A Red Win in China
Grand Prix of China

By Erik Nielsen
Photos copyright and courtesy of Ferrari Media

The correct color team for the occasion made history and won the inaugural grand prix of China. Rubens Barrichello dominated both the qualifying session and the race, effectively leading the race from start to finish. Michael Schumacher showed that he is human and is capable of making less than robotic performances from time to time. The world champion made a small error during qualifying that resulted with him starting in the pit lane. A spin during the race, a flat tire and a small incident with Christian Klien put him back in 13th place when it was all said and done. Rumors floating around the stands suggested that the Scuderia drivers accidently swapped cars this weekend, but discussions with the pit crew indicated this was not the case.

While Kimi Raikkonen had an excellent start and stayed on Rubens' tail for the opening stages of the race, he was eventually passed by Jenson Button who would get the second spot on the podium. This move helped keep BAR in second place in the Constructor's Championship (also known as the ranking of the non-Ferrari teams). The young Brit had to scrap for the position several times and proved that he is a good F1 driver, not just a kid in a good car. Raikkonen seemed almost depressed to end up third, but maybe it's not depression, just the fact that he's a Finn.

Fernado Alonso tried his best to help Renault try to move ahead in the championship, but with Jenson in 2nd, his fourth place finish didn't do much to help. He did do better than returning F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve. I can't tell you how happy I am to have him back in F1, not because I consider him to be a good driver (he's not), but now I am guaranteed a couple of good one liners per article. For this week's installment, Flavio needs to remind the aging Canadian that while his job to get ahead of Michael Schumacher is a good strategy, when you're both running 11th and 12th, neither of you are getting any points and you're not doing the team any favors. I had seats near turn 13 and the Canadian was one of the few cars that wasn't smooth in the turn.

Juan Pablo Montoya put in a better than his team mate performance by finishing an unremarkable 5th place. Maybe the McLaren will be a faster car, but the trash talking Columbian will probably be outclassed by the Flying Finn, Jr. Ralf Schumacher made his F1 return after a long recovery period from the crash he suffered at Indy. After loosing a couple of laps in the pits, he just crawled out of the car and called it quits for a day. I'm sure that Frank Williams isn't loosing any sleep that he's not going to be around next year.

Sato-san did his part for the championship and finished sixth. While not a big fan of the local crowd because of his ancestry, the young Japanese driver has proven that its his skill that keeps him in the sport, not just his marketing potential, unlike some of his fellow countrymen of the past. He was set back by an engine failure in the free practice session on Friday (of which I was close enough to smell), but still managed to claw his way through the field. He's going to be another one worth watching going forward.

The last two points paying positions were captured by the two Sauber drivers. Swiss perfectionism is helping to keep the Ferrari junior team high up on the lists and ahead of Toyota who is running with a much higher budget.

Jaguar didn't make much of an impression this week and not many people are lamenting their decision to withdraw from the sport. In fact, if you go back and read some of my earlier reports, you could say that the writing was on the wall. The decision to sell off Cosworth puts Minardi's and Jordan's future in question. Rumors up and down the pit lane suggest that the teams may start running three cars each to make up the minimum grid. The question for tifosi will now be if the team in red will be running a 1-2-2 driver ranking or a 1-2-3 team order.

Everyone else was an also ran. The fans weren't impressed.

The final comments this week need to focus on the circuit. At a cost of $226 million, the facility is the best on the calendar. While the track might not be as intense a circuit as Monaco or Spa, the facilities were truly outstanding. The atmosphere was quite nice with not as many Europeans trying to smoke pot under the stands and the security was much less visible than in Canada. Motor racing is new in China, but with a middle class of approximately 200 million people, everyone is looking for an angle to market and sell items in an otherwise stagnant world wide economy. Bernie has made his bets and is willing to drop Britain and chase the cash in the Far East. Who can blame him?

The circus hops across the China sea and goes to Suzuka in two weeks. Not much is left to decide, but the second place is still to be decided in the constructors' championship. But if you're a Ferrari fan, you already know what will be written in the history books.