotas showed that the Bridgestones were able to survive a two-stop plan. One wonders if we will look back at this race as a turning-point in the 2006 championship hunt.

The Michelins have been outpaced by the Bridgestones in the last two events, causing Flavio Briatore to urge them to up their game, although how willing they will be to do that, when they are pulling out of the sport at the end of the year and currently appear disenchanted with F1, remains to be seen. One feature of this race, though, was Alonso's aggression. He locked brakes, he flung his R26 into corners, pitching it into lurid slides that he somehow corrected, he wildly (and ridiculously) shook his fists at backmarkers.

It was the drive of a man who was trying very hard, and pushing his car to its limits and at times beyond, and his joy at coming 2nd and in a sense thwarting Ferrari was evident. As for his team-mate though, Giancarlo Fisichella once again frustrated. 2004 Reject of the Year Giorgio Pantano may have taken the first win for the Fisichella-Coloni joint-owned GP2 team over the weekend, but Fisi's own weekend delivered no heights, right on the heels of what had been quite a good weekend for him at Indy.

Undoubtedly the Italian was constrained for pace by his two-stop strategy, but he still would have come nowhere close to beating the two Toyotas which were also two-stopping. At the current rate, and with Massa emerging as a genuine player in this year's championship, Alonso will need better back-up from Fisichella soon. And it once more reinforced the fact that, despite many people's hopes, Giancarlo is showing time and time again that he just doesn't have what it takes to headline a title assault of his own.

And then also keep in mind that Jarno Trulli was actually running ahead of Ralf and had had a smooth first stop before brake problems began to intervene and eventually forced his retirement. Without that, 3rd would surely have been on the cards and he may have even given Alonso a scare. He complained afterwards that he hasn't had a trouble-free weekend so far this year. That's only partially true; it doesn't account for his own average form earlier on, but he has been starting to get some ascendancy over Ralf.

Another disappointing weekend for McLaren showed that they can't match Ferrari, Renault and maybe even Toyota for pace as the season develops, and that their potentially race-winning speed in Canada might have been a one-off. Raikkonen was three-stopping, but one wonders why he wasn't converted to a two-stop plan either once it became clear that that's what the Toyotas were doing and that the red and whites would be the Finn's main opposition for the day.

In the end, Kimi was helpless to do anything about Ralf in the latter stages. In the other McLaren, of course, was returnee Pedro de la Rosa, whose race was not quite as exciting as his antics in Bahrain last year, but once again it had its moments as he tried to get past a slower Mark Webber in a costly first stint of the race. He was undoubtedly faster than the Williams, but Webber had the better racecraft at the Adelaide hairpin and the run to the Nurburgring chicane, and he was entitled to stay in front.

From here, though, the question is what will McLaren do with its second car for the rest of the season and into 2007. It is running alone in 3rd in the constructors' title, 40 points behind Ferrari and 39 ahead of a listless Honda at the moment. Gary Paffett is untried in major single-seater racing, Lewis Hamilton is not an option for this year and is better off in a lower team next year, so why not give Pedro the rest of this year and next as well? Is the first all-Spanish line-up in F1 since 1988 that undesirable?

BMW redefined the ugly Grand Prix car by virtue of its nose-wing things and its version of McLaren's devil-horn mid-wings. But as the season goes on, while they continue to pick up points (although they have been jumped by Toyota for 5th in the constructors' table), they are turning into the 'speed unfulfilled' merchants of 2006. Robert Kubica continues to hit the headlines and ingratiate himself to his team by low-fuel stunners on Friday when few others are going for times.

Jacques Villeneuve and Heidfeld then topped Saturday practice, not the first time they have shone on Saturday morning, only for Villeneuve to embarrassingly bomb out in Q1 blaming traffic, and for Heidfeld to get eliminated after the second segment as well. Neither then showed particularly promising race pace, with Jacques held up early in the Rubens Barrichello express train, and Nick pulling his usual trick of going along quietly before sneaking into a minor points position at the end.

The Red Bull teams continued their hate-affair with all things French thanks to its government banning their beverage, but David Coulthard continued his strong mid-season run that started in Monaco. Having made the top ten in qualifying for only the second time this year, he had a very solid two-stop run only to be beaten by Heidfeld on the same strategy. Another man having an incredibly impressive mid-season is Scott Speed, the American showing that his pace at Indy was not a home-soil fluke.

Again he made it into Q2 whereas Vitantonio Liuzzi didn't, before backing it up with a very strong race to 10th place despite severe back pain and only one off-track excursion because of it. He has certainly gone up in our estimation. Could this be a kind of gritty career-defining drive? Liuzzi flounders in inconsistency; the Italian probably has more raw pace than Speed, but the American is probably a touch more dependable. Tonio will have storming weekends, and then some like USA and France where he's nowhere.

Here, Liuzzi again missed the first cut, again when the likes of Christijan Albers and Speed made it and there were high-profile casualties in Villeneuve and Jenson Button, so by rights he should have made it through. Once more it proved to be something of a nothing race as he got held up by Barrichello early. Likewise, Christian Klien also made zero impression and can't seem to do much right this year on the back of his sterling drives last season. At this rate, it'll be a surprise if he keeps the Red Bull seat in 2007.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Honda
Things are going from bad to worse

Nico Rosberg did well to qualify 9th, but another engine change was needed, and the race pace was not there either. In the end he was mired in 14th, the first of those who had been lapped twice by Schumi. The Williams seems to be having lots of problems getting the Bridgestones to work recently, which is surprising when Alexander Wurz is on hand to do the donkey work on Friday whereas Ferrari and Toyota don't have a third car. Something is simply not going right in the chassis and set-up department.

MF1 continued their gentle upward rise, with Albers making Q2 for the second race in succession despite suffering gingavitis, but sustaining race speed is proving more difficult than one-lap pace. However, the Dutchman continues to show the way to an inconsistent Tiago Monteiro this year. After his steady progress in 2005, Monteiro has had too many incidents this year, including clashes with Albers at Monaco and Canada, his collision with Takuma Sato at Indy, and now this wild spin into retirement in France.

Which just leaves Honda; at least one Super Aguri finished, which is more than could be said for the Honda men. There is not much that one can say, apart from the simple reality that Honda have slipped from being points and podium-contenders, and even championship outsiders before the season started, to lower-midfield stragglers who couldn't get past the first qualifying cut (in Button's case) or the second (in Barrichello's case), and then had not much race pace to speak of before two apparent engine failures.

Increasingly, the promotion of Shuhei Nakamoto to the technical director role at Honda appears to have been a political move, without the technical nous or the experience to make either the incremental or the radical changes that Honda need to avoid having their season just meander to a whimpering end. You'd need to be hallucinating dramatically to foresee that breakthrough win for BAR-slash-Honda coming this season. A clear winner of the 'Reject of the Race' award for the French GP this year.