Zaku-8

Bwahaha... one of the Minardi cars even finished ahead of him. Granted, this is almost entirely due to a rainy saturday but still, drivers should do well rain or shine. Renault 1st and 3rd, Barrichello in 2nd... Fisichella taking first. There are some guys in the F1 press who think Fisichella is one of the best drivers in F1, some other guys think that of Alonso... and theyre both on Renault. Damn strong team this year.

I'll bet MS does better at Malaysia, but at least the season started out well. Hopefully it wont turn into a done deal by the summer, like last year.

Gomez

Mate, I reckon the mongrel turned in on Heidfeld on purpose. Now he's lookin' down the barrel of a new engine next round. He's got form for this kind of thing.....

Aratinga

Uhh, 18th isn't bad when (1) you're starting from dead last because of an engine change, and (2) you get knocked out of the race by Nick Heidfeld's Williams BMW colliding with you in a failed passing maneuver. Note that MS had advanced from last to something like 10th when he was hit.

Granted, Renault looks stronger than ever, but Barrichello and Schumi were driving last year's cars at Melbourne.

therm8

Still, it's kind of nice to see a little variety for once :D

GotZoom

I'm no so sure that Shumi was "knocked" out by Heiffeld. He was in 10th, but wasn't going to get into the points. He made an agressive move; if it works, he moves up, if not, he gets into an "accident." It didn't work, so he retires. By "retiring", he now gets to try TWO enginges instead of being limited to the one that was raced in in Australia.

Gomez is right - but it is still a pretty slick move.

And let's don't forget, Red Bull is driving Jaguar's cars from last year.

Gomez

No....the mug was in front and turned in on Heidfeld. Nick had the corner and MS forced him onto the grass where he could not brake......and they both ended up in the kitty litter.

Schmacker has done this before to further his own cause. We'll wait for the race stewards to decide if he'll get another engine for KL....

himitsu

Ferrari is running on modified F2004, their new cars are not out yet, so I dont think they did pretty bad.
Even with the stupid rule changes, I think Ferrari will do pretty much the same... just drive constantly.

If the other teams keep doing what they did last year, that is crash or blow their own cars up, then theres no stopping Ferrari again.
McLaren hasnt seem to solve their car problems these few years, stalling again, that is truely pathetic...

GotBass

What are you talking about?? In F1 there are only 20 cars in F1. So starting last and passing 2 cars over the course of 70 laps isnt bad?

BTW, I think its great. Id love to see another team win the championship, well as long as its not one of the French Teams

rx8fosho

what has any French team done to you?
MS is such a sick driver, there is an article about him in the latest, or one of the recent Car and Drivers i think, at the end. Some reporter got to ride w. him at some event....im jealous...