No Rain in Spain
Spanish GP, May 4, 2003

By Erik Nielsen

Pictures copyright and courtesy Ferrari Media

Michael Schumacher showed the world that good things come to those who wait by putting the new F2003-GA on the pole and taking the fifth debut Ferrari chassis win in a row. The star of the show was Fernando Alonso, the local racer who put in a tough fight in his Renault which worried Jean Todt, Ron Dennis and Frank Williams that there may be a new front runner.

The new Ferrari did run strong, but did not leave the field in the dust like most were expecting. The Spaniard even managed to get by Rubens during the race, relegating the Brazilian to the last spot on the podium. Most tifosi will take a 1-3 finish any day, especially with the teams lack luster performance of late. The deficit in the championship was further helped with the retirement of both silver McLarens in an unusual twist of fate.

Kimi Raikkonen managed to plow into Antonio Pizzonia’s stalled Jaguar at the start of the race and never even made it over the start line. Kimi’s weekend troubles can be traced back to qualifying where a spin kept him from posting a competitive time and relegated him to the back of the grid. If he had only refueled and started from the pit lane…

His teammate didn’t fare much better. A first lap incident with Jarno Trulli sent the Scot to the back of the pack, and seventeen laps later, Jenson Button tried an inside pass on him in turn one and the two collided.

BMW-Williams was the only front running team to choose a two stop strategy and were well down at the checkered flag. Rumors fly of the car being unbalanced, but Juan Pablo managed some well executed passes with the new car. Ralf, however, made it look like a dog of a chassis, locking up the brakes in the turns and even getting squirrelly on the straights. Nowhere near the top-of-the-pack-design that lead to Jacques Villeneuve’s world championship winning ride. That car was so balanced and powerful that the average VeloceToday reader could have finished the championship in the top ten.

The Brazilian rookie brought 3 points home for relative new comer Toyota in Spain, but Da Matta showed that he is conservative, only slightly pushing Ralf when the Japanese car probably was faster. The last two points paying positions went to Ford powered cars, 7th by Mark Webber in the remaining Jaguar and Ralph Firman in the Jordan in 8th, his first FIA world championship point. The other first was Justin Wilson’s first finish in the Minardi.

Alonso’s performance was top notch. Even Michael Schumacher said that if he was driving the F2002 Ferrari that he probably would not have won. Assuming the team can solve some of the power deficit with its wide angle engine, they really are a force to be reckoned with. The monkey wrench in all of this is that Jean-Jacque His announced this week that he is leaving Renault at the end of the month. Can the team keep the momentum? The results of Austria in two weeks may shed some light on the issue.