The duel between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher is heating up both on and off the track going into this Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, the third-to-last race of the most closely contested season in years.
”It’s quite simple,” Alonso said on Thursday.
”It’s three races to go. The one who wins the most races will win the championship,” said the defending champion, whose lead over seven-time champion Schumacher in the driver standings has narrowed to just two points.
Six races ago, Alonso led by 25 points after winning six of the first nine races of the season. Since then, he hasn’t won any and Schumacher has won four.
Still, Alonso says he isn’t feeling the pressure.
”When I was 25 points ahead … and now that I have two points, it’s exactly the same approach — win the race, beat the others and enjoy,” said the Spaniard.
The competition intensified after Schumacher announced his retirement following his victory earlier this month at the Italian GP. Alonso went out with an overheated engine and had some heated words concerning his penalty in qualifying for blocking Ferrari’s other driver, Felipe Massa.
In the days after the race, Alonso broadened the growing rift between him and Schumacher when he told a Spanish radio station that the German ”is the man with the most sanctions and the most unsporting driver in the history of Formula One”.
Schumacher steered away from any controversy when asked to comment on Thursday on Alonso’s remarks.
”I don’t think I have to react on it,” the German said frostily without elaborating.
Both Schumacher and Alonso are aware of recent history — not only the last six races but also the first two Chinese races.
Schumacher has suffered from spins, freak crashes and tire blowouts at the state-of-the-art 5,451km Shanghai International Circuit. He came 12th in 2004 and finished dead last in 2005.
”It shouldn’t be anything like that this year,” Schumacher said. ”I was unfortunate the first year. Last year we were completely out of it with our tyres.
”With what we have seen so far this year, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be competitive.”
In 2005 Schumacher’s only victory was a tainted one at the United States Grand Prix when seven teams did not race over tyre-safety concerns.
Last year, Schumacher was making his way to the starting grid 30 minutes before the race started when he drifted to the left of the track and Minardi’s Christijan Albers ploughed into him from behind.
Schumacher jumped into a back-up car, but was out of the race on the 22nd lap after a spin.
Alonso, meanwhile, won in China last year to clinch the constructor’s crown for Renault. Two races earlier, the then-24-year-old had wrapped up the driver’s title in Brazil, becoming the youngest driver to win the season driving title.
But Alonso is aware also that his last victory this season was in June, at the Canadian GP, which he blames in part on the team’s roaring start to the season.
”We were ready for the opening races, and totally competitive.
Maybe we started at 95% of our maximum, while the others were at 70%,” Alonso said.
”Now, everybody is at 98% or 99% and the performance is very, very close. We know we have the performance to win races, and we need to make it happen.”
In addition to Schumacher, Alonso will have to be wary of McLaren’s Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen, who has already racked up two successful, if not winning, Shanghai excursions.
”So far in China I have finished in third and second and my aim for this year is to take the top step of the podium with Team McLaren Mercedes,” Raikkonen said.
Raikkonen is tied for fourth in the standings with Alonso’s Renault teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella of Italy. Massa, a Brazilian, is third with 62 points.
Alonso, Schumacher and Raikkonen are all leaving their teams after this season, though only Schumacher is retiring.
Raikkonen will be assuming Schumacher’s role at Ferrari in 2007, while Alonso is heading to McLaren.
Practice is on Friday and Saturday morning ahead of qualifying Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s race is 56 laps. — Sapa-AP