Adam Cooper F1

Michael Schumacher was a happy man after practice in Monaco, having finished the quicker afternoon session in fifth place, 0.239s off the quickest time.

While he was behind team mate Nico Rosberg, Schumacher clearly enjoyed being back in action on the streets of the principality after three years away, and he even had a trip across the chicane when he pushed a little too hard.

“I got back into the rhythm of the track, particularly in the long run by the end,” said Schumacher. “I increased the pace again. I’m quite confident, things are good. The car definitely handles quite reasonably here. Honestly I think it’s one of the big issues is that other teams have a certain advantage in top speeds. Here they don’t take the profit from this, and therefore the whole field probably comes closer together.

“We need to wait. I don’t know how much fuel other teams were running in comparison to us. I guess we are closer together. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe they were running lots more fuel than us, and therefore it looks like it. So let’s wait.”

Michael said that a driver can’t always make the difference in Monaco.

“You can, but then again sometimes it depends. You think you do, but then the car doesn’t do exactly what you want to do, so you’re not able to prove that.”

Fernando Alonso was typically cautious about Ferrari’s prospects for the weekend after finishing top of both sessions on Thursday in Monaco. However he was just 0.073s ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the morning 0.109s clear of Nico Rosberg in the afternoon, leaving him convinced that it might be tough to stay on top for the rest of the weekend.

“I think for sure this is a circuit to get confidence as soon as possible, it’s a circuit that you need to feel OK in the car,” said Alonso. “And to maximise the potential it’s very good to start in a good way, because you don’t need to get crazy or change completely the set-up or to find miracles for Saturday. You just need some continuity in the set-up, in the way you do the runs.

“Overall we found a car very good from the beginning, very easy to drive. I think Felipe and me we’re happy with today’s session, but we know in qualifying everything will be very close. As we saw today, in 0.3s there were seven or eight cars, so we cannot afford a mistake on the driver’s side or the set-up side. We need to be perfect on Saturday.

“I think we have improved a little bit since Barcelona. Hopefully we are not one second behind Red Bull, but we need to wait until Saturday. We saw some strong Fridays for us, or strong Fridays for McLaren, and then on Saturday Red Bull got the pole position very easy. We need to be clever and do a good lap on Saturday, because if not, you can end up sixth or seventh, as we saw today.”

Fernando also confessed to a scrape with the wall: “I think I touched the barrier at Casino, Turn 3 on the inside, just hit the wall 1mm, but enough to break a little bit the front wing, even if I kept running with no problems.”

Alonso admitted that as everyone had predicted, traffic could be a problem in qualifying.

“It was difficult for everybody, it’s a lot of cars all together at some moments of the session, but as I said yesterday I think it’s a challenge for all of us, a challenge for the drivers to get the space to do a lap and not to disturb anyone, and it’s a challenge for the team as well to find the right time to go out and the right strategy to go through Q1.

“I think Q2 and Q3 will be much easier because the cars are reduced. Q1 is a time that we need to focus, we need to concentrate, we need to put a lap together. Maybe we don’t need to do a super lap, we just need to be in the first 15 or 16, so we should be able to do that.”

Sebastian Vettel insists that he has no regrets about some of the frustrating problems he’s had this year, and which have left him with just one win out of five starts despite the Red Bull’s pace. But he joked that he hopes they are “no bits falling off” in Monaco this weekend.

In Spain last week he lost third place to a brake problem, but managed to regain it and salvage priceless points when Lewis Hamilton crashed.

“Would, could, should is not happening,” said the German on Wednesday. “We can’t change the races we had. But surely another race like last week, it was the key to get maximum points out of it. Third place or a podium is not a disaster, it could have been much worse if you look back. I think it’s good, unlike last year when we had a worse start to the season, we’re not massively behind.

“Ten points sounds maybe a lot, but obviously we have a new points system as well, so it’s not that much. Surely it shows if you look at the evolution of the championship and the points how important it is to finish races. Jenson has won two races and the other races he has been fifth and sixth or something like that. It shows how important it is to finish every single GP.”

Vettel says he sees no reason why Red Bull shouldn’t be right on the pace this weekend.

“It’s a different type of track, and usually you set up your car quite a bit different to other circuits, or to a normal circuit. But still I think we should have a very strong car here. It’s difficult to say how strong, and especially we need to wait and see how strong the others will be. Traditionally on circuits like this, like Monaco and Singapore, teams like Williams have always been very strong, McLaren has always been very strong.

“This year we need to wait and see. The cars have changed quite a bit, some cars now have a much longer wheelbase. I heard Mercedes is going back to the old car, maybe for that. I think it’s quite interesting to see what’s going to happen.

