Ferrari Was Simply Outshone In France
By DCX
July 4 2005
Despite early weekend promise, Ferrari was not able to take the victory in France as Michael placed 3rd and Rubens took 9th. Ferrari was simply outshone by the magnificent pace of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.
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Ferrari Was Simply Outshone In France |
DCX |
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Michael
Schumacher Race: 3rd + 1'21.914 After winning the previous "race" in the US and after showing much promise early in the weekend, it looked as though Michael Schumacher could take the victory in France. Sadly, this was not so. Schumacher started third and remained there for many laps as he was held up by Toyota's Jarno Trulli. After some brief clashes with other drivers, and actually quite a dull race, Schumacher came home in third. This was partially due to Juan Pablo Montoya retiring in light of a mechanical failure. This of course demonstrated that Ferrari now has a fast and reliable package, but it simply can not compete with the Raikkonen/McLaren and Alonso/Renault combination. Here is what the 7-Time World Champion had to say about his race at Magny-Cours: “I think third was the best I could have done today. It is true that I lost a lot of time stuck behind Trulli for eighteen laps and that meant that Montoya got past me. So, I had some problems with traffic. Without that early delay, our strategy might have put me ahead of Kimi. In fact this race was all about different drivers on different strategies, but today we did not quite match the pace of the leaders. I had one moment when I ran wide at Turn 3 and then I also came under a bit of pressure from Fisichella, when he was running lighter than me, but he never got too close.” Rubens Barrichello Race: 9th + 1 Lap Rubens Barrichello once again had a lackluster day, coming home just outside of the points in 9th place. Barrichello started 5th and passed Takuma Sato at the start to follow team mate Michael Schumacher. Barrichello ran an uneventful race from here on, falling further back at each pitstop. Barrichello stated that a brake problem caused him to suffer, but one must ask the question of whether or not it is Barrichello who is the problem. Rubens has voiced his concerns about Ferrari and Michael Schumacher, and it seems that he no longer has any friends at the team. A move to BAR for next season has been rumoured, but it is likely that he will remain at the Scuderia for 2006. Here is what the Brazilian had to say about his depressing drive: “It was a terrible race for me. After four or five laps, I began to have a problem with the brakes which meant the car was hard to drive. Then, in the first run of pit stops, I was unable to get ahead of Trulli and so I always found myself behind cars that were potentially slower than me. The brake problem got progressively worse and I kept slipping back so that I wasn’t even able to pick up a single point. I am very disappointed.” Ross Brawn Technical Director Ferrari's Technical Director Ross Brawn, was certainly not pleased about Ferrari's result today, but he remains confident that Ferrari still has the power to win. Here is what Ross had to say about the US Grand Prix: “The first part of our race was spoilt being stuck behind Trulli. We were not competitive enough to win the race today, but Michael might have finished one place higher without that early delay. We then tried to make the best of our situation for the rest of the race. So, as always in these situations we will have to go away and see what we can do to be stronger next time. We struggled for most of the race and every time the drivers tried to push harder things became difficult. Rubens lost a lot of grip over the course of the race, whereas Michael’s car was probably a bit better balanced and he was able to do better. All in all, we have to say we were not strong enough with either car. We have not given away too many points and we will keep trying to fight back.” |
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July 4, 2005 |
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