Spanish Grand Prix Review

The addition of a new, slow chicane before the final corner did exactly nothing to promote overtaking at this shrine to follow-the-leader boredom (although the GP2 race on Sunday morning did prove that, with the right aerodynamic regulations, passing is possible on any circuit). But one feature of the Spanish Grand Prix was the relatively high unreliability and error rate, with eight retirements and a variety of daft moments and other mishaps both on the track and in the pits.

You'd think that at this place, which some drivers would visit more often than they would see their mothers over the course of a year, the teams would have their race weekend down pat. Ironically, perhaps the amount of testing they do at Catalunya left the teams complacent going into the Grand Prix meeting. Perhaps it was the four-week break since Bahrain. Or perhaps it was just that there's no substitute for the pressure-cooker tension of a competitive weekend. At any rate, the unpredictability was a welcome change.

Despite the Latino personality and the wrist-breaking fist-pumping, in the heat of the kitchen Massa was the one who stayed cool when it counted. In one-lap trim where Ferrari had surprisingly found the going heavy all weekend, the Brazilian pulled out a sensational last qualifying lap to take pole from Fernando Alonso by 0.03s. Once he had rightly held firm against Alonso's marauding raid at the first corner, the Ferrari's race pace was unrivalled, and it was an easy, comprehensive fourth career victory.

In both Bahrain and Spain, Massa has not only been the quicker Ferrari driver, he has also been the more dynamic, and his confidence must be soaring. There had, of course, been that fire at his first stop, but Felipe pleaded complete ignorance about it at the post-race press conference. Now, he may truly have been blissfully unaware, but he did seem to look in his mirrors concernedly as he was pulling away. A nice psych-out for his rivals, in any case, making it sound as though he was in feet-up cruise mode. Clever.

McLaren leave Barcelona leading both points tables, but you get the sense that the negatives might just be slightly outweighing the positives at the moment. On the right side of the ledger, the continuing reliability of the MP4/22 compared to the Ferrari F2007 has seen the silver cars edge out an early buffer in the constructors title. Plus there was another brilliant Hamilton weekend, with Lewis scintillating throughout most of practice, faster than Alonso, and error-free in the race after another top-notch start.

The young Brit now leads the championship on sheer consistency, having taken a 3rd and three 2nds. As a rookie, the superlatives have long since run dry. But there are some truths that McLaren cannot escape at the moment. Yet again, they only led the field when it semi-mattered. They didn't go for the Hollywood lap times during the recent Barcelona test; they're too cagey for that kind of thing. But come free practice, they topped each session and looked as though they'd snuck up on Ferrari.

But not only did Massa snatch the pole, but he blew the Silver Arrows away in the race. And, with the exception of Malaysia, that's been the story of the season. McLaren have been unable to chain together a full race of strong stints. Hamilton once again lost too much time in the middle part of Sunday afternoon. Ron Dennis' team are leading both championships on merit through points-scoring consistency, and that may well be enough in the long-run. But there's no denying which is the faster race car.

And then there's Alonso's form. He had 140,700 locals behind him, which inspired him to little more than a botched first-corner lunge that no racer worth his salt in Massa's position would have let him get away with, followed by a sulkily indifferent drive including a yeah-whatever switch to harder tyres mid-race. His half-hearted attempt post-race to blame Massa for the first corner incident said it all. He is more rattled by Hamilton than he appears, and like Raikkonen, how he responds in Monaco will be crucial.

It happens at least once or twice every season that some poor chief mechanic holding the lollipop will let a driver out before the crew have finished their tasks. But, as Heidfeld said, it's the kind of thing that shouldn't happen. Once he had moved out of his pit box, the team panicked. Although Nick could not reverse under his own steam (as Nigel Mansell can attest after Portugal 1989 debacle), the team could have pulled him back, which would have been less costly than sending Heidfeld out to trundle for a lap.

In the end it was all academic, as it was the German's turn this time to be hit with a gearbox failure, but had the F1.07 run reliably, then the pit bungle cost him 4th place if not a shot at 3rd. And so the BMW pit crew score the Spanish GP 'Reject of the Race' award. Joining BMW in the speedy-but-iffy stakes were Red Bull, who proved that their testing pace was no fluke, as all the pre-season doomsday predictions (including ours) are forgotten thanks to a rate of improvement that few would have thought possible.

David Coulthard was not quite as awesome as he was in Bahrain, but he backed up an excellent practice and qualifying with a race drive that had experience written all over it. He applied pressure to the BMWs, he withstood pressure from Heikki Kovalainen, and at the very end he quickly found a way to drive without his missing 3rd gear, losing only one to 1.5 seconds a lap to hold Nico Rosberg at bay. Last week, he lambasted those journalists who were predicting his retirement - and rightly so.

As for his team-mate Mark Webber, at least he had problems in each of free practice, qualifying and the race, making it a meeting that he can more easily brush off as a weekend to forget, hopefully rather than having gremlins appear in lots of different races. He will be deeply frustrated though that it had to happen on a weekend when the RB3 was competitive and when DC was in fine form. But the Red Bull does at least appear to now be the fourth fastest package in F1, so there is real promise up ahead.