“But I’m confident for us. I think Saturday in Barcelona it looked very comfortable, but on Sunday again it was much closer. Yes we probably had the quickest car, but it wasn’t the offset we probably saw in qualifying. That’s only due to our adjustable ride height!

“I think we have a strong car, so we hope to have no trouble, so no bits falling off. And then to have a clean race. Obviously in Monaco the qualifying or the Saturday is very important, because it determines your race very much.”

Vettel added that while the race is special, it’s only worth the same 25 points as every other event.

“It’s a special venue, and it’s something you want to win. It would be very special, but if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. In the end we’re here to fight every single race, and in the end win the championship. So we try our best as every weekend, and see how we get on.

“But surely this race has so much history and so much tradition and is always something unique. For us, especially when it comes down to the circuit, it’s not something you have every day. You have to keep your focus on all the time, it’s a very difficult circuit for that.”

Lewis Hamilton is looking forward to a competitive weekend in Monaco, but says that the team still needs to find qualifying pace with which to take the fight to Red Bull – a team he is convinced have found a “trick” for final qualifying

He’s also answered critics who suggest that he is harder on his tyres than other drivers, and suffers as a consequence.

This blog asked Lewis if he thought the combination of supersoft tyres, high downforce spec and higher ride heights might upset the status quo this weekend.

“I honestly have no absolutely no clue!,” he replied. “I’ve not really thought about that aspect of it. I just think that because it’s a track where there are not so many high speed corners that the downforce advantage they have on us won’t give us as big a gap as they had in the last race, where it was almost a second in qualifying.

“Here it will be a little bit less, and the driver can also have an impact on making it a little bit less as well. It’s a lot more to do with mechanical grip as well. I’d just like to get out tomorrow.”

Expanding on quest for qualifying speed, he said: “We need to find it as a team. It’s the downforce, pure downforce, and it’s not for me to go and find it, the guys in the team need to go and find it, and that’s what they’re working on very hard to do. It’s not easy to find.

“They’ve [Red Bull] got a lot more downforce than us in certain areas of the track, which gives them a big, big advantage. Nine tenths is huge, and there’s no more that I can get out of it, or we can get out of it through set-up.

“It’s a difficult to explain. I don’t think there’s anything wrong [us in] with Q3. They are obviously doing something that enables them to do that time, because in Q1 and Q2 we’re a lot closer than in Q3. Clearly there’s some kind of trick or something going on. I think bit by bit we’ll figure it out. It’s for the guys will figure it out, and I’ve just got to keep going and try do the job that I did at the last race. It was a solid qualifying session for me.

“I know I’m going to be strong in the race, I know how to look after my tyres. What people often write is that I’m very aggressive with my tyres, and it’s actually quite the opposite. When Bridgestone come to us afterwards and they tell us how we’re doing, I’m usually kind of mid way or one of the better guys or softest guys on my tyres. I know how to look after my tyres and look after the wear of the rears and the fronts. That’s probably why I am also able to keep the pace that I do in the races.”

Tyres will be one of the more intriguing aspects of this weekend. Last year those who started on supersofts – specifically Sebastian Vettel – were soon on trouble. This year the top 10 have to start on the tyres on which they qualified, so that could make life interesting on Sunday. In theory everyone will have to use the supersoft to get a lap time, and that may compromise their race form relative to those who choose mediums.

“I don’t know how the supersoft is going to be here, to be honest. Obviously in the past it’s always chewed up quickly, but during the weekend the track gets better actually.

“From a guess, depending on how big a gap there is between the two tyres, it might not be such a bad thing to start on the medium. Because by the end of the race the track is better already, so if you put on the supersoft, it will last. After tomorrow you’ll get a much better idea if there’s half a second difference.”

Intriguingly Hamilton beat Mark Webber to fastest lap in Spain, and by a substantial margin: “I think I’ve only had like three fastest laps in my career up until that point, so it’s nice to get a fourth! I’ve got more wins and poles than fastest laps, which means absolutely nothing…”

On his return to Monaco Michael Schumacher has had to dodge a barrage of questions about his infamous last appearance he in 2006 – when he was put to the back of the grid for blocking the track during qualifying.

Schumacher parked his car at Rascasse after taking pole, preventing anyone else from setting a quicker lap. After a long night of deliberation the FIA stewards – led by Tony Scott-Andrews – decided that he had done it deliberately. There has never been any proper explanation of the matter from either his then team boss, current FIA President Jean Todt, or Michael himself.

Today he grew increasingly irritated as journalists kept returning to the subject during a Mercedes press meeting, and even called respected BBC Radio reporter David Croft “boring” for pursuing that line of questioning.

