At the eve of the Turkish Grand Prix the Formula 1 lose a piece. For the record, a team. The Super Aguri, that was already in financial difficulties before the start of the season 2008. The manager of the Japanese team give up definitively on Tuesday 6 May 2008, after the last humiliation (their camion blocked at the entrance of the paddock of Istanbul, where they will compete on Sunday 11 May 2008). It was useless the help of the Honda that, in the lasts months, had made a financial contribution. The last efforts foundered when the negotiations for the sale of the team to the Magma Group ended.
"At the end I decided to retire from the World Championship".
Aguri Suzuki explains, owner and ex driver of F1. In the meantime, in preparation of the fifth Grand Prix of the 2008, the other teams they’re setting up set-up and packages: the Ferrari has already announced that they will not use the nose with the hole because the Turkish circuit requires less downforce than other circuits.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso team's plan to introduce its new car, the STR3, at this race were postponed due to a lack of spare part due to an accident suffered by the driver Sébastien Bourdais during testing before the previous race, which had resulted the chassis sustaining heavy damage. Toro Rosso had already used an updated version of its 2007 car, the STR2, for the first four races of the season, and were now forced to race with it in Turkey as well. The team's other driver, Sebastian Vettel, said that he was disappointed that the new car was not ready. However, this is the last race in which the STR2 competed, as the STR3 subsequently will make its debut at the next race. McLaren's driver Heikki Kovalainen has been declared fit to the race in the days leading up to the race. At the previous race, Kovalainen had suffered a serious crash, although he escaped uninjured, apart from minor concussion. Kovalainen said that he felt ready to race again:
"I arrived here today feeling confident that I would pass the FIA test as I feel 100% and if I had not felt 100% I would have told the team already and stayed at home. My preparation for this weekend has gone well and we have done a lot of fitness training".
Friday, May 9, 2008, in the first free practice session, several large damp patches around the circuit - caused by the late track cleaning due to the rain - dissuaded drivers from attempting laps and left the frustrated teams sitting in the pits waiting for the surface to dry as the low track temperatures made the situation worse. When the cars have been sent to the track, many of the drivers either went off the road or spun. Räikkönen only did three laps, before retiring with a gearbox problem, causing him to finish last. Massa set the session's fastest time, ahead of the McLaren duo, Heikki Kovalainen and Hamilton. After the session had ended, to Fisichella was given a three-place grid penalty by the stewards for exiting the pit lane while the light at the exit was still red. The second free practice session was held in dry conditions, but the track was still damp from earlier drizzle. After 30 minutes, Red Bull's Mark Webber crashed at turn six, his car sustaining serious damage. Webber was unhurt, although the crash meant that he finished the session in 19th position as he was unable to complete any further laps. As result the session was briefly stopped while the marshals cleared away the debris. In this session, Räikkönen set the fastest time, with Hamilton next up. Massa was third, while David Coulthard, Red Bull, broke up the Ferrari-McLaren domination by setting the fourth-fastest time, ahead of Kovalainen. Poisons and certainty. In Formula 1 never fail. You race in Istanbul and you know that the Ferrari can be the master, since in the last two years, with Felipe Massa, they have conquered pole and victory, paired with the fastest lap made by the other car. Michael Schumacher in 2006 and Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. When you turn on the engine in Turkey you know that Felipe Massa become invincible, rersulting the fastest in the first session of the free practice, that no one can never beat it even in the afternoon, where to take away the unreachable record is Kimi Raikkonen, that only made three laps in the first session, with a broken gearbox that keeps him stop at the box for an hour and a half, but reactive in the second one, best time ahead of Lewis Hamilton, behind of 0.036 seconds and Felipe Massa to almost 0.14 seconds.
