On Tuesday 3 June 2008, while waiting for the FIA assembly to make a decision on his future, Max Mosley, the president of the Federation, promises to fight. At the center of the scandal that erupted with the discovery of a film which portrays him disguised as a Nazi while engaged in an orgy with a group of prostitutes, Mosley in an interview published on Sunday 20 April 2008 by the English newspaper Sunday Telegraph makes it known that he will not certainly be the one to step aside:
"I stay and I fight".
The president of the FIA therefore claims the right to have an eccentric sexual life and that this has no impact on his role in the organization.
"If they want me to move forward, I will. If not, I will stop, but I will also tell them that it was always my intention not to go beyond my mandate in 2009. And the thing is clear: until then, when I have 69 years old, I will still be able to do something useful".
As for the video of the scandal, Max Mosley once again denies the Nazi connotation of the episode captured by the video and reiterates that his tastes in private life do not concern his work.
"The criticism is based on the idea that you can't have a slightly eccentric sexual life. But most people say that if someone likes this kind of thing, as long as it doesn't offend anyone and it's private, it doesn't concern them".
Since the scandal exploded, many have asked Max Mosley to take a step back. He, however, prefers to underline another aspect.
"For every letter in which a Federation president told me you should take a step back or you should reconsider your position, seven, or perhaps more, people arrived telling me you absolutely must stay, don't retreat an inch, and this It is the most outrageous intrusion".
Speaking instead of the next Spanish Grand Prix, on the eve of the first day of testing Ferrari shows itself with an interesting innovation. In the hope that it doesn't turn into a hole in the water, there is a hole in the nose of the Ferrari that will race in Spain. The opening, which for many technicians could have miraculous effects, is present, the tests of the previous week on this same circuit have shown that it works, with its ability to keep the car more anchored to the ground, increasing grip and giving benevolent effects also on the rear wing, and the men of the Maranello team have decided to break the deadlock. With the crack that makes it fly, Felipe Massa and Kiimi Raikkonen appear in the kingdom of Fernando Alonso with the label of great favourites. The owner of the house certainly cannot raise his voice:
"Ferrari, McLaren and BMW are unattainable, victory or podium are just a dream".
Fernando Alonso has already raised the white flag on his Renault before starting and so this fourth round could turn into yet another chapter of the family challenge, the war between the leader, Kimi Raikkonen, and the most fearsome enemy, Felipe Massa, unless Lewis Hamilton decides to come back as the one of last season and BMW with Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica does not make it clear that it has completely erased the ups and downs of the past from its DNA. The two Ferrari drivers, to tell the truth, hole or no hole, would seem to embrace the thesis of a crowded fight.
"Now it's a three-way challenge".
Says Kimi Raikkonen, claiming that BMW has already caught up with McLaren and could soon get dangerously close to Ferrari.
"They are leading the World Constructors' Championship and we have to score more points than them here".
The pragmatic Felipe Massa sentences, making it clear that he fears Robert Kubica more than Lewis Hamilton. It's right to broaden the scope, but the feeling on the eve of the match is that the owners only live in Maranello. The two arrive in Barcelona with different moods. Felipe Massa, the week before the Spanish Grand Prix, was very fast on this track.
"I tried the slick tyres, it felt like being in Disneyland, it's a shame that from Friday we'll be back racing on the old tyres. It's like having the handbrake on".
The tires certainly helped the timing, but a substantial hand could also have been given to that hole which increases grip. A weapon that Kimi Raikkonen was unable to try almost at all due to the rain:
"I drove a few kilometers, but the conditions were terrible, but it's not the first time I've run in the dark, trying things I've never experienced before in a race. If the new thing works, I'll notice right away".
No danger of depression, on the contrary: Kimi Raikkonen, hair shaved to zero, is in an excellent mood. Like when he chuckles at a provocation about Alonso: Montezemolo said, never in the same team with Kimi, does he agree?
"It's better if I don't say anything".
Nerves relaxed, even if no one loses sight of the importance of Sunday's verdict. Felipe Massa loves Turkey, the next race, just as he loved Bahrain, for Kimi Raikkonen it would be dangerous to give him the green light in Spain too:
"I'm in the lead, but it could have gone better. In Barcelona a victory would be ideal, I could extend the gap".
But Felipe Massa is getting ready for the battle:
"When I'm under pressure I transform. I know I am obliged to win, to come back".
