The Battle for Team Supremacy

[drexel]

About a third of the way into the season and the some of the teammate pairings at the top are interesting.

Michael and Rubens: You have to say at this point...Rubens is performing as well as Michael.

Montoya and Ralf: Same thing, pretty equal, which is a suprise to many.

David and Kimi: Who thought Kimi would have the edge on David this early into the season. Although the bad car isn't helping DC.

Panis and Villeneuve: Panis doing better, forces JV to take the 'sponsors' pit stop strategy.

Trulli and Button: Trulli is catching up but Button with the edge.

The rest i think are predictable. Although Salo is doing better than expected and even Yoong improves race by race. Also Sato is showing some decent speed but makes little errors and is a bit unlucky.

[f1manoz]

TGF and Rubens: Rubens will never hold any sort of supremacy as long as TGF, Todt and Brawn run the Ferrari team and give the instructions. For Rubens, it's only a losing situation

JPM and Ralf: They have been very even. Ralf has certainly been quick in qualifying while JPM has usually raced better. I thought it would have been the other way around.

DC and Kimi: Considering McLaren reliability has been abysmal at best, DC still heads his youthful team-mate, but considering Kimi has barely finished, it is not a clear indication of how close they really are.

Nick and Felipe: Nick will be pleased that Felipe is not as close as Kimi was last year. It's unfortunate two rather unsavoury incidents have marked Nicks year despite some fantastic performances.

Fisi and Sato: Fisi certainly holds the upper hand but Sato is no slouch but makes too many errors.

Panis and JV: Panis has suffered cruel luck all season and has certainly performed at par if not better than JV. He only just got his finger out in the past couple of races

Trulli and Button: Button has rediscovered his form with some great races while Trulli has gone missing in qualifying all season, which is his greatest strength.

Irvine and PDLR: Considering they are barely seen on TV, it's hard to know what they are up to! Clearly neither hold a significant advantage though.

HHF and Bernoldi: Both have been very impressive in a much improved and more powerful Arrows-Cosworth

Webber and Yoong: No contest. Webber is impressing everyone in the paddock with his speed and consistency. Yoong is there to make up the numbers

Salo and McNish: Salo does hold an upper hand but McNish is no slouch and will continue to get better.

[Glen]

I hope this does back-fire on Schumacher - just about the only thing that could rattle his grip at the top of the sport (a grip which is still almost total and does not need any team orders or other help in my opinion) is an emotional episode. Just look where his form went after September 11 and Alex's incident.

Rubens has proved that to beat him is possible, but he's a long way from proving that it could be done over a whole season. Obviously he isn't going to get the chance, but even given the opportunity I don't think he'd win. Unless this really shakes Schumacher - he does have weaknesses... if Rubens were to repeat this superb weekend's work once or twice more that might really change things and demotivate Schumacher. So the disgraceful orders would have the opposite effect. Wishful thinking.

[R]

Originally posted by Glen
a grip which is still almost total and does not need any team orders or other help in my opinion

That is just it. He is so good he doesn't need to resort to those type of actions to win the WDC. If he would play fair, he would be extremely popular. Now he's losing fans by the minute. The supremacy at Ferrari is TGF's anyway, just look at the points difference between the two. Letting Rubens have this one, deserved win would not have altered that in the slightest. In fact, it would have increased my esteem of him tremendously. Now he has shattered it completely.

[Glen]

R

Absolutely agree with you - in an ironic way it was a golden opportunity for MS to prove his sporting nature in absolute safety. I don't blame him for followinghi team though - I blame the team for requiring it. I know that's hard to swallow but I do believe that Rubens did the professional thing in not disobeying, and so by the same token I have to accept that Schumacher acted in the same spirit.

Totally ridiculous, they could have increased his WDC lead, scored max points for the team and rewarded Rubens for one of the best race weekends of his career.

[R]

I blame TGF. Rubens acted in a professional manner by slowing down, but TGF could have refused to overtake him, that was his decision. Hell, it's not as if he would have been fired, is it.

Of course, I also blame the team for demanding this action in the first place. They have absolutely no shame, and they're not even regretful with hindsight.

[f1manoz]

That's basically it. TGF made another bad decision when it came to the crunch.