The Ferrari of this year, even without the hole in the nose, it’s an assurance and even in this weekend seem to be the favorite. Even after the troubled start in Australia they never betrays, here are the poisons, which are the other constant of this world. The charge comes from the Germany, the land of the rivals: Mercedes and Bmw. The German media talk about a possible clever from the team of Maranello, that they had asked (with the approval of the FIA) to be able to intervene on its engines against the freezing of the imposed development to the Regulation for reliability issues, with the result of obtaining an increase in horses and a noticeable improvement in performance, an earthquake without tests, but enough to trigger suspicion in all the rivals and question the superiority of the Ferrari. The subject is easy: behind the red dominion there’s a trick, the poison spreads so the reply of the team of Maranello becomes inevitable. In the evening there’s also a sarcastic consideration: since there are talk about a big increase of power, and to a few Ferrari technician it runs off a maybe, an elegant way to say that it’s impossible another step forward on the engines (freezed with seals, regularly controlled by the FIA) already taken to technological edge. The fact is, irony or not, the Germany charges and it doesn’t take much to understand that behind the suggestion there may be the Mercedes, partner of the McLaren, and Bmw, the main rivals for the title. Waiting to understand if the story has the basis to go viral, Lewis Hamilton try to spread optimism into his team, the McLaren:
"For the first time we are very close to the Ferrari, after Barcelona we worked very hard and we grow a lot, I’m convinced that I can fight for the first row".
Prelude to a possible victory, since here in Turkey it always won (not only Felipe Massa, but also Kimi Raikkonen with the McLaren in 2005) who started from the pole. Lewis Hamilton believes in it, Kimi Raikkonen trust he had a nasty scare when he had to change the gearbox.
"It made us waste a lot of time, on a track, where turning is essantial to find the right set-up".
But on the face no worries:
"There’s another session of free practice and in the right moment we will be alright".
In the hope that Felipe Massa is already sailed away. Here the Brazilian never gave, to anyone, any discounts.
"And also now I feel that I’m able to win. Because I like the track and the Ferrari is strong".
Saturday, May 10 2008, the third and final practice session was held on the Saturday morning in dry conditions, but with damp patches on the track from earlier rain. As was the pattern for the season, in this session the championship contenders appeared to work on preparations for the final part of qualifying and for the race, carrying heavier loads of fuel. Webber set the fastest time in the session, with Renault's Fernando Alonso in second, and Coulthard in third. Massa was fifth, Hamilton seventh, Räikkönen 11th and Kovalainen 12th. A few hours later, the qualifying was a two-way battle between Ferrari and McLaren, with BMW Sauber not showing a strong pace as they had in previous qualifying sessions, and Alonso not with a light fuel load as he had in Spain. Massa qualified on pole with a time of 1'27"617, ahead of Kovalainen and Hamilton. Hamilton decided not to run a lap on the softer option of the two tyre compounds, feeling that they were running low on grip in the later stages of the lap. He completed his final lap of the session on a scrubbed set of the harder tyre compound and it got him the third place. Afterwards Hamilton said that he felt that his tyre choice had been incorrect. However, he changed his mind the following day, having made an examination of the relevant telemetry data. The Championship leader Räikkönen qualified fourth, ahead of Kubica and Webber. Alonso, Trulli, Heidfeld and Coulthard completed the top ten.
Nico Rosberg, driving for Williams, qualified 11th, ahead of Barrichello and his teammate Jenson Button. Vettel qualified 14th, followed by Timo Glock for Toyota. Nakajima qualified in 16th, ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr. (Renault) and Bourdais. Afterward Bourdais said that his low position was due to being held up by both Force India drivers:
"Bad traffic, basically the Force India guys ruined my afternoon: on my first run I was held up by Sutil, in Turn 3, and on the second one I came up behind Fisichella in Turn 8".
Fisichella qualified 19th but his three-place penalty saw him drop behind his teammate, Sutil, to 20th and last place on the grid.
