Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: The Strongest Virtue

The Strongest Virtue
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There are many qualities that F1 drivers exhibit in abundance - courage,
talent, aggression, concentration, calmness. Sunday's Canadian GP
illustrated the value of a vital and often-overlooked driver quality -
patience.
Ralf Schumacher's second win of the season was even better than his maiden
triumph. At Imola, brother Michael was sidelined early in the race, diluting
the value of the victory. At Montreal, Ralf won in the most convincing way,
by beating the reigning World Champion fair and square, with both in healthy
cars.
The Schumacher brothers are justifiably proud of their 'clean and careful'
record while racing against each other, and Canada was no exception. It was
more of a chess match than a brawl, with Ralf's cautious feints refuted
firmly but politely by his older brother. At times, the tussle may have
given the visual impression that neither driver was really on the limit. One
look at the laptimes relative to the chasing pack, or the way in which
Michael literally shaved the wall at the final chicane on each lap, showed
the intensity of the sibling rivalry.
Even still, the battle for the lead was not the classic that it could have
been. With no realistic hopes of lifting the WDC this year, Ralf had the
luxury of racing purely for the win. By contrast, Michael had his mind on
the longer-term goal of a second successive championship, and his fourth
career title. As long as arch-rival David Coulthard trailed the leading duo,
Michael was always going to favour a safe second over a risky push for the
ten points.
Michael Schumacher's earlier championship campaigns were often marred by the
impetuosity that goes hand-in-glove with aggressive, enthusiastic racing.
The prime examples are Monaco and Spa 1998, where the German lost sixteen
priceless championship points via collisions with slower cars. Over the past
two seasons, Schumacher's driving has mirrored the lessons learnt, and he
has well and truly adopted the Fangio credo of 'winning as slowly as
possible'.
It is unlikely that we will see many more classic Schumacher drives, in
which the German tears the field apart in the first half of the race and
then goes even faster in the second - just to rub it in. Like Prost before
him, Schumacher has learnt that it is better to race efficiently than
aggressively. That is partly a natural development. In virtually all fields
of human endeavour, youth is driven by energy and experience is driven by
efficiency.
However, Schumacher's approach is also mandated by necessity. In 21st
century F1, reliability is paramount, and no World Championship candidate
can afford unnecessary DNF's. Mika Hakkinen's 1999 campaign was almost
derailed by the ultra-reliable Eddie Irvine, and Schumacher's three
successive mid-season retirements transformed the 2000 season from cakewalk
into cliff-hanger. The Ferrari may be the most reliable car on the grid, but
it's far from flawless. Time and again over the past two seasons, technical
niggles have affected the car, from oil temperature problems to suspension
and brake concerns to tyres turning on the rim. Schumacher has developed
exemplary mechanical sympathy in getting marginal cars to the finish. At
Canada, he illustrated this to the point that he will now drive around
potentially radiator-blocking plastic bags blown onto the circuit. It's a
small and seemingly insignificant attention to detail. But, over the course
of a full seventeen-race season, those little details add up and translate
into championship points and, ultimately, titles.
David Coulthard has also learnt the benefits of patience. Twice this season,
he's had to fight his way through the field from stone last. On both
occasions he's been stuck behind slower cars, and the hair-tearing
frustration may well have pushed a lesser driver over the limits dictated by
common sense. Even Coulthard's manager, ITV commentator and ex-F1 driver
Martin Brundle, felt that Bernoldi's sluggish pace at Monaco merited a
do-or-die effort from Coulthard to get past. Yet the Scot stuck to the
gameplan, kept his head and emerged with two valuable championship points.
Coulthard's two victories at Brazil and Austria were also the result of
patience. Both times, he seemed beaten. And both times, he kept up the
pressure and allowed the race to come to him.
Patience and maturity can be expected from Schumacher and Coulthard -
they've been around the block enough times to develop racing wisdom. To see
that same approach from the youngest and most inexperienced driver in the
field, Sauber's Kimi Raikkonen, is truly remarkable. At the start of the
season, there was outrage in some quarters that the FIA were even allowing
Raikkonen to compete. Just four months later, it looks certain that the
young Finn will not only scoop 'Rookie of the Year' honours, but will become
one of the hottest properties in F1.
At the other end of the patience scale, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques
Villeneuve are showing signs of desperation. Their physical confrontation
during the drivers' briefing probably had more to do with their respective
team situations than any incident on track. After a brief resurgence at
Monaco, Villeneuve has seen his stock plummet again as teammate Olivier
Panis regained the upper hand in Villeneuve's own backyard. Montoya's
unabashed cheap shot remark put the seal on what the Canadian admitted had
been his worst Grand Prix weekend ever.
If Montoya's remark - reportedly blaming Villeneuve for the death of the
marshal in Australia - caused insult to Villeneuve, it is nothing compared
to the longer-term consequences against the Colombian. Racing deaths are an
understandably emotional issue among the drivers. Ayrton Senna, for all his
egocentric bullying tactics on and off the track, would never have stooped
to using a marshal's death against another driver. If Montoya had made the
remark to Villeneuve in private, it would have been tasteless. Doing so in
the presence of the other drivers was just plain foolish.
There is a rising groundswell of criticism against Montoya - Michael
Schumacher, Villeneuve, Eddie Irvine, even mild-mannered David Coulthard has
got in on the act. If Montoya finds his progress blocked by
less-than-cooperative drivers in the future, he will have only himself to
blame. Aggression, arrogance and extreme self-belief all have a place in F1;
cheap shots do not. Worst of all for the Colombian, Patrick Head has started
to criticise the driver's performance as well. Williams have never been the
most patient team when they feel drivers are underperforming, and Montoya
will be only too aware of the treatment meted out to his CART and Williams
predecessor Alex Zanardi.
A decade ago, Montoya would have had the luxury of a couple of seasons to
get up to speed in F1. But Jacques Villeneuve, Jenson Button and Kimi
Raikkonen have effectively scotched the notion that a rookie can't be
expected to deliver. And Button and Raikkonen entered F1 with far less
experience than Montoya. Williams have a right to demand more from the
Colombian, and he has an obligation to himself to do better. In career
terms, his saving grace at this point is the dismal form of Williams's other
contracted driver, Benetton's Jenson Button.
At the start of the season, Williams looked set in the driving department.
They had a consistent and dependable 'banker' in Ralf Schumacher, and if
Montoya didn't live up to the pre-season hype, they could always fall back
on Button. Pre-season, all the question marks surrounded the car. BMW and
Michelin have answered those challenges superbly and, ironically, Williams's
only dilemma now is the choice of a driver to partner Ralf Schumacher.
Unreliability is still an issue, but it usually is during a team's
ascendancy. In 1997, McLaren seemingly couldn't buy a finish. A year later,
they were the class of the field.
Sunday's victory dispelled all notions that Imola was a once-off fluke.
Williams will compete for the remainder of the season. Even if inconsistency
and unreliability continue to hamper their efforts, they will be mixing it
up with Ferrari and McLaren, and taking points away from the main
championship contenders. In such a scenario, Michael Schumacher must be
heavily favoured. Unlike Coulthard, Hakkinen, Barrichello and the Williams
pair, he excels at every track and is seemingly always in the frame. Over
the season, he will aim to just grind the opposition down with relentless
consistency and patience.
Coulthard's suspension problem and expired engine, Mika Hakkinen's continued
poor form and the Adrian Newey controversy are all good news for Ferrari and
Schumacher. Even with the launch control problems ostensibly resolved,
McLaren are looking fragile. By contrast, Ferrari's only Achilles heel is
their fuel consumption. Twice this season already, in Austria and Canada,
Ferrari have sacrificed probable victories simply because they had to refuel
earlier than their rivals. Fuel load remains the critical factor that
determines race pace, and not even Ross Brawn's tactical acumen can
compensate for the extra low fuel load laps gifted to Ferrari's rivals. It's
not a critical weakness yet, and Schumacher's overall consistency should see
them home to another championship triumph in 2001.
But, with Williams looking increasingly menacing, Ferrari will need to up
the ante and find solutions for 2002. If Williams can find reliability, we
may well witness Schumacher family duels where both brothers are competing
for the race and the championship. Alas, it will only happen next year, and
that is a prospect to test the patience of any fan.

