Even risks don’t seem risky for Michael Schumacher. The six-time formula-one champ won the French Grand Prix for his fourth victory in a row and ninth in 10 races this season with a daring, four-pit stop strategy.
He knew he had to try something different to overtake Renault’s Fernando Alonso, who had the pole position and is just one of two non-Ferrari drivers to win a race since last August.
”Before the start I was not so optimistic,” Schumacher said. ”Then, after the second stop, we decided to switch to a four-stop strategy.”
”Towards the back, it was clear there wasn’t really a challenge,” Schumacher said. ”There was only a challenge forward. We knew it was optimistic, but no risk, no fun, so Ross [Brawn] decided for it and it was just brilliant.”
Although Alonso ended Ferrari’s string of three straight 1-2 finishes, it was still Schumacher on the top of the podium for the 79th career victory.
Schumacher’s Brazilian teammate, Rubens Barrichello, despite starting 10th, passed Renault’s Jarno Trulli of Italy on the final lap to place third by four-tenths of a second.
”I definitely felt I had a chance to overtake but you have second thoughts. It would be a shame to go from 10th to fourth and lose it in the last minute,” Barrichello said.
He made his attempt two turns from the end of the race.
”I was able to pull alongside him on turn 15. It was risky but I took the risk and I am glad I did,” Barrichello said.
Schumacher covered the 70 laps on the 4,4km Nevers-Magny Cours circuit in one hour, 30 minutes and 18,133 seconds at an average speed of 205,203kph.
Schumacher came in to pit on the 11th, 29th, 42nd and 58th laps.
Alonso pitted on the 14th, 32nd and 46th. He gave up the lead to Schumacher after the second pit stop.
Schumacher’s early move in for fuel and tires startled Alonso.
”When Michael stopped very early. I think the team was surprised. I was surprised,” Alonso said. ”Michael was pushing hard and it was impossible to keep the pace.”
More fuel and less tread on the tires hurt his car’s performance, Alonso said.
”So much fuel was a little bit of a penalty,” Alonso said. ”At the end of the stints we were struggling a little bit with the tires.”
Brawn said the idea came from someone else.
”Well, the four pit stops was not my idea,” Brawn said. ”Luca Baldisseri came up with the idea. We executed it from the pitwall and everything fell into place. We had nothing to lose.”
This was Schumacher’s seventh victory in the French Grand Prix.
The victory gave him 90 points for the season, 22 more Barrichello. Jenson Button of Britain is the best non-Ferrari driver with 48 points, just two points ahead of Trulli.
There are eight races left in the season and Schumacher is edging closer to his seventh world driving title.
Alonso and Trulli are the only non-Ferrari drivers to win races since last August. Alonso won the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2003 and Tulli won Monaco.
That Monaco race was the last race Schumacher lost as formula one moved into a busy period with six races between May 23 and July 11. The British Grand Prix is next Sunday at Silverstone in the United Kingdom.
Schumacher thinks he will get some competition there.
”It’s not a surprise to us that the opposition is getting closer and there are circuits where we were expecting certain teams to be strong,” Schumacher said. ” I think Silverstone is going to be another tough one for us from what we have seen in testing but that’s why we do racing, to try to be better.” — Sapa-AP