McLaren, a mystery!

This is probably the first time that McLaren haven’t made any significant progress during the season and what makes it more difficult is that there has been an unusual silence from the top honchos about the "updates in the pipeline". The testing ban isn’t helping either, and there are more off track activities to keep them occupied.
Is this a policy change at McLaren, where they access their season upfront and take a decision to scrap the season if their performance is not up to the mark in the first couple of races or is this a genuine engineering problem with the team.
I think the fans deserve to know more and how I miss Ron speak at times like these.

Too long in the tooth

Practically everything about F1 is stale. The dominance of Brawns (yawn), FOTA Vs Mosely, FOTA Vs Bernie, Bernie Vs Mosely, Mosely Vs Dennis the list goes on.

F1 has ceased to be a sport I once loved and followed like an ardent addict. Instead it’s a lesson for all aspiring Management students under the head of "what not to do" when running a multi million dollar sport.

Latest is that the FOTA have approached MOTOGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta for a possible break away series. I am certain this is just to send a inconsequential message to Max, who seems intent on leaving a legacy of confusion and mismanagement behind. Having said that, I am not sure he intends to leave anyways.

More to follow...

Season Summary - Stats Talk !!!



While the results that matter are out and well “fought over” .Some statistical data of how the season panned for various teams.

Thanks to Nico (Crash)berg & Technical issues Williams finds itself having dubious record for the years maximum DNF. Point to be noted is
Engine was never Achilles heel for Williams team most of their DNF were due to other technical reasons ( fuel pressure, gearbox, transmission, cooling to name a few) and Ni(Comet) always fell upon the other Williams , unlike the good old days when Pizzonia, Klien took out rivals ( Klien did take out DC once in 2005)
Another interesting stats : While Ferrari-Renault engines did 19500-19700 rpm in races , and Hondas and Mclaren did 19000-19300 rpm, only engine on grid that would do 20000 rpm during race was Cosworth V8.

Sir Frank has a lots of repairs to do if he wants to see the glory days of 90’s.

Honda has done most testing in the season; it’s a mystery that all their work on test track never reflected in Races. (other than when rain-gods played dice at Hungary)
With teams agreeing to testing restrictions agreed upon by the teams for 2007 the onus is back on the Sunday Drivers to make most of the Friday free pracs to work with their engineers to get best setup for Sunday ,like they did in days of Prost & Senna.

Honda (Read Button) has challenge from their sister team Super Aguri ( and Sato), if Taku San’s performance at Interlagos is reflection how much the Aguri team has evolved in course of 9-10 months. Next year Taku will be driving car which Button drove at Brazil and best part is the car will be setup as per his preference,unlike the BAR Honda Days when Taku suffered silent humiliation on 2005 grid with Car Designed as per Jenson’s preference

End of 2005 season ,buoyed by 2005 success, Toyota wanted to implement the Japanese Quality principle of Kaizen in their F1 program and as such was the first team to release their 2006 contender ,but that “Continuous Improvement” never took place. They also start 2007 with a big deficit in as they lose services of Mike Gascoyne.

BMW was in a way most progressed team of the season : The BMW campaign of 2006 season reminds me of Japanese way of keeping the fishes transported to make Sushi fresh ( As per the talks they keep the fish in company with bigger fishes who prey upon them ).While personally the way Dr. T culled Newton ( JV) was a sore point , the Polish replacement of Canadian has shown lots of promise having started late in 2006 , and now Quick Nick finds himself in Canadian’s position. As long as Dr. T is honest about the car he gives to his pilots ,his expectation for the pilots to deliver is valid one . Interesting point with the team was the Driver who was delivering better than Quick nick got the boot and now with even faster rookie in team , the incumbent German Pilot has to be alert on performance ,and if Mario T doesn’t follow double standards in this case ,nobody should complain

Red Bull decided to keep all their eggs in same basket,as they shut the shop on 2006 car and are focusing on 2007 car designed by Adrian Newey, hope their gamble pays off , as it is almost final that they will be running Renault engines in 2007 , lets hope that Renault are as professional to their customers as they are with their own teams needs. It would be an interesting battle to see Renault Vs Renault powered Redbull on the grid.

