The 2006 season

[pRo]

We got into interesting conversation during the weekend with a friend about how the season actually went. We watched some races and fast forwarded others, but basically looked through most of them. Here's what we summed up, conserning the best two.

Bahrain
Nothing special, Alonso 1st, Schumi 2nd.
Alonso 10 - Schumi 8 =2

Malaysia
Schumi had an engine failure. Interesting was that in both teams the "2nd driver" was allowed to finish right in front of the "1st". Fisi 1st, Alonso 2nd, Massa 5th, Schumi 6th.
Alonso 18 - Schumi 11 =7

Australia
Schumi drives wide and crashes, looks like an driver error. We didn't browse the media for reasons given after the race.
Alonso 1st, Schumi DNF
Alonso 28 - Schumi 11 =17

Note. At this point, the Ferrari didn't really look that bad as we recalled at the end of the season. If it wasn't for the engine failure and driver error, the two would've been quite even.

San Marino
Alonso seemed to be faster, but couldn't get past. Other than that, nothing worth mentioning.
Schumi 1st, Alonso 2nd
Alonso 36 - Schumi 21 =15

Europe
Again, Alonso seems faster and took the pole, but Schumi passes him during pitstops.
Schumi 1st, Alonso 2nd
Alonso 44 - Schumi 31 =13

Spain
Quite an easy win for Alonso with some 20s to Schumi on 2nd.
Alonso 1st, Schumi 2nd
Alonso 54 - Schumi 39 =15

Monaco
I'm sure everyone still remembers how Schumi made the "mistake" at 16kmh.
Alonso 1st, Schumi 5th
Alonso 64 - Schumi 43 =21

Interestingly enough, they had a +20 point difference at this point. Most of it caused by the engine failure, driver error and a "mistake". We still didn't think Ferrari was slow at all. It starts to feel like they are messing it themselves.

Britain
Easy 1st for Alonso and just as easy 2nd for Schumi.
Alonso 1st, Schumi 2nd
Alonso 74 - Schumi 51 =23

Canada
Another more or less boring race.
Alonso 1st, Schumi 2nd
Alonso 84 - Schumi 59 =25

USA
Alonso seems to have some issues, but nothing that can be seen through the screen. He's just slow.
Schumi 1st, Alonso 5th
Alonso 88 - Schumi 69 =19

France
Another easy 1 for Schumi and easy 2 for Alonso.
Schumi 1st, Alonso 2nd
Alonso 96 - Schumi 79 =17

At this point the mass dampers got banned.

Germany
Again Alonso is slow, but this time there's a reason for it. The mass dampers, or the lack of it. Nothing special in the race itself.
Schumi 1st, Alonso 5th
Alonso 100 - Schumi 89 =11

Hungary
Finally an interesting race. First the 2s penalties for both before the race. Alonso starts from 15th place, but is already leading after the 1st pitstops and laps Schumi. But right after the 2nd stop he has the infamous wheel issue and crashes. Schumi crashes with Fisi, gets a new front wing and gets lucky when Kimi crashes (=safety car). He's 2nd and decides not to change into dry tyres like the rest. He keeps cutting the chicane several times and finally crashes with Heidfeld and has to retire 9th. After the race Kubica gets disqualified and Schumi gets a point. A must see race.
Schumi DNF (but 8th), Alonso DNF
Alonso 100 - Schumi 90 =10

Turkey
This was the race where Ferrari was supposed to take an easy 1&2, but Alonso passed Schumi while he was waiting in the pits behind Massa. Schumi seems faster, but can't pass Alonso during the race.
Alonso 2nd, Schumi 3rd
Alonso 108 - Schumi 96 =12

Italy
Easy 1st for Schumi. Alonso gets the much talked penalty about blocking Massa and starts 10th. His engine blows later in the race
Schumi 1st, Alonso DNF
Alonso 108 - Schumi 106 =2

China
Another race with water and worth a 2nd viewing. In the end the results are quite normal though.
Schumi 1st, Alonso 2nd
Alonso 116 - Schumi 116 =0

Japan
This was the race that was supposed to be easy for Ferrari, taking 1&2 in quali and Alonso left 5th. But Schumi has another engine failure and Alonso takes an easy 1.
Alonso 1st, Schumi DNF
Alonso 126 - Schumi 116 =10

Brazil
Probably a race which most still recall. Schumi has a fuel pump issue in the quali and the debated possible hit with Fisi and can't win. Alonso just cruises for the easy points and would've taken it, even if Schumi did win.
Alonso 2nd, Schumi 4th
Alonso 134 - Schumi 121 = 13

I'm sorry. Maybe I still have my anti-Schumi-glasses on, but it really seems to me (and both of us) that Ferrari wasn't really that slow at any point. But three mechanical issues and two drivers errors were just too much.

Then again, and this is definitely with the glasses on, Renault could've taken the title with less effort without certain events during the season.

[FLC]

It seems you guys did a some what superficial job and got to superficial conclusions.
When Ferrari discovered they had that problem with the engine, around Malaysia time, they werre using less revs than originaly planned. They were definetly slow.
In Australia Ferrari made a bad choice of tyres, but even that wouldnt totally exaplain how they were easily overtaken by Toro-Rosso. I dont think that Renault, for this matter, were that slow in the USA, for example, when their problems were considered as tyre problems.
Besides, Ferrari were pretty much struggling through the first half or maybe third of the season with the Bridgestones (Could stand for San-Marino, Spain, Britain and Cananda also).
The mass dampers didnt really effect Renault in Germany, I think they admited to the fact that the problems were tyre related.
In General, Renault tend to keep on reminding the ban on the mass dampers as something that gave them a lot of trouble, but if Germany was about tyre problems, in Hungary they didnt finish with Alonso because of a pit mistake, in Turkey they actually won the more important battle and in Italy they blew the engine, I think by this time they already got over the so called "set back". In worst case, they were affected for one race only, which is Germany.

[PNSD]

Should haves, Could haves etc etc.

Its no good making an analysis on those two points my friend.

[pRo]

It seems you guys did a some what superficial job and got to superficial conclusions.

Well...we did go into details live, but since those are more or less opinions, I decided to leave most of them out of my post and just post how the score evolved and what were perhaps some of the major points affecting them.

You can always if a lot, but the points are facts and all that count. You're welcome to if on that post, we did that too, just not on public. Iffing is fun, can't argue with that. Iffing is what keeps forums alive, but I didn't want to include too much of it there. Maybe that serves as a good ground for iffing though.

Both made bad tyre choices in some races and excellent in others. Both had engine issues and would've liked more power. Both wanted to be #1, but in the end only the other can.

To me it just seemed like the media kept saying that Ferrari was so slow in the early races, that Alonso was driving circles around them. I don't think they were. Ferrari was 1&2 in Bahrain quali and Schumi was only a second behind Alonso after the race. Surely not a result of a slow car. In the next race Schumi qualified 4th and Alonso 8th, again, either the car wasn't too bad or Alonso had some issues we couldn't see. In the Austria quali they were definitely slow. But not slow enough to not score points without the crash.

Without the driver caused issues at Austria and Monaco, things could've been very different.