If he did the same things as here everywhere, he could win the World Championship easily. Because Felipe Massa, Brazilian of San Paolo with a particular preference for the Istanbul track, in Turkey he never betrays. He takes off the clothes of the discontinuous driver, victim of disconcerting ups and downs, exceptional feats and gross mistakes, and he becomes Michael Schumacher, the superhero that always beats everyone, both in the single lap and in the whole race, with the overwhelming victory of the last two editions. Massa and Ferrari, in Istanbul, are uncompromising and this happened also on Saturday, the Brazilian that in the crucial moment, made two laps almost perfect, while his most dangerous rivals, his team-mate Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton with the McLaren, they twist in their mistakes, to the point of being mocked even by the miraculous Heikki Kovalainen, that two weeks ago he hit the wall in Barcelona and in record time he returned at the track stronger than before. Kimi Raikkonen in the face is a sphinx but this time he can’t hide his delusion. He closed the Q2 in the lead, the one where everyone tries with low fuel, the one where the strategy have not yet come into play, and he dreamed about a precious pole. Instead, he failed the attempt, that matter, two times, he whimpers on the last corner before the straight opposite to the box, he loses a lot of speed and at the end he is forced to settle for a fourth place that does not give much chance to win.
"I could do better, I’m a bit hungry".
But the Finnish immediately finds the proverbial optimism and says:
"It’s not time to give up, everything it’s possible, the important thing is to start well, maybe I can overtake the two McLaren at the start and to hunt Massa. I’m not satisfied of my result, but it depends a lot of how much fuel my rivals have into the tank".
Obviously if he is more heavy, the regret for the modest result will be minor. But the impression is that this time, between Ferrari and McLaren, fuel level and performances, there’s not a big difference, so his race risk to be upward. As the one of Lewis Hamilton, that this year, after the season as a perfect rookie, goes on from one mistake to another. This time he failed on the tires, for the pole time he used the Hard so he has been preceded also by his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.
"I made a mistake and maybe I threw away a possible victory. Because the third place on the grid, in a circuit where it’s difficult to overtake it’s not an ideal position. I’m disappointed, angry. I could have done more".
An understandable despair, but music to the ears of Felipe Massa. That here he has the possibility to return to the race for the victory of the World Championhip.
"In my hands I had a perfect Ferrari, my lap was amazing".
And he does not forget to thank Fernando Alonso, that in the crucial moment he let him pass.
"An act that I appreciated, because here the traffic is a decisive weight".
Massa ahead found a prairie. And he really exploited.
We had left Heikki Kovalainen in Barcelona, on Sunday 27 April 2008, with the car that was split in half, grounded into the wall of tires of the security. We find him here in Istanbul, in the first row at the start of the Turkish Grand Prix. Kovi, as in McLaren are calling him, he smiles to everyone and he is cuddled by everyone. Only on Thursday (as usual) he had the OK from the FIA to race in the Turkish Grand Prix.
"I knew could pass that test, I already made tests by my own".
Miracles of the safety, also mentioned by Steve Olvey, doctor, one of the founders of the Ministry of Security of the FIA:
"He should be happy to be survived. Few years ago an accident like that it would be fatal".
But the Finnish knows that, he repeats himself that “the last two weeks they’ve been like a roller coaster” and it’s a relief that he showed up at the doctors as a rookie, also because the tests are the same that he had undergone last year, when he arrived in Formula 1. The Finnish driver of the McLaren did even better of Robert Kubica, a victim of another big crash in Montreal in 2007. The Polish returned after two Grand Prix and he placed in fourth, on the grid and at the finish line. Heikki Kovalainen will start next to Felipe Massa, and he never done this before.
"My recovery was amazing".
Actually, now Kovi would like to archive those images, and the word normality was used for him.
"I will not be here if I don’t feel good, one hundred percent. Obviously I’m feeling normal".
The accidents are the enemies of the drivers, and they know it well.
"So, if you think about this thing you don’t drive anymore".
Words of Lewis Hamilton, that last year he went against a wall of the Nurburgring and that, when he saw the collision of his team-mate, he got worried.
"But the team analized the episode, and they saw that the accident was caused by a defective tyre".
Safety is the keyword, so Heikki Kovalainen swears he’s prepared for this Grand Prix even harder than the usual:
"I’m sure I will not have problems".