And Hamilton? The Spanish fans can't see him, the English accuse him of having relaxed, he contemplates sensational answers:
"I'm still hugely hungry, I want to finish on the podium at all costs. But let's not talk about a last resort, I just made a mistake in a race".
Friday, April 25, 2008, the Ferraris were fastest in the first session; Räikkönen was quickest with a time of 1'20"649, ahead of Massa, who recovered from a spin and an off-track excursion on his first two laps to take second. Hamilton, Kubica and Kovalainen took the next three positions, ahead of home driver Alonso in sixth. Räikkönen repeated his morning effort in the second session, with a time of 1'21"935, as the frontrunners experimented with higher fuel loads. Renault driver Nelson Piquet was next quickest, ahead of Alonso, Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima, Massa and Red Bull driver Mark Webber.
The McLarens had a less successful session; Kovalainen struggled with gearbox problems, and difficulty with Hamilton's set-up meant he managed 11th after suffering from excessive oversteer.
As he promised:
"I don't mind running in the dark, I'll learn the new things in a day".
Kimi Raikkonen kept his word. The miraculous hole in the nose made him fly too, as it had given Felipe Massa wings in the tests the week before the Spanish Grand Prix. At the first test on the Barcelona track the Finn tore everyone apart, both in the first session, when he preceded his teammate by 0.05 seconds, and in the second, when the dominance was clear and Felipe Massa found himself almost 0.3 seconds behind. An impeccable performance, certainly a good omen in view of the fight for pole position, which makes him radiant:
"This is a pole car, especially if we opted for the Soft tyres".
With a Ferrari aiming to monopolize the front row, wasting such a chance, given the problems suffered by the McLarens and the slightly fluctuating performance of the BMWs, would be a crime. Kimi Raikkonen is not hiding:
"The balance is good, although there is always room for improvement. The new nose? If it didn't give us something extra, we wouldn't use it".
he problem is that this hole seems to look more and more like a lethal weapon. If Friday's times were pure gold, a furious fight could be envisaged, given that the two Renaults in the second test session finished a few hundredths of a second behind Kimi Raikkonen, Nelson Piquet Jr. second at 0.084 seconds, the idol third home, Fernando Alonso, at 0.097 seconds: but those are times for the audience, to try to exalt the Spanish public, depressed by the travails of their favorite. Alonso is so disappointed with the race pace (the good times were done with an empty tank) that he wants to try today with a new chassis. But the Spaniard does not give false hopes:
"We will suffer like in Bahrain, in qualifying it is difficult to get into the top ten, taking more than two points in the race would be a miracle".
Renault is no relevant, not even the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, another rookie during the second test session ahead of Felipe Massa, and so to find the first real opponent, one must arrive in eleventh position, with Lewis Hamilton 0.75 seconds behind ( in the first session he finished at 0.5 seconds) and increasingly in crisis. It's a bad time for the former rookie prodigy. During testing the Spanish fans, who have not forgotten the feud with Fernando Alonso last year, booed him as he returned to the pits on foot after his second spin of the day. But it wasn't racism, just an uncomfortable past. The fact remains that Lewis Hamilton seems dejected:
"We struggled all day with the balance of the car, there's too much oversteer, we tried to change something, but we were never able to improve".
A disarming picture, added to which are the many problems suffered by the other McLaren, that of Heikki Kovalainen, who broke the gearbox and had to replace it between the two sessions, and then suffered a sudden drop in engine power in the second. For now, everything seems to be thrown away in the McLaren garage (Ferrari certainly isn't despairing). Yet Felipe Massa, who turns 27, sends a strange message:
"I'm satisfied, but not as much as you think".
Maybe those tenths of separation from Kimi Raikkonen weigh on him, he thought he was the master and finds himself chasing. A partner who has now become increasingly present at Ferrari. A question point blank: do you see yourself in the future wearing a tracksuit that isn't red?
"Yes, if the Ferrari changes colour".
