Shifting Tides: Spanish GP Analysis

Barcelona has traditionally produced afternoons of tedium, and it was particularly disappointing that the move to the new chicane hadn't done much to spice up the show. Especially as it robbed us of a corner that, while not quite an Eau Rouge or a 130R, was nevertheless pretty spectacular. But while last weekend's race itself was hardly enthralling at the front, there was plenty going on up and down the field.

Inevitably Lewis Hamilton's move into a clear world championship lead was the major talking point, but it unfairly took the attention off another great performance from Felipe Massa. The Brazilian became the first of the title contenders to take a second 2007 win, while his pole position was his third of the season - remember he was thwarted by technical problems in the first race - and counting last year, it was his fifth in the last six races.

Once again he had the edge over Kimi Raikkonen, and significantly that came after the Finn had been boosted by a good test at Barcelona. It's taken the Finn a while to get comfortable with the team, with the car, and with the tyres, and it was felt that he had made a big step forward at the test.

But come the race weekend, with the conditions inevitably different, he was not happy. Indeed, on Friday night he asked to switch chassis from his regular race car (261) to the T-car (262), which was the one he'd used in the test.

The team took a little convincing because as far as they were concerned, the two machines were identical, and they weren't too keen to get involved in all that messing about for what appeared to be psychological rather than practical reasons. Nevertheless, Kimi felt happier come Saturday.

However, he was beaten by Massa in both Q1 and Q2. We don't know for sure but the likelihood is that he went into qualifying with an extra lap of fuel compared to his teammate, but he made a mistake on his key lap in Q3, so the gap was bigger than it should have been.

Once again he lost out to Hamilton at the start, but managed to dive round the stranded Alonso to regain third. Through the early laps he kept pace with Hamilton, maintaining the gap at around 1.5s. It's not easy to follow anyone at Barcelona, and Ferrari seems to have a particular problem this year.

He would probably have stopped before the Brit, leaving McLaren with the chance to put Lewis on the optimal strategy for the second stop. So it seems unlikely that he really could have secured second, as Ferrari folk later insisted - although to be fair, we never really saw his true race pace.

Kimi Raikkonen retires with an alternator problem © Reuters

All that was made academic by the mechanical failure that stopped him. Ferrari had an alternator issue in testing last year, but this was a new problem, apparently involving the wiring, and therefore of great concern. It's clear that none of the big four can afford the slightest slip this year, and Kimi has dropped seven points behind his teammate, and to the tail end of the group.

Of course, we also have to assume that the part that failed would not have done so had he stuck with his race chassis, something that must add to the team's frustrations ...

Massa continues to impress. His qualifying form is awesome, and since that painful blip in the early laps in Malaysia, he hasn't done much wrong in the past two races. The key to the outcome of Sunday's race was of course the first corner, and he showed that he's learned from the recent past by holding his ground on the inside line when Alonso came flying across.

"He wouldn't have done that to Michael," said one key Ferrari insider of the Spaniard's move. "And now he won't do it again to Felipe ..."

There's no question that this was an important psychological gain by Massa, who later made it clear that he felt Alonso had underestimated him. For the rest of the race he didn't put a foot wrong, although there was a scare at the first stop, which I observed from the sloping press room window directly above the Ferrari pit.

The fuel spill was caused because the clutch was dragging and thus he was slightly out of position, so that the hose came off at a slight angle. In such circumstances the valve might not close properly, and it was that which created a fuel spill that looked a lot worse than it really was. No damage was done, somehow reflecting the fact that everything seems to be going Felipe's way at the moment.

It's way too premature to write-off Kimi's title hopes, and after all he did win the first race of the season. The level these guys are now operating at, everything has to be just so, and it's clear that a few little things need to fall into place to ensure that he is fully comfortable with the car. As the likes of Aldo Costa admit, Kimi can obviously drive a car quickly, and it's up to the team to give him a car he can exploit to the limit.

