| Bahrain Sunday Web Report |
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| 12.03.2006 |
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The Bahrain Grand Prix, inaugural race of the 2006 Formula 1 World Championship season, was a character-building event for the entire Panasonic Toyota Racing team, as Ralf Schumacher finished the 57-
lap race in 14th place with team mate Jarno Trulli 16th.
The TF106 was struggling for grip all weekend and hopes that the
team would have stronger race pace than shown in qualifying did not
materialise. The decision was taken to split the strategies, with
Ralf running a three-stop race and Jarno a two, so that as much
data as possible could be collected.
"We were obviously hoping to start the season much more positively," Schumacher explained, "but faced with the
situation we found ourselves in, we elected to maximise the set-up
information that we will take away from here in order to give
ourselves as much help as possible for the forthcoming races."
At one point early in the race the two TF106s ran close together
on the circuit and Jarno allowed Ralf to pass so that he could take
advantage of his car's lighter fuel load.
"That was a tough afternoon," Trulli admitted.
"I was pushing very hard throughout the race but the more I
tried, the slower I seemed to go. We could not put our finger on
anything specifically wrong with the car, we just did not have any
grip. It'd hard to race in those circumstances and we will
obviously work hard as a team to solve our problems for the
forthcoming races."
The Sakhir race was won by defending champion Fernando Alonso for
Mild Seven Renault F1 Team, who narrow beat Michael
Schumacher's Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro car. Kimi Raikkonen
finished third for Team McLaren Mercedes, ahead of Jenson
Button's Honda. Juan Pablo Montoya's McLaren, the
Williams F1 Team cars of Mark Webber and F1 debutant Nico Rosberg,
and Christian Klien's Red Bull completed the point scorers.
Reflecting on a tough 2006 baptism, Technical Director, Chassis,
Mike Gascoyne, said: "We expected that we would have stronger
race pace. We've done lots of long runs in testing,
we've compared all the data with our rivals and we know where
we should be but we were nowhere near it. At the moment we
don't know what our problem is. When you looked at our tyres
afterwards they looked brand new. Bridgestone is as surprised as we
are and it is clearly no criticism of them because their tyres
finished second and nearly won the race. But clearly we did not
make the tyre work. We have asked Bridgestone if, with the help of
their data, they can give us any clue as to what we are doing
wrong. It is unusual for the drivers to tell you that they are slow
but that there is nothing wrong with the car. It's not as if
we think we don't have downforce or anything like that, so
hopefully we can get on top of the problem."
This year's F1 schedule starts with tough back-to-back
intercontinental flyaway races, with round two at the hot and humid
Sepang circuit in Malaysia in just seven days time. |
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| 1 |
F.Alonso |
Renault |
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| 2 |
M. Schumacher
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Ferrari |
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| 3 |
K.Raikonen |
McLaren |
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| 4 |
J. Button
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Honda |
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| 5 |
J. Montoya
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McLaren |
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| 6 |
M.Webber |
Williams |
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| 7 |
N. Rosberg
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Williams |
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| 8 |
C. Klien
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RedBull |
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more.. |
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