F1 Revisits 2002 as Ferrari's Schumi and Barrichello Sweep Field

Most Are Betting on Michael Schumacher to Stroll Away with 2004 Title

It's been nearly a week since the first F1 race of the season, and the motorsport community is still in shock.

F1 fans are still in shock at how team Ferrari completely dominated the rest of the pack in the first race of the season. (Photo: Plantet-F1.com)

It's not so much that Ferrari won, but more disturbingly, just how decisively 6-times champion Michael Schumacher and side-kick Rubens Barrichello went about the job at hand.

They reduced Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher's radically tusked BMW- Williams FW26 car to an also ran, while completely annihilating one-time grid superpower McLaren-Mercedes to the mid-pack. While the second of these teams seems to be responsible for their own undoing, BMW-Williams have been strong in pre-season tests.

But of course, in F1 there's more to the results of a GP than the cars and

Was the Ferrari sweep due in part to the custom Bridgestone tires on their cars? (Photo: Planet-F1.com)

drivers, there are other critically important elements. For instance, was it Ferrari that stole the Australian GP or the car's Bridgestone tires? The Japanese tire manufacturer creates its custom rubber primarily for Ferrari, despite what its PR staff would like you to hear, giving the Italian marque a decided advantage over its Michelin shod rivals. This point was driven home by the fact that there was no Bridgestone clad team that made it into the top 10 other than Ferrari. Still, it makes a person wonder just how well 6th place finisher Jensen Button could have done had his BAR-Honda car stayed with Bridgestone for 2004 rather than switching to Michelin.