And so we
come to the penultimate
round of the season, the
Brazilian Grand Prix. That
in itself is an unusual
statement, as the race at
Interlagos has brought the
curtain down on the Formula
1 calendar every year since
2006. In the past three
years, the fact this was the
final round has added to the
buzz, but even so, the
current championship
situation means that the
weekend should provide the
usual Brazilian mix of
tension, drama and
excitement.
In the past
few years, Felipe Massa has
been very much at the centre
of this excitement, so it is
appropriate that, for
Scuderia Ferrari,
this week started under the
sign of the Brazilian flag,
when the driver came to
Maranello and on Monday, got
behind the wheel of a
Formula 1 car for the first
time since his accident
during qualifying for the
Hungarian Grand Prix back in
July. Running a privately
owned F2007, fitted with
tyres used in GP2, the
session went well, despite
being interrupted by heavy
rain. “The moment I got back
in the car, it was exactly
like before the accident, as
if nothing had happened,”
said Felipe. “It was
important to demonstrate to
the people who work with me
that nothing has changed,
that I can be competitive
and that I can contribute to
what will be the new car and
to next year’s fight for the
title. I knew that
everything was 95% alright
and after the test I can
even cancel out the last 5%
of doubt I had.” Felipe’s
absence from the cockpit
creates an unusual statistic
in that this will be the
first time since 1999 that
Ferrari has not had a
Brazilian driver lining up
on the Interlagos grid.
Felipe will
be back home in Sao Paulo to
support the Scuderia this
weekend and although he will
of course not be racing at
the track where he stood on
the podium for the last
three years, including two
wins, he will get closer to
the chequered flag than any
of the drivers actually
competing in the race, as he
has been asked by the
organisers to wave it at the
end of the Grand Prix.
Having returned home from
the Far East and Japan, part
of the Scuderia has already
made the journey west to
Brazil, with the remainder
arriving in the next few
days. The cars and equipment
were flown directly to Sao
Paulo from Japan, after the
race cars had been rebuilt
in the Suzuka paddock on the
Sunday night after the race.
The
Interlagos circuit has been
good to Ferrari in past
years and has provided the
backdrop to some significant
moments for the Prancing
Horse: 2006 saw a fantastic
win from Felipe Massa,
dressed for the occasion in
overalls bearing the
Brazilian national colours.
That day, Michael Schumacher
did not make the podium, but
emotions ran high as it was
the German’s last F1 race.
The following year, it was
Kimi Raikkonen who clinched
the win and the world title,
with Felipe joining him on
the podium in second place.
Last year produced possibly
the most exciting race and
championship finish of all
time, when Felipe crossed
the line as winner of the
race and for a short moment
as winner of the Drivers’
title, only for Lewis
Hamilton to snatch it away
in the final few hundred
metres.
While the
atmosphere at Interlagos
will surely be as intense
and emotional as ever,
Ferrari arrives in a
very different situation to
those past years, fighting
for the more modest aim of
finishing third in the
Constructors’ championship.
Perhaps the team can take
heart by looking back to
2005, another difficult
season for the team, as back
then, the cars were more
competitive here than at
other tracks. This year,
when again the team is
struggling to match the
quickest cars, the F60 will
benefit from the use of
KERS, which should make a
significant difference on
the uphill sections to the
main straight, as well as
the shorter back straight.
However, as other teams
continue to develop their
current car, the challenge
facing the Scuderia, whose
technical focus has long
since shifted to 2010, gets
ever tougher.
The famous
anti-clockwise track demands
a large degree of compromise
in terms of car set-up, as
it is fast in parts, but
sufficient downforce is also
required to deal with the
slower middle sector.
However, in order to improve
the chances of overtaking
and defending position,
maintaining a good top speed
level is important for
Sunday afternoon. A further
factor for the engineers to
take into account is that
the circuit is around 800
metres above sea level which
saps power from the engines.
At 4.3 kilometres in length,
this is a very short track:
last year, Massa’s pole
winning lap time was a very
short 1’12”368, which means
the qualifying times are
invariably much closer here
than elsewhere. When one
considers that close lap
times have been a
season-long feature, it
could be a case of the
difference between a place
on the front three or back
three rows of the grid being
decided by hundredths of a
second, therefore a perfect
lap will be required to
ensure a chance of
delivering a reasonable
result the following
afternoon.
In recent
races, Bridgestone have
brought tyres that stand
next to one another in the
list of compounds, but for
this race, the supply
reverts to the previous
practice of bringing two
types that are significantly
different and here the
choice will be between the
“Supersoft” and the “Medium”
which has occasionally
proved problematic this
year, especially in the
opening round in Melbourne,
although less so in Bahrain
and at the Nürburgring. The
Supersoft could come under
severe strain because of the
characteristics of the
track, which would then
impact on strategic choices
regarding when to run it and
for how many laps during the
race. The weather could also
play its part, as at this
time of year, almost every
day sees rain at Interlagos,
although its time and
duration is hard to predict.
Between
them, our two drivers have
two wins and five further
Sao Paulo podiums. In fact,
they are very closely linked
in one instance: the 2003
race ended in rain-induced
chaos and after the
chequered flag, Kimi was
declared the winner. It was
only a few days later that
it was decided there had
been an error and that the
real winner was Giancarlo
Fisichella, then driving for
Jordan. In an amusing
ceremony on the grid at the
following round in Imola,
the two drivers duly swapped
their second and first
placed trophies. Kimi, who
will celebrate his thirtieth
birthday this Saturday, won
for real in 2007, with three
second places and one third
since 2003, while Giancarlo
finished second in 2000.
ItaliaspeedTV
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Scuderia Ferrari Brazilian
Grand Prix Preview with
Felipe Massa
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