From Luca Montezemolo to Fernando Alonso, there is confidence within the Ferrari camp ahead of the most prestigious race of the season, the one on the Monte-Carlo circuit.
"I am confident; the Ferrari is competitive".
Luca Montezemolo has no doubts. At the upcoming Grand Prix in Monaco, Ferrari will perform well. The president doesn't hide his optimism, speaking on the sidelines of a Telethon Foundation meeting in Padua, of which he is the president.
"I am confident because I know my team is working hard. We had a very long meeting yesterday, and I know it will be a competitive Ferrari. I am confident, but a heart attack is guaranteed...".
The qualifying rounds are particularly worrisome for everyone at the Monte Carlo city circuit, a real puzzle.
"When you can't complete a lap, it's not pleasant".
explains Felipe Massa.
"This is the worst track in that regard. There will be problems, especially in Q1. It would have been nice to have a different qualifying system to give each driver the chance to perform at their best. I think it won't be easy to find clear space".
World Champion Jenson Button refers to it as a real trap.
"It will be treacherous for all of us".
says the British McLaren-Mercedes driver.
"Normally, if you encounter traffic, you can slow down and try to gain space for the next lap. This time, you'll have to keep pushing. The first round will be risky; some of us won't be happy. But we have to deal with the situation".
Button is honoring his title from the previous season with Brawn and enters the sixth Grand Prix of the season, leading the standings with a three-point advantage over Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.
"I won in Monaco last year; it was one of the highlights of my season and my entire career. It's a very special place. It's a race every young driver dreams of winning. I can't wait to go back. I think the result will be extremely difficult to achieve this year because there are many competitive drivers on the track, so I expect an unpredictable race".
In Monte Carlo, McLaren will celebrate their world championships in 2008 and 2009. Button and Lewis Hamilton will race with special helmets featuring diamond-encrusted emblems and the inscription of the respective years they won the title. The helmets, constructed by the team in carbon fiber, have been personalized by master craftsmen using a cut of white Steinmetz diamonds. Lewis Hamilton explains:
"I won in Monaco in 2008, wearing a Steinmetz diamond-encrusted helmet, so I hope it brings me luck this year too. I like the Monaco circuit; it's the greatest track in Formula One. And my victory in 2008 was probably the best, one of the greatest moments of my career. It was an incredible day. I think on this track, the driver matters more than on other occasions, so I'm quite confident we'll do a good job".
Fernando Alonso aims to improve on the second place obtained in the home Grand Prix in Spain.
"Monaco is unique. The performance difference we saw in the first part of the championship won't be as crucial because anything can happen. We had good race weekends, like in Bahrain, where we won, and in Spain, where we came second. In both cases, we maximized the potential of our package, although in Spain, the result was somewhat distorted because some had bad luck and lost positions".
However, Red Bull still has an edge.
"In Monaco, the circuit is so different and unique that the performance difference seen in the first part of the championship won't be as important. Anything can happen. Perhaps some cars that weren't very fast in previous races will be able to deliver a good performance. I expect Ferrari to have a great weekend, preparing well for the race, finding the right setup, and managing the tires well".
So, the predictions are not straightforward.
"I don't think it's automatic to label Red Bull as the favorite. They will be very fast, and if we consider Turkey, Silverstone, or Canada, for example, you might say they are favorites. But here in Monaco, it's harder to predict. Nevertheless, it will be challenging to beat them because they have two excellent drivers".
The outcome in Monaco depends on a mix of many factors.
"Luck may be more critical than on other tracks, and the driver matters more than on other circuits, although the car remains the most important element in the package. Looking back, the best teams and cars have always won on these streets".
Does Monte Carlo represent a championship?
"I would prefer to win the title and not win here, but this is the most important race on the calendar, with the most attention and coverage from the media worldwide. It's very important for sponsors. It's a special race that everyone wants to win".
All four World Champions on the grid this weekend have won in Monaco. The explanation is simple:
"Generally, they all had a good car. I don't think that's so important anyway, although I would really like to secure the third victory on Sunday".