Schumacher was initially asked if he had any regrets about the incident, not least because it potentially cost him the World Championship.

“I guess it didn’t, but it doesn’t change as well if we get back into it, because we’re now in 2010.”

Pressed on the matter, he said: “I had great fun in the race, I have to say. Coming from last, and going through the field, I think I finished fifth. That was good fun.”

Reminded that Saturday had been a low point of his career, he blamed the media, “You made it – some of you guys. I mean, let’s look forward and not backwards.”

When Croft asked whether Michael would so the same thing again to guarantee pole, he said: “You’re boring…”

Finally he was asked if there was any reason why he was not able to say sorry for what happened. “I mean you can keep trying absolutely, but we’re not talking about 2006 anymore. There’s enough said I don’t feel that I need to go any deeper into it…”

Felipe Massa with DTM driver Maro Engel, Jaime Alguersuari and Ivan Capelli

Tuesday night is usually pretty quiet in Monaco as few people are in town yet, but the charity football match promoted by Prince Albert has become something of a tradition. This blog decided to check it out for the first time, from the privileged postion of the side of the pitch. And an entertaining evening it was too as the F1 drivers – displaying just the sort of commitment you’d expect – overcame the ‘Star Team’ opposition. 

The drivers put out quite an impressive line-up, although it wasn’t always easy to discern who was playing where. Felipe Massa and Jaime Alguersuari appeared to be leading the attack, with Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Vitaly Petrov and Lucas di Grassi apparently in midfield and naturally also very keen to get up the front.

Jarno Trulli was the only driver to be happy to play at the back, while Tonio Liuzzi showed up in his kit but was injured and didn’t take the field. Former F1 drivers Ivan Capelli (who doubled as manager) and Emanuele Pirro also put in an appearance, while the team – with regular substitutions – was made up with a bunch of ringers. Charity football regular Michael Schumacher did not show up, alas.

Alonso scored the only goal of the first half when he teed up a volley from a long way out and fired into the net with a flair that suggested Spain should send him to South Africa this summer. In the second half DTM driver Maro Engel scored a neat solo effort, before the hard trying Massa was gifted a tap-in for the third.

Alonso, who like Vettel impressed by playing nearly the full 90 minutes, then added a fourth. The Star Team included bike racer Loris Capirossi, former F1 drivers Riccardo Patrese and Alex Caffi, and a mixed bunch of names from various sports. They scored two in reply, leaving it 4-2 in favour of the drivers. Prince Albert, who showed up late, presented the prizes. 

Sebastian Vettel argues with the referee...

Jenson Button may have retained  a slender World Championship lead after finishing fifth in Spain, but after the race his frustration was all too clear. As Lewis Hamilton proved, the McLaren was capable of taking the fight to Red Bull in Barcelona, but Jenson was left stuck behind Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes.

Button’s race was spoiled after his clutch dragged at the stop, and the mechanics struggled to change the rear wheels, as they were moving. That allowed Schumacher to get past, and JB spent the rest of the race staring at a Petronas logo.

“We had a problem with the clutch dragging, so the pit stop took a lot longer, and that was it really,” said Button. “I didn’t really know where he [Michael] was on the outside of me into Turn One. He turned in, and if I didn’t back out of it, we would have crashed. So he didn’t really give a lot of room there. There you go, you’d think with his experience he would know.

“As we know it’s almost impossible to overtake round here, and he was moving about quite a bit, making sure I couldn’t get past. It was really frustrating. The pace of the car looked really good, but it doesn’t make any difference – you can’t overtake. When I was behind him I was trying so hard, everything to get past. I damaged my tyres quite badly at the front, and flat spotted at the rear, just with traction.

“Michael’s not silly, he knows where to put the car. On a circuit where it’s almost impossible to overtake, you’re not going to get past Michael. He was putting right on the inside, and I couldn’t get down on the outside, because he’d push me wide every time I did.”

Button’s prospects weren’t help by the fact that he lost his dashboard information almost from the start of the race.

“They’re asking me to do things on the steering wheel, and I can’t see if I’m doing the right thing or not. Plus trying to see the rev lights as well… You can’t see them, so you have to go by instinct. Most of the time I was pretty close, but I was hitting the rev limiter a lot, because when you’re behind someone you’re getting a tow and obviously you’re shifting in different places.

“It was a little bit tricky, and it kept flashing at me at random moments around the lap. Fifth place is OK, but it was a really frustrating race.”

Button said retaining his championship lead was only a small consolation: “Yeah, but it’s not the result we wanted, and it’s not the result we really deserved, because we were pretty quick.”