In the meantime, Max Mosley confirms that he will be present at the next Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix. After the Nazi-related sex scandal revealed by the English Sunday newspaper News of the World, this would be his first official appearance in F1. A move that the president is making towards normality, awaiting the vote of confidence from the Senate of the Federation. But also a somewhat obvious move: Mosley lives in Monte-Carlo and for him not being present at the Grand Prix which is practically raced in his living room would only mean abdicating prematurely. Saturday, April 26, 2008, Nick Heidfeld was quickest in the final session, his 1'21"269 benefiting from use of the quicker soft compound tyre. Webber's teammate David Coulthard was next quickest, ahead of Alonso, Kubica, Toyota driver Jarno Trulli and Sébastien Bourdais of Toro Rosso. Ferrari and McLaren again ran heavier cars, and neither team managed better than ninth quickest. Mechanical problems meant Webber failed to set a time, his car coming to a halt in the pit-lane exit after two installation laps. A few hours later, Kimi Räikkönen clinched his first pole position of the season with a time of 1'21"813. Alonso would start alongside him on the grid, amid suspicions the Spaniard was fueled light for the race. Massa, Kubica and Hamilton qualified next quickest; just 0.2 seconds separated Hamilton's time from that of Räikkönen. Kovalainen would line up on the third row of the grid next to his teammate; Webber and Trulli would start from the fourth row. Heidfeld was disappointed with his ninth place, after suffering from tyre problems on his final lap; Piquet, who made it into the final session for the first time in his career, qualified just ahead of Honda driver Rubens Barrichello and Nakajima. Honda driver Jenson Button and Timo Glock of Toyota would occupy the seventh row; Williams driver Nico Rosberg was outqualified by his teammate for the first time in the season, and would start from 15th, ahead of Bourdais. Coulthard failed to make it through the first session after failing to get sufficient heat into his tyres; Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel and the two Force Indias of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil took positions 18 to 20. The Super Aguris of Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato would line up on the back row of the grid in their final race. Kimi Raikkonen took pole position in the Spanish Grand Prix, the fourth round of the Formula 1 world championship. The Finnish Ferrari driver was the fastest in qualifying, lapping in 1'21"813. A result obtained by overtaking the resurrected Fernando Alonso on the last lap, who had thrilled the Spanish public with his provisional pole. His Renault stopped in 1'21''904. Third was the other Ferarri driver, Felipe Massa, ahead of Robert Kubica's BMW. The McLarens were disappointing as they had to settle for the third row. Fifth Lewis Hamilton, ahead of his teammate, Heikki Kovalainen.
The reigning World Champion is satisfied, having achieved his first pole position of the year.
"Yes, in fact a little too much time has passed since the previous pole. This result gives me some encouragement, let's hope we can maintain these chances of starting from the front in the race too".
The Ferrari driver is uncompromising about the result he can achieve in the race:
“I don't know how tomorrow will end, qualifying is a good start for us, but we'll see if we have a good pace tomorrow. We're sure of ourselves and we want to get as many points as possible. I'll try to maintain the top positions straight away”.
The one who was already anticipating pole was Felipe Massa:
"Disappointed? No, I'm not disappointed. I did well in the first two qualifying heats, then something didn't work well in the third heat, I lost a few tenths and wasn't able to repeat myself. I don't know if it depended on me or on the car, but I could have done better".
Bad day for the two McLarens, only fifth and sixth. Heidi Kovalainen highlights the difference between the British cars and those from Maranello.
"Between us and Ferrari there is a gap, a difference, a small one, as we saw in the second part of qualifying, but it is there; of about 0.2 seconds and I believe there will be also in the next few weeks, we just need to see who will make a little difference for better or worse between us and them".
Hero for a day. Here he is, Fernando Alonso. Pride of Spain that gives the 110,000 people present at the Montmelò circuit a shout. A delirium. Immediately after his arrival at the finish line, all of Spain wanted a ticket to the Grand Prix: there will be 135,000 people supporting him at the start, to say I was there. And never mind if hopes are extinguished at the first corner, squeezed as it will be between Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, and then pushed back, at the first pit stop, because he will be the first of all to stop.
"Creative strategy".
Says Pat Symonds, boss of the engineers, making no secret of the little petrol the Spaniard's Renault is equipped with. But do you want to put the fact that you have made aficionados dream? Everyone's eyes on the big screens, the name Fernando Alonso in red which means pole position is worth the collective scream. And who cares if the joy of the goal lasts only a few moments, the time for Kimi Raikkonen to complete his lap and take the best place in qualifying.
"I felt like I was in the America's Cup, pushed by the wind of the public. It's the best day of 2008, I did a miracle, and it was one of the best laps of my life".
This is how it is done; this is how a country is held. And also your team, of course. Which has improved, otherwise even with a drop of petrol you won't be in the front row. And this is demonstrated by the entry of Nelson Piquet Jr. into the top ten, which has never happened this year.
"He means that the facts are starting to show, that hard work pays off".
The former World Champion says he tried to keep expectations low, and still repeats that he is incredulous:
"I didn't expect it".
Now you're feeling light-headed, Fernando Alonso.