Interesting story from reliability perspective is STR the Jr. Redbull team(Another Cosworth client), which completed more race laps than likes of Mclaren and Toyota who have done more testing than the Faenza based squad. While Renault is expected to be more professional with their clients ,History of Ferrari doesn’t reflect that , never ever have Ferrari Customer Cars run on same revs as Ferrari in races , maybe its time Ferrari Clients put those Service Level Agreements clauses in their contracts and get fair bang for the buck they pay. Else it will just be story of Ferrari using customers as guinea pigs to keep themselves at top of the game on Engine Reliability front

Midland-Spyker – All through the season the team was more of talking point on whether Alex Schnaider will sell Midland or not , after all the denials ( typical F1 style) ,finally they were bought by Spyker and now they are to become Spyker F1 , Biggest coup was Spyker acquiring services of Mike Gascoyne. Personally Trevor Carlin- Gascoyne would have been right combination to take the team in right direction in 2007 . As such how Colleen Kolles lets Mike to have free reins in team matters would be an interesting point to track in 2007 . On Engine Front Ditto as STR, Ferrari Guinea Pigs part - ii

Mclaren – This Corporate house on the Grid (Greed) needs a mention as we summarize the 2006 season. For the team who was ahead of Renault at end of 2005 something went terribly wrong over the winter , was that terrible thing the lost focus amidst frenzy to woo new sponsors and world champion driver ,where the basics were overlooked ,existing drivers destabilized. The results (especially on speed front) in 2006 should bring them to ground reality. Looking at their 2006 results, personal opinion here is Mclaren 2005 pace was Michelin’s success story of making peerless tyres to last 300+ miles, which now it looks like was one main weapon missing in Ferrari’s armor in 2005.
For Ron Dennis:, End of the day racing is all about building reliable and fast car ,and having fastest drivers to drive them. Mr. Dennis you had two of those for better part of two year. Now you have one. So the ball is in your court, back to basic of building reliable and fast race craft

With FIA reverting back to changing tyres in race rule – Ferrari was immediately in groove in 2006 , but had forgotten the race winning ways in early part of season, after a slow start ,they connected the dots after Imola , and Schumacher and Massa didn’t miss a beat for better part of 2006 , When we discuss Ferrari ,inadvertently topic drifts to FIA and hence controversy , While Ferrari did every thing needed to comeback strong after dismal 2005 campaign,FIA did come to aid by pestering Renault at crucial juncture of campaign with Mass Damper controversy ,For a lay person who is new to sport its difficult to understand how a part that was legal for better part of 2005 and 2006 season suddenly was illegal from FIA perspective. How Alonso who had only one lap to qualify after being forced out of track at Monza gave him puncture, and when he was more that 2 car lengths ahead of Massa could be penalized for blocking Massa , For someone whose priority is to put a timed lap ,it was difficult to judge why “Blocking Opponent” can become more important task .

In last two instances , roles of Technical committee , and stewards becomes important and its high time FIA brings about some transparency and neutrality on this front.

For Lay followers the last two instances were driving factors when taking sides , it was a movie plot of fight of good vs evil and defeat of Renault would have been loss of side which was treated wrongfully.

And like it happens in the Holly wood dramas , fate played its role at Suzuka and Interlagos to ensure the Renault who have showed the paddock a good demonstration how to balance Professionalism ( departing driver effect, restricted finances of parent company for the project , result based support to the project) and love of racing & yet deliver the results. Briatore has a new project in hand in form of Heikki Kovalainen & to produce yet another World Champ in him. While Fisichella had some sympathy in 2005 for all Renault mishaps happening to him, this year departing Alonso beat him fair and square in straight fight, infact in a lesser spec car in final race.

Alonso apart from the final outbreak against his own team showed thorough professionalism, to meet personal and organizational goals (as they say in the corporate jargon)


I

Two hours of Madness.

How historic is this victory?

1. A team that traces its roots back 35 years, to 1971, just won its first race since 1983, when Alboretto won the Detroit GP in a Tyrrell


2. Honda just won its first race as an F1 chassis manufacturer since Surtees won the 1967 Italian GP.


3. I was going to say that the first Polish driver in F1 history scored points, and in his first race, but an inconsequential 2kg of unexpected tire wear nixed that.


4. And of course, Jensen Button won his first GP (and might well have done it on pace even without FA's mechanical mishap).


5. The first ever-wet race at the Hungaroring.


6. BMW’s first podium with the Sauber Team.

Driver of the race:
Jenson Button

Overtaking Move of the race:
Heck there were so many that its hard to pin down a single one, but Alonsos move on MS, during the first few laps was amazing. He drove on the outside of MS and gambled on a wet track and it paid off.

