I know that by now you all know how it all went, but this is my first
person account of it all direct from the track. Please note that the
following race report is as witnessed from my fantastic seat on the
Senna curve (1st curve with the stand facing the exit of the pits) on
stand 11, section 5, row LL, seat 03.
Saturday tests and qualifying:
Mates, I was not able to watch test session three on Saturday morning as
I was able to reach my seat immediately after it ended, but I saw
session 4 fully and then the whole qualifying session.
I can confirm to you that while everybody else was fully pre-occupied by
setting fast score times during test session 4, both our lads were
clearly out there experimenting with the cars and not giving any
importance to clocking a fast lap. Barrichello slipped on numerous
occasions and Michael seemed to slow down during fast laps. But inspite
of all this, Michael did for brief periods of time post the fastest lap
only to be outdone by others (with Trulli finally setting the fastest
session time), however it was clear that the whole aim during the
testing was indeed pure "testing" and tinkering with the car.
Qualifying started with Bruni re-entering the pits and the drivers each
started their laps consecutively. Rubens was clearly comfortable during
his qualifying lap but myself as a spectator, I had this impression that
the car was running heavy and clearly not as fast as the usual pace of
our cars. Immediately after Michael started to do his fast lap, I was
ensured that both our cars were truly running fast (or at least the
other cars were running lighter). Michael's brakes locked up at the 1'st
curve in front of me and the drift clearly indicated that his car was
heavy. At the time, I myself was very baffled as to why Ferrari would
run heavy cars on a fast circuit such as Canada with the Michelins
clearly outperforming Bridgestones and I must add that I was a bit
disappointed. Michael did post the fastest lap and qualified as 1st, but
it was evident that it was going to be only for a short time and we were
going to be lucky to start from the 4rth row. That was almost going to
be a reality had Sato not spun on the final curve.
Immediately after the qualification, the large screens showed Michael
being interview on the pit lane about his result and he was as usual
calm (and quite content to start from the dirty side of the track)
however what puzzled me more was Ross's apparent relaxed mood. Our
results were not good but one thing was certain. Both Michael's and
Ross's attitudes showed that something was up their sleeve (whether it
would work remained to be seen) and race day was going to be one very
suspense filled day. Ralf had a well deserved pole position.
Race:
Race day started with the many activities on the circuit and it was
great fun! Concerning Formula 1 though:
The weather was blistering hot at the track with the track temperature
hitting the 40 degrees margin. We did have some very very brief cloudy
intervals before the race but the sun was out full force with all it's
glory.
The driver's parade was done in all it's glory but as usual left me with
no answers to the everlasting question: How come everybody (regardless
of team or driver loyalty) including Ferrari fans, cheers every driver
but when Michael passes a lot of non-Ferrari fans boo? What a shameful
display of un-sportsmanlike behaviour. But as always, it was great fun
to see all the drivers especially both our lads and needless to say my
voice was starting to fade from all the cheering!
Pre-race laps were non-eventful and we waited for the race to begin
during which time the pit-babes flag procession started and the poetry
pouring from the stands in praise of those beauties was enough to mellow
even macho men !
The formation lap started and immediately all the fans (at least sitting
near me) started murmuring that something was up with Michael because he
used every second of the formation lap even the last seconds during
final parking to put heat in those tyres, even turned the wheels left
and right once while stopping.
The lights went out and the race was on, there was no dispute to the
fact that the top 5 cars darted faster than ours while Trulli
immediately exited to the left with a failure. It was disappointing for
him to exit that way but the drama was far from over. As soon as they
reached turn 1 Michael and Rubens both masterfully kept the pressure up
and on pace even though they were clearly out of trajectory line. Also
on curve one a mistake by Klien caused confusion as both David Coulthard
and Webber were bumped by him with Webber suffering damage while the
Scot was lucky to escape without major damage. Webber immediately pitted
afterwards but the damage was done as he had to quit later on from other
problems as well.
The fight was on full blast behind Ralf, who clearly was not suffering
any pressure from anybody. Both Ferraris were on good form but again it
was clear to any observer that we were running heavy cars and add to
that the fact that Schumacher, while aggressively displaying speed,
seemed to be conservative on the curves early on. Almost gave the
impression that his car had trouble, or so it seemed.