Having said that, there's also no question that there have been a few things on Kimi's side that have created a few issues, such as falling asleep at the safety car re-start in Bahrain, and his insistence on changing cars last weekend.

The interesting thing is that much was made of his happiness after the Barcelona test, and the fact that it didn't translate fully into the race weekend must have been a psychological blow for the Finn.

Of course, the big story at Ferrari last weekend was the first appearance this year of Michael Schumacher. He had a press conference at the Ferrari motorhome on Friday lunchtime, during which we gleaned very little about what he has been doing or intends to do.

Michael Schumacher watches the Spanish Grand Prix from the Ferrari garage © XPB/LAT

But otherwise he kept a pretty low public profile for most of the weekend. He managed it in part because he spent a lot of his time in team debriefs and meetings, and thus had no time to swan around the paddock.

Schumacher apparently made key contributions to set-up discussions on Friday, to strategy decisions on Saturday, and made suggestions about how the start might unfold. Whether that included telling Massa 'get to the inside and don't back off,' I guess we'll never know ...

It was also interesting that at one point in the race he felt sufficiently motivated to voice his opinion that he strolled across the pit lane to talk directly to the guys on the pit wall.

"With a driver like him, his huge experience is always very useful," said technical director Mario Almondo. "He's given us his point of view and suggestions during all the weekend. We feel that consistently he is able to give us a very interesting point of view that is most of the time very, very useful. Of course, we can't go into details, but we're happy about that."

Since joining Ferrari, Kimi has been bombarded with questions about how much contact he'd had with Michael, and how much help or advice he'd been given, and the poor guy has grown ever more bored with the subject. A lot of folk forget how much help he asked from fellow countryman and friend Mika Hakkinen after taking his McLaren's seat - I believe the answer is pretty much zero, and remember, at that stage Kimi was still a novice.

Of course, had Michael been given some title like 'Director of Racing,' and formally introduced as part of the team, then his contributions in meetings would have appeared totally legitimate. As it is now, the perception is that he's a retired driver who's there to babysit his successor in some way, and of course when you're a racer with the fiercely independent mindset of Kimi Raikkonen, you don't appreciate that.

It's a different story with Massa - they've had contact for years, going back to the Brazilian's days as a Ferrari test driver, and any chats they have now are more on the basis of a genuine friendship, and their shared experiences in 2006.

Don't forget, in announcing his retirement at Monza, more or less the first thing Michael said was that he wanted to be fair to Felipe by letting him know that his job was safe asap.

"You don't want big brother coming up and looking over your shoulder, and Kimi would have been pissed off about it," said one interested observer.

"The thing is Kimi will be pissed off that he's there at all; Kimi will be pissed off if he offers him any help. But Kimi will also be pissed off he doesn't help, but helps Felipe! So Michael's presence there is good for the sport ..."

Michael Schumacher leaves the paddock © XPB/LAT

The funny thing in all this is that a driver from another team confided that when he bumped into Michael before the race, they had a little chat. The former champ told him that by Saturday, he was already bored!

Bored or not, Michael spent quite a while in the post-race debrief. I happened to be in the vicinity when he finally left a near-deserted paddock at something like 8pm Sunday night. Just a handful of fans were there to bother him as he strolled off, completely on his own, crash helmet in hand, ready to jump on his motorbike and head off. Yes, he told me, he will be in Monaco.

In stark contrast, Kimi had disappeared to the airport while the race was still in progress. With 27 laps to go, in fact.

There was a reason for his early escape, and Kimi duly got back to his home Switzerland just in time to see the Hockey World Cup final on TV, although his misery was compounded when Canada beat Finland 4-2.

He was obviously given permission by Jean Todt to bail out of Barcelona, and he had time to have some kind of chat with race engineer Chris Dyer. So it wasn't exactly like Monaco last year, when he never went back to the paddock.

Nevertheless, I don't think it's the done thing for a Ferrari driver to disappear so early, however frustrating his afternoon has been. Debriefs are taken very seriously, and even if you've only done a few laps, there are things to be discussed.

Interesting times at Maranello ...