Bahrain Grand Prix Review

Of course, the weekend was also the first trial for the latest raft of new rules. The 2.4 litre V8s produced a deeper, less raspy sound, and the power loss down the straights was noticeable to the naked eye, but this was negated by the return of tyre changes and soft rubber, and thankfully after testing worries Bridgestone and Michelin seemed close to being on par with each other, despite different cycles of peak performance. As a result, lap times were only a second or two down on last year.

Yes, cynics will argue that there’s been so much cost expended for so little lap time difference, but let’s look past that. The torque of the V8 engines, plus higher corner speeds but slower acceleration, seems to promote better slipstreaming and closer wheel-to-wheel action. There was much dicing and passing from race start to race finish, just the right amount to keep both irregular viewers and purists happy without turning F1 into a made-for-the-masses series like NASCAR.

The new knock-out qualifying system was a resounding success, full of drama and tactics. In the first two segments, clearly the biggest strategic question is, do you set a banker time early when the track is greener, or do you leave it until the last few minutes, when you will have to cope with the pressure of having only one lap to do the job when everyone else is out there and the track is chaotic? Although the latter is more optimal in terms of lap time, track conditions and car wear, consider the inherent risk.

Even the last segment, when for the first 15 minutes most of the top ten are running around burning off fuel, proved interesting. Like a movie trailer, it was a teaser as to their race fuel loads. The only improvement for the entire session would be to improve the television graphics, such that you see the full field and can tell who’s moved up where, and when. Directors, commentators and the television graphics simply could not keep up with the frenetic pace towards the end of any of the three segments.

Renault proved that indeed they will once again be hard to beat in 2006. We knew Alonso had the outright speed from both practice and especially Q1 and Q2, but a mistake in Q3 put him behind the Ferraris from the start. After avoiding the near-sideswipe from Felipe Massa, the masterstroke of making a front wing adjustment at his first stop, and excellent work from the Renault crew at the second, allowed the Spaniard to edge in front of Michael Schumacher and hold him off to the finish.

In short it was an excellently controlled and consistent drive from Fernando, utilising his and the car’s speed when it mattered. The only blip was his irritation with the lack of blue flags as he came towards his second stop. Perhaps this was justifiable, but gesticulating at other drivers doesn’t help at the best of times - especially when they are still so far off into the distance that they’d never see you anyway! But it showed that this was a pressure motor race in what will be a pressure year.

Meanwhile, it was a horror start to the season for Giancarlo Fisichella, who had talked up his chances of winning both in Bahrain and the title as a whole. Once again, he bore Renault’s reliability problems, with an engine mapping glitch affecting him in both qualifying and the race, and finally a hydraulic failure that put him out. His verbal abuse over the radio was understandable but unfounded. There is a long way to go in the season; he must stay calm and simply hope that this season won’t be a case of deja vu.

Ferrari are back, short and simple. The good news is that the 248 F1 is fast and reliable, and the Bridgestones seem to be able to hold the pace long enough. It was in many respects a command performance from Schumi, pushing all the way, with stunning out-laps on heavy fuel after both stops. His demeanour on the podium and in the post-race press conference said it all. He was genuinely relieved and pleased, and he is truly confident; he will now only be inspired to work even harder. Everyone else look out.

But if there is one troubling aspect for Michael, it is that Alonso is now 3-0 up on him in a head-to-head: first Imola last year, then Suzuka with that pass at 130R, and now holding Schumi off again here in Bahrain. It seems like Alonso and Raikkonen now have the confidence and maturity to not get intimidated by Michael. Indeed, it was the German being occasionally untidy, locking up, sticking his nose in, losing time. If he is going to win an 8th title, he can’t simply rely on out-racing the others in a dogfight.

Michael or others would have applied cadence braking so as not to severely flatspot the one patch of rubber. That was followed by the disastrous tyre stop reminiscent of Nurburgring 1999, although this time it was an air gun failure rather than simple Ferrari mechanic mismanagement. Having said that, the response to the air gun problem was slow and panicked. The rest of Felipe’s day turned into a test drive. We know he is fast, but clearly he remains erratic. The jury on him as a worthy Ferrari driver remains hung.