REJECT OF THE RACE
BMW Pit-Crew
Lollipop Man Lets Heidfeld Out Prematurely

The Austrian has been the victim of misfortune, such as his near-decapitation by DC in Australia and his gearbox problems in qualifying at Sepang, and here too he blamed traffic for not being able to make the first qualifying cut, and he was caught out by a first lap concertina. Neither were necessarily his fault, but could they both also have been avoidable by someone who had had more regular racing in the past six years? On Rosberg's current form, Wurz will increasingly be a man under pressure at this rate.

Whereas Rosberg currently leads this tight midfield scrap, Renault however are the ones showing the best signs of joining Red Bull in escaping ahead of the battle altogether. If Barcelona is a good indicator of car potential, given its emphasis on aero efficiency, then Renault have probably got up to around Red Bull level now. On low fuel runs in free practice, both Renaults were into the 1 minute 21s bracket, and Heikki Kovalainen was one of only four men who got into the 1 minute 22s in the race.

This was the Finn's strongest Grand Prix to date; he out-qualified Giancarlo Fisichella and should have finished 6th had it not been for Renault's fuel rig problems necessitating an extra stop. Fisi, on the other hand, having been highly praised by Pat Symonds during the week, had his poorest weekend of the year so far, making a first lap error at turn 9 from which he never really recovered. His not-enough-fuel runs gave him the speed to get past the Hondas, but the unscheduled stop dumped him from the points.

Renault's refuelling misfortunes proved to be Super Aguri's gain, although the hoo-hah over their first ever point thanks to Takuma Sato's 8th place is countered by the fact that their car is last year's Honda. If they scored a point with a derivative of the 2002 Arrows, then that would have been something to shout about. Nonetheless, it had been a very good race by Sato and his crew. They were in a position to inherit the last point because of longer stints that allowed them to get in front of the Hondas.

Super Aguri's point heaped more embarrassment on Honda, as their satellite team not only beat them on the track, but are now above them on points as well. But if the earth-folk want to clutch at some straws, they can at least point to a car that is handling a little better, and speed-wise has gone from being a donkey to a pony (if nowhere near a racehorse). Yet if the impending RA107B is virtually a brand new car, why is the current beast being improved? Honda's technical direction is befuddling sometimes.

Then there were the Ôdumbo' wings that Honda tried in the pre-race test, which along with McLaren's Ôspan bridge' front wing added new chapters to ugly F1 aesthetics. Christian Klien tried to dumbos in testing, found that they made zero difference, and they were promptly ditched. Another who-knows-how-many dollars down the toilet as Honda prove that they still don't really understand how to generate front grip. Can anyone seriously expect the RA107B to be a whole lot better than the current junk?

But, as we said, the present RA107 did perform slightly better in Spain, but Rubens Barrichello was the only one making full use of it, qualifying and racing ahead of Jenson Button who is driving like a deflated man. Button had done well to keep ahead of Fisichella at the first stop, but threw it all away by brainlessly failing to concede to his team-mate as he exited the pit lane, losing his front wing in the process. It came close to being 'reject of the race' material. Hungary 2006 now seems such a long time ago.

The Spykers finished 13th and 14th and moved ahead of Toro Rosso on the constructors table on count-back, and neither Christijan Albers or Adrian Sutil were in the way as much, although Albers still collected a drive-through for ignoring blue flags. The third-season Dutchman seems to be rattled by the fact that Sutil has a tenth or two over him in pace. Yet again it was the rookie who qualified faster and Albers who made the error in qualifying. The rumours that Giedo van der Garde will replace him can't help either.

That just leaves the two teams that brought neither car to the finish. Toyota continue to be in the bottom of the top half of the field on pace, but yet again Jarno Trulli flattered his machinery by conjuring a magical lap in Q3 to grid up 6th, only for his race to be derailed from the start with fuel pressure problems. But it was a third shocker in a row for Ralf Schumacher, with another poor qualifying effort, another lame excuse about traffic, another collision (albeit not his fault), and eventually, another DNF.

At least he and his manager Hans Mahr provided the paddock with comic relief in the lead-up to the race, Mahr talking up his client (who will be off-contract at the end of the year) by saying that Ralf is one of the three best drivers in F1, and there would always be a seat somewhere waiting for him. The reality is that the Ralf of 1999, the Ralf who beat his brother in a straight fight in Canada in 2001, has not been spotted in years. The only seat sure to be waiting for him at year's end is currently in the retirement home.

Toro Rosso will view Spain as a missed opportunity. Capitalising on Red Bull's improved pace, STR had their own upturn in pace, especially from Scott Speed who was fantastic in practice. Speed's edge over Vitantonio Liuzzi this weekend came at a crucial time, as another test for Sebastien Bourdais this week points to the Frenchman leaving Champ Cars in 2008. Given Coulthard and Webber's current form, out of Speed and Liuzzi one may have to be cast off from the Red Bull stable to make room for Bourdais.

Both Speed and Liuzzi failed to finish, the American doing well to avoid a Mansell-style rodeo ride after his rear left tyre exploded at top speed on the front straight. It remains to be seen whether Red Bull's current development of the Adrian Newey chassis will also push Toro Rosso into the points. With Super Aguri having also got onto the board, and with both Red Bull and Toro Rosso starting to look threatening, can you feel another Spyker protest in the air?