What a way to end the 2004 season. A thrilling race from start to finish
that had everything.
Juan Pablo Montoya, love him or hate him, had one of his good days and drove a
brilliant race and deserved to win. Well done to Kimi Raikkonen who got very
close to winning. Next year we'll be enjoying far more of these duels.
A few of the highlights:
Juan Pablo Montoya drove a great race and - as usual - had a several
successful overtaking manoeuvres. Team-mate Ralf Schumacher had a decent
race but was overshadowed by Montoya. This Grand Prix was the last for
both drivers with Williams.
Kimi Raikkonen drove an equally brilliant race but there can only be one
winner. David Coulthard by contrast had a poor race and didn't finish in
the points as he gambled on dry tyres at the start. This race was
Coulthard's last race for McLaren.
It was rather disappointing to see Rubens Barrichello start from Pole
and end up in third a fair way behind the 2 leaders. The good thing though
is that he actually finished at his home race for the first time since
1994. Team-mate Michael Schumacher had a disappointing race by his own
standards but given that he started 18th and finished 7th, that result
isn't too bad actually.
Fernando Alonso continues to make the best of the the package he's got.
For him the gamble of going out on dry tyres actually worked and he
finished 4th after starting 9th. Team-mate Jacques Villeneuve seemed to
have improved slightly but still didn't manage to score points. He also
took the risk of fitting dry tyres at the start but couldn't keep up with
Alonso later on. Villeneuve leaves Renault after a 3 race stint.
Takuma Sato finished 6th in the same position where he started. He had
the potential to finish higher but made a mistake under pressure allowing
Ralf Schumacher to take 5th. Team-mate Button suffered an engine failure
early on in the race and retired. It is surprising that the start wasn't
aborted given the amount of smoke coming out of Button's car at the
start.
BAR finished second in the championship which is a huge improvement over
their 5th place finish in 2003. We now have 5 top teams which is great.
Felipe Massa had a good race and was in the lead early on. He managed to
score a point and finish ahead of his team-mate Fisichella. Sauber have
improved a lot since the start of the year and it is good to see them mix
it with the top team. This was Giancarlo Fisichella's last race for the
team.
Jarno Trulli finished 12th ahead of team-mate Ricardo Zonta. There were
some encouraging signs from the Toyota during the weekend but in the end
they are not yet fast enough. Trulli has benefited from racing with Toyota
in the last 2 races of the season while Ricardo Zonta remains with the
team as their test driver.
It was a sad ending to Jaguar with Webber and Klien hitting each other
resulting in Webber retiring and Klein finishing 14th. There were high
expectations from Jaguar when they entered the sport but failed to
deliver. Lets hope the team gets bought by a well funded buyer.
Jordan and Minardi made up the numbers. The new rules and the limited
testing proposals (if approved) may give them a better chance next year.
The TV coverage was once again poor. There were many on track action
that was missed. That needs to improve.
Your
thoughts ?
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What others are saying:
Can Montoya and Kimi be a teammate? Both want to win. Their
focus is more on personal victory not team. And later on they will blame each
other and Montoya will start telling people he is being treated differently in
the team and Kimi get best car everytime... hahhah... cant wait to hear
that... Montoya is not suitable for McLaren corporate image... McLaren is very
professional.. Unlike Montoya...
For Jacques, he's a joke... its not your time anymore... In addition, poor me
as a Sauber fan... Peter... forget him get Nick or Klien... keep Massa but
slap him a bit... he got some Montoya characteristic...
I really hope that we can skip season 2005 and jump to 2006, got two new
team... midlandf1 an dubaif1 team... would they perform... its kindda
intresting to see those Arab engineer in field... they are used to heat...
Maybe should get some Middle East driver also... sure, they can sustain the
heat... they live in the dessert... intresting...
Get new TV director please... stupid angle and alway stupid timing for
commercial... Tan - Malaysia
Byron, to my view the answers to your questions are yes and
yes. Webber and Williams surely can. Williams have already shown they can win
a championship and have at least kept on showing over the years that they can
win races. Webber has impressed in both teams he's been in, and a closer look
at his attitude towards his work shows Schumacher-like dedication and
determination, skill and speed, diplomacy combined with discipline, ... But
they WILL not win the Championship. Either Michael, Kimi or Juan will.
McL-Merc is on the up again, and the big unknown factor could be Davidson in a
BAR. Both spell s-p-e-e-d - Soeren M - Germany
Another season passes with domination by Ferrari/Schumacher -
yawn. There is something wrong with a sport when victory is gained by means
other than the basics of the sport itself - money. In truth,
Ferrari/Schumacher's success has little to do with either party - they simply
have the best money gatherers. We see Ford/Jaguar leave the sport - who's
next? Ferrari may end up being their own worst enemy and ruining the sport
completely. Let's face it, as it is, who really cares. I'll bet there's even
the odd Ferrari/Schumacher fan that thinks the situation is a joke. Anyway, I
only have 2 questions for next season. Can Webber win the Championship in his
first year in a worthy car and, indeed, can Williams supply a
"worthy" car. If Ferrari have another season like this I think I'll
lose interest altogether and only return when either Schuey retires or the
wheels fall off Ferrari due to complacency or something! :) - Byron F -
Australia
Bullseye ... TV coverage was awful. For example, when Kimi
almost overtook Juan Pablo at the last round of pit-stops, I was happy to hear
about it, because there was nothing to be seen on screen ... a fight for the
lead, but they preferred to instead show a little bit of lack of action
midfield. Sure money can't buy everything, but buy a better director of TV
coverage it can. Jacques' showing was again poor. Maybe he is the first driver
to get ditched next season right after moody Ralfie has to leave those
ambitious, committed guys at Toyota - they are just not Ralf's style, they
take no consolation in whatsoever apologies one can come up with to explain
this failure or that lack of performance.
Let's have a poll: what about a press release-restriction until march combined
with a FIA-rulechange-restriction for 100 or 200 years? We could at least see
some surprises come Melbourne and March and at last see some racing once
everyone gets used to the regs for some decades so that even teams NOT called
"The Scuderia" have a chance of winning the Championship
again.
Yeah I know, I really sound pissed off. Guess what? I am - Soeren M -
Germany
All in all not a bad way to end a fairly good season. Although
Ferrari dominated, there was a bunch of exciting things going on behind them.
This is the second race in a row where the T.V. coverage was less than
stellar. If FOM (Bernie) wants to get better T.V. ratings maybe he should look
into training some of the directors so we are not watching the pit crews
waiting for a car when there are important battles going on on track.
Now if the rest of the teams can get their game up to Ferrari's level maybe
next year will be more interesting - Jeff S - USA
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