Schumacher and Räikkönen test new Ferrari in Barcelona
Kimi Räikkönen Schumacher and Räikkönen test new Ferrari in Barcelona Michael Schumacher
For a professional boxer, it is very bad form to get beaten up in the ring by your sparring partner. However, within the Ferrari Formula One team it is possible to produce a rather formidable sparring partner, and on Monday the day dawned when 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen went out on the track in testing at the same time as seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher (retired).
The media were eagerly awaiting the outcome, even though everybody knew that these things are not necessarily so much a test of the drivers' skills as of the set of wheels each of them is driving.
As it turned out, Räikkönen was one-tenth of a second faster around the Barcelona circuit than Schumacher, although the Finn had to concede the fastest time of the day to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who was 43 thousands of a second quicker. When the dust had settled, only Schumacher came out to meet the press.
He was at pains to play down the drama surrounding the event, and responded with a shrug to questions of how he felt about testing against Kimi Räikkönen for the first time. "That wasn't a serious question, was it?" shrugged Schumacher, who went on to say he had been driving these cars for a few years now and there was nothing very special about it, either for him or for Kimi Räikkönen.
The former champion was more interested in talking about the Ferrari's prospects on the eve of the new season, and expressed a certain quiet pleasure that the team will be heading into the 2008 season as favourites. The first Grand Prix will be in Melbourne on March 16th.
Monday's testing was not in any case a fair reflection of the two drivers, in that only Räikkonen's car was equipped with the new Ferrari aerodynamic package. Given that this was so, and that Schumacher will be making way for Räikkönen's 2008 team-mate Felipe Massa on Tuesday and Wednesday, some were tempted to ask what exactly it was that Schumacher was doing there in Barcelona.
He explained that his responsibilities were to carry out a test on certain special areas of the car's handling, and that he could not say any more than that the decision was made very late and that the test went very well, thank you.
Behind the trio of Hamilton, Räikkönen, and Schumacher, Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) was fourth-fastest, just ahead of Heikki Kovalainen, Hamilton's new team-mate in the McLaren stable, and Nico Rosberg of Williams.
All six drivers turned in fastest times within 0.7 seconds of each other.