One car every hundred meters. This is how the Monte Carlo circuit will look, already a temple of speed, on Saturday and Sunday when drivers spend their afternoons desperately looking for a space-time hole to attempt a fast lap.
It's the funny side effect of a situation that specialized sites call, with concern, traffic alert, but it's something bigger and more spectacular, something related to the attempted suicide of an entire sports movement. The fact is simple: one of the most absurd products of the 2009 war between Mosley and the teams was the expansion of F1 to other teams chosen on rather approximate criteria. Since the beginning of the year, 24 cars from 12 different teams have been on the track, of which two or three would, at best, have the means to compete in GP2. Now, these cars go slower by five seconds (an eternity) than the others, causing quite a few problems in overtaking and lapping. In Monaco, where overtaking is traditionally a utopia, the situation has dramatic effects:
"In qualifying, it will be a disaster".
Admits Lewis Hamilton.
"It will be a nightmare".
Jenson Button echoes the general sentiment of the grid, which now looks apprehensively at the slower drivers. Jarno Trulli states:
"I have no solutions. And honestly, I don't care; my task is to complete the fastest lap I can".
Heikki Kovalainen aligns with this mindset:
"I have to do my job".
Bruno Senna is slightly more understanding:
"With so many cars on the track, someone won't be able to set a fast lap. But it doesn't seem serious to me; it happens every Sunday in GP2".
The two who have taken it the best are Adrian Sutil and Fernando Alonso. The German driver points out that:
"Until a few years ago, both the number of cars and the time gaps between the first and last were similar to today's, and it wasn't a drama".
The Spaniard tries to put everything in the right perspective:
"It's just another challenge. Let's be careful and take advantage of every opportunity".
On Friday, May 14, 2010, Fernando Alonso is the fastest driver and the only man to break the 1 min 16 sec barrier, though second-placed Sebastian Vettel sets a time of 1:16 even, with Renault's Robert Kubica one hundredth of a second behind him. Virgin's Timo Glock is the fastest of the new teams, three and a half seconds slower than Alonso and one second behind Kamui Kobayashi, the last of the drivers for an established team. The first session is incident-free with the exception of Karun Chandhok stopping on the circuit after completing just six laps when he brushes the barriers and spins at Massanet. Kobayashi also encounters trouble, running over the chicanes at the entry to the Swimming Pool and finding the barriers. Alonso is also sighted pitting for a replacement front wing.
The second practice session is considered wet, though the rain is not heavy enough to justify the use of the intermediate tires. Alonso once again tops the session, this time breaking the 1 min 15 sec barrier with Nico Rosberg and Vettel rounding out the top three. Lotus' Heikki Kovalainen is the fastest of the new teams, one second adrift of Jaime Alguersuari in eighteenth position. There are no major incidents, though the anticipated traffic problem manifests on several occasions, with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa impeding Kovalainen and his Lotus as the Finn is completing a flying lap. It seems Alonso was right: Monte Carlo shuffles the cards, confuses ideas, throws reference points out the window. The one who dominated before isn't guaranteed to dominate here, and the one who dominates here isn't guaranteed to do so afterward. So, at the end of the free practice sessions, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, and the others are all there, piled within a fraction of a second, trying to guess what the weekend will be like. Ferrari seemed to perform well both in the morning and in the afternoon when, with Alonso, they confirmed the impression - in free practice, it's all about impressions - of being competitive with both drivers. However, the best time of the day shouldn't overly deceive Ferrari because Red Bull, McLaren, and even Mercedes, as mentioned, are very close, and, as we know, things change quickly around here; a weather fluctuation or an aerodynamic quirk of some detail can reverse positions. However, what can be said now is that Ferrari's experiment with the F-duct (the system copied from McLaren that stalls the rear wing with a movement of the driver's body) was quite unfortunate. Ferrari had installed it in Barcelona, and despite finishing second, they immediately decided to dismantle it: it provided speed on straightaways but took away too much aerodynamic load in curves, in addition to being complicated and dangerous (the driver activated it by taking one hand off the steering wheel). In this first day of practice on a far-from-fast track, the results of this choice became apparent. The F-duct episode can be viewed from both a positive and a negative perspective: the positive is an undeniable flexibility and ability to react from the Maranello team. Considering the innovation seen on McLaren, Ferrari's men were able to reproduce it quickly. Since it didn't work exactly as hoped, they dismantled it to refine and reintroduce it in faster Grand Prix races. The negative aspect is a sense of approximation that, in this case, fortunately didn't produce any damage, except for two months of work and 750.000 euros spent on a project that can be used at most in five or six Grand Prix races before being banned next year.
