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FORMULA 1: SCHUMACHER AGAIN . Three victories! It is better than everyone could expect. Michael Schumacher's Ferrari is at the top of the world championship. Only the most passionate supporters, those who have been silently waiting for a success for all these years, also including the last two bitter seasons, would expect, and maybe dream of, such a peremptory start. After winning in Australia and Brazil, the cherry on the cake could and had to be Imola. Here 110,000 supporters were the ideal public to celebrate a triumph, and to give back new sensations of omnipotence. Schumacher is accustomed to these exploits, unlike Ferrari, above all in the last lean years. In 1994, when he ran for Benetton, the German driver even managed to win 4 four times consecutively. If one looks back to history, such supremacy in the first races of the championship means the world title. No matter how big, or immortal, you are: in Formula 1, seasons are often characterized by the supremacy of one team. And the title won by Damon Hill, who in 1996 won the Formula 1 with Williams after winning the 3 first Grand Prix races, is the proof of that. Ferrari of the new millennium seems to have all the necessary requirements to repeat the performance of Williams and McLaren. This year, too, McLaren, the current champion, with Hakkinen and Coulthard was expected to make Ferrari fans to lose their sleep. Yet, this team has only won its first points in Imola, after two really negative races.  The last race seemed to be favourable for the Austrian team. Yet, once again Schumacher was able to win over Hakkinen, thanks also to the successful tactic adopted by Ferrari mechanics in the last laps. In fact, after calculating the right amount of fuel necessary to finish the race, mechanics half-filled the tank, and thus Schumacher made a pit stop of only 6 seconds. And when the Finnish driver had to stop for the unavoidable pit stop, Ferrari was ready to overtake him.  Obviously, it isn't plain sailing at Ferrari. Barrichello, who arrived at the fourth place after Courthald, feels bitter about that. His car does not seem to be prepared to the last detail like Schumacher's car. Maybe this is an intentional tactic, a calculated risk to avoid the internal contrasts of the last season with Irvine, who at a certain point had the possibility and wanted to inherit Schumi's role also out of necessity, after the Silverstone accident. Yet, his bad mood for not driving the same perfect car used by Schumacher,  is a double proof that things at Ferrari seem to have taken the right course. Aside from the fact that complaining now that his teammate is alone at the top of the championship would be unfair, also considering the team play, it should also be underlined that until now results are perfectly in line with the targets established by Ferrari at the beginning of the season. Barrichello joined up Ferrari with the task of second mate, despite all what he said before the championship. Now he is gradually discovering that the team is going to stake everything on Schumacher's success. And as it happens in successful teams, there is always someone who has to sacrifice himself in favour of internal hierarchies. For the time being, but who knows until when, the winning team is not going to be changed. Too many billions and titles are in favour of the German driver. And also, it is too much time since Ferrari won its last world title. Maybe some day or other, after winning again some titles, the Ferrari team will begin to reason better and then second drivers, too, will have the possibility of achieving fame.    Paolo Ghisoni

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