Race Performance
Round One, March 7th, 2004.
Australian Grand Prix,
Albert Park, Australia.
The overall race was a continuation of last year's dominance by Ferrari. The promise of improvement by the other teams during winter testing was not fulfilled, at least not yet.
Williams’s new "double-nosed" car needs some further development in the aerodynamics department. Renault needs that ever eluding additional 30-40 HP in their new engine. McLaren seems to have gone backwards and their engine put Kimi Rikkonen as the first retirement of the 2004 season with a an spectacular death of his engine as Felipe Massa managed to outbreak the Fin, whose engine's death locked up his rear wheels, and spun out with no consequences.
The most improved teams were Renault with an impressive third place for young Alonso and BAR-Honda with a strong qualifying and race start by promising Jenson Button, somehow fading away as the race progressed, but still finishing a "promising" sixth place.
According to Mark Webber, the lack of winter testing was to blame for his retirement in his home GP; a disappointment, no doubt. However, for team mate and rookie Christian Klien, who managed an eleventh placing in his first ever GP cannot be a bad accomplishment.
Rookie Giorgio Pantano managed a dead last, (but still running at finish), for the Jordan team, who does not seem to have improved at all.
Toyota was the biggest disappointment as their entire weekend was plagued with mechanical problems; Christiano da Mata barely qualified lower than what he is capable and Olivier Panis was not even able to get out for his one lap qualifying. The race was no different and both Toyotas ending with disappointing twelfth and thirteenth.
Michael Schumacher.
In total winning form, led the race from start to finish, with no incident to report, all three re-fueling stops went as scheduled and as usual, (and refreshing to see) his enthusiasm has not waned and enjoys his victories as if it was his first.
Rubens Barrichello
The ever loyal side-kick of the champion was looking forward to an all-out battle with Schumacher. This lasted about half way until his brakes began to fade and had to ease-off and let the German have his first win of 2004.
Other than that, Rubens looks strong and I would not be surprised that 2004 becomes his year. He is very much pumped up and cannot say enough good things about the new Ferrari, which looked as strong as ever --brake problem notwithstanding.
Fernando Alonso
The Spaniard is hungry for victories and along with his enormous talent I am willing to bet he and Barrichello are the biggest threat to Michael for the Championship.
He rocketed out of his third row placing and caught Montoya by surprise, causing the Colombian to make a mistake that cost him the race (assuming he had the package to challenge the Ferraris --which at this point I doubt).
Alonso took third place in that hot start (NEW RULE: No launch control, so the start has more influence from the driver, however it is reported that the Renault settings allow the car to perform very well under this new conditions.)
Once he realized that he was out-powered by the Italian cars, he simply settled in what he called a "middle of nowhere race" he was quicker than Button's BAR and the Williamses of Montoya and Ralf Schumacher.
Aerodynamically, the Renault seems to have improved, but they still are coming short with their "old new" engine they are using. If Renault can find the missing Horse-Power, there is no doubt Fernando Alonso will become the most serious threat to Ferrari.
It is slowly becoming clearer how good Alonso really is. In spite of his youth (22 years old) he has the maturity of a an accomplished champion, his skill as far as accuracy and consistency is as sharp as can be, and his hunger for victory is clear to see in the start of this GP. He even used part of the grass to get around Jenson Button and Montoya, held his third place in that critical first corner and once he was in the clear he made no mistake to take his first podium finish of 2004.
Ralf Schumacher.
I believe Ralf is no longer as motivated as he was last year, at least not in the Williams team. I do not believe the relationship is a happy one and if there were a better car (or offer) he would go there. The problem is I see no better alternative for him, considering Ferrari is sill the car to beat. Where would he go?
The only possible spot would be Renault, replacing Jarno Trulli (assuming that is that Renault would want to let go Jarno). Another possibility would be Toyota, but the Japanese team seems to be going backwards instead of progressing. BAR? To replace Takuma Sato? Too late for this season I believe. He is better off sticking it out with Williams for now.
This leads to a performance like Australia... not too hot, not too cold... just enough for fourth place.
Juan Pablo Montoya.
I think he is in trouble and his championship bid is in serious jeopardy. I believe that leaving the Williams team is turning to be a mistake. (I believe he should NOT have disclosed so early what his move was.) Let's not forget that McLaren is having all sorts of problems with both chassis and motor.
This has put some unnecessary stress on Montoya and is beginning to show. The mistake he made at the start prevented him to mount any sort of challenge to the Ferraris. He lost valuable points in this race and if Michael is to be seriously challenged Montoya cannot afford performances like this Grand Prix.
Jenson Button
The improvement on the BAR team could not have happened to a nicer guy. He is an excellent driver and quietly he is gathering strength. With foolishly-evil person Villeneuve out of the way thanks to his self-destructive nature, he has become the lead driver of a much improved team.
His qualifying pace was very good; he actually ended up with the exact same time as Montoya. Juan Pablo was given the third spot because in the earlier session he had been quickest.
He, as well as Montoya, were both taken by storm by the fiery start from Alonso, he battled with the Williams for a while, but the Williams have that incredible BWM power plant and eventually he fell behind the white and blue cars.
He has called for his team to improve or else face a second fiddle fate, not unlike last year's
Jenson Button could be a candidate for "driver for Williams" campaign, since it seems Williams will have no drivers by the end of 2004.
Well... it is too early for "silly season” 2004-05
Jarno Trulli.