However, Alonso is not concerned about the overall situation. At the end of the first day of practice, he says:
"It was just a normal Thursday of testing. Of course, it's nice to be here with the confirmation that the car is performing well. But honestly, I think driving well is more important in Monaco: if you get the suspension setup right, you might gain half a tenth, if you take a corner well, you might gain half a second. The race? I think Saturday's qualifying will be crucial".
And indeed, anything can happen then, as the track is incredibly crowded (24 cars, including six slow ones), and the top four teams, plus Kubica, are separated by only 0.3 seconds. Meanwhile, on the dock in the middle of the harbor, Flavio Briatore's yacht, the Force Blue, is moored. It's all blue, and it's always a party. But tonight, Friday night, is a very special party being held here: the party of the grand return. Formula 1 is like that, a world of foam in the hands of the same five or six people who engage in a good fight, shave, fine each other, and then return, all of them, one after the other, as if nothing happened. Now it's Flavio's turn to play his role, forget everything - the crashgate, the farce of the trial, the ban, the insults received - and smile at his old world, host Bernie Ecclestone ("he sleeps here and doesn't take up much space"), and wink at Max Mosley, his sworn enemy ("but I would go to dinner with him because I keep the professional aspect separate from the personal one"). After all, Formula 1 is the last place in the world where it's advisable not to be guided by resentment. Here, it's much better and more useful to smile and have a good party: candles and silverware, portraits of giraffes, elephants, and lions on the walls, even a bronze monkey on the bar counter next to bottles of Moet & Chandon rosé and islands of finger food. Welcome. Nothing happened before tonight.
"A tour in the paddock? Saturday. I can't on Friday because Bono and the guys from the band come to Billionaire (he moved to a local nightclub for the Grand Prix, editor's note). But on Saturday, I'll go. After all, it's my world".
And just mentioning that world is enough to set Flavio off on an uninterrupted monologue.
"Formula 1 will always be liked because we're all car enthusiasts. But it should be renewed. Instead, nothing. The Federation is a conservative institution. And it's reducing Formula 1 to an event of the past".
He pauses painfully and pours a bit of Perrier into his glass of white wine.
"Tennis is an excellent example of a sport of the past. You go to watch a match, and you don't know if it will last an hour or five hours. In my opinion, they should have timed matches: at the end, the bell rings, and whoever has more points wins. Even Italian football is at risk, with omnipotent players and fans who pay ten euros and feel authorized to do and say anything, look at Juve... no, today, if you're not stupid, you keep your distance. The favorites are the two from Red Bull, Alonso, and Hamilton. Between Alonso and Schumi? I prefer Alonso because besides being very strong, he's also an evolved person, someone who doesn't only focus on performance and the car. You can even go to dinner with him".
Dessert arrives, the evening has passed, Flavio barely tastes it, and with a final pose, he sighs.
"If I miss the paddock? Like cigarettes when you quit smoking".
Indeed, you miss them so much that starting again is an instant.
"If one day I were to lose 0.5 seconds to Alonso, then I would leave Formula 1".