Congratulations to Jenson Button on his first ever race victory. Honda has tasted blood and they will be unstoppable very soon.    

Conflict of interest.

The following mail conversation, shows what IT professionals do in their Billable timings ;-)
On a more serious note, its one of the best conversations I have had on F1 for a long time, and what a coincidence, its documented as well.
Thanks to Mahesh for letting me publish it.
Its in an unedited version, call it uncensored if you wish.
----- Original Message -----
From: Mahesh Parab
To: 'Nilesh Sane'
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 2:03 PM
Subject: RE: When was
 
Nilesh,
 
There is no denying of the fact that Ferrari Bridgestone  and rules devised in their favor have been a decisive factor. In fact Stoddart’s Engine article also didn’t mention anything about the tire thing, Mosley who harped abt cost saving , forced Bridgestone and Michelin to spend Millions on Dollars to research on special compounds that could last entire race length & when the results proved favoring Michelins, rolled back to older rules end of one season, In fact Michelin gave a breakup of the excess monies that were wasted in the effort, Again the Michelin Running teams didn’t stood firm with Michelin, No wonder Michelin must have felt betrayed and parted from F1 ( unlike the GPMA who make all noise and then still suck it up).
 
But all said and done, the mail started from the poll “whether Macca will win any race this season” and hence the points that I brought up. I too am not really defending JPM , but JPM had come to groove with Mclaren way after his return from injury , you can’t deny that. About Kimi fighting his way back from grid , JPM too did that in Hockeinheim didn’t he !? ( well he lost his car in final corner in qualifiers the day before was reason for his demotion). But that doesn’t really cover up the blunders that team has committed in 2006 so far does it ?? .
 
If like you say that Macca surely handled FA signing “professionally” and confided in Kimi and JPM and still kept their focus on 2006 campaign ,
 
a) Kimi’s body language doesn’t really reflect that, that he already has Ferrari contract in pocket. He just is content to make his 60-5 laps and return to paddock ,coz anyways he can’t really has car to take it to scruff by neck
 
b) agreed JPM was more Human element and hence can’t control his temper , but then put yourself in his shoes, your boss gives you all the pep-talk to up your game and all the BS and you arrive at first race and you see  logistics botched up ( faulty engine) and then insists that you have to live with that for next two races , then suddenly one race down the line , your car is again screwed up and you get first touch of car at beginning of qualifiers , and all the while keeps rumors going around organization to question your credibility and professionalism and all general BS to cover their @$$ . Can you really deny these “facts” .  
 
Biggest problem with  Macca at the moment is mismanagement. No denying that
 
(image placeholder)
From: Nilesh Sane Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 3:48 PMTo: Mahesh ParabSubject: Re: When was
 
Well Michelin- Renault Combo is working isn’t it !? ,Its only for past couple of races they have been on back foot
Yes its working, but what's equally important is that it worked really well, when Schumacher messes up. Really, if you consider that Schumacher's effectively ruined his chances of winning at Monaco, got stuck behind Truli at Canada and Kimi @ Silverstone, I think he could have won the race. Ofcourse he didn't, but he had a car which was capable of winning, had it been 102 on the grid. Renault has been winning because they have a good car, but more importantly they have Alonso.
 
Its ok to be a Fan of a team ,but you shouldn’t have one-eyed adoration ,and overlook their mistakes ;~),
:-)) Ofcourse I am not overlooking their mistake, in am only stating that the fact that they are not performing too well is not down to them being carried out due to the Emirate's, Vodafone and Alonso deal it due to purely technical factors within the team.
 
By haphazard approach now the means they missed out on taking proper brain dump from newey and while chasing the new sponsors post FA signing made public , they didn’t settle the driver issue for good , if they had professionally a) convinced Kimi to stay for 07 ( as he was more of Insider) b) told JPM that 06 performances would be his key to get good drive for 07 and as such they would give him full support to prove his talent on track .
I don't for one moment think that they didn't try all they could to make Kimi stay on for 07, or didn't persuade JPM to up his game, but since that was not happening, they really didn't have much option but to secure a top driver for 07. Heck Ron even said that they made 4 different suspension setting for JPM.
Look, JPM beat Kimi fair and square only at Brazil. His wins at Monza and Silverstone came due to the fact that Kimi started from the back of the grid. As much as I may like JPM, and think that he is equal to Kimi on his days, he didn't match up to him consistently due to whatever reasons. Yes the McLaren didn't suite him alright, and he did do a good job when he was on a song, but don't you think that he could have done a better job at it, cus if he had, he would be the prime choice to partner Alonso for 07.
No fan likes to defend his teams failures, and I am no exception here, but I am not a fair weather fan, though I agree that the Trio at McLaren could've managed 06 better, they did what they could. I sometimes feel sorry for Ron Dennis, as his racing instincts are crubbed by having a German white collared giant like Mercedes dictating terms to him.
Saheb, had Bridgestone and Ferrari alliance not existed, we probably wouldn't even be having this conversation. By speaking on Maccas issues, we are discussing the wrong point, its the tyres which is the real culprit, not the engine or chassis.
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mahesh Parab
To: 'Nilesh Sane'
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 12:26 PM
Subject: RE: When was
 