Felipe Massa finished a frustrated sixth in the Spanish GP after struggling for grip for most of the weekend, and once again failing to match the pace of Fernando Alonso

The Brazilian also damaged his front wing during the race, much of which he spent following the Michael Schumacher/Jenson Button battle.

“The car was not easy to drive, it was difficult to drive,” said Massa. “Sliding around, very low grip, especially in the last sector when you need to go out of the last corner close to the car [in front], it was impossible because the car had no grip.”

Felipe said that he was struggling before he damaged his front wing in contact with Karun Chandhok: “Even before I had the problem. For sure it didn’t improve, it got even worse with the front wing.”

Massa has struggled for the past four races, all of which have seen Bridgestone bring its hardest compound.

“Definitely I’m not happy, because the whole winter in the tests I was 100% happy with the car, the way I drive. Starting in the first race I was 120% happy about the car, and we did a great job in the first race, did a great job in the qualifying, and even in the race with the problem I had the race pace was really great.

“Then after we changed to these tyres, when we did four races with the same tyres which were must harder than the tyres from Bahrain, I was struggling. I couldn’t use the car like I want, especially on the new tyres. So it’s something that I need to understand. It’s not that maybe you finish the lap and you do what you want and you’re a little bit slower. I am outside where I have to be, and we need to understand what’s the problem.”

Massa admitted that he was impressed by the pace of the Red Bulls in Spain: “For sure it was the first track where we saw a Red Bull one second ahead of everybody. We always see maybe two-tenths, three-tenths, one and a half – it depends on the track. And in the race a little bit worse than the qualifying, the Red Bull. But this race was impressive, because they really made a big, big step forward. I hope it’s just for this track.”

The F1 teams are close to finalising an agreement to run the winter young driver test session in Abu Dhabi, immediately after the final Grand Prix of the 2010 season.

The young driver test is the only official opportunity for F1 cars to run before the end of the year, and it is enshrined in the FIA Sporting Regulations. Last year it took place at Jerez in the first week of December.

The consensus among the teams is that it would be better to stay in Abu Dhabi after the GP and run the test on Tuesday to Thursday. Not only will all the equipment and personnel be on site, it would also give the young drivers something to shoot at in terms of lap times.

It would also allow Bridgestone to end its F1 involvement sooner rather than later, rather than go through the expense of supplying a test in Spain some weeks later.

Teams say that staying in Abu Dhabi would be a lot cheaper than trekking to Spain in December, although it remains to be seen how the extended stay will be received by mechanics who will have just gone to Singapore, Japan, Korea and Brazil…

Abu Dhabi boss Richard Cregan told this blog: “If the teams and FOM can come to an agreement, we would be very happy to support it.”

There is also a suggestion that the teams might stay on after the young driver session for their first test with the 2011 rubber from whoever the new supplier turns out to be. That would involve the regular drivers and give the teams a good baseline from which to start. The teams are also keen to run in warm weather.

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh is optimistic about the team’s prospects for Sunday in Spain and the rest of the year, despite the crushing display in qualifying by Red Bull Racing.

Whitmarsh remains confident that the team can progress and that his drivers will be able to pull something out of the bag when chances arise in the coming months.

“The Red Bulls are just quicker, they’ve done a good job,” says McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh. “We’ve made some progress, I think all the teams have. We’ve got as long season ahead of us. I think we’ve got two great drivers. They got the best out of the package that we made available to them today, and we were aiming frankly as the weekend wore on for the second row. We just about achieved that, not quite.

“We know they’ve got some vulnerabilities, we’ve got two great racers, and we’ve certainly won races this year from further back on the grid. It’s how it is. We know we’re working hard to develop the car, we’ve got some bits we need to get on the car as quick as we can, but the cars – all of them – will continue to improve during the course of the year.

“We’ve demonstrated that we can improve our car at a good pace, we’ve got to edge up on that and make sure that we’re working harder and faster than certainly Red Bull. I think by comparison to the other teams we’re quite respectable. But the Red Bull at the moment is the car that everyone has got to beat.

“I think they are in a strong position. We’ve got a race on tomorrow. I think we’re in a good position on the grid, not on the front row, and we’ve got two very quick cars in front. We’ve been in a lot worse positions and come out with some good results. We’ll see what happens tomorrow…”

As expected, the RB6’s pace in fast corners is a huge boost in Spain.

“I think there were some medium/high speed corners where clearly Red Bull could get on the throttle very strongly and very early, and that gives the drivers a pretty good advantage.

“I think this is a tough circuit, it’s one where you’d expect an aerodynamic advantage to pay real dividends. One would imagine therefore that we would be closer elsewhere. The fact is we’ve got to improve our car, and make sure that we become as competitive as we can.”