No, Felipe is not a calm guy at this moment. And, above all, he doesn't handle the dialectical relationship well - Ferrari dislikes dualisms - with his teammate, the lead driver Fernando Alonso. If there were still doubts, the Brazilian took care of dispelling them: on Friday afternoon, pushed by the Brazilian press during a promotional event organized on the terrace of the Ferrari hospitality, Felipe let slip a couple of not-so-happy phrases. Words that, pronounced with the evident intention of asserting his ego as a top driver, end up achieving a bizarre double result: on the one hand, they express growing insecurity, and on the other, they fuel more than a few suspicions about the recent developments in the relationship between Ferrari's two drivers. The first sentence is the one just reported. The other is an absolute evaluation of Alonso, who, according to the Brazilian, is no stronger than Raikkonen, although both are great drivers. Considering that Ferrari decided to part ways with Raikkonen (paying him off), it doesn't sound like a great compliment. Those who know him know that, at least for the team spirit that drives him, a sort of devotion, Felipe would do anything to avoid creating problems, controversies. So how do we explain this kind of outburst? Simple: the guy feels like he's reached a turning point. We're only in the sixth race, but the atmosphere around him already seems like a last resort: if he were to fall behind again compared to his teammate and, more generally, the group currently leading the driver standings, then Massa would come out of it diminished. And for the Brazilian driver, a sort of existential problem would resurface: in his career so far, he has always played the role of a (faithful) sidekick to some phenomenon, first Schumacher, then Raikkonen, and now Alonso (all World Champions). The suspicion of being a born number two would risk becoming a certainty. The Monaco Grand Prix can become a crossroads for a season and a career.
Especially considering that Felipe is currently discussing the renewal of his contract with Ferrari:
"I feel good here, and I trust the team".
But the names of strong, credible, and available replacements are not lacking. Indeed, in addition to the usual Robert Kubica, there is also the name of Mark Webber. On Saturday, May 15, 2010, the third practice session opens with a heavy accident by Alonso, the Spaniard crashing his Ferrari at Massanet after completing just six laps; his fastest recorded time for the session ultimately is enough for sixteenth. Virgin's Timo Glock also stops with hydraulics issues after a sequence of installation laps and failing to set a time. Renault's Kubica is the fastest of the session, edging out Alonso's Ferrari team-mate Massa by four hundredths of a second, and Spanish Grand Prix winner Mark Webber is third. At the end of the session, just half a second covers the top seven drivers. Lotus is once again the fastest rookie team, with Heikki Kovalainen just a tenth of a second quicker than team-mate Trulli. Following the practice session, Ferrari judges the damage to Alonso's car to be too extensive to repair in time for qualifying. This forces the double World Champion to revert to the team's spare chassis for the race and start from pit lane. With Alonso out, several teams - notably Renault - send their drivers out on the harder compound tires, and the remaining six drivers to be eliminated are the six drivers for the new teams. Heikki Kovalainen is the fastest of them; it is the first time team-mate Jarno Trulli is out-qualified at Monaco by his team-mate. The Lotus cars are followed by the two Virgins and the two Hispanias. Despite his damaged car, Bruno Senna out-qualifies Karun Chandhok. The anticipated traffic problems do not arise, and Felipe Massa sets the fastest time of the session. The second session is marked by an accident in the final few minutes, with Vitaly Petrov slipping into the tire wall at Ste. Devote, though the session is not stopped. His time is fast enough for fourteenth, although Nico Hülkenberg, Adrian Sutil, and Sébastien Buemi all qualify ahead of Petrov, with Pedro de la Rosa, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jaime Alguersuari also being eliminated. Mercedes' Nico Rosberg is the fastest man in the session.