The first to pit of the front runners was Button and Montoya and then
Ralf pitted 2 laps afterwards. Immediately both Alonso and our lads
started pushing as this was the chance for them to move ahead for the
inevitable pit stops. Pressing on furiously all three drivers sort of
played "dare" with each other until Alonso pitted first and
unfortunately lost some time in the pits because of some problems the
crew had. Meanwhile Heidfeld also stopped and one of his mechanics
suffered an accident when he mistakenly tried to leave the pits with the
fuel hose still connected. Thankfully the mechanic was not seriously
hurt.
Kimi meanwhile also pitted and during he exit passed on the pit line
separator line right at the end for a full car's long distance. He was
penalized afterwards for this mistake.
Michael finally pitted and the suspense was just maddening... Michael
exited the pits with Montoya right on his side on the Senna curve (right
in front of me) and Michael negotiated that curve with new tyres and a
heavy load well enough to deserve a comparison to the great late Gilles
Villeneuve. The car was almost sliding and I could clearly see Michael
(for the first time on this curve) working the wheel furiously while
flat out. He wasn't going to give JPM the position and he didn't, and
I'm sure my roaring warnings to him about JPM guided him through the
curve (it was at this time that somebody handed me my lungs so that I
could swallow them back in ). Some people started saying that Michael
had passed on the separator line as well. That is not true and for
anybody who's been to the track or takes a look at the position of my
seat will know that I was at a perfect angle to see the whole thing and
I can confirm to you that his rear right tyre only shadowed the end tip
of the line. It was, to say the least, a fantastic attack on that curve
and pure genius how he handled it.
Montoya and Alonso were now behind Michael but Button and Ralf were
leading in the first two positions. Michael clearly again had put in a
lot of fuel and thus was not up to pace and the attack by Montoya began
while Rubens could not reach Montoya in time to put some pressure on
him. Michael was amazing during this time, especially on my curve, I
mean the curve where I was sitting (1st one, Senna curve). When JPM was
not in a position of immediate danger, Michael seemed to be slowing down
a bit but when JPM was in danger of passing that's when Michael went
flat out. That's when it hit me that this genius of a driver, this
master, this God of F1 was actually conserving his brakes, EVEN DURING
THE MOST DANGEROUS MOMENTS!!!! I just couldn't believe it, I just
couldn't believe seeing what I was seeing, years from now people will
say that this Canada GP was one of those races where Michael's dominant
and unparalleled genius shone. More than once, especially on my curve,
JPM started taking the chance to overpass but immediately the Ferrari
jumped to life as if a reserve part of the engine started running too.
Michael was in full control all the time and , even though it looked
scary, JPM was not going to pass him in this race.
The pressure from JPM went on until finally the Colombian pitted in and
that's when Michael's complete strategy came to light. The brilliance of
it was just astounding. He used the precious laps to ease the pressure
from his brakes and ultimately make sure his car was in top shape for
the most crucial moment in the race to come. All the while Rubens
catching up but never at a decent position to overtake Michael. Critics
might claim that Rubens was unwilling to pass him or did not try hard
enough, but having seen Rubens's performance for three consecutive days
it is my honest opinion that Rubens gave it his best and would have
passed Michael first chance he got but he just wasn't able to do so.
Keep in mind the slight damage he suffered when he went out on the grass
and bumped a bit on the first chicane after the first straightway later
on. That part of the track was his weak point all weekend and had he not
ran off there, I believe he would have finished second on the podium.
Meanwhile Sato kept doing his best to display his lack of experience...
His exit from the pits with a fantastic disregard for David's safety
where we almost had a disastrous accident on my curve. God looks out for
fools too otherwise Sato was going to be in the tyre barrier. Later on
Sato retired with a blown engine and the large screens showed a fast
clip of a BAR technician pointing angrily at some charts. My guess is
telemetry figures showing some telltale signs of a mistake. I can see
today from the news that BAR is frustrated and there are some rumours
that the mistake was indeed Sato's... His third consecutive one...
Kimi meanwhile by this time had pitted an amazing 5 times (including his
drive by penalty) and the total performance of the McLaren's was not a
good show, but still he came in 7th which considering the circumstances
is pretty good, but a far cry from the result that is expected from the
McLaren's. It really broke my heart to see the mighty team perform this
way and I did not hesitate to cheer him at the end (even though the
people around me thought I was ****ing off doing this) because he
deserved an applause from a fan of this sport.