Instead, he jokes about his headache:
"Now it’s over, I had it for the first three days after the accident, but it was normal. If they hit you with a baseball, you will see what a headache you will have…".
A competitive doom that help, in some way, to put an end to the internal controversy as regards of the GPDA, the drivers association.
"If there’s a worth of the GPDA, is that they have never lowered the attention guard on the safety".
Jarno Trulli remembers, annoyed by the fact that few drivers of the top are not interested to join it. A message for the McLaren drivers, received by Lewis Hamilton that wrote a check of 15.000 dollars for the running costs.
"We’re finding the unity".
Heikki Kovalainen grants. Another type of miracle: the safety do this and more. On Sunday, May 11, 2008, at the start, Hamilton immediately overtook Kovalainen to claim second behind Massa. Räikkönen had a bad start and was squeezed into the first corner by Kovalainen. The two cars made a light contact, with Räikkönen's front wing touching Kovalainen's left rear tyre. This resulted in a puncture for the McLaren driver which forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop on the second lap, which dropped him to 18th and last position. Räikkönen damaged his front wing but continued the entire race without changing the nose section of his car. Meanwhile, Kubica took advantage to move up into third position, whilst Räikkönen was also passed by Alonso. Further back, Vettel collided with Sutil and both were forced to pit, Vettel with a puncture and Sutil for a new front wing. Sutil's teammate, Fisichella, and Nakajima collided at the first turn as well, after Fisichella braked too late and could not avoid the Williams driver. Fisichella retired on the spot but Nakajima, despite losing both his front and rear wing in the accident, was able to make it back to his pit box before retiring. The accident resulted in the safety car being deployed. The Safety car was withdrawn at the end of the second lap and the race got underway again with Massa in the lead. Räikkönen, meanwhile, overtook Alonso for the fourth place. Between lap four and lap eleven, Massa and Hamilton exchanged fastest laps and the McLaren driver managed to hold the gap between him and the leader at one and a half seconds. The two drivers left the third-placed Kubica behind, who in turn was being caught quickly by Räikkönen.
Further back, Kovalainen passed Sutil on lap 12 and Vettel on lap 17. Hamilton then began to close the gap between himself and Massa, doing consecutive quick lap times and was within seven–tenths of a second by lap fifteen. Alonso was the first of the leading drivers to make a pit stop on lap 15, dropping to tenth. Hamilton pitted one lap later and dropped to sixth, while Massa stayed out for another three laps. Both, he and Kubica, pitted at the same time, leaving Räikkönen temporarily in the lead. On lap 20, he set the fastest lap of the race, a 1'21"506, before he himself pitted at the end of lap 21, as did then by the second-placed Heidfeld. Räikkönen rejoined ahead of Kubica, while Heidfeld came out ahead of both Alonso and Webber, to elevate himself to fifth. Massa was now back in the lead, but with Hamilton just 0.8 seconds behind. Running lighter on fuel with a view to making an additional pit stop to the Ferrari driver, Hamilton was able to close the gap on Massa and on lap 24, he overtook him at turn twelve. Hamilton now led, with Massa second and Räikkönen third. Hamilton soon broke away from Massa, lapping over a second quicker than the Ferrari driver. Further back, Bourdais spun off at turn twelve, with a rear suspension failure that put him out of the race. The top five in the race were now Hamilton, Massa, Räikkönen, Kubica and Heidfeld. Over the next six laps, Hamilton stretched his lead to over six seconds before pitting on lap 32. He rejoined the race in third, 2.6 seconds behind the second-placed Räikkönen. Further back, on lap 34, Kovalainen passed Glock, only to be immediately re-passed.