The third and final part of qualifying is led by Robert Kubica for over half the session, a whole second ahead of the opposition, before Mark Webber manages to set a lap time of 1'13"826 to steal pole position away from him and continue Red Bull's unbroken run of pole positions with their sixth-straight start from pole. Kubica qualifies in second place, with Sebastian Vettel taking third ahead of Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton qualifies fifth ahead of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher; team principal Ross Brawn later expresses frustrations by a mistake by the team that sees Rosberg inadvertently block his team-mate. Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, and Vitantonio Liuzzi complete the top ten. In another golden day for Red Bull Racing, with Mark Webber securing pole position and Sebastian Vettel in third, amidst the shining performance of Robert Kubica guiding his Renault to a second-place finish. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa struggled to lift himself from the technical-existential gray zone he recently entered, settling for fourth, just 0.4 seconds off the top. However, the spotlight in Monte Carlo was dominated by Fernando Alonso and his spectacular error during the morning free practice. Alonso's sporting tragedy unfolded at 11:33 a.m. as circuit cameras broadcasted images of his car, #8, pursued by its own tires while battered and scraping against the guardrail at the exit of turn three, the Casino corner. The exact cause remained unclear, but Ferrari stated that the car's data analysis revealed no operational anomalies. Despite frantic efforts by mechanics to rebuild the car, the chassis had sustained damage, and with no spare Formula 1 cars allowed, Alonso would start from the pit lane, trailing the pack. Given the challenges of overtaking on the Monaco circuit, his race was expected to be a nightmare, a significant setback considering his competitiveness. Alonso commented:
"These things happen, and there's absolutely nothing that can be done at this point. Now the only thing we can do is try to recover as many positions as possible tomorrow. Starting from the pit lane is always very difficult, even more so in a place like Monaco, but it will be a very long race. In 2006, Schumacher started last and finished fifth. So, my goal at this point is to score points. We'll see if we are lucky".
Massa also expressed disappointment, stating:
"The Red Bulls came out well in the end. Everyone was improving, and I did my last lap behind Rosberg and couldn't achieve the time I wanted. I don't know if the pole was possible, but starting in the top three for sure. Starting fourth, Monaco is a long race, and it's important to start ahead due to traffic. The fourth position is not terrible, and many things can happen. I feel good about the car, and we have to prepare well for the race to achieve a good result".
On the other hand, Mark Webber was satisfied with his pole position, saying:
"I don't know if my previous lap would have been enough. I knew I was fast; I immediately thought I had to do better. On the first lap, I pushed a lot in the second sector, then I had to put together all the details from the previous lap, and I had a clean lap. The car was a pleasure to drive, and I have to thank the whole team and Renault for placing three engines in the top positions. It's a race where precision is essential, and I'm happy to start at the front".
The term remontada (comeback) had become an obsession in Spain. However, in Monaco, with its narrow streets and limited overtaking opportunities, a comeback seemed improbable. Alonso, the driver Ferrari relied on to reclaim the championship, found himself in a tough spot. Starting last at the worst possible place, he acknowledged:
"This is the worst place to start last. I had a missile in my hands; I could have won, so now it will be a miracle to score points".
He admitted fault for his eagerness to attack, even during the unnecessary free practices, leading to the unfortunate incident. Alonso said:
"I had bad luck. It never happens to destroy a chassis by hitting at 90 km/h; you really have to hit in a certain way to cause such damage. It's a matter of angles. I could have avoided it, but instead, I gave birth to a disaster".
Alonso anticipated a challenging race but hoped for unpredictable factors to work in his favor, stating:
"Maybe it will rain, or someone ahead of me retires; I don't know, because there's not much room for improvisation on such a track".
Reflecting on his mistake, Alonso acknowledged the potential impact on the championship, saying:
"This is the most serious one; it will cost me a lot in the standings, and only at the end of the season will I understand if it made me lose the title".
Just a week earlier, he had declared:
"We can no longer afford to make mistakes".
Now, facing the consequences, Alonso denied that excessive pressure from Ferrari was to blame. He said:
"For ten years, I've been asked for the maximum. If we think I'm still disturbed by the obligation to win, then it's useless to talk".
Despite the imperfections, Alonso, currently second in the championship, remained optimistic about his overall performance. He dismissed claims of pressure and emphasized:
"I don't feel any weight on me. I'm just disappointed about the wasted Saturday".
Hoping for a comeback, Alonso recognized that Monaco was not the ideal place for such an endeavor, considering the limited possibilities for inventive moves on the track. Despite the setbacks, he was second in the championship, just three points behind Button. Meanwhile, he expressed support for his friend Robert Kubica, unexpectedly securing a front-row position, and speculated about the possibility of Red Bull's unreliability helping him in the championship race. Felipe Massa, finishing fourth and narrowly missing out to Sebastian Vettel, remained hopeful about the podium, saying:
"The first two rounds were perfect, then, at the crucial moment, Rosberg slowed me down. The podium is still possible".
