The Fall of the South

The Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona is rarely the most exciting race on the calendar. The F1 teams arrive at the popular testing circuit with encyclopedic knowledge of which set-ups work best, and the flat-out sweeps do little to promote overtaking.

With only a week and no significant upgrades since the previous GP at Nurburgring, it was predictable that Renault's Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher would once again be the class of the field. This time, Alonso had the slightly superior package and predictably turned it into flawless and perfectly controlled victory.

Equally predictably, Michael Schumacher shrugged off the temporary inconvenience of starting behind Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella on his way to the best finish that the car and circumstances would allow - eight points for second behind the untouchable home hero.

With the two clockwork superstars controlling matters up front, the attention moved further down the grid, to those competitors who won't look back on the opening third of the 2006 season with fond memories. Two, in particular, stand out - McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya and Honda's Rubens Barrichello.

In terms of driver influence and achievements, South America ranks second only to Europe in F1 history. From Fangio through Emerson Fittipaldi to Piquet and Senna, South American drivers have scooped 13 of 56 WDC titles, almost a quarter of the total and more than all the other continents (barring Europe) combined.

There has been no South American champion since Ayrton Senna's final title in 1991, and the fourteen-year WDC drought equals the longest in the continent's history (1958-1971 being the other). Worse yet, with increased corporate interests in F1 and South America's very limited influence in this sphere, the drought looks set to continue.

Nonetheless, 2006 started out as a reasonably promising year for South American fans. After years in Michael Schumacher's shadow at Ferrari, Rubens Barrichello's switch to Honda looked well-timed. With impressive pre-season testing performances from the car, and a not-too-intimidating teammate in Jenson Button, Barrichello seemed a decent dark horse bet.

However, the stronger South American challenge would more likely come from Juan Pablo Montoya at McLaren. If the team managed to build on their 2005 performance and sort out reliability issues, and if Montoya managed to put together another purple patch like he had in mid-2003, Colombia could have its first F1 World Champion.

Just six races into the season, those early hopes have been shattered. Barrichello's failure to even match Button's level of performance, let alone outstrip it, has been the surprise of the year to date. The Brazilian was always going to struggle initially to adapt to a new car, particularly one built around Button's unique driving style.

However, nobody expected that the gap between the two Honda drivers would be so large, nor that it would take Barrichello a full third of the season to get close to Button's pace.

In Spain, for the second race in succession, Barrichello edged his teammate in qualifying. Yet, frustratingly, his race pace is still not on par with the Englishman's. Whatever braking and other problems are plaguing Barrichello's transition to the Honda, he is not short of corner apex speed. At Barcelona, as in Melbourne, Barrichello recorded the highest apex speed of the entire field.

Naturally, that corner apex speed advantage means nothing if it's causing Barrichello to get on the power later than his rivals and lose out on the following straight. But that is racing technique at its most basic, and should not be an issue for a driver of Barrichello's vast experience.

Even if he does resolve the conundrum, the Brazilian's season is effectively over. Already 46 points shy of championship leader Fernando Alonso, his main focus now must be on working with Button to help Honda overtake McLaren for third in the Constructors' Championship.

With the type of season that Juan Pablo Montoya is having for McLaren, that should make Honda's job easier. In the latter half of 2005, Montoya outraced Raikkonen on occasion, most notably in Brazil. It rekindled the belief that, in an ideal world and with a freakish alignment of the stars, the erratic Colombian could string together 18 such performances in one calendar year and trounce the field comprehensively.

Felipe Massa © LAT

So far in 2006, there hasn't even been a hint of Montoya showing his top form. At the season opener in Bahrain, he started seventeen positions ahead of teammate Raikkonen, yet finished two places behind the Finn. It was a body blow from which Montoya has never recovered.

If Brazil '05 showed Montoya at his explosive best, Spain 2006 was the Colombian at his irascible worst: off the pace, out of position, spinning meekly into retirement and then launching into a tirade against the quality of machinery at his disposal.

Nobody expected either Montoya or Barrichello to consistently outstrip the top tier Euro-triumvirate of Schumacher, Alonso and Raikkonen. Yet few would have imagined that the two most experienced South Americans would be so far off the pace (race and championship) this early in the year.

The surprising conclusion is that Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who was expected to be the most erratic of the three, has emerged as the most solid South American performer of 2006. Despite a couple of typically rash incidents early on, Massa has settled down and come good since San Marino, recording his first podium and three strong finishes in succession to leapfrog both Montoya and Button in the WDC table.

Part of that can be attributed to Ferrari's renewed competitiveness, but Massa must also take credit. He's running Michael Schumacher a lot closer than many expected. He also showed, particularly at Nurburgring, that he has developed the focus and consistency to stay on the leader's pace for extended stints, if not the full race.

The on-board shots from Massa's Ferrari at Barcelona showed a stunning contrast from his technique of a few years ago at Sauber. In those times, it wasn't unusual to see Massa making frantic corrections to the wheel, even with the car pointed in a straight line.

On Sunday, he displayed the type of unruffled 'single movement of the wheel' cornering style that makes his team leader's speed look so effortless. Such are the development benefits of working with a top outfit like Ferrari, and a legendary teammate like Michael Schumacher.

As the teams head to Monaco, there is the hope that Barrichello and Montoya will come good, and that Massa will continue to improve to the point where he can occasionally beat Schumacher. F1 needs the flair of South American drivers as much as football needs the flair of South American teams. It is a hallmark of the sport, and a necessity if F1 is to preserve its status as a truly international series.