"Relieved, that's how I feel. Better, actually: happy".
Who knows how many lumps in his throat, how many problems in the first three grand prix, despite the fourth place in Melbourne, deserved but also lucky.
"I get up and I know that I won't be World Champion, that I can't fight to be one".
An honest and painful admission of impotence, after Bahrain. Now, finally, the shot:
"I look at the car from March and the one today: how many big changes…".
He says with a smile, himself admitting the excitement of qualifying.
"I knew that there was only Kimi behind me, so in the worst case scenario I would have been second. But I have no regrets, that's fine: we've taken a step forward, there's no doubt".
Forbidden to ask him anything else, for the moment.
"Podium? No... but now I'm optimistic".
Renault has understood one thing: to think of an aggressive approach for him, a softer one for Nelson Piquet Jr..
"This will get us back to where we need to be, it's not time to relax yet".
While waiting, he also infected the Spanish media with enthusiasm. Fernando Alonso collects and thanks with a promise of a man of honor:
"Other days must come, like this one".
At the last breath. But the flicker is enough. Ninety-one thousandths to be able to rejoice. The party pooper Alonso slipped in the middle, but the Ferrari is still in command, that of Kimi Raikkonen, who takes back a pole (the fifteenth of his career, overtaking Ascari) after more than seven months, given that the last time was in 15 September, on the occasion of the Belgian Grand Prix, two days after the sentence in Paris which had stunned McLaren. This time Felipe Massa, with the other car from Maranello, is also if not stunned at least disappointed. He caused a sensation in testing on this circuit last week, in Barcelona in 2007 he had won pole and victory, he dreamed of an encore and instead he found himself third, behind his teammate, but also Fernando Alonso, who beat him by 0.154 seconds. At the end of the battle, the Brazilian was dark in the face. Even Michael Schumacher paid the price, although perhaps it was just a misunderstanding. The German, his teacher, goes towards him and Felipe abruptly avoids him. Probably, in full competitive trance, he didn't recognize him. He mulls over his third period.
"The car is fast, but I could have done better. Unfortunately we are all very close and when there is such a balance even a simple imperfection can change your life. I felt capable of taking pole, this result cannot satisfy me. In any case, I'm not giving up. The important thing will be to start well, maybe pass Alonso straight away, and then start chasing Raikkonen".
Yes, because a possible escape by the Finn could have disastrous consequences not only on the outcome of this race, but on the economy of the entire season. When Raikkonen states:
"It's nice that Alonso has slipped in between us and the McLarens".
He probably thinks about the positive aspect of being ahead of Felipe Massa. The Spaniard's Renault doesn't have the pace of the Ferraris and could slow down the Brazilian, regardless of his world championship dreams. Because if Raikkonen continues to increase his lead in the standings, then it becomes difficult to talk about a family fight, even if Ferrari will continue to talk about drivers who are on equal terms. Lewis Hamilton certainly doesn't seem to have any desire for supremacy at the moment with McLaren. The Briton was again booed by the Spanish public, but this is not the gnawing worm.
"I saw great enthusiasm in the stands, some isolated protestors can fit in there".
However, the fifth fastest time makes him angry, 0.038 seconds behind Felipe Massa. Just one breath and life changes radically. As happens when you are condemned to win:
"Last year I was having fun, now I feel like I have the weight of all of England on my shouldes".
Which evidently weighs him down, given that Robert Kubica with the BMW is also ahead of him. They are all very close, as the passionate Michael Schumacher says, but McLaren is behind. Nor can we hang on to the amount of petrol in the tank. Radio box says that Fernando Alonso has seven laps less than Kimi Raikkonen, six than Felipe Massa, four less than the McLarens and BMWs. Good for him and for his exploit, but if this is true Lewis Hamilton has the same fuel as Robert Kubica and is behind, he has less fuel than the two Ferraris and is chasing.
"We will fight for the podium".
But Kimi Raikkonen is more convincing:
"Pole is the ideal place to win the race".