On Sunday, May 16, 2010, at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix, Kubica attempts to block Vettel and protect second place, but the German driver holds his line into Ste. Devote and wins the position. Rubens Barrichello is the big winner, managing to forge through to sixth place, while Schumacher overtakes his teammate. The first lap sees Nico Hülkenberg crash in the tunnel when a front wing mounting fails. A problem with his clutch had previously forced him to abort his warm-up lap and line up at the back of the grid, and his accident triggers a safety car period that lasts for several laps. Fernando Alonso takes the opportunity to pit early, swapping his super-soft tires in favor of the harder compound. It is a move that dictates most strategies up and down the pit lane, given that every car is planning on stopping just once. Reigning World Champion and 2009 winner Jenson Button is the race's second retirement with an overheating engine - the result of a bung being left in an air intake on the grid by an engineer - ending his day on the second lap. He also parks his car on the exit to the pit lane, meaning Bruno Senna has to cross the yellow line to avoid the McLaren after completing his pitstop; due to this, he does not receive a penalty. The first round of stops begins earlier than anticipated, with the majority of teams and drivers attempting to time their stops in such a way that they would come out ahead of Alonso's Ferrari. Nico Rosberg is the exception to the rule, preferring instead to stay out in an attempt to open a buffer between himself and the Spaniard.
The gamble does not pay off, however, as Rosberg eventually emerges from the pits to find himself behind Alonso and a train of cars that had exited from the pits immediately in front of him. While pit strategy dictates the running order, both Saubers and both Virgins retire from the race. As Webber begins to solidify his lead, Rubens Barrichello suffers a suspension failure due to a loose drain cover at the top of Beau Rivage, and the Brazilian's out-of-control Williams hits the barrier and spins around, coming to a halt facing the wrong way in the middle of the track at Massanet. Karun Chandhok then runs over Barrichello's discarded steering wheel, which he had thrown out of the car after the crash. The safety car is deployed for the second time, bunching the field back up. Webber survives the restarts with his lead intact, though the safety car again takes control of the race a few laps later. A marshal at Massanet reports that a manhole cover has come loose, and with the pressure generated by a speeding Formula One car being more than enough to rip it free of its mountings, race control deploys the safety car while the situation can be assessed. It is decided that the cover is safe, and the race resumes within three laps of the safety car taking to the circuit. It is later discovered that the loose manhole cover had been the cause of Barrichello's accident, being lifted up as the car passed over it, striking the left rear wheel and breaking the suspension. Bruno Senna and Heikki Kovalainen join the growing list of retirements, both exiting the race on the same lap with mechanical troubles.
The Safety car is again deployed during the 70th lap and remains in place until the race's final corner when Jarno Trulli and Hispania's Karun Chandhok collide. Trulli attempts a pass at Rascasse that results in his Lotus mounting Chandhok's car, and his wheels narrowly miss Chandhok's head. Both drivers walk away from the crash. The incident occurs just in front of race leader Webber, who avoids being caught up in the tangle. Webber goes on to win a race with all but a few seconds of the last few laps run under safety car conditions, during which Vitaly Petrov retires his Renault with brake problems. During the eight or nine seconds between Webber crossing the safety car line, with the green restart lights illuminated, and Webber finishing the race, Schumacher overtakes Alonso in the final corner for sixth place to finish 5.7 seconds behind the winner. Rule 40.7 states that after the safety car has returned to the pit lane, drivers may only overtake once they have passed the white safety car line spanning the width of the circuit; in Monaco, this line is at the exit to Rascasse. Replays showing Schumacher's maneuver are shown shortly after the race, and controversy starts with Ferrari claiming that overtaking on the last lap is not permitted, according to rule 40.13, which states:
"If the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap, and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking".