He did succeed up the main straight, on the same lap. Two laps later, he passed Button. Eight laps after Hamilton's pit stop, Ferrari called Massa in for his final stop of the afternoon, making Räikkönen the leader of the race once more. This lead, however, only lasted for a couple of laps as the Finn pitted on lap 43, also making his final stop of the afternoon. On lap 43, Hamilton led by 14.4 seconds from Massa with Räikkönen a further seven seconds behind. Two laps later Hamilton was forced to make his third and final pit stop. The McLaren driver rejoined the track behind Massa but crucially ahead of championship leader Räikkönen. The top three would remain this way for the remainder of the race. Further back in fourth and fifth were the two BMW Saubers of Kubica and Heidfeld and behind them were Alonso, Trulli, Webber, Rosberg and Coulthard, with Kovalainen pursuing closely behind them. Kovalainen passed Coulthard on lap 48, and then on the next lap he passed Rosberg. However, Rosberg immediately overtook Kovalainen to regain his position, and Kovalainen was forced to pit on lap 50. After his final pit stop, Kovalainen rejoined the circuit in 13th position. Felipe Massa won the race, making it his third consecutive win at the circuit, 3.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton, with Räikkönen a further half-second behind in third. The two BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld finished fourth and fifth respectively while further back Alonso, Webber and Rosberg completed the top eight. Coulthard finished ninth, Trulli 10th and Button 11th. After his puncture at the start, Kovalainen had managed to recover to 12th by the end of the race, passing Glock in the closing stages. Glock, Barrichello, Piquet, Sutil and Vettel were the last of the classified finishers. Stefano Uguzzoni, chief of the Ferrari mechanics, will never forget the Turkey. He never got into the podium of a Formula 1 race, and now he is in here, excited and happy, to assist to the celebration of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, the winner of the race and the leader of the World Championship. The Ferrari mechanic, one that work behind the scene but helps, as Stefano Domenicali says, to the increadible domain of the Maranello team (four victories in the 2008 on four races), he will never forget Istanbul, as it will not Felipe Massa, a driver that here he turns into an infallible driver. Also yesterday the same end, the Brazilian that celebrate, the Ferrari that prevails.
Also this time we can’t talk about monologue, there was a thrill, a surpring Lewis Hamilton that with an aggressive strategy, of three stops, tried to scare the team of Maranello, he overtook Felipe Massa at the lap 24, he relegates him at 7.5 seconds (maximum advantage) at the end of the lap 31, before making clear, with the second pit-stop, that his sudden glory was due to the low weight of the car. Lewis Hamilton try to scare the rivals, but he succeed only in a half. At the finish line he is ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, but nothing to do against the dominance of Felipe Massa. Indeed, at the moment of the overtake, the maneuver that seems to overturn the situation, is where the Brazilian built his victory. Others might panic, he shows strong nerves. He is mocked by the inside, he does not take stupid risks, he is content to stay behind. He knows that few laps in second position it won’t be lethal. So at the lap 46, when Hamilton makes the third supply, the Brazilian is ahead. It's not the same Sunday of grace. A delusional qualify that had put him in trouble, starting in fourth place is not the top, the bagarre at the first corner intensifies his torments. He touches with Heikki Kovalainen and he had a little damage at the front wing. He has the cleverness to understand that is not the day. Alone it passes Fernando Alonso, with the help of the team and with the strenght of the strategy he bypasses Robert Kubica and he is now third, a place that he will not give up till the end. Well, a Kimi Raikkonen more aggressive, in the end, could have threat Lewis Hamilton, but he thinks that he didn’t have the right balance and he prefers to gain six points, that may be useful to win again the World Championship. Without the Ferrari and the McLaren all the rest is boredom. The two Bmw conquer a fourth and a fifth place with Robert Kubica and Nick Heinfeld, Fernando Alonso win the race for the sixth place, ahead of Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg. Ony three retires and only one accident, in the first meters, Giancarlo Fisichella hits Kazuki Nakajima.the race of the Italian lasts a straight. Towards the end of the race at the box there was also a rosary. There's the whole Massa’s family, the parents of the driver, the wife, they pray, because Felipe is near the finish line and this victory can not escape. They beg to the sky, the good luck, but there’s no need, because in Turkey he is infallible.