1. a)      Well Michelin- Renault Combo is working isn’t it !? ,Its only for past couple of races they have been on back foot


2. b)      Newey Factor – Yes I had written to it before, 2U at length , how the current team is not able to come to terms with what might have been a “incomplete handover”


3. c)      But the other mystery factors “ especially from Haug’s (Engine) Dept” are the once they have not addressed, Engine running is a different story , but being able to use engine to maximum is the difference between lying in mid-field and competing for front end.


4. d)      About Norbert Haug , what he is saying on eve of Hockenheim , every lay F1 follower has been saying from season start , and they don’t make those million dollars that Haug makes – so less said the better about this guy

 
Its ok to be a Fan of a team ,but you shouldn’t have one-eyed adoration ,and overlook their mistakes ;~),
FA signing really changed the balanced in the team atmosphere at Woking..
Score card of Macca  at End of 2005 season -  Plus points : Narrowly missed Ch’ship , One driver fastest on grid, second driver finally settling in and starting to match the existing driver on speed and results. Car fastest on grid , capable of blitzing the field even from back of the grid, Minuses : reliability issues ,only hole to be plugged car reliability issues. And getting replacement of start designer who has parted ways
 
This balance sheet looks healthy , and all ingredients in place to better their 2005 results, Only requirement go back to drawing board ,work on the reliability issues . I don’t have anything against business and securing sponsorship and services of WDC driver , but Macca &/Mercedes hashed up way they handled the situation
By haphazard approach now the means they missed out on taking proper brain dump from newey and while chasing the new sponsors post FA signing made public , they didn’t settle the driver issue for good , if they had professionally a) convinced Kimi to stay for 07 ( as he was more of Insider) b) told JPM that 06 performances would be his key to get good drive for 07 and as such they would give him full support to prove his talent on track .
 
They wouldn’t have been in this situation first place. What has happened from 1st race onwards is public , and so many questionable things have happened at Macca during the season is well documented (by me) ,so now you tell me … its just violating basic principles of management , Ron-Haug-Whitmarsh messed it up big time, as such I don’t really see a Macca win (under normal circumstances ) ,maybe one off like Spa’04 .
 
2007-08 well it’s a long way to go ,and we will talk about different things then
 
 
 
(image placeholder)
From: Nilesh Sane Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 2:37 PMTo: Mahesh ParabSubject: Re: When was
 
I beg to differ.For smaller organizations, getting big marketing deals and signing a WDC would effect its operations, but I doubt if that would be the case with McLaren. It’s basically the Newey effect and the fact that the tyre rules changed, is what’s causing the problems.Even Haug is mentioning that they need to start from the front of the grid if they want to score the big points.But that’s besides the point, as long as Ferrari-Bridgestone alliance exists, I doubt if we will see any competitive races in F1.
----- Original Message -----
From: Mahesh Parab
To: 'Nilesh Sane'
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 11:07 AM
Subject: RE: When was
 
Totally 4got that Suzuka was the last Mclaren win …
 
Macca Engine reliability in 2006 is still a debatable issue, Coz for weird reasons Macca is not encouraging their drivers to run on full revs.
Second Matter under cloud is Qualifying Strategy – either really the pit crew has not yet come to terms with the new format , that they release their Drivers at wrong times and drivers get struck behind traffic in Qualis or their Drivers are not yet come to terms with new format.
I have said this time and again unless they qualify on front row they are not going to win a race, and more often than likely will be causalities in mid-field incidents which are common on race start.
 
Other strategy of good results if they are sure about their speed is  a ) pound whole bunch of laps on Friday to get good setup,without worrying about the engine, if the speed is really top notch its better to start from Behind and avoid mid-field skirmishes and win race ( which is what Kimi & JPM did regularly  in ’05) , Kimi did that only once in ’06 .
 