Mercedes principal Ross Brawn produces documents to show that the restart has taken place (thus the 40.13 rule is not applicable in his opinion) and Schumacher's position beyond the safety car line before the overtaking. Webber's victory means that he is the first Australian to win the Monaco Grand Prix since Sir Jack Brabham in 1959. Webber also assumes the lead in the championship on seventy-eight points, the same amount as his teammate Sebastian Vettel (however, with two wins this season to Vettel's one, Webber is still classified as the sole championship leader). Robert Kubica finishes third ahead of Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton, with Alonso sixth after Schumacher's penalty. Alonso's result moves him to third in the standings, just ahead of the non-finishing Button. Red Bull's one-two finish also means that they leapfrog Ferrari in the constructors' standings, establishing a twenty-two point lead. Combined with Button's retirement, Lewis Hamilton's fifth place means that McLaren falls from first to third overall. Now they have truly thrown off the mask. No longer just Saturday lords, leading for six pole positions in as many Grands Prix, with a mix of brilliance and various Sunday errors. Now, the two Red Bull drivers are the real masters. First and second in Monte Carlo, a circuit for true drivers, a disturbing business card for the others, the rivals, the Ferraris, and the McLarens, who have definitively understood the kind of monster they are dealing with here. First Mark Webber, as it happened in Barcelona, a perfect start from the pole, leading into the first turn, arms raised at the finish line. Second Sebastian Vettel, who was third on the grid but knew how to pass Robert Kubica at the start, colliding with his Renault from the first meters onto the lowest step of the podium. The two Red Bulls seem to know no obstacles; their dominance is absolute, and the future looks even worse (for their opponents), as from the next Grand Prix, they too will be able to use the blown rear wing, that devilish contraption activated by the driver that provides additional grip in corners (as if they didn't have enough) and speed on straights.
"We'll try to catch them".
Swears Felipe Massa, fourth at the finish line after a race spent following the exhausts of the top three, without even being able to entertain the idea of an overtaking maneuver.
"We'll attempt".
Guarantees the Brazilian, but it won't be easy at all because the two, Webber and Vettel, different in driving style, the more methodical Australian and the more aggressive young German, but equal in their eagerness to win the first world title, are starting to feel truly unbeatable. Webber immediately thinks about the prestige of triumphing in Monte Carlo:
"Winning here is a unique emotion; success on this track is worth a career".
But then, he doesn't hesitate to issue his threat:
"Our car flies on every circuit; no one stops us in a single lap, but we don't joke in race pace either. All that's left is to keep pushing in this way".
And the title runs the risk of becoming a family affair, with Vettel succumbing for two races (still finishing on the podium) but already anticipating revenge in Turkey. It was Red Bull's Sunday, of safety cars (four times on the track), more or less spectacular incidents (two destroyed Williams, first Hulkenberg and then Barrichello, Trulli with the Lotus almost taking off Chandok's head, curled up in the cockpit of his Hispania), Alonso's overtakings, but above all, it was Schumacher's black Sunday, no longer king on the track but not even on a political level. Monte Carlo had already brought him bad luck in 2006. Today, in the last meters, he played smart; the safety car had just returned to the pits; all drivers knew that, according to article 40, paragraph 13, being the last lap, overtaking was not allowed, but he tried anyway, eager to overtake Alonso. He finished sixth, the Spaniard seventh. But the judges penalized him by 20 seconds, placing him in twelfth position. Mercedes has filed an appeal, but without a chance: the regulations categorically exclude overtaking under safety car conditions. Ferrari claims to have verified with the commissioners that this excludes the possibility of overtaking from the moment the safety car returns to the finish line, receiving confirmation. Mercedes argues that there would be a loophole in the regulations that would allow the maneuver suggested by the team to Schumacher. According to some unconfirmed reports, there would be a particular situation for the Monte Carlo track. But article 40.13 does not seem to make any distinctions. A sporting decision by the commissioners, such as a drive-through, explains the FIA spokesperson announcing the team's decision, is unappealable. Nevertheless, the team has chosen to appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal, which will declare the inadmissibility of the appeal or not. The result established by the Commissioners does not change while waiting for the Court to meet. In any case, the small end-of-race case shows - if there were still any need for it - the malice with which Schumacher drives, but also that poor Alonso was truly great because he crossed the finish line with practically worn-out tires: taking advantage of the immediate entry of the safety car, the Spaniard immediately changed the tires, thus completing the entire race with the same tires. Moreover, the race once again demonstrated the madness of a Grand Prix where a slow car manages to slow down a missile faster by five seconds per lap: in the first laps, Alonso had to resort - also risking a lot - to all his skill to pass Di Grassi. Finally, Barrichello's maneuver was insane: during lap 32, the Brazilian lost control of his car due to a mechanical failure and crashed violently into the barriers at Massenet corner. At that point - something never seen in the history of F1 - Rubens, with the car stuck in the middle of the track, angrily threw away the steering wheel, throwing it into the path. Poor Liuzzi passed and hit him head-on. The commissioners tried to penalize him, but he justified himself saying:
"I did it because I was terrified and wanted to get out of the car immediately".
