Italian Grand Prix Review

The tributes about Schumi will be innumerable in the next few months, and now is not the time or place to reflect upon his glorious career. Suffice to say that he will be leaving in a manner that most leading sportspersons hope for, his powers largely undiminished, still at the top of the tree, and at a time of his own choosing. It will take a lot of getting used to, not having his iconic presence in the paddock, not having his mesmerizing skills on the track, and not having his unrivalled records keep building up.

It also marks the end, just about, of a certain generation of drivers, leaving only Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard, both of whom are in the waning years of their careers, and neither of whom will be considered as representative of this particular era in the same way that Schumi will be. Consider this: Michael is the only man in the field to have raced in F1 against all of Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and the late, great Ayrton Senna. More than that, Michael has arguably dominated beyond his own era. He will leave a void that two different "new generations" will battle to fill. On one hand, there is the Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button generation, which also would have included Juan-Pablo Montoya. But the next group after that is already upon us, with the likes of Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica. Simply, no one has ever stood atop F1 for as long as Schumi has.

It was anything but smooth sailing for rival Alonso though. Even from the start of the weekend, when it was clear Ferrari had the edge, he could have settled for staying within sight of Michael and limiting the damage. But a puncture in the third segment of qualifying was followed by a ridiculous penalty, when the stewards adjudged that he had held up Felipe Massa and dumped him from 5th on the grid to 10th after the Brazilian complained that it had apparently cost him pole.

To say that it was marginal would be an understatement. Massa was several hundred metres behind Alonso. If that is called holding someone up, then the stewards are setting an unsustainable precedent. Add to that the mass dampers controversy, and Alonso's penalty in qualifying in Hungary, not to mention that two of the stewards at Monza were Italian, and it doesn't take a skeptic to notice that officialdom seems to have turned totally against Renault ever since Ferrari likewise became resurgent.

So on one hand, there was the appearance of partiality, and that is not good enough. Then there was also inconsistency. Alonso had leapt up from 6th off the line, before coming up to the mysteriously slow Nick Heidfeld. He only made his move at the first chicane stick by braking too late, missing the chicane and the speed humps altogether, gunning it over the grass, and pulling such a gap on the BMW that any redress was impractical. Again it was marginal, but here the stewards should have acted. Mind you, you can imagine the outcry had they done so!

REJECT OF THE RACE
Italian GP Stewards
Two wrongs don't make a right

That left a welcome podium of Schumacher, Raikkonen and Kubica. Kimi's weekend had been exceedingly solid, taking his third consecutive pole, and keeping Schumacher honest throughout, in a performance that will have endeared him to the Italian fans. The podium rapport between Michael and Kimi, that we have not seen before, suggested that The Iceman, announced immediately after the race as Michael's replacement in 2007, was already been seen as part of the Maranello family.

The star of the race, however, was Kubica. Opportunistically taking team-mate Heidfeld on the first lap after a brilliant start, he held off Massa early on and drove a sensationally long first stint, on a slightly flat-spotted set of tyres. After leading 6 laps, he almost kept 3rd at the last stop in his pit lane drag race with Alonso, and he dealt nonchalantly with Alonso's blow-up. A podium finish in only his third Grand Prix - could this be a career-defining drive of an underestimated talent?

It was a case of differing fortunes for all of Schumacher, Alonso, Raikkonen and Kubica's team-mates. Massa did not manage to back up his Turkey win. He could not find a way past Kubica, losing ground especially through the Ascari chicane in much the same way as Michael lost ground to Alonso through turn 8 in Turkey. He couldn't pull out the magic laps on demand at pit stop time, and his panicked brake lock-up and flat-spot when Alonso blew up dropped him out of valuable constructors' points.

The not-unexpected announcement that Kovalainen will partner Fisi at Renault next year raises some serious question marks. Fisi has had his chance and shown that he is not championship material. Kovalainen is good, and he will have the most silver-spooned debut since Jacques Villeneuve with Williams in 1996, but a rookie is a rookie, and regardless of how many testing miles he has under his belt, there is nothing quite like the pressure of a race weekend.

Pedro de la Rosa put in a steady but unspectacular performance that was scuppered by an engine failure of his own, but his inability to capture the headlines, plus Lewis Hamilton's notable steadying-of-the-ship effort to clinch the GP2 title, tilts the second McLaren seat in '07 in the young Brit's favour. If Ferrari are undergoing a post-Schumi transition, and Renault has already gone for a rookie, what better time than now for Ron Dennis to also take a punt?

If Kubica impressed, then Heidfeld disappointed. His lack of speed in the early stages was inexplicable, and he only fleetingly came back to life thereafter in a quiet drive to 8th, his two-stop plan having been outdone by several of the one-stoppers. Villeneuve never managed to put Heidfeld away, but Kubica has now already got the runs on the board, and Sebastian Vettel continued his amazing introducing to F1 by topping both sessions on Friday. Nick may be well-advised to look over his shoulder.

It was yet another lonely race for Button, who suffered from a lack of straight-line speed. Yes, it's more points, but Jenson would be looking for something more riveting especially after the pre-season hype and the Hungary victory. Meanwhile, Barrichello put in an very good showing, his 8th on the grid with a massive fuel load being a lap of the highest quality in qualifying, before a consistent one-stop drive after another average start that had him roughly on par with his team-mate by the race's end.

Another who benefitted from a one-stop strategy was Jarno Trulli, who started 11th and did well to finish 7th. In contrast, the mercurial Ralf Schumacher continued to be frustratingly inconsistent, after having put in a fine weekend in Istanbul. Here he was slower than Trulli, spent all race battling the Red Bulls and Toro Rossos, making mistakes in doing so, including a pathetic piece of outbraking himself at the first chicane, and eventually finishing 15th behind the two ex-Minardis. Embarrassing.

Williams' tale of woe continued unabated. Rosberg had the better of Mark Webber all weekend, but his race ended in yet another, all-too-common early shower after a halfshaft failure this time. It's never the same problem two races in a row, and that's Williams' problem this year. As for Webber, he simply had an unusually off-colour weekend, missing the first qualifying cut. 19th on the grid was his worst since his days at Minardi back in 2002. A quiet drive to 10th, albeit on the lead lap, was nothing to write home about.

A word for Christian Klien, who beat Coulthard home, but who has also driven his last F1 race for the year with the news that Robert Doornbos will replace him from China onwards. Klien turned down a Red Bull-backed Champ Car drive next season, probably foolishly, as his options in F1 in a race or testing capacity appear somewhat limited. He has paid the price for being unable to replicate the consistent impressive form that made him one of the best performers of 2005.

Midland announced what we all suspected, that they had indeed sold out to a Dutch consortium, although what did not become apparent until recent times was that boutique sports car maker Spyker were involved. It is unclear whether the cars will be called Spykers for the rest of this year and/or in 2007. But what is sure is that it brings to an end a flirtation with F1 from Alex Shnaider that has had more detractors than choruses of approving enthusiasm. No ones seem too sorry that his expensive hobby is coming to an end.

Colin Kolles will remain, and Mike Gascoyne will rejoin the ex-Jordan team soon, but it doesn't change the fact that, despite some recent good showings, MF1 are still mired at the back with the Super Aguris, and on this occasion Takuma Sato actually beat Christijan Albers home, with Tiago Monteiro's run of outs continuing with brake problems, and Sakon Yamamoto still yet to come close to completing a full race distance. Both teams look set to remain pointless come season's end.