Preview - San Marino Grand Prix 2005.

Formula One hits Europe this weekend, and as usual the first European round of the season will be held in Italy with the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.

Normally the race would be the first major celebration for the tifosi with Michael Schumacher out front in the championship standings, but three races into the 2005 season things couldn't be more different - with the champion looking for a dramatic - and quick - change in fortunes.

The fly away events in Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain have provided fans with an exciting start to the season and the championship table as it stands heading into the fourth round of 2005 would suggest that the tide is turning and a new order is being established - but will it continue in Italy?

Top of that order are current championship leaders Renault. Apart from a brief challenge from Schumacher in Bahrain, no-one has got close to Fernando Alonso in the last two events as the young Spaniard cemented his place at the head of the drivers championship. Rated by many as a future World Champion when he made his entry into the sport with Minardi as a teenager, Alonso has performed with a maturity that belies his still young age in the last two events and is rightly confident that the R25 will again be competitive this weekend.

Team-mate Fisichella comes into the race on the back of a second straight retirement in Bahrain - but it could prove to be a blessing disguise. While an engine change will lead to a penalty on the grid, Renault could take the opportunity to blood the new RS25B unit ahead of schedule at Imola, giving Fisichella an extra push in his attempt to win in front of his home fans. The team insist that other modifications to the R25 will mean it is well suited to the high speed Italian circuit and they will be looking to make it four wins on the trot on Sunday.

The ominous warning for the rest of the field would have to be that most of what Renault has said thus far in 2005 has proved to be correct...

A second straight podium finish from Jarno Trulli in Bahrain was enough to ensure that Toyota maintained its strong start to the season and held its position as 'best of the rest' behind Renault. Both those podiums were secured on merit and not through the misfortune of others, and with Ralf Schumacher also scoring at the last two races, there is optimism within the Cologne based team that the elusive first Grand Prix victory might not be that far away.

Technical genius Mike Gascoyne is aware that Ferrari are beginning to stir as the F2005 races for the second time, but says he is confident that Toyota will be ready for the challenge and will be competitive again in Italy. While Trulli may not be a fan of Imola, he will have the support in the home fans in much the same way as Fisichella will in the Renault and will look to make the most of the backing he receives from the fanatical Italian fans. Schumacher meanwhile has fond memories of Imola as the venue where he claimed his maiden F1 victory and on current form it could conceivably be the venue where he claims his first win for Toyota - the podium is certainly where the German driver has set his sights.

A podium finish for Kimi Raikkonen, and a very impressive fifth place from Pedro de la Rosa, in Bahrain was enough to move McLaren up to third place in the constructors championship and the Mercedes powered outfit will be looking to score more points again this time around.

With Juan Pablo Montoya still unable to compete because of the injury he sustained before Bahrain, Alex Wurz will step into a race seat this weekend - the first time the Austrian will have raced a Formula One car since 2000 and his final race for Benetton.

While settled in his role as a test driver for the team, there is little doubt that Wurz would jump at the opportunity to return to the F1 grid on a full time basis, and as was the case with de la Rosa in Bahrain, he now has the chance to show the rest of the grid that he is worth a look when they are thinking about drivers for the 2006 season.

Raikkonen meanwhile will be keen to fight for at least a podium to keep his title challenge firmly on track and will not want to lose any further ground to Alonso in the standings.

BMW Williams admitted that the start of the season wouldn't see them on the pace of the leaders, but three races in and Frank Williams' team aren't too far behind.

Nick Heidfeld has already clinched a podium finish and Mark Webber could well have joined him had it not been for bad luck in the last two races, and that will be the aim this time around - especially for Webber who feels this weekend could be the one when his season comes good. Having won at Imola in F3000, he knows he has what it takes to win in Italy, and after extensive testing at Barcelona and Paul Ricard post Bahrain, the team is moving closer to giving the Aussie a race winning car he craves.

Heidfeld will benefit from a new engine and surely it won't be too long until the team is fighting for the top step of the podium. As the scene of the first victory for the BMW Williams partnership back in 2001, Imola would be the ideal place for a return to victory lane.

Red Bull weren't as close to the pace in Bahrain as in the opening two rounds of the season, but it is a credit to the new boys that the team maintained its record of scoring at every race so far this season.

While the 100 percent scoring record may now be nothing more than a memory, the RB1 has undergone minor changes following testing in Barcelona that should help David Coulthard and the debuting Vitantonio Liuzzi to fight for points.

DC has admitted he is looking forward to letting Liuzzi steal the media attention ahead of his debut race, and the reigning F3000 champion will probably be under more pressure than anyone else on the grid as he makes his first race appearance in an F1 car in front of his home crowd. No-one doubts that Liuzzi is a fast and talented driver, and this is the opportunity for him to prove that Red Bull has made the right choice in giving him a three race stint alongside Coulthard.

Coulthard himself displayed all the fighting qualities that many thought he had lost in fighting into the points in Bahrain with a car the Scot admitted wasn't as close to the pace as in the opening two races of the year. If the former McLaren man can continue that form to Italy then there is a good chance that Red Bull could pick up more points this weekend.

The fact that article 58b of the regulations has changed to allow Christian Klien to drive the third car can only be seen as a plus point for the team with the youngster able to bring the knowledge he has gained over the past season into the weekend.