However, Barcelona is not the right place for a team to take a stand against Max Mosley. They came together and did not find a common line. It seems that Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso were the ones who did not want an official statement. The verdict is expected on Tuesday 3 June. When in Paris the General Assembly will decide the fate of the president. On Sunday 27 April 2008, the conditions on the grid are dry before the race. The air temperature is 23 °C and the track temperature is 38 °C; weather forecasts indicated a light wind, but otherwise calm conditions. Räikkönen holds his lead into the first corner, as Massa passes Alonso to take second place; Hamilton passes Kubica to take fourth. However, an incident further down the field brings out the safety car. Sutil's car enters a spin after attempting to pass Coulthard; the resulting collision eliminates Sutil and Vettel from the Grand Prix. The race restarts on lap four when the Safety car peels off, Räikkönen quickly increases his lead over Massa to more than a second. The gap between the Ferraris increases as Räikkönen continues to lap the quickest on track; Hamilton begins to close in on Alonso, only to see the Renault pit on lap 16, promoting the McLaren to third place. Further down the field, several incidents reduces the field to 15 cars. Piquet, after running off the track on lap five, collides with Bourdais two laps later while attempting to pass at turn 10.
The Renault retires from the race immediately; Bourdais struggles back to the pit lane before Toro Rosso decides to retire his car. The resulting debris ends Davidson's race when he retires on lap eight after sustaining radiator damage. On lap 22 Kovalainen's front left tyre suffers a rapid deflation, hurling his car into the barriers at an estimated 210 km/h, with an impact of 26 g. As the track marshals extract the McLaren from the barriers, the safety car is once again deployed. Heidfeld is forced to pit immediately as he is low on fuel, incurring a ten-second stop-go penalty for coming in before the pit-lane is officially re-opened. Barrichello and Fisichella then collide in the pit-lane on lap 26, heavily damaging the Honda's front wing, and requiring Barrichello to drive the whole lap with a disintegrating car, before retiring into his team's garage. Räikkönen, Massa, Hamilton, Kubica and Alonso, having already made their pit stops, trail the safety car until it peels off on lap 29. As Räikkönen again increases his lead over Massa to more than two seconds, Alonso pulls over to the side of the track, smoke billowing from his engine, and retires. Rosberg's engine also suffers a failure, and the Williams retires on lap 42 from seventh place. Four laps later, Räikkönen sets the fastest lap of the race, a 1'21"670 (a lap record that still stands), as Massa pitts from behind him. Räikkönen, Hamilton and Kubica follow into the pit-lane on lap 47. Coulthard and Glock collide on lap 53 after the Toyota driver attempts to pass the Red Bull at the first corner. Glock sustain front wing damage, and Coulthard suffers a puncture to his left rear tyre; both pit at soon after for repairs. Räikkönen took his second win of the season when he crossed the line at the end of the 66th lap, 3.2 seconds ahead of the second-placed Massa. Hamilton takes third, ahead of Kubica, Webber and Button, who score Honda's first points for the season. Nakajima finishes in seventh place, ahead of Trulli, who was running in sixth place before his team mistakenly called him into the pit-lane. Toyota had mistaken Glock's damaged car for Trulli, dropping the latter down the order after the stop. Heidfeld, recovering after his penalty, finishes in ninth place ahead of Fisichella. Glock and Coulthard fill the next two positions after their late collision, ahead of Sato in 13th. Rosberg, Alonso, Barrichello, Kovalainen, Davidson, Bourdais, Piquet, Vettel and Sutil are the retirements from a punishing Spanish Grand Prix. King Juan Carlos bows. In front of Ferrari, its excessive power, the skill of Kimi Raikkonen, the excellent work of Felipe Massa.
Ferrari double, like three weeks earlier in Bahrain. Jubilation on the podium, even the Spaniards, disappointed by Fernando Alonso's retirement, applaud, while the rest of the world, the one that longs for McLaren and BMW, wonders if this year there is room for some dreams or if instead the practice it can already be said to be over, with the elusive Kimi Raikkonen having already made the gap behind and with Felipe Massa having already recovered the entire gap from Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica, despite not scoring any points in the first two Grands Prix. The Ferrari planet swears that the dominance is not so clear, that we must not let go, but in Barcelona there was no history. In a boring race, enlivened only by the terrible crash of Heikki Kovalainen, who ended up against the protective barriers, in a crash that recalled that of Michael Schumacher in 1999 at Silvestone, Kimi Raikkonen dominated from start to finish, starting in front, remaining there at the end of the first corner and arriving smoothly at the finish line, despite his progress being slowed down twice by the entry onto the track of the Safety car, the safety machine that puts all the cars in single file. The Finn crossed the finish line 3 seconds ahead of Felipe Massa, 4 over Lewis Hamilton and 5 over Robert Kubica, but without the intervention of the race stewards it would have been much more. The same applies, even if limited to second place, to his teammate, Felipe Massa. Who did well at the start, starting well and outwitting Fernando Alonso at the first corner, and then following the Finn, without ever losing sight of him, but without even threatening him too much. The final ranking says that Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica ended up in his wake, but in reality the Brazilian was never in danger of losing second place. If he had wanted, Safety Car permitting, he could have made the gap. King Juan Carlos pays homage to Ferrari. While he cannot do the same with the home hero, Fernando Alonso, the driver who managed, with a sensational lap on Saturday, to bring almost 135.000 people to the circuit. Glory of Spain, had raised hopes for a miracle, with that front row seat. The race is something else, it has less fuel than the others, the podium immediately becomes a chimera. There would have been fifth place, but his engine ended up in smoke. Betrayed by Renault, all he has to do is give away his memorabilia (gloves and part of the suit) to the crowd.
