It may have been pure coincidence that both their cars failed in Canada but I am starting to wonder if Renault, in their quest to compete with Ferrari, did not push too hard. Trulli's suspension failure at the start of the race was quite strange. He started very well and then suddenly slowed. Whatever failed did so after getting off the line when stresses are at their maximum. Whatever lasted then should be strong enough for the rest of the race. Who knows? It may even have been a manufacturing flaw. We will never know. Alonso on the other hand had a drive shaft failure. Perhaps had Renault not pushed too much they could easily have finished on the podium. Renault have been very reliable so far this season and I am sure that they will get there again but it may take a little time and as most of the remaining circuits are faster they need to improve their power.

Button may have inherited his customary third place on the podium (after Williams' disqualification) but he was well down on pace. BAR may not be fast enough to compete on the faster tracks, which is strange but more about that later.

Recently, a friend pointed out that Barrichello was the guinea pig in past races. While Michael were going out on lighter fuel loads and three stops Barrichello was heavier and stopping less. Ferrari were obviously assessing the relative merits and decided to reduce their number of stops in Canada. It worked for Michael, although he did look very slow at times. I guess he was saving his brakes knowing that he was still in control.

Indianapolis (track layout) is a combination of Monaco and Monza. The twisty internal part of the circuit requires either a lot of downforce (big wings) or excellent mechanical grip, the outer section is very fast and needs small wings to achieve the higher speeds. The starting grid forms in the early part of the main straight, leaving about half of the straight to build speed before braking for turn one which is taken at less than 100km/H(62mph). The cars that get through turn one will build a little speed to the second corner which is negotiated at 115km/H(71mph) entering the slower inner section of the circuit. Turn 3 is a little more open and cars should scoot through there at around 230km/H(143mph). Four is slower again and 5 is back to 115km/H(71mph). Cars stay at around this speed until turn 7 which leads up to a small straight where cars get up to 300km/H(186mph) before slowing to below 120km/H(74mph) for turn 8 and staying slow again through turns 9, 10 and 11 where they start building through 250km/H(155mph) for the very fast section of the circuit. Turn 13 is very fast (over 300km/H(186mph) and the leading cars should exceed 350km/H(217mph) down the main straight. Overtaking will probably still be restricted to the pits but there is a chance that some overtaking will happen on the very fast sections where faster cars will have ample time to drag-race to the next corner.

Ferrari are so far ahead in the constructors' championship that they can afford to race conservatively from here on.

It is possible that they will elect to stop less frequently than other teams simply because one less pit stop reduces the risk of anything going wrong. A fumbled wheel nut, fuel rig problem or just a rotten set of tyres has often ended a driver's chances and it makes sense to minimize these if they can afford to.

It also reduces mechanical stresses caused by overheating while stationary in the pits and the strain of accelerating back up to racing speed.

Practically speaking, Michael Schumacher only has to worry about his team-mate Barrichello who is 16 points behind him. Jenson Button in third place has very little chance of catching up even if they do find more reliability and speed at BAR.

BAR were disappointing in Canada. Unless they find a lot more speed they will lose out even further to Renault who are now firmly in second place in the constructors' championship despite not finishing in Canada.

BAR are still troubled by regular engine failures although these are mostly Sato's car.

Renault may be having a few reliability issues at the moment but they were very fast (Alonso was anyway) in Canada before retiring. Once they have the reliability to finish races at that pace they will be hard to beat.

Indianapolis may still be too early to see them realise the potential we saw in Canada. It takes a while to achieve reliability without sacrificing performance so I would expect them to be either slower or unreliable for the next two to three races until they stabilise the new package.

They are however constantly improving and should put up a great show in Indianapolis.

Williams seem to have finally sorted out their gremlins. They were very fast in Canada.

Ralf on pole was surprising and his drive in the race was a far cry from the norm. Ralf definitely has the ability to go fast but seems to easily lose drive when everything is not going well. Given the sudden turn of speed that Williams have found, he may be fast in Indianapolis too.

Montoya did not fare as well but was fast enough to hound Michael Schumacher for some of the race.

Indianapolis may well be the first indication that BMW still has more power.

From a championship point of view Williams have left their run much too late. With only 36 points to Ferrari's 124 they will have to accept that this is not going to be their season.

McLaren are also getting better. This is typical for them around this time of the year but I can't remember them ever coming back from this far behind. They have less than 10% of Ferrari's points.

Fisichella did well, which also surprised me. Not that he is a bad driver but I expected Sauber to be strong in the first half of the season, when there would be very little difference in engines between them and Ferrari, and then to gradually fall behind as the season wears on. They seem to be doing exactly the opposite. One can only assume that their state of the art wind tunnel is starting to reap rewards for them.

The rest of the field are unchanged and even if they did improve Canada is not the place to reflect it.

Toyota could look a little better in Indianapolis. They are fast in a straight line and that should help but don't bet on it as I believe that they have a long way to go before we will notice an improvement.

Tyre and wing choices are crucial in Indianapolis. I know that this is true on most circuits but none of the other tracks in the season combine these extremes of fast and slow sections. Too much wing and the degradation of top speed will be fatal but too little and you will lose all the time you gained on the straights in the very slow section of the circuit.

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