The 2004 Season F1fan-eBook 
Worthy of Note in China
GP of China:
While you wait for the GP of China, if you'd like to get general information on this country that is now joining the F1 club, check the info page on China offered by People's Daily Online. It's all in English.
Rubens Barrichello had a brilliant weekend. The Brazilian ace opened in style the list of Chinese GP winners, as he conquered his first ever consecutive victory in F1!
It is worth noting that Barrichello had started out from his first ever consecutive pole position in F1.
This was the Brazilian's ninth F1 career victory, and his twelfth F1 career pole position.
Rubens Barrichello confirmed his second place in the Drivers' Championship, this Sunday, in China, following a great drive to victory. Ferrari's Brazilian ace started the first Chinese GP, ever, with a 27-point advantage over 
Jenson Button.
That meant that Barrichello would guarantee his second place in the Drivers' Championship, if the young Brit did not conquer 7 points more than the Brazilian.
Put differently, if Rubens Barrichello took the final flag in P5 – or higher – this would have sufficed to secure the Brazilian the honors of 2004 runner-up in the Drivers' Championship and, for 
Ferrari, the best 
one-two of all: first and second places in the 2004 Drivers' Championship, in addition to Ferrari's already conquered 2004 Constructors' Title.
The same was valid if Jenson Button took the final flag in P3 or lower.
This is the second time, in his F1 career, that Rubens Barrichello closes the Season as runner-up – the first having been on 2002.
It is the first time, however, that Rubens Barrichello closes the F1 Season having more than 100 Championship points to his name!
Spelled out, below, were Barrichello's different possibilities for guaranteeing his runner-up Championship placement in advance, as the first Chinese Grand Prix got underway:
| If Jenson Button takes the final flag in ... |
Then Rubens Barrichello needs to take the final flag in ... |
| P1 |
P5 or higher |
| P2 |
P7 or higher |
| P3 or lower |
- it no longer matters - |
Rubens Barrichello's well earned P1 has meant that Jenson Button's also well earned P2 turned out to be an insignificant result, as far as the final second Championship place in 2004.
Jenson Button's P2, in turn, has meant that he, too, has assured for himself the final third Championship place in 2004.
Fourth place in the Drivers' Championship, however, is not yet settled, as it isn't the second place in the Constructors' Championship. Both fights could go down to the last Championship lap for 2004, in Brazil.
Felipe Massa deserves special mention for his best grid position ever, in his short F1 career: the young Brazilian started from P4!
Michael Schumacher, in contrast to his Ferrari team-mate, had a weekend quite below the reputation that must have proceeded him to China.
Ferrari's seven-time Champion apparently made his fourth pit stop for new tires, right before the final stage of the race (lap 47), in an attempt to ensure he'd once more write his name in the history books, this time, in China's inaugural F1 GP:
his Ferrari then shod with fresh tires, M.Schumacher set out to claim the honors of the first fastest F1 race lap in Chinese soil, which he finally achieved at the very closing of the race (lap 56).
Nonetheless, the German ace finished, at a meagre P12, the second GP in 2002 in which he failed to score points (the first having been in Monaco).
Ferrari's seven-time Champion never matched Rubens Barrichello's dominance on China's brand new race track, this weekend, even though M.Schumacher's intention was clearly to impress the Chinese public with a Monza-style show up the field, once he had to start from the back of the grid, as the result of a spin in his qualifying lap. But it was just not Schumacher's day...
To start with, the German would have started the race from his worse F1 career grid position ever (eighteenth), were it not for Ferrari's decision to change his motor and see him off, from the pit lane.
Then, the race, itself, proved quite disastrous for M.Schumacher: determined to fly through the field, the German ace alternated some impressive performance (laps in which he made up up to half-a-second on each sector), with a number of inauspicious race incidents, which he likely will try to forget asap:
a collision with Jaguar's young C.Klien, on lap 12, who was forced to retire, as a result, and later blamed Michael Schumacher for his retirement from Sunday's Chinese GP;
a spin on the back straight, on lap 16, dropping down from ninth to twelfth;
on top of this, M.Schumacher suffered a puncture in his left rear tire, on lap 35, having had to limp into the pits for new tires.
Ralf Schumacher, who made his return to the grid, after the accident he suffered in Indianapolis, closed the weekend on a public disagreement with the 
Williams-BMW Team.
On lap 37, the younger Schumacher span twice, after having collided with David Coulthard, who had attempted to overtake the German. The Williams' driver made it to the pits, with a puncture, when the pit crew was not quite ready for him, however – they were getting ready for Juan Pablo Montoya's pit stop, the following lap. The German then dashed into the garage, clearly revealing his displeasure, and immediately jumping out of the car.
Once the crew had sent Juan Pablo Montoya off, they moved R.Schumacher's car back to pit lane, where the engineers inspected the car and decided that it could continue the race. R.Schumacher was then summoned back into the car. The German refused, both verbally and gesticulating widely, a scene that happened to be captured by the TV cameras and sent all over the World.
Following this incident, and based on Frank Williams' widely known disapproval of such attitudes, on the part of his drivers, speculation has quickly arisen that 
Antonio Pizzonia may once more be replacing Ralf Schumacher, in the Williams-BMW Team, for the last two GP's of the Season. Should this prove to be true, the Chinese GP would then have been the German's last race for Frank Williams' Team. Let's wait and see...
Ferrari's Jean Todt may have been the only one not to be taken by surprise at Ford's announcement that the next three races are the last for the Jaguar Team. Just a few days prior to the announcement, the Frenchman commented on the likely imminent departure of a Formula One Team.
The surprising news is, in fact, far more reaching than simply leaving the 2005 F1 grid temporarily with only 18 cars: who will be supplying motors for 
Jordan and 
Minardi? How will the grid have the minimum required 20 cars, if no new Team joins the restricted club of F1 for the 2005 Season?
The announcement that everyone expected was finally made on Thursday, the week before the Chinese GP: Jarno Trulli will be driving alongside Ralf Schumacher, in the 
Toyota Team.
But there was other surprising news: Jacques Villeneuve suddenly has a drive for the last three races in 2004 (replacing Trulli, at the 
Renault Team) and, just as surprisingly, the Canadian has now signed a two-year deal with the 
Sauber Team!
Now that Trulli is free from his contract with Flavio Briatore and the Renault Team, there have been rumors that the Italian driver should take part in the Chinese, or subsequent 2004 GP's, as a Toyota driver.
It remains to be seen whether or not the rumors would have any foundation at all and, in case they would, in whose car should the Italian race – 
Panis' or 
Zonta's?
F1's surprises, this week preceding the Chinese GP, also led to speculation that Jacques Villeneuve and 
Giancarlo Fisichella might swap positions for the Season's final two rounds.
The Renault Team have so far denied it, whereas the Sauber Team have apparently ignored the rumor.
Stay tuned! Other special race details that are worthy of note will be added to this Section.
Meanwhile, see the pages marked with a checkered flag, here.
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