Three years with the Ferrari, three pole and three vitories on his beloved track of Istanbul, an incredible en plein. Massa, how it’s possible something like this?
"It’s incredible, right? I really love this circuit, it has all different corners, you can push to the limit without problems, drive is funny, and when you have, in your hands, a Ferrari as mine is even more exciting, you only have to go to the limit, win is inevitable".
But at a certain point you shook.
"It’s true, when Hamilton overtook me, for a moment I tought: you’ll see that he gives a shit. Or better, I knew that he had to stop, once more than me, at the box, my team, at the radio, warned me, but it’s always better not to trust".
But he did not put up great resistance during the overtake.
"I have tought. He was in the inside, if I tried to close the door, I would have taken terrible risks and it was not the case. Taking him towards the escape route, making it to go on the gravel would not be correct. In that moment he was with less fuel than me, he was lightest, fastest, I couldn’t have done anything. So I said to myself: go and pass. But then stop at the box, don’t forget, so I will be back in the lead. And see you at the finish".
After such a dominion it would be an atroucious end to lose a victory.
"In Turkey this can’t happen. Here the fans love me, they are crazy for me and I’m attached to this people. At this point I will try to get the Turkish passport, I deserve it".
In the meantime he is really back in the race for the World Championship.
"This is a Championship that is very balanced and Raikkonen did well to settle for the third place and to take at home six important points. Me and Kimi win one each, the battle is very hard, also Hamilton won’t quit, is equal to me in the ranking. It risks becoming fundamentalto avoid the retires, those zeros in the ranking".
Lewis Hamilton has worried him more than we could imagine. Be honest: Felipe Massa was never afraid?
"For a minute, after the first pit-stop he started to get closer, few tought it came. He was very fast on track, I did not realise what was happening. But the team by radio told me: be calm, he will make three pit-stop. So I understood that there was no problem".
He was forced to make this strategy due to the tires and for safety reasons.
"I don’t know their problems, I know that we also had few doubts on the choice of the tires. We decided to make a greater use of the soft one, see how Hamilton go with the hard one, it could have been a wrong choice, but at the end I believe that we made the right choice".
Now there’s Monte-Carlo, a circuit that in recent years you always suffered.
"Last year I finished third, I’m not really worried. Obviously, it’s a track on which the McLaren has always been strong, but we also had a good rhythm during the race and we’ve beaten them. Montecarlo and Montreal, the next two races, can give us the right picture of the situation, to understand if we are the strongest. We can consider them the last exam of the truth. If we pass unharmed this two Grand Prix, the story get interesting".
A family battle between Massa and Raikkonen?
"A great possibility for the Ferrari, with us drivers, it’s clear, that we try to fight. Giving more possible points to the team".
It's like these two also won, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton. Starting from the finish: they conquered the podium. But for both the Grand Prix could have been different. The Finnish, for example: if the contact, at the start, with his compatriot Heikki Kovalainen had been deeper, he would have been retired. And the English? He was in trouble for all the eve: due to the tires, so the strategy of his McLaren has been decided in common with the Bridgestone. They have survived to potential trouble even worst, so it’s like they are a bit of winners.
"I gained six points, that is better than nothing".
The World Champion is fatalist, and philosophicalli accepts the verdict. Kimi showed up on the grid knowing that he had already hurt himself after the (bad) qualify of the Saturday, where he only made the fourth time. But, aware to be man of the impossible feats so he tried, at the start, the big shot. That he would have been able to do it, thanks to the acceleration at the inside, if Kovalainen had not closed him at the first corner.
"I almost flanked him, then he has slowed down and I had to brake".
The reaction speed of Kimi avoided the violent impact, but not the contact: the two cars touched a bit, but this touch was enough to puncture the tyre:
"And to damage the side strip of the anterior wing. A non-serious damage, but obviously it didn’t help me".