The delirium for his victory will be there another time. However, he is certainly better than Heikki Kovalainen, who on lap 21 goes straight, doesn't take the corner, bounces along the gravel of the escape route and crashes into a wall of tyres. He leaves the track on a stretcher, first a blitz at the medical center, then the tests at the hospital. He got away with little or nothing, just a big scare. Be careful though, because McLaren appears to be a repeat offender, the accident is very similar to that of Lewis Hamilton in 2007 at the Nurburgring. It was thought, now they are also bringing back the brave Lewis Hamilton for safety reasons. But no, the reason for third place prevailed. Everything went smoothly, the English team blamed it on a piece of debris that would have entered the rim. But deep analyzes are advisable. More urgent than understanding why Ferrari has dug such a furrow. After Ron Dennis' team was the one smiling at the first race in Australia. As simple as drinking a glass of water. Perhaps this is why Kimi Raikkonen barely smiles, he never lets go, not even when he receives the winner's trophy from the hands of King Juan Carlos on the podium. The Finn is a sphinx, looking at him you would think you were dealing with a driver who took a sound beating and not someone who dominated the entire weekend, taking pole on Saturday, success on Sunday and the fastest lap of the race . Sometimes it's hard to understand what's going on in his head. He may not have prevailed in a furious battle, his at times seemed like a calm stroll towards the finish line, but he certainly can't feel guilty if his pace annihilated all his opponents, starting with his teammate, Felipe Mass. Raikkonen, is it possible that he is never happy?
"Actually, I am, of course".
Looking at it you wouldn't think so.
"I think it's impossible to do better than this. The team was perfect, the car was fantastic, I didn't make any mistakes. We won with relative ease, pushing the right amount, avoiding taking unnecessary risks. Nothing has ever escaped our control, from the start to the finish".
A disarming demonstration of superiority.
"That's how it went here, but it won't always be the same story. The margin between us and others is smaller than you think, just a little bit is enough to change everything".
Meanwhile, with ranking in hand, he goes away on the run.
"Nine points over Hamilton, ten over Kubica, eleven over Massa are a good margin, they give me a certain certainty, but we are absolutely not talking about the world championship being closed because this will be a tough and very long season. All it takes is one stroke of bad luck to have to start from scratch. Let's take the safety car, if it entered the track at a different time it could have been a problem. In this race Heidfeld was penalized, in the future it could play against me. We can't let our guard down, we have to keep working, pushing, developing the car".
Hoping to experience many more weekends like this.
"On this circuit it was essential to start from the front, because you can't overtake. More than the pace in the race, which was also very good, it was important to get pole and get off to a good start. For this Saturday I was so satisfied. I set my strategy on the fastest lap, I preferred to run slightly less on fuel, and the tactic worked".
Not Massa though.
"Beating him on Saturday was fundamental. In Bahrain he had succeeded and won the race. I hadn't finished on pole for seven months, many races. Maybe I wasn't perfect at the start, but my maneuvers were enough to take the lead at the first corner. At that point I thought that most of it was done".
Have you ever feared that something might go wrong?
"No, not even when the two Safety cars entered the track. We were ahead of everyone, we could control. The only thrill I felt was when I saw Kovalainen's accident in the display".
He is a fellow countryman of his.
"I was worried, I was scared, I was very happy when the team told me he was fine. I asked for information, they reassured me. This was the most important thing of the day".
Schumacher was in the pits. He too received enthusiastic applause for his performance.
"I spoke with Schumacher on Saturday, he is an important part of the team, in the winter, taking part in the tests, he helped us a lot. Beyond the people however, it is the group that makes the machine fly. Ferrari is fast and reliable, what more could I ask for?"
Now comes Turkey, the Massa track, where he has already won twice.
