Chinese GP Winners + LosersSunday October 16 2005
www.planet-f1.com/features/race_features/story_21330.shtmlThere were so many losers in the Chinese Grand Prix it looked at times like a convention for anorak wearers. Even Renault were losers. They had the chance to end a memorable season in style, instead they chose to grind out a team victory and to hell with the worldwide audience pumped up after the Suzuka spectacular
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Star of the Race
Fernando Alonso, Renault, 1st
In Shanghai we were denied what could have been an epic race by Renault tactics. Though it’s 99% likely that Fernando Alonso would have won today whether Raikkonen had been behind him right from the first corner or not, it could have been one hell of a chase.
Away from the line Alonso was very impressive, reeling off a series of fastest laps (see race report) that put the race beyond doubt. However in the latter stages the Mclaren started to become driveable once more and though Fernando clearly backed off at the close, Kimi was only seven seconds behind him on the penultimate lap and four seconds down at the line. It was a virtuoso performance from Alonso, but it could have been so much more exciting.
This is one of Alonso's seven grand prix victories that he fully deserved, which cannot be said for all seven in 2005.
Overtaking move of the Race
Lap 44 Mark Webber on Rubens Barrichello
Constant pressure from Webbo finally paid off and he forced Rubens Barrichello into braking so late into the hairpin that he flat-spotted his tyres. Jenson Button gratefully nipped through at the same time – about the only thing he could be grateful for all afternoon.
Winners
Ralf Schumacher, Toyota 3rd
A week ago he started on pole and went backwards rapidly. This week he started in 9th and managed to haul himself onto the podium. For once Ralf was in the right place at the right time. Though there was a bit more to it than that; the strategy call not to go for a pit-stop during the second Safety Car was vital, and in the closing stages he had to work to keep an aggrieved Fisichella at bay.
Christian Klien, Red Bull, 5th
No doubt at all as to who will be partnering David Coulthard next year. At one stage Klien had the fastest lap of the race to his name. Though he was fortunate to clear Webber, Button and DC, he drove a pretty good race in Suzuka and ended up outside of the points.
Felipe Massa, Sauber, 6th
A nice way for Peter (Mr Beige) Sauber to bow out of F1. Though he will still be employed as a BMW consultant next year, the idea of Dr.Mario actually asking for help and not knowing the answer already is such a weird concept, we at Planet-F1, fail our minds to get round it.
Jim Rosenthal
We will miss Jim Rosenthal as the anchor man for F1, because unlike so many bland sports anchor men he was never afraid to ask hard questions and serious questions to team mnagares and the likes of Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone.
Jim’s advantage was that he didn’t come from the ranks of motorsport professionals whether it be journalist (James Allen), motorsport PR (Tony Jardine and Louise Goodman) driver (Martin Brundle) or motorhome door wedge (Ted Kravitz) and had no friendships to maintain.
ITV will have to think long and hard about who they replace him with. Their World Rally Championship presenter, the amiable Angus Scott, is just a bit lightweight. Steve Rider would be good, but they need someone who can cut through the F1 crap.
Losers
Shanghai International
The Shang circuit officials will be very embarrassed after the race. Considering the amount of money that has been spent on this state-of-the-art facility, to be tripped up by a stupid incident like a drain cover coming loose… If it had happened to one of the bit part players it might have been forgiven, but effectively it ended a titanic clash between Mclaren and Renault.
To have a season-long battle ended by a fault in the track is pretty ropy and reflects incredibly badly on F1. Bernie Ecclestone demanded answers after Silverstone had shoddy direction signs for spectators a few years ago, but that pales into insignificance compared to this.
For those who thought it probably didn’t matter and it was all sewn up with Fisichella likely to get 4th place anyway even if Mclaren had got the 2-3 positions please see below.
Renault integrity
Considering the race we’ve just had in Suzuka, it would have been nice to think we could finish the season with the best of intentions and with a flat-out race to see who was best. All those people who saw the race from Japan and thought 'Wow, F1 has changed, it's not like it was in 2002 when we stopped watching!' would have been switching off again.
Instead we got a tactical ploy to delay one team’s cars and reduce the spectacle for everybody. That, sadly, seems to be acceptable in modern F1. Ferrari have been manipulating races for years with the aim of ensuring the right man won and we’ve kind of got used to it. Unfortunately nobody ever switched over to watch motorsport to be thrilled by the great tactical team win.
A lot of people will shrug and say that F1 is a team sport, so you have to accept team tactics. No, F1 is first and foremost about global entertainment to massive audiences and were it not for a loose drain cover we might have got more F1 mogadon in Shanghai.
Renault weren't doing anything Ferrari hadn't done in the past in getting Fisichella to slowly back off and reduce his fuel mix (as evidenced by the team radio). But then they went too far by deliberately trying to delay Raikkonen after the Safety Car was deployed for the second time What was the point? By that stage Montoya had retired from the race, the odds were stacked so heavily in their favour yet they were trying to cheat. It says so much about Flavio Briatore's team.
FIA Race Stewards
The fact that it took them 19 race laps, some of which were run at half speed, to decide that Fisichella had deliberately slowed Raikkonen and Barrichello down in the pitlane was scandalous. Martin Brundle spotted it immediately.
This is another reason to have former drivers or racing professionals involved , not just enthusiastic amateurs doing it two or three times a year. Apparently they were so busy with this descion that they couldn’t even consider what Mark Webber had done to Jenson Button during the same Safety Car period until after the race
What they were effectively saying to BAR-Honda boss Nick Fry was that if three or four serious incidents happen, they don’t have a decision-making process to deal with them then and there.Amazing!