Now that we are at it this whole Starting from back row and still winning is not really a benchmark for “great drive” , rather for faster cars its better to do that and avoid race-start pileups in mid-field. Nico and Webbo have been doing those drives regularly in this season when they are starting from last row and finishing 09-10-11 , even JV did that a couple of races this season , Their results would have been better if they had MP420 under them , but press doesn’t highlight this in the reports.
 
In nutshell , More than rivals Macca got distracted in Winter events ( signing of WDC and big sponsors) and really hashed up on MP421. The lack of confidence in their car right from Drivers and Engineers has resulted in Mediocre season so far. And unfortunately they haven’t really put their head down and focused on turning around things with car development, rather are just busy with finger pointing , driver bashing , who will drive with FA in ’07 and all things other than races. On Hindsight, Signing of WDC was the key factor that put ’06 season off course, more than rivals they have got distracted and lost focus more than the rivals.
 
(image placeholder)
From: Nilesh Sane Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 1:10 PMTo: Mahesh ParabSubject: Re: When was
 
I think it was Kimi at Japan 05. Ever since Mercedes has tied up with McLaren, they have become just so inconsistent.
But here's a school of thought.
 
Post 2000, when Ferrari dominated F1 for four years, McLaren & Williams were the only teams which came close to dislodging Ferrari. Its not as if the talent at Ferrari was better than at McLaren or Williams, but Ferrari was simply unstoppable and with bullet proof reliability they were impossible to beat. So what made the Ferrari's so fast? Obviously it was the tyres, and the fact that Bridgestone were concentrating on developing the tyres only for one major tyre manufacturer, and pooled all its resources in developing a tyre which would have to suite only one team rather than 5 teams, as in the case of Michelin. Last year, the single tyre rule, threw the cat amongst the pigeons, and Ferrari was caught off guard, as Bridgestone didn't have the data for such tyre constructions. They goofed up, and all it took was one error from Max to under estimate the impact the rule would have on his own stable (read Ferrari). Tyres are more important than those 20-30 odd BHP and sleek aero, and I believe that's what F1 is all about. Its a formula for Tyres and not for cars. heck, Bridgestone didn't have too much trouble with the switch to V8 chassis speck, because the grooved slicks with tyre changing at pits returned. This is a mockery of F1 and its sad to see they people can get away with such an obvious scandal.
Here are some of the race results for the 05 season, and shows how crap the Ferrari really is on equal playing grounds.
Picked em up at random.
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/britain/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/hungary/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/turkey/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/italy/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/belgium/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/brazil/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/japan/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/germany/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/europe/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/monaco/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/spain/rres.htm (Apparently he retired because of TYRES, holy shit, now we don't see that happening too often do we?)
 
Its a sham, Ferrari struck a winning formula with BS and used BS as their private tyre manufacturer, and FIA turned a blind eye towards it.
 
 
I don't know how this would spell out in the long run, but given that Mercedes have more experience with v8 (obviously their engines this year are pretty good), all it requires for McLaren is to do a decent job with the chassis, as they would have having a world champion driver driving for them. The tyre issue will be out, hopefully, if the FerrariStone alliance does not continue.Plus with slicks returning from 08, it would be like turning back to known grounds.
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mahesh Parab
To: Mahesh Parab
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 11:09 PM
Subject: When was
 
 
The last time Macca won the race ..seems like ages now ..and who climbed the Top step for them :-??
:P
 
Interesting poll check this

USGP & Hindsight Wisdom

After conclusion of USGP2006 ,One cannot but help to think of the Fiasco in 2005 with 6 cars shod with Bridgestone tyres racing , What would have happened if Michelin runners had run in 2005 edition probably like yesterday ,8-10 cars would have gone down on lap one on notorius T1-T2 and few due to debris on tracks ,from 1st corner incident and what would have left would have been 9-10 cars like yesterday. It was more or less the same scene on T1-T2 in 2004 when yours truly had best seats to witness the scramble then.

Never the less , again with empty track Schumi got better of his team-mate massa, using pit strategy, Massa led the race for almost 30 laps ,to finish 1-2 for Ferrari.