"If I raced on a track thinking about precedents, I shouldn't have even come here since I retired in 2007. I try to win everywhere as he is strong everywhere. We will fight for it, in qualifying and in the race, but also pay attention to the others".
More McLarens or BMWs?
"To the others".
And a thought also goes to his colleague before returning to talking about Ferrari.
"I'm happy that Kovalainen is well, in all cases our team did an exceptional job. This is a difficult circuit for overtaking, the best thing is to stay in first position, maintain it and win. I'd say it wasn't bad not even due to the weather conditions, I didn't feel the wind that much. Now let's think about Turkey. The situation is similar to that of last year, the car is going strong and I can't wait to get to Turkey to do my best, also in Istanbul, then we'll see what happens".
Make a hole and build excessive power around it. At Ferrari, however, high-sounding slogans are prohibited, prudence is the watchword. Perhaps the first to say it was president Luca Montezemolo, who phoned the team immediately after the triumph to congratulate them. It is certainly Stefano Domenicali who draws this line, Todt's heir (who was not in the pits, not even as a fan), happy, but pragmatic, more careful than ever to avoid excessive triumphalism.
"The Australian Grand Prix taught us that we must always work as a team, that we can recover from misfortunes, but also that setbacks are always around the corner. I knew we would react great, that slap did us good. But now don't give up, we deservedly won, but our opponents finished just a few seconds away".
Domenicali (deliberately) forgets to state that without the two Safety cars the margin would have been much wider, but he is above all interested in spreading one concept:
"This is a balanced world championship and the one who is good at making the least mistakes and improving the car the most will win it".
If these are the qualities, Ferrari should be calm, given that development and few errors are usually its main qualities. Now that there is a hole in the nose, everything seems to be going downhill. Brilliant find? Domenicali slows down here too:
"In Barcelona it was needed, on other tracks, very fast, maybe not".
And in fact it probably won't be used at Silverstone, Monza, Belgium, but already in Turkey it could be the extra touch again. Because, to hell with superstition and prudence, the honest Luca Baldisserri, the strategist, admits:
"Feet on the ground, right. But without the Safety Car Raikkonen would have won by at least 15 seconds".
Nothing but a hole, an abyss with the others. Even Felipe Massa, disappointed on Saturday, happy after the race, is now being a philosopher:
"Missing pole cost me the victory, I couldn't have done more in the race. I overtook Alonso, I'm holding on to these 8 points. However, they are heavy in the fight to win the World Championship".
How scary, seeing those waving arms and hands. Those four-five race marshals at Turn 9 calling for help are asking for urgency. Witness a straight bang, no braking, just a little deceleration. Lap number 22, it's the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen, the Finn. Now hidden by a rubber wall, as if under a landslide. The world, live on TV, only sees the rear part of the car. But what makes even more impression is the immobility. Nothing's moving down there. They are terrible seconds, reminiscent of Robert Kubica's (unhurt) accident in Montreal. The stewards are the ones giving movement: they have already climbed over the barriers, some of them have even tried, as if they were speleologists, to slip through that red and white colored rubber. All useless, so here's the invocation, the help, of someone or something, the crane, to free the McLaren. Or rather, what remains. Because they will only take out the rear piece of the car. The rest remained under the tires. The tension remains high, they no longer show anything on TV, because the director no longer shows the cruel images. Wise choice, but it doesn't help to calm things down. What happened to Heikki Kovalainen? And then: what is the cause? A mistake on his part? A failure? And how fast was he going? The wait seems endless. Not even the team knows anything. Ron Dennis reveals:
"He wasn't responding to the radio, he wasn't conscious".
Then, finally, the images arrive from above, from the helicopter. Rescue scenes, while the replays reproduce the dynamics of the accident: Kovalainen approaching the curve but not steering and hitting the barriers.
Why? The images of the camera car placed on the back of the car make this clear: the right front tire suddenly explodes and crumbles in a few seconds. The pilot doesn't have time to make an emergency choice, nothing responds to his commands: bam. The minutes pass, it is once again the helicopter that dispels doubts, showing Kovalainen on the stretcher showing his thumb, the conventional ok to reassure everyone. And in fact, concussion aside, young Heikki has no visible damage. Martin Whitmarsh, CEO of McLaren, will then say:
"He hit his head violently, his right elbow hurts. But we did the CT scan, he has nothing. He is clean".
