Schumacher Takes A Hollow Victory In The US GP


By DCX
June 20 2005

Yay! Schumacher wins his first race of the year! Oh if only the Tifosi could do that today. We did see Michael Schumacher finish the United States Grand Prix in first, but he certainly didn't win anything. Badoer Prepares Ferrari

Schumacher Takes A Hollow Victory In America

DCX
Michael Schumacher
Race: 1st

Yay! Schumacher wins his first race of the year! Oh if only the Tifosi could do that today. We did see Michael Schumacher finish the United States Grand Prix in first, but he certainly didn't win anything. Schumacher and the other Bridgestone runners, not to mention the fans, were robbed of what would have been an excellent race after Michelin came unprepared for the United States Grand Prix. I am not going to go into the tyre situation here, you can read about it in the other articles and discuss it on the Ferrari 1 Message Board. Despite the bizarre circumstances, Bridgestone did bring a safe tyre to Indy and they won with Michael Schumacher. Here is what the 7-Time World Champion had to say about his race at Indy:

“This was a strange grand prix and it was odd seeing the other cars go into pit lane at the start. But then Rubens and I had a close racethere was only the two of us really. I suppose it was not the best way to take my first win of the season and it was sad for the fans. But I am glad so many of the Ferrari supporters stayed to the end to see how this strange race would end. It is just a shame we could not fight in a normal way, because I think that, even with the other cars, we could have won as we had a strong car."

"The situation we had today was out of our hands and I don’t know all the details of the problems the others had. But I do know that we left at home tyres that had more performance and less durability, but we and Bridgestone made our choice knowing how much stress there is here on the tyres. I lost the lead to Rubens because we had long pit stops to check the tyres and mine was longer than his and he was pushing very hard.”

Rubens Barrichello
Race: 2nd + 0'01.522

Rubens Barrichello was the only other competitive driver on track today and he managed to provide some excitement for the deprived fans of Formula 1. Rubens managed to take the lead during the first round of pit stops and then after the second round it got very chaotic down at turn one. Michael was coming out of the pits, and Rubens almost managed to stay in the lead but he couldn't and took a trip through the grass. Barrichello continued on to claim second behind Schumacher. Rubens later admitted that it was his fault for going off the track as he came into the turn way to hot in an attempt to stay in front of Michael. Here is what the Brazilian had to say about his depressing drive:

“This was a sad day for the race fans and it was also sad to see the other cars pull into the pits, but I guess their problem must have been a serious one. I am also disappointed that I missed out on getting 10 points today. Once I got in the lead I pushed quite hard and I managed to open a gap to Michael and I also had a tremendous out lap. I tried to stay ahead but it did not go my way. Bridgestone and Ferrari had worked so hard that I think we could have won here anyway. We had the quickest car and I was quicker than Michael at the start but I could not find a way past him. Formula 1 has never looked very strong in the States and I think it is worse now.”

Ross Brawn
Technical Director

Ferrari's Technical Director Ross Brawn, was pleased that Ferrari and Bridgestone were able to put together a fast and safe package for today but he still felt robbed of a real race. Here is what Ross had to say about the US Grand Prix:

“We had no problems during the race and the tyre performance was consistent throughout. Our drivers were pushing one another quite hard and it got exciting after the second pit stop. We tried to put on the best show we could under these circumstances. During the pit stops we were being cautious simply because we had time to spare.”

June 19, 2005

Learn more about the Michelin debacle on the Ferrari 1 Message Board.

Bookmark or share this story with:

 

Ferrari F1 latest threads