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Monday, July 30
Coulthard's pains are Schu's gains
Reuters
| |  | | | M. Schumacher |
| |  | | | Coulthard |
HOCKENHEIM, Germany -- Michael Schumacher
can take his fourth Formula One title in Hungary next month and
celebrate a record-equalling 51st career win at the same time.
That much is certain despite the German's failure to score
points in Sunday's dramatic German Grand Prix won by younger
brother Ralf in a Williams.
The Ferrari driver cracked a smile when, listening to a
radio by the side of the track after his retirement, he heard
that his main rival David Coulthard's McLaren had pulled over
with a blown engine.
That was the second time in two races that the Scot had
failed to score points and he must now also watch his back if he
is not to lose second place overall.
Michael Schumacher has 84 points, Coulthard 47, Ralf 41 with
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello on 40.
If Schumacher scores three points more than the McLaren
driver in Budapest on Aug. 19, Coulthard's dream will be over
with four races still to run.
In truth the Scot knows he needs a miracle of major
proportions. And he is also painfully aware that he has not been
getting much luck of any sort recently.
The three-week break between Hockenheim and Budapest is
little more than a stay of execution although Coulthard still
refused to concede defeat until the fact was staring him
unmistakably in the face.
"This is an unpredictable sport and you just have to keep an
open mind, weekend to weekend. We looked so strong at
Silverstone and we looked pretty average here," he said.
"It's kind of been suspended on the day of not scoring
points and wanting to be back up," he added.
Need break
"We weren't winning all the races at the beginning of the
year of course but we were making the most of the situations.
"And we're not at the moment. We're getting caught up in
incidents and having reliability issues and all the things that
we just can't afford to have."
"I kind of need the break in a way to just sort of stop and
re-start because the races have been just coming, coming,
coming," added Coulthard.
"Maybe as a team we need to try and reappraise exactly what
we've been testing, what we've been developing and just work out
where we go forward in the last five grands prix."
"We don't have the opportunity to test before Hungary so I
would expect us to be a little bit more competitive there."
The odds are that most of the final races will be redundant
at least for the drivers' championship.
But Ferrari continued to play the game, with technical
director Ross Brawn saying at the weekend that it was an anxious
time for the team but still sounding naturally confident.
"We can only throw it away now," he said.
The weekend served also to demonstrate once again that
Schumacher, winner of six races this year, has the Gods on his
side even when he does not win or take pole.
He walked away from his second big accident in two weeks and
was able to re-start after a red flag halted the first attempt
at getting the grand prix underway because of all the debris on
the track.
And when he eventually went out with a fuel pressure
problem, his main rival followed moments later.
BMW Motorsport director Gerhard Berger agreed that
Schumacher was something else.
"He always does the right performance, he always does the
right moves, he usually knows the right strategy and brings the
luck on his side," he said.
"It doesn't matter how he does it, he's bloody good."
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