World champions Ferrari claim a potentially strong performance in the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday was limited by problems with overtaking on the twisty harbour circuit and a poor qualifying run.
Ferrari started down on the grid because of a difficulty to get up to speed in the single-lap qualifying runs, but Michael Schumacher believes he showed enough pace in the race to secure a better finish than seventh on any other circuit.
Technical director Ross Brawn said: ”It was a frustrating afternoon because you could see in the middle of the race that our car had huge potential. Michael set the fastest lap when he still had a lot of fuel in the car.
”But this was typical of the type of race you can expect to have at this circuit if you do not qualify well. We had to follow other cars and we could not use the pace that we had.”
Schumacher believes he had the potential to enjoy a much better result than the seventh place he ended up with, and said: ”It is just that everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong at the beginning.
”I got stuck behind a Minardi that blocked the track; then I had to pit to change the nose on the car and it is a shame that we were not able to get the most out of our pace.”
Schumacher admitted that, considering the race incident he was involved with, he was fortunate to secure even seventh, which he claimed with an aggressive overtaking move on his teammate Rubens Barrichello on the final lap.
He passed Barrichello at the chicane when the Brazilian attempted to pass Ralf Schumacher, and Michael said: ”We are all here to race and I did not think there was much risk involved in the move.”
Ferrari, who won the championship at a canter last year with 15 victories in 18 races, now have just 21 points from a possible 60, and championship leaders Renault extended their advantage by two points to reach a total of 63.
Barrichello also had his problems in Monaco, stalling in the pits at one point, and he had to settle for eighth place and only his second points-scoring finish of the season.
But Ferrari boss Jean Todt believes the team’s sudden downfall is purely down to their rivals’ improvement and said: ”They have built the basis of their success on the one flying lap that leaves us to fight an uphill battle.
”The outcome of the race shows once again that we have to work very hard on improving the performance of our package in qualifying, and overall the weekend ended much as we had expected.”
Ferrari’s Bridgestone tyre suppliers have been criticised for their performance this year but technical manager Hisao Suganuma insisted there was never a problem with their part of the package in Monaco on Sunday.
”We are disappointed with the final result because the Ferraris looked very quick in the race,” said Suganuma. ”We did not experience any wear or blisters with our tyres, everything was fine and we kept pace in the race.” — Sapa-AFP