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Nothing to stop Schumacher from fourth victory at Monaco GP
Fiorano, May 28: Formula One champion Michael Schumacher of Germany will be hoping for his fourth successive victory this season at the Monaco Grand Prix this Sunday (June 1).
Fiorano, May 28: Formula One champion Michael Schumacher of Germany will be hoping for his fourth successive victory this season at the Monaco Grand Prix this Sunday (June 1).
After a poor start to the season, Schumacher has won in San Marino, Spain and Austria to put himself two points behind McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland at the top of the world championship standings.
Schumacher's victory in Austria on May 18 was not without incident as a fire broke out as his car was being refuelled during one of his pit stops. Fortunately, the mechanics were able to extinguish the blaze and Schumacher was able to rejoin the race in third place.
Schumacher overtook Raikkonen to take second and then found himself in the lead as the engine of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya's BMW-Williams blew up.
The German went on to take the chequered flag for the 67th win of his career, but despite the pit stop drama, he did not rate it as one of his most memorable races.
"After a pit stop back to third, and fighting your way at least one position up front, then one was a lucky position we got from (Juan Pablo) Montoya, you feel excited, you feel happy, but I think I will find other races which I rank a little bit higher in history," he said.
One of the main features of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix will be the tactics employed by the teams for qualifying. With drivers only allowed one lap per day to set their grid position time, skill as well as team tactics will need to be employed on a circuit where overtaking is virtually impossible.
"Well, we have got used to the new rules and as well for Monte Carlo, I think we will know how to deal with it," said Schumcaher. "It would probably be very difficult if we had to imagine the very first race with the very new rules to be in Monte Carlo because that would be very difficult, but now, in the meantime, I think we will be well prepared."
With cars having to start the race with the amount of fuel left in the tank after the final qualifying session, Ferrari team manager Ross Brawn knows that the responsibility for choosing the right balance between a good grid position and having enough fuel to run without having to make too early a pit stop rests with him.
"We've got to make the decision about the amount of fuel we run in qualifying," he said. "Do you have a low amount of fuel and have an early pit stop or do you run a lot of fuel and start from the middle of the grid and be patient and let things develop. For sure, there will be a lot of people who run low fuel and be at the front. But if you compromise your race strategy too much, then you'll pay for it even if you are at the front of the grid. The danger of Monaco is if you are in the middle of the grid, you can be caught up in accidents and have problems, so it's a very subjective judgement, it's not just numbers. How the drivers feel, how the car looks, how confident we are, we want to run as much fuel as we can but still be near the front of the grid. We will wait until we get there to make our final decisions."
Schumacher's team mate Rubens Barrichello of Brazil emphasised the imoprtance of Ferrari getting the tactics right for qualifying.
"Well, Monaco has always been a place to qualify at the front because it is impossible to overtake," he said. "This year, even more because it is one lap qualifying. It's going to be a little bit of a bigger challenge. You cannot make a small mistake because you can touch the barriers and you only have that chance. As we saw already with some drivers this year, if they don't qualify well, they have their races in trouble, so Monaco qualfying is going to be very important."
Bureau Report
"After a pit stop back to third, and fighting your way at least one position up front, then one was a lucky position we got from (Juan Pablo) Montoya, you feel excited, you feel happy, but I think I will find other races which I rank a little bit higher in history," he said.
One of the main features of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix will be the tactics employed by the teams for qualifying. With drivers only allowed one lap per day to set their grid position time, skill as well as team tactics will need to be employed on a circuit where overtaking is virtually impossible.
"Well, we have got used to the new rules and as well for Monte Carlo, I think we will know how to deal with it," said Schumcaher. "It would probably be very difficult if we had to imagine the very first race with the very new rules to be in Monte Carlo because that would be very difficult, but now, in the meantime, I think we will be well prepared."
With cars having to start the race with the amount of fuel left in the tank after the final qualifying session, Ferrari team manager Ross Brawn knows that the responsibility for choosing the right balance between a good grid position and having enough fuel to run without having to make too early a pit stop rests with him.
"We've got to make the decision about the amount of fuel we run in qualifying," he said. "Do you have a low amount of fuel and have an early pit stop or do you run a lot of fuel and start from the middle of the grid and be patient and let things develop. For sure, there will be a lot of people who run low fuel and be at the front. But if you compromise your race strategy too much, then you'll pay for it even if you are at the front of the grid. The danger of Monaco is if you are in the middle of the grid, you can be caught up in accidents and have problems, so it's a very subjective judgement, it's not just numbers. How the drivers feel, how the car looks, how confident we are, we want to run as much fuel as we can but still be near the front of the grid. We will wait until we get there to make our final decisions."
Schumacher's team mate Rubens Barrichello of Brazil emphasised the imoprtance of Ferrari getting the tactics right for qualifying.
"Well, Monaco has always been a place to qualify at the front because it is impossible to overtake," he said. "This year, even more because it is one lap qualifying. It's going to be a little bit of a bigger challenge. You cannot make a small mistake because you can touch the barriers and you only have that chance. As we saw already with some drivers this year, if they don't qualify well, they have their races in trouble, so Monaco qualfying is going to be very important."
Bureau Report