2005 F1 season -- Raikkonen scores huge win at Monaco

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"Better than we had planned for" - Mateschitz
Staff Reporter


This year's Red Bull has been fighting with the likes of McLaren.

Red Bull Racing Chief Executive Dietrich Mateschitz has described the start to the 2005 season to be "better than we had planned for" as reigning World Champion Michael Schumacher has positioned himself and his new team in second place in the World Championship.

"It's very exciting for us as a team and as a brand," he told us, "and the more we are involved with Formula 1, the more we want to get involved with Formula 1."

When pressed further on what this means, he pointed to drivers such as Robert Doornbos, Christian Klien, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed. "These are all excellent drivers, but currently they are without a team in Formula 1," he said. "It is possible that we may try to do something about that next year."

[This Could Be You]

BAR "not concerned" with Hyundai performance

After two races which have left British American Racing bottom of the consturctors championship, their worst start since 1999, team principal Nick Fry is not worrying about his teams chances so far: "Overall, I am not concerned about our current lack of pace, or our reliability- We have joined with Hyundai in a long-term partnership, and this year's package is not more than a stopgap before 2006, as there is little point in aggressively developing the F1.1 V10 which will be obsolete by the end of the year".

"Instead, we plan to work with their engineers to work out the performance shortcomings of the V10 and focus our solutions on the V8, to maximise the potential of the working relationship next year".

However, even with the lack of horsepower BAR currently have, a good chance at points may present itself next time out at Monaco, being a circuit that puts little stress on engines, and one that produced a second-place finish for them with Jenson Button last year.

[Aislabie]

The Flying Finn in a Ferrari

It has been a wide-open Formula One season so far, and the Monaco Grand Prix was no different as Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen claimed a victory that propelled him from fifth to first in the World Drivers Championship.

He started the race on the second row of the grid behind 1997 Championship protagonists Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher, and held on to third place out of the first corner. As is often the case at Monaco, things remained line-astern for most of the race, with the main moments of excitement coming from strategic battles and errant driving.

After Schumacher managed to jump Villeneuve at the first round of pit stops, the Canadian tried to dive up the inside of the Red Bull driver at Virage Antony Noghes. Unfortunately for both drivers, this could only end one way, and so it did - with Schumacher in the wall and Villeneuve punctured. Raikkonen inherited the lead with Schumacher Jr behind him, and Fernando Alonso rounded off the podium positions in third.

At the foot of the points-paying places, another battle was getting heated as the Minardi of Patrick Friesacher searched in vain for a way past Anthony Davidson's eighth-placed BAR. So hard were they battling that Giancarlo Fisichella caught up and joined the battle, but Monaco is famously hard to pass on; Davidson held on to what may be a crucial point for his team.

Congratulations must also go to the Williams drivers; Kubica climbed up to fourth place, while Vettel became F1's youngest points-scorer.

Grand Prix Result

Code: Select all

 1) Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)                  1:47:00.385 (10 points)
 2) Ralf Schumacher (Toyota)                  1:47:12.649 (8 points)
 3) Fernando Alonso (Renault)                 1:47:53.649 (6 points)
 4) Robert Kubica (Williams-Toyota)           1:48:06.482 (5 points)
 5) Adrian Sutil (Red Bull-Maserati)          1:48:11.796 (4 points)
 6) Olivier Panis (Renault)                   1:48:14.230 (3 points)
 7) Sebastian Vettel (Williams-Toyota)             -1 lap (2 points)
 8) Anthony Davidson (BAR-Hyundai)                 -1 lap (1 point)
 9) Patrick Friesacher (Minardi-BMW)               -1 lap
10) Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan-Cosworth)         -1 lap
11) Timo Glock (China-Cosworth)                    -1 lap
12) Jacques Villeneuve (Ferrari)                   -1 lap
13) Narain Karthikeyan (Jordan-Cosworth)          -2 laps
14) Ricardo Zonta (Toyota)                     DNF lap 77 (Wall)
 -  Nick Heidfeld (McLaren-Mercedes)           DNF lap 63 (Electrical)
    Michael Schumacher (Red Bull-Maserati)     DNF lap 60 (Banter with Villeneuve)
    Felipe Massa (Minardi-BMW)                 DNF lap 57 (Gearbox)
    Pedro de la Rosa (BAR-Hyundai)             DNF lap 47 (Wall)
    Alexander Wurz (McLaren-Mercedes)          DNF lap 29 (Pit stop error)
    Andre Couto (China-Cosworth)               DNF lap 22 (Wall)

- - - - - - - - - -
Reject of the Race: McLaren pit crew

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And here are the standings

Brief Summary

Drivers Championship
1. Kimi Raikkonen (17 pts)
2. Fernando Alonso (16 pts)
3. Alexander Wurz (15 pts)

Constructors Championship
1. McLaren-Mercedes (28 pts)
2. Ferrari (23 pts)
3. Renault (21 pts)

As always, you have a chance to sack your drivers if you think they're a bit rubbish. Just let me know.

Next race will hopefully be posted on Wednesday.

[This Could Be You]

Good work Anthony!- at least we're finally off the mark now, so hopefully BAR can keep scoring. As I've mentioned before- how do we upgrade our cars through the season, if it all, as our reliability/power still leaves a lot to be desired.

[Aislabie]

Good work Anthony!- at least we're finally off the mark now, so hopefully BAR can keep scoring. As I've mentioned before- how do we upgrade our cars through the season, if it all, as our reliability/power still leaves a lot to be desired.

Unfortunately, there's little in the way of updates through the season because this first season is being run on xKoranate, which is about as sophisticated as a blobfish. Next season will move onto a spreadsheet, which will allow for far more detailed development.

I know it's a pain, but I'm really learning as I go along - sorry

[This Could Be You]

Good work Anthony!- at least we're finally off the mark now, so hopefully BAR can keep scoring. As I've mentioned before- how do we upgrade our cars through the season, if it all, as our reliability/power still leaves a lot to be desired.

Unfortunately, there's little in the way of updates through the season because this first season is being run on xKoranate, which is about as sophisticated as a blobfish. Next season will move onto a spreadsheet, which will allow for far more detailed development.

I know it's a pain, but I'm really learning as I go along - sorry

Ok then- I guess I'll just keep using the "BAR-Hyundai is a long-term project, we're working on the 2006 V8" excuse (a la McHonda 2015/ Renault 2016) all year