Finally Michael pitted a second time, and even though I felt inside that
Ralf had to pit again with 20 something laps to go, I really felt like I
was going to melt through the seats... The loud cheers of the people
around me did not help when Ralf reclaimed his position in front of
Michael and being the lone yellow shirt in a majority of blues and dark
blue shirts made for ample room to be a gravitational destination to
quite a few joking (and some insulting) remarks. To be honest, at a race
I never shut up every time Michael or Rubens passes especially not one
I'm actually there so I guess everybody was pretty ****ed by now by the
loudmouth in the yellow shirt. But who cares, I pay good money for that
seat and besides both Michael and Rubens need the positive energy vibes
from me !!!
Suddenly, what I (and probably legions of fans) had expected happened;
Ralf came into the pits. The suspense was deadly, Michael was nowhere to
be seen on the horizon which to me was the start line and Ralf was
almost over when all of a sudden I found myself having jumped on my
friend's shoulder, roaring and waving every piece of clothing I could
get my hands on - Michael had just passed the start line and Ralf had
just bolted from his crew! We were almost safe, for sure we were safe
provided Michael did not spin or have a flat or anything bad like that.
He didn't. He came into the turn and took it in front of Ralf and that's
when the final phase of the Ferrari plan started. The minute Ralf went
into the pits, Michael started pushing his car to the edge. I had
thought that his exit from the pits flat out on my curve was something,
but now that looked like it was just a stroll on the beach. All the
while he was taking care of those brakes was for this exact moment and
everybody fell for it. I had a hard time keeping my eye on the race as
you can only look up so much in between bowing repeatedly to the master.
By now my voice had reached it's present stage which is non-existent and
my friend was saying something about doing something to every female
member of my family as I had apparently broken his back or neck...
By the end of the race suddenly Alonso pulled up on the grass right in
front of my stand and that was a disappointment to all Renault fans as
well as myself. He had put in a good race and I considered him to be one
of our main rivals. I can tell you this though, nobody in a Ferrari
shirt both on my stand or the one next to mine cheered when he retired
right in front of us, on the contrary he received a warm appreciation
from us all. Imagine what would have happened if it was Michael getting
out. The happy cheers would have been nauseating... Button meanwhile,
after all the speculative talk about a glorious Sunday, had nothing to
show and ended something about 19 or 20 seconds behind. Massa meanwhile
suffered a major crash and apparently debris flew into the crowd. We
didn't see anything on the screens but I can tell you all that Massa is
one lucky guy. Later on we were passing in front of the pits and even
some other team members had come to take a look at the car. the front
was gone with a dangerous exposure to both Massa's legs. Thank God he
didn't suffer an accident like the one Panis had suffered here on this
track years ago where he broke both legs.
With a few laps to go, a lot of people were quiet on stand 11. I was not
one of them. But I can tell you for sure that I was quiet during
immediately after Michael crossed the finish lane and passed my stand...
I was running to the fence and was one of the first on the track . My
brother in law and I were able to reach such a fantastic place under the
podium that some press people were behind us! We were able to get a spot
just to Rubens side and I never knew that I can improvise both the
German and Italian anthems so well!
After the champagne ceremony was over we walked along the pit wall when
all of a sudden we saw Ross Brown being interviewed at on the other
side. We waited patiently for him to finish it and as soon as it was
over we just went in unison "Rossssssssssss..." The man had no choice
but to come over and shake hands with each of us. After that we went to
opposite the weighing area and I could see the damage on the left side
of Ruben's car from when he went off the track at the chicane. It wasn't
bad but it was considerable and seeing how the carbon fibre had broken,
it's lucky that nobody suffered a puncture there.
Mates, I learned two things this weekend:
First, Michael Schumacher's resolve is unwavering, his discipline of his
nerves almost super-human. He did something that is a result of what I
had posted earlier on Friday night after my encounter with him. He knows
his team exactly, EXACTLY, for what they are and what they can do
because he is involved in every aspect of it and commands the necessary
respect and confidence. Otherwise there is no way anybody can perform
with such blind confidence. I honestly think that this guy can not, even
if he wants to, think slowly. It must be a powerhouse inside his brain
capable of concentrating on multiple tasks at the same time. A computer
if you will.
And as for the second thing; My new lucky shirt works!