Charlie Whiting may make the wrong decisions, but at least he makes them quickly. If it were up to the stewards to deploy the Safety Car, Bernd Maylander would be waiting for the call till the podium ceremony
Fernando Alonso’s Record Deal
You can’t beat the spontaneity of it, but Fernando Alonso is unlikely to get a record contract on the basis of what we heard on the slowing down lap in China.
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, DNF
Oh dear. There’s no way Michael Schumacher will be retiring now. Not that we thought he was going to anyway. The idea of Schumi ending such an illustrious career with a rookie mistake is unthinkable.
His accident with Albers on the installation lap didn’t look like a mix-up, it looked like he wasn’t watching his mirrors. Most drivers crawl to the grid to save fuel and though he will never admit this, he probably didn’t imagine that another car might be overtaking him.
As for his spin on Lap 23, it was just sad to see. Still, Montoya’s exit means he keeps third in the Driver’s Championship
Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari
What a difference a year makes. Rubens never looked in contention today, and in the latter half of the race became Mr Locked Brakes. The track at Shangai really ate into his front tyres. Still, next race he’ll be on Michelins.
Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren-Mercedes, 2nd
Raikkonen speeded up towards the end of the race but he could have helped the Mclaren cause by moving over in the early stages and letting Montoya have a crack at Fisichella, because Juan-Pablo appeared to be quicker.
Juan Montoya. McLaren-Mercedes, DNF
Though Mark Blundell thought that Montoya could have no view of the drain cover that came loose, it was interesting to hear Raikkonen’s post-race comments that he saw it coming loose one lap and avoided it the next lap.
Juan didn’t see it, just as he didn’t see Pizzonia in Spa. The Colombian has every right to expect an $180m race track to stay in one piece, but it was interesting that of all the people to hit it, it was him.
Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, 4th
The overriding memory of listening to the Renault team’s interchanges with Giancarlo Fisichella over the pit-to-car radio throughout the race was them saying to him, “DON’T PANIC”.
During the first safety car it was: “Montoya’s back in 13th place DON’T PANIC”
When he was called in for his drive-through penalty it was: “DON’T PANIC”.
It’s going to be really hard to imagine Giancarlo Fisichella in any pressure situation after listening to that bit of radio traffic. Clearly the Roman panics like no other. You can’t imagine the Ferrari team talking to Schumi like that
“Michael, your car’s on fire, DON’T PANIC” – “No, I wasn’t panicking, I was calculating the elapsed time difference for when I get back out on the race track.”
If Fisichella is that volatile, had Mclaren got in front during the opening round of pit-stops then anything could have happened to his race.
ITV Coverage
The ITV coverage has been pretty good this season despite the fact that they still run too many advertising breaks and don’t offer their qualifying live even though they have ITV2 and ITV3 which they could broadcast them on. Ironically the coverage goes out live in South Africa but not in the UK!
This race there was a frustrating wallow in Jordan history, even though Eddie Jordan has sold up and moved on a year ago. It’s part of the continuing nonsense, the myth that EJ is a lovable character good for the sport of F1 who we all miss.
Eddie Jordan withdrew from a legal case with Vodaphone before a judge could deliver a damning verdict on his business ethics in open court. EJ got out while the going was good.
We’ll miss Pail Stoddart far more. When he bought the Minardi team, even though he had the European F3000 team he didn’t have the ego to change the team’s name to Stoddart or European, he kept it as it was.
The only crumb is that Stoddie may be back.
Antonio Pizzonia, BMW-Williams, 13th
Farewell then, bungle boy. We’ve had fun, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried (but mostly with laughter) and now is the time to hand over to the most articulate Finnish driver in F1. Not that there’s much of a contest, you understand.
David Coulthard, Red Bull, 9th
He was in sight of joining that elusive 500 club, one of the select band of drivers to have scored 500 World Championship points. And until the first Safety Car he looked like doing it easily.
Jenson Button, BAR-Honda, 8th
It’s very rare that a driver does absolutely nothing wrong, puts in the kind of race laps that would score him 4th place and ends up 8th. Through no fault of Jenson’s he got stuck behind Montoya who was either so pre-occupied with his dying McLaren that he wasn’t thinking straight, or that he simply doesn’t know the procedure behind the Safety Car and wasn’t sure what to do. So Jenson and DC were forced to follow Montoya in line while other cars made their pit-stops and jumped ahead.
Then on the second Safety Car they got stuck behind Mark Webber who presumably thought he was being clever by holding them up. As a result they all got stuck behind Rubens Barrichello and that was their afternoon done for.
Takuma Sato, BAR-Honda, DNF
Not much talk this weekend about the Honda B-team, after Sato’s horror show in Japan. He followed this up with a jumped start to the Chinese GP, and a failed gearbox that the engineers put down to his driving style as opposed to a mechanical failure. He ends the season with a single point If there has been two Takumas in the team in 2005 BAR-Honda would have struggled to beat the points haul that Minardi picked up at Indianapolis.
Narian Karthikeyan, Jordan, DNF
Ian Phillips, Jordan Commercial director, revealed that EJ is due for a couple of his cars back at the end of the season. Narian Karthikeyan prepared one for him in Shanghai.
That James - I Should Be In Stand-Up Comedy - Allen Moment
James had us in stitches with this one. It’s the way he tells them.
“They always say that the most important nut on the car is the one that holds the wheel.”
Andrew Davies