Imola this time around

[Ciro Pabón]

They didn't know how may laps schumi had left. But ferrari reacted as it was close to there pitstop and got schumi in and out of alonso who had a little traffic to navigate.

In hindsight they should have kept him out as ferrari would have come in, in around 1-2 lap anyway and would have made the jump

You have a point. Anyway, I do not know about McLaren strategist, but the number of laps left can be deduced from the pit time. They even show it on TV (yes, I know this is not exact, but then, if you do not take in account those figures, why in heaven do you qualify with more gas on board?). There were several laps left until Massa could come close and, how was he going to pass Alonso in this "track"?

Schumacher himself said after the race that they pitted because they saw Alonso doing it.

I was left with the impression that this was like family feuds: "At the end, the one that can keep his mouth shut and is last to react, wins".

[wazojugs]

i think Pat saw something that wasn't there and took a chance, if it came off he would have looked great. He didn't and its really no loss as they are still top of both tables.

Martin Brundle mentioned during the race that renault should be worried as the chasing pack is catching up and could spoil the show

[manchild]

Martin Brundle mentioned during the race that renault should be worried as the chasing pack is catching up and could spoil the show

Indeed, Schuey was even slower than chasing pack and Alonso couldn't overtake him so further waiting could led to risk of exiting pits in the crowd.

[DaveKillens]

It was a gamble in calling the pit stop like that. Maybe Alonso could have won if he had pitted five laps earlier. Maybe Shu would have pitted right after him and the same scenario played out. Maybe Alonso might have won if he had pitted five laps later. But a gamble was attempted, and what did he lose? Nothing, Alonso was second before the pit stop, and finished the race in second. At least they tried something, the made a move in an attempt to win the race. This time Shu and Ferrari had them covered, it was like chess, move and countermove.
Imola was critical to Ferrari, and they used up every trick they had, every moment of testing just to do well.
Shu used up a lot of tires in getting the pole position, and in a hard to pass track like Imola, he managed to hold off Alonso for the win. Maybe Alonso should have won, but in the end it was a superb effort and exhibition of just why Shu holds so many records, and still considered by many the best driver. And it must be remembered just how much they have improved, to bounce back from last year's dismal showing.
Love him or hate him, but I just have to say that today, the better man won.

[zac510]

Dave, yeah exactly, in the 'old' Brawn Ferrari days he would have waited until Mika pitted - pit at the exact same time and not give him a lap in free air.

I'd like to recheck the footage and see if Renault came out before or after Massa's pit crew. (see my post page 5).

[dumrick]

Indeed, Schuey was even slower than chasing pack

At a point, Schumi was slower than the lapped cars, that started queuing behind the first two!!!!!!!
I agree that the decision to bring Alonso in early should have been caused by the chasing pack being closing the gap very fast at that stage, and I think that Renault and Ferrari did what they were supposed to do startegy-wise.
It's only that Imola disadvantages hugely the chasing car, and there's no way around it (except to move on to a new circuit, what they should do...)

[Ciro Pabón]

Maybe Alonso should have won, but in the end it was a superb effort and exhibition of just why Shu holds so many records, and still considered by many the best driver. And it must be remembered just how much they have improved, to bounce back from last year's dismal showing.
Love him or hate him, but I just have to say that today, the better man won.

I would like to add that Todt and Brawn are as admired as Schumacher, even if is Schuey who takes all the hard questions.

This trio is really impressive in any century and, at least, they are among the "inventors" of what we could call modern racing strategy. Montezemolo has also played a major role in the shape of car racing and, I guess, in the cohesiveness of the Ferrari "musketeers".

They have a long history of giving the best, even if Schumacher, as I quote, specially when he was known as "wunderkind", was not "afraid of the professional foul".

Schumacher generates and uses controversy, unlike the old "chivalry" school of, for example, Graham Hill or James Clark. Since Suzuka in 2004, not taking in account Indy, we have not seen him jumping in the air.

Well done! I was really glad with this race, even if the GP2 race was more competitive by miles!

I expect the unexpected when everybody is concentrating on Renault.

[Principessa]

Crazy Italian Ferrari lovers

[wazojugs]

found this on http://www.planetf1.com

F1 Integrity
Felipe Massa had a good opening stint to his race and was going progressively quicker. Even though Michael was setting the fastest lap times, Felipe would regularly put in the fastest first sector.

It's usual in F1 for drivers to go quicker and quicker as they reduce their fuel loads and head towards their first pit-stops.

Massa's pit-stop was on Lap 19 yet all of a sudden on Lap 17 he slowed from doing 1:25s to doing 1:26s and then a 1:27. Could it be that he was deliberately holding up Fernando Alonso behind him under instruction from his Ferrari team?

As we all know team orders are banned in F1. The ITV commentary pitcrew accused them of orchestrating a slow-down and to the outside observer this looked to be the case.

Given such a public accusation Ferrari should show ITV and race stewards the telemetry from Massa's car to disprove them. Let's have the answers shown in the next GP programme.

If it was a case of Massa trying to hold Alonso up then one of two things should happen, either;
a) They should scrap the team orders law and let everyone do it
b) They should penalise both Ferraris 25 seconds.

It seems bizarre that stewards would investigate the race accident of Ide and Albers which had no consequence on the race result or the championship and - if ITV are right - let this go.

[Scuderia_Russ]

Most likely tyre related, I wouldn't worry about it Wazojugs.

[vyselegend]

This bring a question to me. Does someone (appart Ferrari crew of course) have acces to their radio communications?

As a french, I have to rely on the tf1 channel ( ) to look the races, and while the race goes on, we can hear everything said on the Renault Radio*, often on Honda's as well, and sometimes on other team's (Toyota, Williams, etc), but NEVER Ferrari's. If Teams orders are banned, please reassure me they (FIA) are watching over all tams communication.

*It has to be said that TF1 is a channel created and owned by Mr Bouygues, and as you know Bouygues (telecom) is one of the main sponsor of the Renault F1 team. So it's useless to specify the comments are VERY partials here...

[Tp]

Yeah even if this did actually happen it would be diffficult for rival teams to prove that teams orders took place, when Ferrari could quite easily say "They tyres dropped in performance at the of the stint" etc...........

[wazojugs]

we only get coverage of teams radio's when Bernie's TV team/crew are doing this. They already do all of the graphics that we see, but the san marino gp was done all by the italians (apart from graphics) hence why we only saw schumi and alonso

[Tp]

. If Teams orders are banned, please reassure me they (FIA) are watching over all tams communication.

To be on top of this problem they surely must be listening in to team radios or it will be near impossible when in some circumstance like the you pointed out at Imola whether or not it is team orders are taking place.

[m3_lover]

Mclaren and Ferrari scramble there radio transmissions, no other team or T.V crew can listen onto to them. Hence why you never hear them during the race except after the race is over as Ferrari did at the end of San Marino