Alonso leads Ferrari. Is this a sign of things to come in the 2010 season? (Getty)The Formula 1 season kicked off in a surprisingly quiet fashion as Ferrari stormed home to a one-two finish, with Fernando Alonso winning after Red Bull driver Sebestian Vettel's car suffered an exhaust problem only 15 laps to go when leading.
Felipe Massa looked in good form, seven months after a life-threatening crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix, after finishing behind race winner Alonso, while Hamilton cruised to third. Many were left wondering at the lack of competitiveness of Mercedes GP, and more particularly McLaren, with the latter up to one second down from the true pace of the impressive Vettel and the Ferraris.
Vettel's car had worked almost perfectly all weekend until lap 43 when his exhaust at the back of the car broke. This meant he lost power on the straights, critical at a circuit like Bahrain's Sahkir track where their main straight is a kilometre long.
Another German that impressed was Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, who outperformed team mate and seven-times World Champion Schumacher. To Schumacher's credit, he has not driven a Formula One race in some three years before Sunday. To finish sixth was a creditable result as he looks to get to grips with his Silver Arrows and the new rule changes. Mercedes are between around half a second to three quarters of a second behind the Ferraris and Red Bulls, so earning a great haul of points is essential in the opening races as they look to bring new aerodynamic parts for the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth race of the season, in May.
The season was billed as the most tense and unpredictable season since the late 1980s, when the likes of Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna were battling each other for World Championship glory. With the likes of Michael Schumacher, Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Vettel, it had every right to be. But the opening race saw very little overtaking, which would have done little to blow worldwide audiences away. The fact that Mark Webber for example, who stayed behind Button's car for over half the race unable to pass him, just showed how difficult passing is under these significant rule changes.
So Ferrari and Red Bull were the most competitive cars, and will be so in the next few races at least, but other teams down the field gave many fans and pundits much to talk about over the weekend, namely the new teams Virgin GP, Lotus and Hispania GP. Lotus had a car that proved to be most reliable and even jockeyed for position with Williams' Nico Hulkenburg, and the Saubers. A good showing from Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Truilli, and will look to build on an impressive showing in the team's first grand prix in nearly twenty years.
It was good to see Hispania make the grid on Sunday, after months of speculation that they would miss out the first few races because of lack of funding. But the sport needs to be realistic - the team is not good enough to get any world championship points this season, and if they are there next season, the team may not score any even then. Hispania were 12 seconds off the pace in qualifying, and Karun Chandhok failed to even compete two laps of Bahrain's lengthy circuit.
It is the FIA's job to approve teams to join the F1 franchise, but you need teams with quality, competitiveness, and potential. You can see those elements with Lotus and Virgin, as they have the funding to improve developments throughout the course of the season. It is unlikely this is the same case with Hispania, and I will be very surprised if they survive until the end of the season, as they are not commercially viable a team.
And as for the middle runners, you could see Force India and Renault causing some surprises. I was impressed by Renault driver Vitaly Petrov, who was in ninth at one stage until he was forced to retire as a consequence of a suspension problem. And Adrian Sutil in the Force India looks very competitiveness, and I cannot wait to see their pace in the long runs, as they can challenge Mercedes, and even McLaren during the season. I wouldn't be too surprised if this indeed was the case.
Some drivers were also complaining about the rule changes not favouring for track entertainment. Suffice to say, this was the case in a low-key race and we can expect to see races won from even the first lap. In Vettel's case, the German stayed out in front for 34 laps until his exhaust gave up on him, with Alonso in that period unable to have a sniff of an overtaking move on him.
The no refuelling rule favours consistency and tremendous awareness on car and tyre management. Cars will have to be very efficient as teams can only use up to the quota of eight engines throughout the season, but will these factors help races become boring? From this race alone, this might be the case. But as the teams develop their packages, fans will pray for more exciting racing rather than watching 24 cars just drive around a circuit in appearingly nonchalent fashion.
No comments:
Post a Comment