The tribulation of Lewis Hamilton can be revealed, after the race, with a smile:
"Look, with the predictions of the team we should have arrive fifth. Then the Bridgestone warned us of the tires problem and they advised us - prudentially - to make three pit-stop to avoid the deterioration of the tires".
In 2007 most of the team suffered the tear of the tires, this year the problem stayed only for Hamilton, maybe due to his driving style.
"So, considering all this things, having laid out everything from myself and from the car, I can say that this has been my best race. Even if I didn’t won".
There's also who contested, then, a certain deference of Raikkonen, at the finish, when he was trying to recover Hamilton. Accusations returned to the sender:
"The first rail of tires was very good, but the second one was not as good as the previous one".
The only concession, during the technical analysis:
"Maybe it was better to use the hard tires, but on the posterior it’s always easy to say".
And Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal, goes on saying:
"Let’s remember what happened at the start: the result of Kimi could be even worst. That's the proof that need very little to tip the balance on one side or the other".
Actually between Kimi and Lewis the most satisfied it’s the lst one, and he has reason:
"In the next two Grand Prix, Monaco and Canada, are traditional in our favor. And I think that we almost closed the gap with the Ferrari: the team worked very well".
Expectations that will try to be made vain by the staff of the team of Maranello. At the Ferrari they say openly.
"The next two races are a truth exam".
Especially Monte-Carlo, a track that in the past few years the team of Maranello loved barely, usually good to the enemy McLaren, on which last year Massa conquered, with strenght, a poor third place and Kimi Raikkonen, after a mistake with accident in the qualify, had to settle of the eighth.
"A milestone".
The technical director, Aldo Costa, pronounces that the Ferrari fear, due to the fact that in the last season they were always in trouble in the slow circuits, the Monegasque one but also Montreal, where they will race on Sunday 8 June 2008 and Budapest, planned in August. The men of the team of Maranello admit a bit of apprehension, after a roaring start of the Championship, aside the Australian disaster, they collected four victories in five Grand Prix. But, while in the air there’s still the smell of the champagne for the Turkish victory of Felipe Massa, there’s also the downside. Monte-Caro can be the usual taboo, but if this trap it wouldn’t leave slag, it will be difficult to sustain, as Stefano Domenicali did superstitiously, the team principal, saying that the Ferrari is not the strongest team. Because until now the car of Maranello have created a void: the victory of Kimi Raikkonen in Malesia, double (with Felipe Massa first) in Barhain and in Spain (of the Finnish the largest smile), the usual victory in Turkey of the Brazilian with Kimi Raikkonen third only because of the contact, at the start, with Heikki Kovalainen.
For the moment the Ferrari shown that they are unbeatable and the next two races can become a last resort for wishful thinking of recovery for the rivals, the steady (but without surge upwards) Bmw and the McLaren, that in Turkey with Lewis Hamilton and with a aggressive strategy of three stops, they managed to worry the team of Maranello, but in the other races they’d tangled in their mistakes. Without giving fault to Kimi Raikkonen, that with his first place in the ranking, he is talking about a very long World Championship, the battle of Monte-Carlo risks to become a crucial crossroads. The Ferrari already sett off their task force. Aldo Costa says:
"Compared to the other years we decided to have a more aggressive approach, in this perspective we behave in factory simulations. In the last editions we were too cautious and the tactic didn’t pay. The target is the one to suffer less, trying to confuse the rivals".
The battle plan is ready for a while. Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 May 2008 Kimi Raikkonen will be on track in Le Castellet, the French circuit that has the power to be shaped according to their taste and will be tested by all the team according to Monte-Carlo. Then, also because the Canada it’s scary, on Friday will be the time of Felipe Massa, with the change of the circuit of Le Castellet in a little Montreal. Stefano Domenicali has already anticipated:
"We are gonna take new things, designed just for this two tracks".
To the drivers, that until now they smashed the rivals, it remains the task of refining them. For both it rules the trust. Felipe Massa says:
"To me Monte-Carlo does not worry".
And Kimi Raikkonen ends saying:
"This year we can be competitive everywhere".