How sweet it is
April 26th, 2006 | by Farzad |
After almost 18 months (since the Japanese GP 2004) Michael Schumacher finally won a race. I know he won the United States Grand Prix last year but that hardly counts.
The last two seasons have been difficult years for Ferrari as they’ve seen their dominance of Foruma One slide to the point where they struggle to finish races in the top 8. The first races of this season showed an improvement over last years performance but that improvement hasn’t translated to any race wins or dominating performances. But the fourth round brought us into the heart of Tifosi country. Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrai at Imola might not be the home of the national Grand Prix of Italy but there is no mistaking that it is Ferrari’s home race.
Last year Schumacher and Alonso thrilled everyone with a final 12 laps or so which saw Schumacher pressing hard to overtake a slower but determined Alonso. Alonso won that race but this year in a copy of last years excitement, albeit for many more laps, Schumacher was able to hold of Alonso to win the San Marino Grand Prix and give the Tifosi reason to cheer for the first time in a long time. Schumacher looked like he was running away with the race in the first stint. He secured pole position the previous day, breaking Ayrton Senna’s pole record in the process, and got a good start on Sunday to lead Jenson Button through the first few laps. Everything looked good for Ferrari’s fans until the first pit stop. Schumacher was forced to use some worn tires which seemed to be graining and causing him to lap slower and slower until it was obvious that Alonso, in second place at that time, was going to catch him. Well the old saying in F1 is that ‘catching someone is one thing, passing them is another thing entirely’. To the delight of the home town crowd that old saying proved true as Schumacher went on to hold of the charging Alonso through the second stint as well as the third stint which he ran on different tires but with the same slow results. In the closing laps of the race Alonso looked like he didn’t want to settle for second and fought hard. He made a mistake with 3 laps to go which gave Schumacher the breathing room he needed to enjoy his first meaningful win in 18 months as he crossed the finish line.
I don’t usually post race reviews, readers can visit any number of websites to get a race summary but this win was special. Schumacher showed his greatest talent isn’t in driving a car fast, he showed he can win when his car is slower than the guy behind him. He showed amazing racecraft managing those two slow stints without giving up the lead. He didn’t put a wheel wrong and soaked up all the pressure from Alonso without cracking. The most compelling fact is that on his in-lap for his second tire change he put in a lap which was 1.5 seconds faster than the average of his previous 10 laps. Think about that. He was obviously having a problem with his car, he just saw Alonso go into the pits and he decided he needed to get everything he could out of the car so he put in a blistering in-lap just before pitting himself. When he came out of the pits he was still in the lead and the race was his to lose.
I’ve been thinking about that in-lap a lot trying to figure out if he was sandbagging or had some other tactic but none of it makes sense considering that any tactic which puts Fernando Alonso nipping at your heals for 30 laps is a bad tactic. The only conclusion I could draw is that since the first pitstop he sensed he had lost some speed so he decided to just drive fast enough to hold off Alonso and keep something in reserve for when he really needed it - such as an in-lap. I think many other drivers would simply put their left foot down and go as fast as the car would let them but Schumacher’s experience and racecraft gave him the confidence to drive the car at or below its limit knowing that passing at Imola is impossible and he gave himself a chance to win the race when the opportunity presented itself. Basically he pulled of the equivalent of a Formula One rope-a-dope!
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Tags: race wins, schumacher