 egocentric bullying tactics on and off the track
Questo qua preferisce i GP sonnifero alle corse di Ayrton Senna (se mai ne
ha vista una)
Ecco a cosa porta il politically correct in F1
Non so se Montoya sarà in grado di portare la Williams al mondiale 2002, è
meglio che si dia una bella sveglia.
Di una cosa sono quasi sicuro: non sarà Ralf in grado di riportare il titolo
a Grove
Z

 
uhm...hai tralasciato la firma.
Di chi è questo pezzo?
-- 
Pascal Fabre
"They don't steer them now, do they? 
They're just guiding them, they've got all
these driver aids and they get paid for it!"
Jack Brabham 
The formula one database: 
http://www.forix.com

 l'italiano
La gerarchia it.* e` per "messaggi in lingua italiana", resta il fatto
che materiale utile alla discussione puo` tranquillamente essere in
altre lingue. La gerarchia conta fino a un certo punto, fa fede il
manifesto.
Comunque, ci puo` stare un tag [Esterofili] per chi ha il cattivo vizio
di leggere in lingua.
Onestamente, questa polemica non l'ho capita.
-- 
Alessio F. Bragadini		
ale...@albourne.com
APL Financial Services		
http://village.albourne.com
Nicosia, Cyprus		 	phone: +357-2-755750
"It is more complicated than you think"
		-- The Eighth Networking Truth from RFC 1925

Per me la polemica sta a zero...se il pezzo c'è 
solo in Inglese è OK..ma se è disponibile direttamente 
anche inItaliano...bhè ragazzi allora sa tanto 
di esterofilia fine a se stessa...
K.Materazzi
...l'Inglese è solo un 
arnese...lo si utilizza quando serve..

traduttore = traditore


di esterofilia fine a se stessa...
Per vari motivi pero', non sempre la traduzione italiana puo'
riportare fedelmente alcune sfumature dell'originale, che al contrario
e' quasi sempre piu' fedele in quanto la dichiarazione originale ha
buone probabilita' di essere stata rilasciata in inglese.