If motorsport can be compared to football, then Ferrari really need the tifosi to become the 'twelfth man' this weekend. The introduction of the F2005 in Bahrain may not have produced the result, with Michael Schumacher retiring and Rubens Barrichello failing to score, but it did provide the wounded champions with a noticeable improvement in performance as Schumacher started from the front row and battled with Alonso during the opening stages before he was forced out.

Ferrari boss Jean Todt is confident that the Scuderia are closer to Renault than many outsiders believe, but even if that isn't the case, the fanatical support of the home fans will no doubt help the team this weekend. It may have taken Ferrari longer than expected to adapt to life under the 2005 regulations but with it now looking like Schumacher has a car underneath him to take the fight to Alonso, Imola could be the place where the real season starts. Schumacher has won titles before in a car which isn't the best in the field, and with the gap to Alonso already 24 points, he has no option but to push as hard as he can to drive that gap down.

Barrichello is confident that the car has evolved in the three weeks since Bahrain and is a vast improvement on the old car and feels he can challenge this weekend, having just missed out on the points in the last race. If the Brazilian can avoid the technical gremlins that blighted his trip to the Middle East, we may yet see two scarlet cars fighting at the front.

There is no doubt that Ferrari were fast in Bahrain. If they can be both fast and reliable in San Marino then it could be a race to remember - and one to make the already excitable Italians go wild.

While others on the grid would disagree, especially Messrs Schumacher and Button, there remains one driver who needs to score points more than anybody else this weekend. After displays that can only be described as disappointing in Australia and Malaysia, it finally looked like Jacques Villeneuve was going to see an upturn in fortune in Bahrain, only for a collision with 'good friend' Coulthard to deprive him not only of a point but also of a finish.

With team boss Peter Sauber admitting the relationship between the team and its Canadian driver was 'strained,' that point could have made a world of difference, although the man himself insists he isn't letting the speculation about his future get in the way. However, regardless of how positive Villeneuve is going to San Marino - saying he feels he can score points this weekend - its difficult to believe that the rumours suggesting this could be his final race for the team will not be playing on his mind. Villeneuve has been around long enough to know that the best way to stop the rumours is to perform on track - time will tell if that's what he can do.

While everyone focuses on Villeneuve and his problems, team-mate Felipe Massa has quietly gone about his job and picked up the teams first points of the year with seventh in Bahrain. This weekend the Brazilian admits it will be tough if qualifying doesn't go to plan on a circuit that isn't easy to overtake on but he is optimistic that the improving C24 will allow him to fight for more points to add to his tally.

Three races, zero points - not the position BAR were expecting to be in as the European season kicks off, but San Marino could be where this all changes. Tests in Spain and France following Bahrain have seen BAR not only on the pace, but also running reliably - something which has been the teams 'achilles' heel' so far in 2005.

Jenson Button clinched pole position last season and followed it up with second place in the race, and the team would be delighted if he could repeat that performance this weekend. Having set the fastest time in Barcelona, Button has shown that the 007 has the speed and is much improved from the start of the season and the Brit will be desperate to get points on the board.

Team-mate Takuma Sato broke the unofficial lap record at Paul Ricard and like Button is looking forward to returning to racing in Europe after the challenging conditions of the fly away races. It's been said before, but BAR simply has to score points this weekend as the gap to the rest is already much larger than it should be for a team aiming to fight for the title.

San Marino is likely to much the same for Jordan. On the whole the team has been reliable with only one retirement so far, but both Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro aren't quite up to racing speed in Formula One and will continue their education in Italy. Both drivers are confident that they will be able to build on a steady, if unspectacular, start to the year, although the race will be more of a challenge for Indian racer Karthikeyan who will be making his Imola debut. While performances so far suggest points are unlikely, both Jordan's should still be there at the finish.

However San Marino is a huge race for Italy's second team. After the political issues that dogged the opening race of the season in Australia, the new PS05 should make its first appearance in a Grand Prix as Minardi attempts to pull itself away from the back of the grid. The car is a huge improvement on the one it replaces, especially in the engine department where Minardi is now on a par with Red Bull, but Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher shouldn't expect too much heading into the weekend with the car having completed only limited mileage and both rookies having lots to learn in relation to the new machine. In the long term however, this could be the car to help Minardi move forward.

The strong showing from Renault thus far has rewarded Michelin with a 100 percent winning record this season, showing that the extensive testing carried out in preparation for the new rules this season was more than worthwhile. For San Marino, Michelin will be bringing in a new tyre to cope with the challenges that Imola holds and will be hopeful that the pressure on rivals Bridgestone can be increased.

However Bridgestone are aiming to strike back this weekend after three race which 'may have been great for the spectators, but were not quite what we had hoped for.' Having worked closely with Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi the tyre manufacturer believes it is making steps forward, and with Ferrari hopeful that this weekend will be the one when the F2005 takes the team back to the front, a first win of the year isn't far away.

So far this season, 2005 has been the year of Renault, and that could well be extended to four wins from four this time around. However Ferrari, and Schumacher in particular, aren't used to losing and with the tifosi screaming on in support this could be the weekend when someone other than a member of the regie climbs on top of the podium.