Ferrari has pumped in another $26 million to boost Michael Schumacher’s charge for an eighth World Championship in 2006. Buoyed by the German’s dominance at Indianapolis, Jean Todt convinced his backers to bolster this year’s Ferrari budget, according to German newspaper Bild.
At Jerez last Friday, in preparation for the upcoming French Grand Prix, the 37-year-old Schumi set a new test lap record with a rejuvenated completely overhauled Ferrari 248 F1 car. Although Ross Brawn insists that it is not a ‘B’ specification, the heavily revised 248 features a new engine cover, front wing and engine, improved aerodynamics, packing an extra 20 hp. Read More »
Schumacher and Ferrari dominated the United States Grandprix at Indianapolis with Alonso managing no better than 5th place. Schumi made 5 wins out of 7 appearances in the US GP for ferrari. Right from the first lap ferrari was on their own race with all others having a race of their own. The start itself was brilliant as, into turn 1 and Massa takes the lead from Schumacher with Alonso side by side with the german. Schumi keeps second, but there has been drama at the back of the grid with a pile up into turn one.
Safety car was deployed. A total of seven cars are in the gravel trap at the first turn. Hiedfeld, Webber, Klien, Montagny, Montoya, Speed, Raikkonen all gone. That was an amazing start for Alonso, for a moment it looked as if he was going to take the lead into turn 1. Replays showed that it was a huge accident at the back, the two mclarens made contact. They in turn touched a Super Aguri. The result was a further impact with Heidfeld’s BMW sauber which sent the german into a spectacular barrel roll. There is smoke comming from Button’s car and he retires in Honda garage. Montoya was the guy responsible for triggering atleast some of the drama on lap 1. Read More »
Everyone might have known already that Michael Schumacher and Ferrari interrupted Renault’s long run of success by dominating qualifying at Indianapolis. Alonso admitted that, tyres aside, one of Ferrari’s advantages this weekend is mammoth straight line speed. He said it felt like he was ‘driving a GP2 car’ when, at one stage at Indy, a Ferrari passed him (He was refering to Massa who overtook Alonso during qualifying.).
Ferrari are untouchable here and if they are reliable and do not crash then their race will be more or less the same as last year - out on their own. We are not going to just give up and not try but to think that we are going to beat them would be idiotic.”
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Ferrari’s technical director Ross Brawn says that his team’s dominant performance in United States Grand Prix qualifying is a reflection of its car’s true pace. Having lagged behind Renault in Canada just a week ago, a race where Ferrari expected to be very strong, the team has made a remarkable recovery and claimed a front row sweep at Indianapolis, a second clear of the field. Brawn told ITV Sport’s Ted Kravitz that the speed was always in the car, it was just a matter of waiting for the tyre war to turn in Bridgestone’s favour. Brawn said
I really felt we would be strong in these two races with the nature of the car, We were disappointed in Montreal to not be more competitive, but really we had a tyre problem there. I think what we are seeing here is a situation where the tyres are working well, and shows the true performance of the car.
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Michael Schumacher and Ferrari secured the pole position and front row in United States Grand Prix Qualifying with a scintillating performance. Schumacher and Massa dominated all saturday finishing 1-2 in the third and final practice and finally securing the front row in qualifying. Its one of the dominating performances by Ferrari after a long time with Alonso managing only 5th place. Schumi trails Fernando Alonso by 25 points in the championship but enjoys a formidable record at Indianapolis and hinted at another successful weekend today.
World champion Alonso, who has NEVER finished a race at Indianapolis was down in 5th and anything can happen in the race but IMO Schumi will take away minimum of 4 points from Alonso’s lead in this race. Ferrari really looks to have got their strategy right here at Indianapolis, so lets wait and see what happens tommorow. Read More »
Alonso takes his maiden Canadian GrandPrix win, with seven time canadian GrandPrix winner, Michael Schumacher taking second and Raikkonen in third. Only 14 out of 22 drivers crossed the line as everyone suffered or struggled for rear grip at the hairpin which is just covered in marbles at the end. With just 10 laps to go, Villeneuve went hard into the wall at turn 1 and the safety car was deployed, which enabled Schumi to come close to Raikkonen and eventually pass him at the hairpin to claim the extra 2 points. Raikkonen was really unlucky with heldups at both the pitstops and finally loosing 2nd place.
On the whole its a boring first half and the second half was little bit exciting with some overtakings. Ferrari and Schumacher have lot of work to do to catch up Renault in the next weekend’s United States GrandPrix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Read More »