Turkey: Race Review

By Red Bull Racing
August 28 2006

So there you are, working as a mechanic at a prestigious Ferrari dealership at Istanbul Park, just outside the city of the same name.

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon, but a German customer, who has decided to holiday in the area because the owner of the Turkish restaurant in Kerpen has told him the Bosphorus is well worth a visit, has rung up to book himself in for a 5000 kilometre service and full valet. You’re all ready for him, the noise of a rumbling V8 is heard in the distance, the car arrives, you change tyres, refuel and send him on his way, pleased with your day’s work. But my goodness, what’s this? Another identical Ferrari has just pulled up and yes, it’s a very irate German customer wondering why he’s been kept waiting. Given the cost of Ferrari cars, what was the chance of two of them arriving at the garage at the same day?
 
Okay, that’s not quite what happened in the Turkish Grand Prix, but it’s a wry view of how Ferrari seemed to get their pit stop strategy wrong when they made Michael Schumacher wait in line behind eventual winner Felipe Massa, as the arrival of the Safety Car saw a rush of cars to the pits and perhaps a rush of blood to the head. You have to do an awful lot of winning to be gutted to finish first and third but that’s how the Scuderia felt as they allowed Fernando Alonso to extend his championship lead by two points, after the Spaniard found that the Renault garage was not quite as busy as the others and managed to get out ahead of his main rival. The happiest man on the day was obviously Felipe Massa who followed yesterday’s pole with a fine win – his first in F1. It was all the sweeter as, going into the race, he must have known that all things being equal, he would have had to move over for Michael in the interests of the title race.  And how nice to see a winning driver burst into tears on the podium. Everyone say aaah! 
 
Yet again, poor Kimi Raikkonen retired early, on lap one in fact and one interesting statistic that’s keeping people amused is that the Mercedes Safety Car has now led more grand prix laps this season than the Finn’s Mercedes powered McLaren. 
 
And yes, we will say it before you do, the reason we’ve written about other teams is to draw your attention away from the fact that Red Bull Racing had a far from satisfactory day.....

DAVID COULTHARD, (FINISH POSITION 15TH, START POSITION: 16TH)

“Not the result we wanted today. The balance of the car was okay and improved after we adjusted the front wing and tyre pressures during the first pit stop. We were competitive in sections of the race compared to the cars around us and towards the end of the race I was catching Webber. I thought I could overtake him, but a gearbox problem stopped me.”

CHRISTIAN KLIEN, (FINISH POSITION 11TH, START POSITION: 10TH)

That was one of the toughest races this season. It was so hot and Turn eight is such a long corner, it’s very tough on the neck, but I kept pushing until the end. The car was good in the first stint and had good balance, but I suffered with understeer in the second part. In the last section, the car was a little better again, but we were not really racing here today. It’s frustrating to start tenth and finish eleventh.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER:

“A disappointing result. From a good position, Christian unfortunately slipped back. He had some damage to his car’s front left bargeboard, which caused some understeer. David retired with a gearbox failure after showing reasonable pace – it’s frustrating.”