Alonso for once in the season looked like a Human driver, with problems like his competitors. 4 points finish to him and victory to Schumi means his lead over the seven time WDC reduces to 19 points. While the world watched at Montreal 2005 Alonso Whining to Renault pitwall for Fisi not letting him pass by as he had “faster car”. Alonso did return favor by holding Fisi for too long and depriving him to have a go at the leading Ferraris.

On personal front, watching JPM and then JV ending DNF was not exactly something one stays awake for in wee hours. Though Ron Dennis echoed my observation that Mclaren cars were squeezed by Button and both Kimi and JPM responding differently, one braked and other raised, which basically points this one as a racing incident more than anything. I am still awaiting the official version as released by race director and the stewards after their post race investigation. With this continued Kimi and JPM’s bad run at USGP.
Not much to say , as other than Luizzi’s move on Rosberg on first straight , the race was pretty much a mundane affair. Rather saw more overtaking moves in IRL’s Kansas300 edition ,where Tony Kanan and Vieto Meira made some amazing side by side over taking moves.

Results
01 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:34:35.199
02 F. Massa Ferrari + 7.984
03 G. Fisichella Renault + 16.595
04 J. Trulli Toyota + 23.604
05 F. Alonso Renault + 28.410
06 R. Barrichello Honda + 36.516
07 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1 laps
08 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
09 N. Rosberg Williams + 1 laps
Did not finish
10 R. Schumacher Toyota + 10 laps
11 C. Albers Midland F1 + 36 laps
12 J. Villeneuve BMW + 50 laps
13 T. Monteiro Midland F1 + 62 laps
14 T. Sato Super Aguri + 67 laps
15 J. Button Honda + 70 laps
16 K. Räikkönen McLaren + 73 laps
17 N. Heidfeld BMW + 73 laps
18 JP. Montoya McLaren + 73 laps
19 M. Webber Williams + 73 laps
20 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso + 73 laps
21 C. Klien Red Bull + 73 laps
22 F. Montagny Super Aguri + 73 laps

I

Canadian Grand Prix Preview

With Canadian GP F1 circus travels to the other side of Atlantic.Not many intestring developments have happened between Silverstone and now other than Renault going public with their intention to Fisichella leading their 2007 campaign

The Circuit:



Montreal has a high attrition rate and is very hard on the cars, particularly on brakes and transmission. The track is made up of straights and low speed chicanes, so engine power counts for a lot. After Monza it is one the hardest circuits on brakes. The circuit is only used once a year (Champ car series uses this circuit but after F1 race in August) and the surface is usually very slippery. The level of fuel consumption is quite high. The circuit suits a very soft tyre.

Overtaking manoeuvres : mainly into the hairpin and the final chicane.

Points of Interest: With team trusting Fisi for 2007 , will Fisichella who has done well at Montreal beat Alonso to win his second race of season. Alonso is using his final season in Renault car to complete his to do list ,to win on the circuits he has not won before , and Montreal is one of them. Incidentally this is where we have seen 2005 Champ scoring his only DNF in 2005 ,his last one for that.
Ferrari has been showing better straight line speeds than their competition ,will this help them to ace Montreal race , which has lots of straights ,will be a point of interest for the fans.
Mclaren has continued to improve after their Barcelona Debacle , Monaco and Silverstone has shown their return to form, they have been doing their preparation for highspeed American circuits with Ferrari at Paul Richard, how much that has helped their cause will be known over the weekend.
Sauber BMW has shown tremendous improvement in British GP with both Nick & JV finishing in points. This form has made team boss Mario Thiessen to claim that they are the fourth best team on the grid after Renault-Ferrari-Mclaren. The claim will be validated at Montreal, and the local fans will indeed be rooting for Homeboy Jacques Villeneuve to perform well.
Williams are traveling to the American leg of the campaign with complete upgrade of their package which they have tested by running 2500 kms in recent tests at Monza. How much returns Canadian and Indy races give to the team will be known. The team has been tad too unlucky especially Webber who has retirements while running in strong positions this seasons, fans must be rooting for change of luck for mark & Team Williams.

2005 Podium
K. Raikkonen / M. Schumacher / R. Barrichello

5 Previous Winners
- K. Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes, 2005).
- M. Schumacher (Ferrari, 2004).
- M. Schumacher (Ferrari, 2003).
- M. Schumacher (Ferrari, 2002).
- R. Schumacher ( BMW Williams, 2001).

Fastest Lap
R. Barrichello - 01.13.622 (Ferrari, 2004)

2005 Pole
J. Button - 01.15.217 (BAR Honda, 2005)

I