A colossal lie, considering that instead of getting out immediately, he waited for quite some time. Only thirty laps. That's how long the Monaco Grand Prix really lasted. That is the time it took for Fernando Alonso to take center stage, recover eighteen positions, and unleash a healthy adrenaline storm on the audience. He started from the pit lane. Practically from the garage. From there, to do something good, perfection is not enough. You need a stroke of genius or luck, or better yet, both. And that's what, at two o'clock, illuminated the cloudy day in Monte Carlo:
"It was an extreme situation, an extreme solution was needed. Starting with soft tires, changing them to hard ones on the first lap, making them last the entire Grand Prix, and hoping for a Safety car, which is not rare here in Monaco".
Perfect intuition. On the second lap, Nico Hulkenberg destroyed his Williams against the guardrail. Safety car. Alonso recovers all the distance, and unlike the others, he no longer has to make a pit stop. His comeback is already in full swing (Button, Hulkenberg, Senna, and Chandock are out of the game), and in his sights is Di Grassi's Virgin, already Alonso's third driver at the time of Renault.
"The way he was hindering me, it seemed like he was playing for the World Championship, not the twentieth position".
Alonso jokes, who, however, a couple of times took his hand off the steering wheel to send his rival away. It takes him a couple of laps to get rid of him. Much more than what is needed for the two Lotus drivers, Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen:
"They were very nice, them".
Overtaking with an impressive agonistic fury even the other Virgin driver, Timo Glock, most of it is done. Now you just have to wait for the others to make a pit stop to capitalize on the strategic move and find yourself catapulted into the points zone. McLaren understands and hurries to change Lewis Hamilton's tires, making sure to send him back on track just in front of Fernando Alonso, to minimize the damage, a move more like a sailing match race than a Grand Prix. Everyone else imitates the English, creating a paradoxical second race head that forms behind Fernando Alonso. Someone (Massa and Hamilton) manages to get ahead of the Spaniard, someone (Schumacher) behind. It's lap 30. And the race turns into a useless quadrille. At the end of which there is only space for thanks.
"A perfect Sunday. The team was exceptional. Of the overtakes, four are mine, the others all from a brilliant strategy, not to mention that this morning the car was all to be assembled, it didn't even have the electrical connections yet".
And with Domenicali thanking Alonso:
"Every time he drives, he enhances the team's work".
Finally, the Spaniard sends a thought to those who doubted him after Saturday's mistake:
"Everyone thinks what they want. In the end, talent comes out".
The day after the twenty-second penalty in Monte Carlo for overtaking Fernando Alonso under the safety car, Michael Schumacher, through his website, approves the appeal made by his team, Mercedes:
"The result in the end, which has currently placed me in twelfth position, is obviously disappointing for me, and I can fully understand why we appealed. My race would have been quite normal without the decisions made by the Stewards".
Especially since the start wasn't bad:
"It was interesting; everything went according to plan. I managed to have a good start but then I was a bit blocked by Barrichello".