Bahrain Grand Prix Review

But first, the event and the track itself. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to bring Formula One to the Middle East for the first time, and it showed. The facilities appear spectacular, and, with the assistance of officials from the Australian Grand Prix, the weekend seemed to go ahead without a hitch, which is much to the credit of the Bahrain organisers. The much-vaunted terrorist threat either never eventuated or was quietly quelled, and one could be thankful for that. One mightn't have been so thankful for the bizarre wastepaper-basket trophies that were handed out on the podium, but that was a minor thing.

While the facilities in general drew resounding praise, the drivers in particular were more equivocal about the track itself, several complaining that there were too many first or second gear corners, and Jordan rookie Giorgio Pantano even labelling the track as "certainly not hard". This was entirely true, for Sakhir really is little more than a power-on, power-off circuit, with only glimpses of the balls-out, tail-sliding sweepers which have made Sepang, Spa and Suzuka the drivers' favourites.

But, as is often the Hermann Tilke hallmark these days, the combination of slow turns and long straights is conducive to passing, and if the drivers' personal exhilaration is sacrificed at the expense of a good show overall, then so be it. Perhaps the only major criticism of the track is the inevitable soullessness of the areas away from the spectator stands. The much-hyped 'racing through the dunes' effect didn't eventuate, and instead of a mystical desert feel, large parts of the track just seemed sterile and, pardon the pun, deserted.

In addition, didn't Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello lock out the front row of the grid in the middle of Saturday afternoon when conditions were as warm as it got all weekend? The simple fact of the matter is that Michael and Ferrari are currently peerless and at the top of their games, able to extract the best out of every situation, which happens to be way better than anyone else. The result was another relatively untroubled stroll to victory for the great German, and there's not much to say after that.

As is Michael's style, though, at the moment he is giving no quarter to his team-mate. As we saw in 2002, only after his own championship victory is secure will he get into the shenanigans of helping Rubens to maximise his position. The result is an increasingly disgruntled Barrichello who is finding the 2004 vintage Schumacher harder than ever to equal, let alone beat. Another not-so-flawless and not-so-speedy performance had him well outside striking distance of Michael, even if he was way out of anyone else's grasp.

Like in Melbourne where he also came second, Barrichello only needed to be asked one question in the official post-race press conference. That was because once again the Brazilian proceeded to give such a convoluted answer to explain why he couldn't match Michael's pace, blaming almost every niggling little problem under the sun, such that his apparent inferiority complex has never been so obvious. Oh for the day when Rubens will simply admit the blatant truth: "I'm just not as good as Michael."

However, even if race pace suggested that neither Williams would have held a candle to the Ferrari duo, both JPM and Ralf Schumacher never even gave themselves a chance of track position, even though both were perfectly placed to start from pole. The Colombian was ahead of Michael after sector two, only to lose a slab of time in sector three; Ralf, who had been fastest in first qualifying, then proceeded to screw up his second sector. Compounding errors like that are not the stuff of title challenges.

But even if Montoya did his best in the race, Ralf continued to show why Williams are keen to slash his pay or drop him altogether for 2005, and why he is totally not worth the money he was reputed to be demanding from Toyota during the week. He once again confirmed just what a clumsy racer he can be when he collided with Takuma Sato early on and came off second best himself. Ralf was simply unreasonable, if not downright arrogant, in trying to pinch the BAR for space like that.

He then limped what turned out to be a perfectly healthy car back to the pits in an almost spoilt fashion, promptly hit members of his own pit crew, and clipped Giancarlo Fisichella en route way back to a lousy 7th, the ninth straight race in which he has not looked remotely like getting onto the podium. For his trouble, he earned a bagging from James Allen and Martin Brundle on ITV, criticism in the press from Patrick Head, who called his race "a bloody mess", a reprimand from the stewards ... and also our 'Reject of the Race' award.

Fernando Alonso, however, continued what has been a slightly faltering start to the season. Brake troubles contributed to mistakes in all three sectors of his final qualifying lap, leaving him faster than only the Minardis. From the start, after being squeezed and then clipped by an aggressive Christian Klien, causing another stop after just one lap to change his nosecone, he then had another furious dogfight with Mark Webber, and 6th (almost 5th) in the circumstances was probably a bonus result.

But if being able to climb that high despite adversity was a testament to the Spaniard's aggression, then so too the fact that he got himself into trouble at all. It's one thing to drive at eleven tenths all the time; it's another to be able to curb that aggression as befits the situation in order to extract the maximum without going over the limit. One wonders if he might have been a little bit more circumspect during his qualifying lap, which might have resulted in a higher grid position.

Throughout the race as he fought his way back up the field, it was innumerable the number of times he dodged inside or outside his opponent at the most inopportune places, which put him off line and into all the dirt and marbles at exactly the moment he should have been tucked behind the other car shaping for a move at the next corner. Obviously, along with the aggression for which he received so much adulation last year, there is still quite a high degree of impetuosity.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Ralf Schumacher
How much is he asking Toyota for, again?

