Dear Heretic: Good to hear from you again. It's evident that the story this
year is the TREMENDOUS miscalculation on the part of BMW/Williams AND
Mercedes/McLaren!
I figure BMW is LUCKY to have Montoya and therefore manage to score SOME
points in each race!
If I were BAR's racing director, I'd tell them to de-tune Sato's engine a
little and let him just be content to put the Sauber's behind him and avoid
CRAZY RALPH as much as possible. It isn't likely that he'll have to tangle
with JPM--that will be Button's job. Clearly Jenson's a Schumacher type
driver; I mean that he is careful to keep his machine as close to the line as
is possible without over stressing either the chassis or the engine. This is
reflected in his position in the points!
I also agree with you that Renault obviously decided to "save" the
engines by backing off just enough to guarantee reliability. But even with
their excellent drivers, there just isn't enough real "grunt" for
them to do well where higher speeds are necessary.
By the way, why doesn't anyone talk about the way that Jarno and Fernando
appear to manage to get along AND race, too! I mean Renault is getting the
MAXIMUM points out of their drivers, while poor Sir Frank can hardly keep the
little brother and the mad Columbian from shooting at each other!
Finally, anyone who doesn't believe in "racing luck" need only be
pointed at poor Fisi! I'm beginning to think that he could "jinx"
even Ferrari! I'd like to see a book about this brilliant driver who wins with
Jordan and can't even manage a podium with last year's Ferrari! (Doesn't this
put paid to the rumors about the Sauber being a clone, by the way?)
And what about our boy Kimi? Last year he was challenging Michael up to the
last race. This year? I don't know why the Ronster doesn't just get last
year's Mac out of mothballs and run IT! Given Kimi's talent, he could then AT
LEAST get some points for them!
Finally, on a completely unrelated note: wouldn't it be fun to be a fly on the
wall at Toyota? Not only are they getting skunked by Honda in F1, as I saw
this month at Indianapolis, Honda is also skunking Toyota in the I.R.L.!
Now it's on to Montreal, where I expect to see Michael leaving the rest in the
dust again! - Jim W (Reference Heretic 6-6 -
I don't want to rain on Trulli's parade but ...)
The Heretic replies:
Hi Jim,
Well Sato is still learning that a will does not always make a way. He
may be fast enough but it takes more than just raw speed to win races. To
finish first, you first have to finish.
Button is stacking up to be the next world champion as long as his luck
holds out and he gets competitive cars. In F1, as in all racing, it is so easy
to end up in the Fisichella rut of chasing better rides and getting lemons
(look at Williams and McLaren any driver would have been happy to join
them one or two seasons ago).
An interesting point that Renault is one of the few teams where the
drivers seem to get along. Williams, on the other hand, take their war to
every circuit. That could be the way the teams are managed.
Fisichella has not been lucky. He is a good example of the need for
drivers to be in the right place at the right time. Every time he changes
seats the team that he joins seem to perform poorer than they did when he was
planning his career. Reminds me of a comment from Martin Brundle once If he
did not have bad luck, he would have no luck at all.
It is inconceivable that Ferrari can be dominant with the same engine as
Sauber. While Ferrari are winning races Sauber are struggling to stay ahead of
the back of the pack. How bad can that chassis be?
I do not know what is happening at Toyota but it is about time that they
realise that all of the teams are getting faster over the season, the
challenge is to get faster, faster.
