doctorvee

Goodness me! Yet another exciting race! There is yet to be a truly boring race so far this year. What a season it’s turning out to be.

Now even the Monaco Grand Prix has been very exciting — it usually isn’t because overtaking is supposed to be impossible. Well that theory was well and truly tested to destruction by Heidfeld, Webber, Trulli and of course Fisichella, who managed to get overtaken by about five different drivers in the space of about ten seconds.

Worst Strategy of the Year award undoubtedly goes to Renault this time. For the first time this year they have well and truly hoofed it over the bar. They did so well at Monaco last year, but completely messed up this year. Filling the tank to the brim durign the safety car period looks like just about the worst course of action they could have taken. It created hellish problems for their tyres. They were fuelled heavy at the restart which compounded the problems of being behind a Minardi and Michael Schumacher (who were both a lap behind). Räikkönen was able to get away with about a fifteen second lead in the end. Räikkönen also stopped just the once like the Renaults; the difference is that Räikkönen made his stop at the right time instead of having a kneejerk reaction to the safety car coming out.

As for Jacques Villeneuve, that guy just seems to set out to prove how much of a prime idiot he is these days. He took out his own team mate when he had absolutely no chance of overtaking him.

Jacques showed how not to overtake; he should have been watching the masterclass provided by Nick Heidfeld. Alonso — indeed the Renaults in general — was holding the Williams’ up. But instead of just going at any old place, Heidfeld kept his cool and took Alonso completely by surprise in what is for me the overtaking manoeuvre of the year so far — and that’s saying something! Heidfeld’s move was fast, clean and crisp, and he managed to take the corner perfectly aswell.

As for Webber’s attempt, he wasn’t quite as assured as Heidfeld and Alonso became a dirty cheating Schumacher-esque driver by skipping right over the chicane. The second time around, Webber did skip over the chicane, and Alonso almost stuck to it — but Alonso changed his mind and skipped over it again. And he still couldn’t keep that position.

Alonso also made a mistake before he was overtaken. Kimi Räikkönen is clearly now the best driver. He was flawless all weekend, and his car has just blown the rest of the field away. This has been the case now ever since the San Marino Grand Prix. But the Renault is still more reliable than the McLaren. All Räikkönen can do at the moment is take a few points of Alonso at each race. No matter how many times Räikkönen wins, if Alonso finishes the dent in his lead will be minimal. The gap is still a massive 22 points. Despite us being just six races through — and despite the fact that Räikkönen has been dominant for the past two races (it would have been three were it not for that driveshaft failure at Imola) — it looks like Räikkönen has a real mountain to climb.

As for Ferrari, it’s difficult to think what else could go wrong for them. Where are they? Michael Schumacher has gone totally off the boil for me. Ever since he made that mistake at the Parabolica in the Qualifying session of last year’s Italian Grand Prix — what I now see as a pivotal moment — he has kept on slipping up here and there. Schumi is the oldest driver in the field and he is well and truly on his way out.