McLaren began the weekend by adding to their financial clout, announcing Emirates Airlines as a new sponsor to bedeck those oh-so-fluoro-red front and rear wings. But when Raikkonen’s suspension failure hit in Q1, you could imagine everyone thinking, “here we go again, it’s 2005 all over”. But by race’s end, a storming drive from Kimi, a decent if subdued effort from Juan-Pablo Montoya, and McLaren had managed to bring both cars home in the points to join Renault in the early lead of the constructors’ title.

Clearly, McLaren are in the mix, even if on outright speed they can’t match Renault or Ferrari, and it will take recurring double-finishes to prove their reliability. Raikkonen’s charge from the back of the grid up to the fringes of the top 10 was superb, but he then had difficulty getting past Jacques Villeneuve’s BMW. It was only through the Finn’s one-stop strategy that he vaulted up to 3rd, and even he was more effusive post-race than he is normally. Not only Michael, but the Iceman is also on the prowl.

Honda will come out of this weekend with both positives and negatives, although on balance they will see it as something of a missed opportunity. They backed up their testing form and their recent session at Sakhir by showing great speed, from Button’s car at least. Despite everyone predicting great things, Rubens Barrichello struggled unfathomably throughout, never came near Button’s pace, then lost 3rd gear in the race and came home 15th. He’ll have to hope that that kind of dismal showing is a one off.

Button, though, lost out badly when he had difficulty getting off the line, both for the warm-up lap and the start proper. It cost him track position and left him spending all race squabbling with one or other of the McLarens, before and after his pit stops. Proving that he can also mix it in terms of racing instinct, his two moves on Montoya were awesome, the first one particularly, lunging in under brakes from way back. Admittedly, it was not a totally on-song JPM; Jenson never got a look-in later on against Raikkonen.

Still, the inherent pace of the RA106 is there, and Button has a right to take heart and feel as though, on his and Honda’s day, that first win could well be coming soon, and the former BAR are genuine contenders this year. Perhaps not genuine contenders for outright wins but certainly some podiums, Williams were a pleasant surprise. The Bridgestones remained consistent on them as well, and the Cosworth V8 lived up to all the pre-season hype, proving both powerful and reliable.

In the fickle world of F1, Nico Rosberg’s debut made most observers run out of superlatives. Fourth fastest in Q1, missing out on the top ten after a spin in Q2, and a mistake into the first corner causing a collision with Nick Heidfeld (sadly not the contretemps between Williams and BMW that physicists had been waiting for - check out our off-season podcast if you don’t know what we’re talking about), was not entirely the most auspicious start to his Grand Prix career.

But after his extra stop for a new nose came a blinding charge through the field including fastest lap of the race, and two awesome overtaking manoeuvres on the Red Bull drivers, the most notable of which was his feint on Klien before diving down into turn 1. Sam Michael said he could have finished on the podium, his dad Keke Rosberg was overjoyed, and Jackie Stewart called it the best debut he’d seen in a long time. A brand new star in the making? Hang on a minute.

Webber had been faster in practice and when it mattered, in Q2. Mark was also in a position to conserve whereas Nico had to charge - at what cost to his performance in Malaysia? Also, Rosberg’s last competitive outing had been a double victory in the last GP2 round at ... Bahrain. Sure, it was a very impressive debut when he had nothing to lose, but only if he sparkles likewise in Malaysia and Australia, on tracks he hasn’t seen, and he starts putting Webber in the shade, then he’ll prove his credentials.

Still, Klien would have lost out to the Williams anyway on the back of Mark’s consistency, and although he was eventually passed by Rosberg as well, on the flip side he completely decimated Coulthard, who had shown up in Bahrain with a new girlfriend in tow. DC never looked like surviving Q2, and although he did a manful job on a one-stop strategy, having been Red Bull’s main man in 2005, it was somewhat disconcerting to see him so outshone by his team-mate. He’ll need to reassert himself quickly.

But there is great potential there, and likewise at BMW Sauber. Both Heidfeld and Villeneuve had encouraging pace in parts throughout the weekend, and looked able to meddle in the midfield and perhaps even trouble the top guns. To give him credit where it’s due, Villeneuve narrowly missed out on getting into Q3, and throughout the weekend he was more impressive than he’d been in a very long time. The silver lining to his engine blow-up is that he’ll have a new motor in Malaysia whereas others won’t ...

