Is Schumacher's latest win a turning point in his favour?

By Elmar Dreher Jul 17, 2006, 13:29 GMT

Magny-Cours - The threat named Michael Schumacher now appears to be real for Fernando Alonso.

While almost the entire Formula One week saw his win in a Ferrari at the US Grand Prix as a fluke, Sunday's historic eighth victory at the French race must have come as a surprise, to say the least, to Alonso's Renault team.

'What a change,' titled French sports daily L'Equipe on Monday

'That's not the same season anymore. Indianapolis was a turning point, which, if it is (further) confirmed, has the dimension of an abyss for Alonso. The world champion no longer has the best package.'

British daily The Guardian agreed: 'Michael Schumacher signalled that the Formula One balance of power may have shifted from Renault and decisively back towards Ferrari.'

Germany's Bild daily, under the headline 'Record win in Renault-land' said: 'Schumi, if you continue like this you can achieve the world championship miracle.'

Alonso was tipped to overcome Renault's poor show in the US in Magny-Cours, even more as the race was the home event for his team and their tyre partners Michelin.

Instead, Schumacher became the first driver to win a GP eight times, handily taking his 88th career race from the pole position owing to a superior Ferrari and Bridgestone package.

Schumacher has cut Alonso's championship lead from 25 to 17 points in just two races, and vows to continue attacking in the remaining seven, the next being at home in Germany on July 30 at Hockenheim.

'It's far from being over,' the German insisted.

'To me Indianapolis was not really the reference. We were too dominant. Looking at this race, yes, it is a reference point. We have clearly made up ground and we have to keep working at that pace and everybody will just keep pushing for the last seven races.'

'We hope to keep the momentum going. Obviously it's going to be a battle in development in all areas,' he said.

Schumacher will need the help of other to win the title as Alonso can afford finishing second in each race behind Schumacher and still walk away with back-to-back titles.

Alonso admitted that his tyres were not good enough on Sunday, but he at least salvaged second place when he overtook Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari due to a good pit stop strategy.

'I think here we were close, but not quick enough,' he said Sunday.

The Spaniard also said that Schumacher has won two races in a row before this season, but that Renault were able to rebound strongly.

'Same as Nurburgring and Imola, but at that point Ferrari seemed to have more development than anybody else. Everybody thought that they would win all the races and then we won four consecutive races and hopefully this will happen again from the next race on,' he said.

Renault engine operations chief Denis Chevrier agreed that his side is not overly concerned, at least for now.

'There is no reason to panic neither in terms of the championship situation, nor the technical status quo between the teams.

'Ferrari happen to have won two races in a row, but we dominated four in a row before that. There is no reason to think that the pendulum will not swing back in our favour in the coming weeks,' he said.