BAR performed closer to their best than any other non-Ferrari team, recording their best ever team result of 3rd for Jenson Button and 5th for Sato, but there were still faults in their performance, without which they might have given Maranello a scare even if they didn't beat the Prancing Horses. Let's not forget, of course, that in the second free practice session on Saturday, Button set the fastest lap of the weekend, dipping into the mid 1 minute 29s, so the genuine pace was there.

How they hurt themselves was that the faster Button qualified behind his team-mate and made a poorer start. Imagine what might have happened if Jenson ran 3rd right from the start; he may have been able to harry the Ferraris even if he stayed 3rd all race. Instead, he found himself trapped behind Sato, and, going by his post-race press-conference comments, had it not been for his team-mate's error in running wide and damaging his front wing, he would have been holding station.

In the end, the fitting result prevailed, and Button secured his second-straight podium which confirms the real BAR threat this season. As mentioned above, it has the Brackley team well and truly in that trio of outfits chasing the Ferraris. And in some ways, they have been more consistent than Williams and Renault. If Sir Frank and Flavio's men continue to make errors like in Bahrain, it is not inconceivable that BAR could emerge as Ferrari's main challenger. How must Jacques Villeneuve be feeling?

If Williams, Renault and BAR are in the bracket directly below Ferrari, then the team noticeably missing is McLaren. Their sustained woeful performance in the first three races of the year have them down with Jaguar and perhaps Sauber as the teams that realistically are only looking at the lower half of the points at best. In this new era of long-life engines, for Kimi Raikkonen to suffer two engines during the weekend, and to record his third straight engine-failure DNF, is simply inexcusable.

Mercedes and Ilmor ought to be embarrassed at the moment. They are wasting what seems to be a great enough chassis, they are down on power and they are not even remotely reliable. Out of 20 starters, there were only three retirements, and the silver cars constituted two of them. Already 30 points behind Schumi, Kimi can kiss his title hopes goodbye already, although one wonders if the fact that his engine keeps blowing whereas Coulthard's does not may have something to do with driving style.

One doubts that DC's late retirement means much to him, as you wouldn't think that he's interested in 7th or 8th anyway. Also, what's going through JPM's head, knowing that he's joining this mob next year? After the race, Ron Dennis talked tough when he said: "Whatever it is you are considering, if you look at the last 20 years we are very much at the top. Nobody can win all the time but we are certainly not here to lose. We will be back." He should be reminded that McLaren have now not won for 17-straight races.

Obviously, even the best drivers have their off-weekends, and apart from dropping 0.7 to Klien on sector one of his qualifying lap, recording the slowest first sector of all, Webber was faster than Klien in the other two sectors. Arguably also, Bahrain being a new track to everyone, those with natural talent flowing from their fingertips will adjust to it faster than others. Even if Klien was rushed from the F3 Euroseries into F1 too soon, and he was brought in for his money, his intrinsic talent is worth remembering.

And though Webber is also talented, there is more of a grafting, hard-work mentality that contributes to his successes, and come race day it was he who shone and Klien who languished. Mark's superb start (if only he had started that well in Malaysia!) and brilliant first lap was matched by an equally forceful race which had him in or near the points all race. Even if it was fortunate that he pipped Montoya to the last point on the last lap, no one would argue that points were not deserved on this day.

Klien's race started eventfully when he hounded Raikkonen, and twice the Austrian made bold moves inside the McLaren, only to have Kimi retake him on corner exit. But after a lazy spin when he put too much of his right wheels onto a kerb, his race went silent as he finished 14th. Up to that point he had been one of the stars of the weekend. He now needs to know how to add the finishing touches to string a whole weekend together, instead of just being content to bring the car home way down the order.

Toyota repeated their usual trick from last year, flattering to deceive by qualifying well on a light fuel load, only to fall away in the race. Except last year when they did that they could qualify in the top five. Here they were only 8th and 9th, and neither Olivier Panis or Cristiano da Matta had particularly impressive races, their strategy putting paid to any real chance of points. Both have to be careful that Toyota's current mediocrity does not translate into their own because right now it's heading that way.

Jordan received what seemed to be an inordinate amount of coverage during the race, not surprising since the Bahrain GP has been one of their main backers. It will be interesting to see what happens in terms of their sponsorship from here. Although Nick Heidfeld is clearly trying hard, both he and Pantano are struggling with a package that is simply not fast or reliable enough. Considering that they have the same Cosworths as Jaguar, their number of engine-related problems in practice has been staggering.

And finally, Minardi continue to look decidedly amateurish, even more so than in previous years, by virtue not only of their lack of speed, but also their endless stream of reliability issues. Gianmaria Bruni however continues to show some spark behind the wheel, and had it not been for the electrical glitch that had him starting two laps behind he might have been able to dice with the Jordans, whilst Zsolt Baumgartner is still unable to repeat his respectable debut performance in Hungary last year.