Heidfeld left it too late in Q3 to set a flying time, made a mistake on his one lap, and started 10th when he reckoned he could have been as high as 6th. He didn’t recover from being hit by Rosberg at the first corner quite as quickly, and he also was rightly reprimanded for leaving Coulthard no racing room and pushing him off the track during their mid-race stoush, but his pace was steady until the latter parts of the race. BMW are definitely contenders for points and dark horses for the odd podium finish.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Toyota
Big budget, revised aero - and all for what?

Toro Rosso certainly had the wood on MF1, and Midland boss Colin Kolles will no doubt be even more vocal about the equivalency injustice. One can understand the point that he and Norbert Haug were making pre-race (even if Haug’s prediction that the Toro Rossos would make the podium sounded fanciful). STR added some spice to the midfield, which was welcome, but at the cost of fair play? Especially when Toro Rosso is nowhere near as impecunious as Minardi were? The formula needs to be tweaked, and soon.

The one shattering disappointment this weekend however was Toyota. So much for their early launch last year, so much for their gigantic budget, so much for the much-vaunted new aero upgrade that, as Toyota folk had been trumpeting, had come out even before the first race of the season. Frankly, this was almost in the same league as BAR 1999 when it comes to high-spending, big-talking embarrassments. As feared in the latter stages of testing, the TF106 simply could not gel with the Bridgestone tyres.

At least Mike Gascoyne was courageous enough to admit that he and his engineers had stuffed up royally, instead of blaming the Bridgestones, when clearly the Japanese rubber had worked on the Ferraris and Williams. There is something desperately awry with the aerodynamics, such that they can’t generate any grip from or wear into the tyres. The result? Ralf Schumacher getting knocked out in Q1, Jarno Trulli in Q2, and hopeless 14th and 16th place finishes, and the 'Reject of the Race' award.

To add insult to injury, the Toyotas were not much faster than the MF1s, when the Midlands were having a troubled weekend of their own. Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro would probably have wanted to show a little bit more pace, but generally their speed was not that bad. Their problem is that, outside of Renault, Ferrari, McLaren and Honda, the Williamses, Red Bulls and BMW Saubers pack what looks like a very competitive midfield. It doesn’t leave much for MF1 to aim for.

Still, they can currently target providing further headaches to their engine suppliers, as well as putting Toro Rosso back in their place. But to do that, they will need better reliability, Monteiro being forced to switch to the spare car and start in the pit lane, and Albers’ driveshaft failing at the start. Alternatively, the Dutchman and his team-mate can do battle with each other, Albers drawing first blood, perhaps surprisingly, by going faster than Monteiro in Q1 before they were both knocked out.

Which brings us to our favourite team, Super Aguri. They are just on a totally different planet at the moment in terms of pace and professionalism. Clearly, the old 107% rule no longer applies. If it did, Takuma Sato only just got under it, and Yuji Ide never came close, having spent all weekend around the 1min 40s mark, when the top men were 8.5 to 9s quicker. The old 107% rule used to keep trundlers and pay-drivers out, but perhaps it’s undiplomatic to use it to bar the new, 11th, FIA-aligned team?

Overall, though, things were looking up for seven of the eleven teams, and that has to bode well for the remainder of the season. Most predictions were that this would be an unpredictable year, and there would have been nothing in Bahrain to change that opinion. Add to that the increasing but eerie sense of co-operation and unanimity between the teams, the manufacturers, and the governing body, and suddenly all seems to be well in the world of F1.

Hard as it is to imagine, it appears as though all the teams, including Ferrari, have signed an in-season testing agreement, preserving the three-week test ban in the middle of the year, and limiting testing to 36 days, but 72 on a nominated home track. OK, so the latter qualification doesn’t exactly do much for cost-cutting, nor does it take away from Ferrari’s advantage at Fiorano, but at least they all compromised and agreed. Twelve months ago hell would have frozen over before that was possible.

Plus both Bernie Ecclestone and Ron Dennis, from opposite camps, have hinted at the imminent resolution to the wrangling between the FIA and the GPMA. Will wonders never cease? In an increasingly overcrowded marketplace for exposure, both in the world of sport as a whole but within motor-racing itself, Formula One has finally started to get its house into order, and the kind of show we got in Bahrain, both on and off the track, will do much for restoring it to the preeminence it deserves.