Highlights

F1 heavyweights still behind on points

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-05-18 09:24

Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso were billed as the heavyweights in the Formula One title fight but both are behind on points going into next week's showcase Monaco Grand Prix.

Everything seemed perfect for Raikkonen, who left McLaren to replace retired seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, when he won the Australian season-opener on his Ferrari debut.

But it is Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa who has won the last two races, in Bahrain last month and Spain last weekend, and is now five points clear of the Finn. Massa has also started on pole position for the last three races.

Alonso left Renault last year, joining McLaren as a double world champion and the man to restore the fortunes of a team that failed to win a race in 2006.

The Spaniard did that sooner than expected when he led team mate Lewis Hamilton to a one-two finish in Malaysia but Hamilton has ripped up the script since then with a debut unlike any other.

The Briton now tops the standings as the youngest championship leader as well as the first driver to finish his first four races on the podium. He has beaten Alonso in his last two starts.

"I think Massa and Lewis are doing a great job," said McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh. "They are not subjected to the same level of pressure yet, because there wasn't perhaps the level of expectation externally upon them.

"I'm sure both of them spent the winter thinking 'What's the fuss about the others? I think I can win this championship'," added the Briton.

BIG MONEY

While Raikkonen and Alonso are the big-money signings, both are still settling into new surroundings while Massa and Hamilton have been part of the family for years.

Massa is managed by Nicolas Todt, son of Ferrari boss Jean, and has been linked to the team since his debut with Ferrari-powered Sauber in 2002.

He got on particularly well with Schumacher as the German's team mate last season and the two talk regularly on the telephone.

That does not imply any special favours for the Brazilian, and Raikkonen seems perfectly happy with his treatment at the team, but Massa certainly knows his way around the corridors of Maranello.

Hamilton has been backed by McLaren for more than a decade now and feels completely at home in Woking.

"He is definitely strong and is not bothered by pressure," Massa said of him this week. "At the moment you cannot say that Fernando or him are the better driver.

"But if the situation continues like this, then maybe Lewis can even be more dangerous than Fernando."

Raikkonen has been struggling in qualifying while Alonso is not yet totally in tune with his car. The fact that both are new to Bridgestone, now the sole tyre supplier after Michelin's departure, is significant.

Massa won two races on the Japanese tyres last year while Hamilton has never known anything else and therefore has no baggage to leave behind.

Poland's Robert Kubica at BMW-Sauber, whose aggressive-steering style is very close to Alonso's, has also failed to match the pace of team mate Nick Heidfeld since they switched brand.

Alonso, perhaps more concerned than he would like to let on, declared on Sunday that Hamilton was the driver who worried him least. Ferrari's pace, he said, was the main preoccupation.

ALWAYS WON

He will definitely be concerned if Hamilton beats him in Monaco. Then McLaren could really have a problem on their hands.

In his entire Formula One career, at stragglers Minardi and at Renault, Alonso has always beaten his team mate over the course of a season and is used to having his way.

"Now he's got a guy who's his equal, if not maybe a little bit quicker in the races," said Renault team manager Steve Nielsen.

"And I think he'll be questioning himself, deep down inside, as to whether he is really quicker than his team mate and I think that will give him a lot of self-doubt.

"The few times we saw Fernando really under pressure were when his team mate beat him. That's the situation he's in now."

However Paul Stoddart, Alonso's first team boss at Minardi, played that down and doubted that Raikkonen would be too unsettled either.

"Fernando does get a bit funny," he told Reuters. "But I don't think he feels at the moment that he's being edged out by Lewis. I think he just feels that Ferrari have got the edge and what can they do to catch up?

"And the one thing about Kimi is that he is so unemotional that you can imagine that it's just a shrug of the shoulders and on to the next race."