By Matt Jones
June 20 2006

Regular RealHondaF1.com reader Matt Jones shares his views on the British Grand Prix, looking back at a race that saw Honda performing poorly, but action throughout the field. As we look back at Silverstone, the final round in Europe before we move to back to back races in America and Canada, it’s worth noting that, with the introduction of the V8’s this year, the first half of the Silverstone lap is amazingly done without the use of the brake pedal. With Michael Schumacher in record-breaking form, it was certainly looking like it could be a very close race between himself and Fernando Alonso.

Qualifying once again was cruel to Jenson Button, the Briton being called into the weighbridge after his initial slow flying lap left him with no time to get out and better his original time. Unfortunately he became one of the high profile drivers to suffer from the unpredictability of the new qualifying system.

I could not help but feel a little bit cheated that the call for the weighbridge came in at such a crucial time. Unfortunately, it’s up to the team to calculate these things and, once the 3 minutes it took to weigh the car and get it ready to go out again was over, it was too late.

Jenson Button was not the only high profile driver to suffer though, as Mark Webber in the Williams, after his fantastic display in Monaco, suddenly found himself too slow to make it into the second qualifying session.

Jarno Trulli was given an engine failure in qualifying to rub some salt into his wounds after his retirement from third place in Monaco. The engine failure ensured he was the third high profile driver who failed to make the cut in qualifying, and would start from the back of the grid.

The second session did not really hand us any surprises the slower cars who were able to gain fortune from the higher profile drivers underperforming in the first session did not come close to making the cut for the final shoot out for pole.

Rubens Barrichello put in a solid qualifying to sixth once again. However, the fact we have yet to see him racing with a solid race pace is still very worrying. As we approach midseason, he has yet to get the best out of the car.

A slight surprise was to see both BMW drivers making the final shootout for pole. As they continue to improve, they handed themselves an excellent chance to continue their consistent point scoring record.

Kimi Raikkonen showed that his Monaco display was not a one off, starting from the front of the grid alongside Fernando Alonso on pole with Schumacher behind them. The prospect of having arguably the three best drivers in three different cars at the front end of the grid at Silverstone was great to see.

Our hopes were on Rubens for points at Silverstone. With Button starting from the back it was going to be a mission to gain anything from the weekend. However, in the opening stages he did give an absolutely fantastic effort, serving us with some great overtaking as he sliced his way through the field.

At the same point of this happening, Rubens was slipping back drastically, into the heavy midfield runners, including Button. Unfortunately, Button’s charge was halted very early on, with oil leaking onto the rear tyres. Jenson spun into the gravel, ending his race. It was very disappointing, as Jenson was looking very racy as he navigated through the midfield and looked highly likely to score points.

Another driver who was left to cut his way through the pack was Jarno Trulli but, amazingly, was the first in for his scheduled stop. A very strange strategy from Toyota - running Trulli on a light fuel load from the back of the grid certainly did not look like the way to go and so it proved in the race.

Rubens could not keep Honda’s 100% scoring record on track, and suffered from a complete lack of race pace once again. Pressure must be mounting for Rubens to perform, and my fears of him not being completely settled with the car seem to be true.

The same couldn’t be said for Nick Heidfeld who once again was running amongst the top runners. Trouble engaging first gear after the stops lost him a lot of time, and probably track positions.

I was surprised to see Alonso go on to win the race so convincingly after Ferrari’s record-breaking form in testing. I was expecting more from Michael, and Ferrari, who I thought would have the motivation after the Monaco qualifying incident to go out and put on a sterling display. We did have a glimmer of this when Michael, on his out lap, set the fastest final two sectors of anyone, which ensured he jumped Kimi quite comfortably.

Whilst Alonso was out front once again in complete control of the race, Giancarlo Fisichella was unable to threaten a podium position despite claiming before the race that he is driving as well as he has ever done so. A bold and quite strange statement, admitting that on his best day he cannot even come close to the world champion.

Felipe Massa also seems to be struggling to find the same pace as Michael Schumacher from the Ferrari. Though most were expecting it, Massa has failed to impress both in terms of pace and in terms of solidness and, because of this, Renault is pulling away to a nice comfortable lead in the constructor’s championship.

McLaren look to be improving as the season progresses, and are slowly putting themselves back into contention for race wins. Though it is obvious, this year’s championship is long gone for them. The main concern for McLaren this season is where star driver Kimi Raikkonen is going to end up. Montoya had a difficult afternoon, qualifying poorly, and then having his side pod crashed into by Jacques Villeneuve that upset the balance of the car. He came back with a solid result for the team, though.

A difficult weekend for Williams. Mark Webber, who was taken out in an accident caused by Scott Speed, was never likely to have an effect on the point’s positions with so few high profile retirements. Nico Rosberg is still being talked up by the ITV commentary team, but is yet to deliver a decent display and is being heavily out performed by Webber.

Both BMW Sauber drivers were solid as a rock. Nick Heidfeld was a bit unfortunate to have issues with first gear, but still managed some solid points for the team. Jacques pushed to the end of the race and managed to steel the final points position - another solid display from the former world champion. Despite Jacques driving increasingly well this season there has yet to be an offer from any team for next season however if he continues to put in solid displays I think BMW will find it difficult to let him go.

After Red Bull Racing’s lucky maiden podium in Monaco, they were never really expected to repeat such a high scoring showing. Both drivers spent the day lingering in the midfield and failed to make an impression on the points positions much of the same is expected for the rest of the season.

Toro Rosso had a fairly good showing, with Vitantonio Liuzzi managing to out perform Christian Klien in the Red Bull Racing car.

Midland have renewed rumours flying around they are looking for a new buyer which is a shame. Obviously current owner Alex Schneider failed to realise before joining the sport of Formula One that it is a long and expensive process if they are going to become a competitive team.

Super Aguri will be counting down the days until they receive their new chassis at which time it is probable that they will lift themselves off the bottom of the pack.

Honda Racing F1 – A disaster? Heads need to roll? Going backwards? Drivers not up to scratch? It’s all been said on the forum. A consolation is that we are in a better situation than this time last year unfortunately it’s very demoralising to see a driving navigating his way out of a difficult situation so nicely only to be let down with an oil leak. Rubens is still obviously struggling with the car and its coming up to midseason I was really hoping by now that he would be matching Button’s pace.

Although Silverstone was not promising a lot from the team what was delivered was far worse than expected though it’s important to take positives from the situation. Silverstone was the first time the team has failed to score a point at a race weekend in almost a year, although the points have not been hauled in by the dozen its nice we are able to score week in and week out.

The steady rate points scoring this season has put us nicely in the top four of the constructors championship which is higher than what we finished last season so although it does not feel like the team is making progress in comparison to last season we are.

We’re off now to Canada where last years race was full of incident and where the BAR-Honda package came good for the season, hopefully we will see this years package come good at Canada too. The track is extremely tough on both brakes and engine so it’s highly likely we will see many reliability issues from the new V8’s during the race which we can hopefully benefit from rather than suffer from.

Potentially Canada could be one of the best scoring opportunities for the team if we can be relatively competitive and get our cars to the end.