Some insiders would like Hamilton to be stopped too, as it is not the first time that McLaren has run into similar problems, and Lewis himself later admitted that he had reviewed his accident at the Nurburgring last year. For the Englishman, on that occasion, it was a loss of tire pressure. This time it was a structural problem:
"A pebble near the suspension could have caused it all. Or some piece of the car ended up on the rim. We can't know for sure, we must first examine the car to understand what happened".
While waiting for the analyses, the next question concerns the recovery (or not) of the Finn in view of Istanbul. Will he be back on May 11th?
"I'm not a doctor, but I think so".
Martin Whitmarsh, who likes to think positively, answers. The good news about the story is that safety in F1 works.
"It reminded me of Michael Schumacher's crash at Silverstone in 1999".
Says Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal. He remembers how Michael Schumacher fractured his right leg while crashing at 107 km/h. Heikki Kovalainen even crashed at 200 km/h. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was happy to hear those whistles. Because he was on the podium.
"Finally, after two bad Grands Prix. Happy to be back. He hit his head violently, his right elbow hurts. But we did the CT scan, he has nothing. He is clean"
Some insiders would like Hamilton to be stopped too, as it is not the first time that McLaren has run into similar problems, and Lewis himself later admitted that he had reviewed his accident at the Nurburgring last year. For the Englishman, on that occasion, it was a loss of tire pressure. This time it was a structural problem:
"A pebble near the suspension could have caused it all. Or some piece of the car ended up on the rim. We can't know for sure, we must first examine the car to understand what happened".
While waiting for the analyses, the next question concerns the recovery (or not) of the Finn in view of Istanbul. Will he be back on May 11th?
"I'm not a doctor, but I think so".
Martin Whitmarsh, who likes to think positively, answers. The good news about the story is that safety in F1 works.
"It reminded me of Michael Schumacher's crash at Silverstone in 1999".
Says Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal. He remembers how Michael Schumacher fractured his right leg while crashing at 107 km/h. Heikki Kovalainen even crashed at 200 km/h. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was happy to hear those whistles. Because he was on the podium.
"Finally, after two bad Grands Prix. Happy to be back".
So never mind if the price to pay is giving some Spanish fans the opportunity to be rude once again in memory of the rivalry with Alonso last season. If nothing else, fortunately, no one calls racism into question, it's just a few dazed fans who still haven't digested the 2007 finale. Lewis Hamilton smiles, also relieved to learn that his teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, is safe and sound. We can therefore talk about the race:
"When you start in fifth place you know from the start that it will be very, very difficult to beat the Ferraris. The only solution to do well was to get off to a good start".
That was the only possibility, Lewis Hamilton knew how to use it.
"I managed to overtake Kubica, and it wasn't easy because Robert is aggressive at the start of the race and is one of the hardest to overtake. But I did it, and that was crucial".
The other difficult moment was the accident of the Finn and his teammate:
"I never thought it could happen to me. Also because if you think something like that you are right to get out of the car. Initially I didn't really understand what had happened, it was a scary accident, but then I heard that he was fine on the radio and I calmed down. What if I thought there might be a mechanical problem with my car? I didn't think about it, you shouldn't think about it this way, I was calm and the car was reliable".
The fundamental thing, for Hamilton, is to have reversed the negative trend.
"The team worked hard, I don't think Ferrari's dominance was that evident. In fact, at the end I even tried to put a bit of pressure on Massa. In the end it was a continuous challenge with Massa, I put a lot of pressure on him and in the end we all got very close, both ahead and behind me. A good result for the team, an important podium as well as the fact that Kovalainen is well".
And his past rival, home idol Fernando Alonso, also leaves Barcelona happy. The Spaniard was aiming for sixth place, but the goal was lost due to an engine failure.
"I'm very sorry but this is the path to follow. The podium was impossible, we had already said it, but we could fight for sixth or seventh place with Heidfeld and Kubica. I'm a bit angry because I just finished the race, but I think tomorrow will be with a smile because Massa stopped two laps after me in the race. He wasn't with much more fuel than us and therefore I think the qualifying is quite real. And then in the race I was fighting with the BMW, it was a something that a few days ago I would never have thought of doing. From tomorrow I think the championship will be more fun for me. Renault has improved a lot. We weren't used to being there, wheel to wheel with the best, maybe now it will be normal, so we can have fun".
And if he says it, who was pessimistic until a few days before the Spanish Grand Prix, we have to believe him. Even Flavio Briatore remained disconsolate in the pit lane, while Fernando Alonso still greeted the fans.
"I leave Barcelona with good feelings, because we were fighting with the best. Before we didn't even see them in photos…".