Jarno is a puzzle. He is a very quick driver, in practice he always performs well... somehow during the race, he does not seem to "hold it all together" and I am not quite sure why, mostly I believe is.... lack of luck, there is always something going on, or something happening against him...
Australia was no exception.
He had a good start from ninth, he was able to take fifth and running so for a while... but it appears that Takuma Sato clipped part of the rear suspension and the car did not handle well, struggling throughout and finishing seventh. (For a couple of points).
I hope Jarno improves from here and like Fernando; he will give some serious grief to the Italian team.
David Coulthard.
Clearly the McLaren team is encountering more problems than they wished, both McLarens qualified in terrible positions and it was an uphill battle from there, Kimi's engine exploded on lap 9 and David, as usual, improved during the race, but such performance, Championships does not win and the best David could accomplish was the last available point (eight place) from his lucky win last year.
Takuma Sato.
I have always considered Takuma Sato a very skilful driver, with incredibly quick reflexes, which has saved him more than once out of compromising incidents. However, these days one needs more than that. One needs a highly accomplished connection with the car as it is driven around the track under all conditions. I am not sure Takuma has perfected this connection, as the race started he came in touch with Jarno Trulli's Renault and apparently damaged the BAR nose... he did not realize this until his second pit stop, immediately the car performed a full second quicker than what Takuma had been driving in prior to the second pit stop.
This explains his disappointing ninth place finish. (And David Coulthard's eighth). Takuma would have finished in the points had he realized he was running with a damaged nose for quite a while.
The BAR team is much improved from last year and should get better from here.
I wonder what Jacques Villeneuve is thinking after throwing away a Formula One ride in an improving team... attitude is 80 % of life without a doubt.
Giancarlo Fisichella.
As always, Giancarlo complains about his performance, which it is understandable given the fact that he was plagued with incidents such as an early puncture and getting stuck behind a slower former team mate (Nick Heidfeld in the Jordan).
In spite of this, The Sauber cars seem to be performing reasonably and once a few problems are fixed, they will become more competitive.
Christian Klien.
An eleventh place finish for a rookie in a second tier car (Jaguar) cannot be disappointing, all things considered.
The positives are that the car is left in one piece and the driver, especially a rookie, can learn for the next event.
In this case it is Malaysia in about two weeks, a very hot place, which will play in the hands of the Michelin-shod cars.
Christiano da Mata.
A disappointment no doubt for the former CART champion after all that promise of the winter months testing...
Toyota is reported to have the largest Formula One budget... and that is some serious $$$ under any kind of standards... and all it could "buy" was a disappointing Twelfth for da Mata and thirteen for Olivier Panis. I hope this will improve.
Olivier Panis.
For Panis it was an even more frustrating weekend since he was not even able to qualify due to some electrical failure... Well, Malaysia is in two weeks.
Giorgio Pantano.
Another Rookie finishing the race. Giorgio’s Jordan was good for 14th place, the last one of the "running at finish” and two laps behind the leader. Much to improve upon and this is only the beginning.
DNF's
Felipe Massa.
Disappointing it has to be for Felipe, the Ferrari test driver with lighting fast reflexes (much like Takuma Sato's). He had a battle with Kimi Raikkonen until Kimi's explosive death of his engine. After that, Felipe had a spirited pace during the race, until something in the suspension caused an extreme under-steer and forced a spin, which thanks to his now famous reflexes, he was able to control and continue battling until his engine died, (in a less explosive fashion), and sided him for a DNF
I expect better results from Felipe as the year progresses.
Nick Heidfeld.
His luck of getting the last Formula One ride for this season seems did not follow through. As he was coming for one of his pit stops, the clutch did not engage and the car could not stop as the gear was still in, hitting some of the Jordan team mechanics, luckily there were no serious injuries, other than minor bruises.
Shortly thereafter, the clutch failed all together and Nick had to retire.... Nick's career promised so much at the beginning when McLaren had taken him under their wing, just to drop him and replaced by Kimi Raikkonen. This means Heidfeld is truly a great driver, just an unlucky one... Let's hope lady luck smiles a little on him for the next races.
Gianmaria Bruni.
The Italian rookie started off well, making up ground and gaining a few places, until lap 20 or so, when his engine developed a misfire and got worse and worse... the car was taken in and fixed in time to run 10 more laps at the end to give Gianmaria more laps under his belt... the Italian seems to have a good attitude, (which he will need driving a Minardi).
Mark Webber.
Mark has to be the best "public relations" driver around, unfortunately this did not help him in his home GP as his engine expired and forced him to retire after a spirited battle with Montoya for a while.
Zsolt Baumgartener.
Driving a Minardi has not changed... a frustrating experience to say the least.... Zsolt's was no different and in his case, the engine misfire became an engine death on lap 16th.
Kimi Raikkonen.
Probably the most frustrated driver for the entire weekend. I do not believe they have a ready-car, this new McLaren has not been fully developed and in fact they are already working on a new design. What is more troubling is the engine department seems to be having a problem. Not a good combination, particularly with the NEW RULE of ONE engine per driver per weekend.
Kimi's spectacular engine's death locking up his rear wheels as he was battling with Felipe Massa was the early and first retirement of 2004 on lap nine...
This on top of a very bad qualifying performance and a stall at the start... Kimi finished with a 2 points deficit to Michael Schumacher in the 2003 Championship... today's race seems so far from 2003 that some serious and deep soul searching is ahead for the McLaren team if they want to be anywhere near last year's.
Spring begins on March 21st... The date of the Malaysian Grand Prix. |
