Bahrain Grand Prix - An eerie sense of deja vu

SAKHIR, BAHRAIN – APRIL 21: Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit

Basic Statistics:

Race: Gulf Air Bahrain Grand PrixRace No.: 04Location: Sakhir, Bahrain.Pole Position after Q3: P1: Nico Rosberg, Lap: 1m:32.330s. Team: Petronas AMG Mercedes.Race Winner: Sebastian Vettel Total Time: 1h:36m:00.498s. Team: Infiniti Red Bull Racing.

General Analysis:

It’s 2013, and we were down at Bahrain at this time of the year. Even though the political conditions remained as fragile as ever, the FIA and the Formula 1 management were successful in holding an incident-free race (as they have managed to do so over the past 2 years). Incidentally, Jean Todt had decided to stay away from the race and had left Bernie Eccelstone to manage the show at Sakhir this time around.

Track temperatures varied from an avg. of 36º to over 39º Celsius during the race. Tyre wear and tear was expected considering that the Pirelli compounds degraded easily under higher temperatures (as noticed in Sepang-Malaysia, 2013). Medium and Hard options were considered for the avg. 4 pit stop race. Additionally, a stiff 9m/s draft of airflow brought in some serious overtaking opportunities from time to time which eventually made for a very interesting race!

Technical Developments:

It was interesting to see that very few teams had brought in new aero packages to the desert. Red Bull had adopted a newer design to the fully-blown wheel hubs option (which were termed illegal in a previous variant by the FIA) as well as 3 new designs to the rear wing (behind the DRS flap). Eventually, the newer design was adopted in Friday’s practice session and the same were apparently carried over to Saturday’s qualifying session.

Ferrari, on the other hand, maintained the same aero package they raced with in Shanghai last week. However, a new mid-plate was noticed on the front wing which, not surprisingly, was very similar to the Lotus design that has been in place since the Australian Grand Prix this year.

Race Analysis:

The race started off with the top three contenders fighting to get into the front. Nico Rosberg valiantly held off a charging Alonso and Sebastian through the first few corners of the race. A flying Alonso overtook Sebastian from the outside on turn 1 and kept the racing line tight and blocked until turn 5, where Sebastian took an insane inside line before Alonso could position himself safely and overtook him. From there on, Sebastian tailed and drafted behind Nico trying to find a gap and overtake him. The superior straight line speed of the Mercedes with their passive DRS proved difficult to get through; but as the race went on, the degrading Pirelli tyres gave way to Vettel, who overtook Nico on Turn 1 right after the DRS zone.

Once Sebastian gained the lead, he started to set some fast lap times and distanced himself from the rest of the pack. Meanwhile, Alonso’s DRS wing failed to close in the first quarter of the race, forcing him to pit early and rendering his strategy useless. As unfortunate as that was, Alonso was committed to the situation and raced on (without his DRS). Shifting over to the harder compound, he started weaving through the back-end traffic to move into the points once again to finish at P8, while fighting Nico all the way. Massa’s collision saw his left front wing rip slightly off and saw the piece flapping constantly through the race. Massa also faced some serious degradation issues on his right rear tyre causing punctures, which saw him drop away from a strong P4 position to a disappointing P15.

SAKHIR, BAHRAIN – APRIL 21: Ferrari mechanics wait for a pitstop during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit

Force India had an awesome qualifying on Saturday, finishing a strong P5 and P6 for both the drivers. However, those positions didn’t help too much on Sunday. A collision at the start of the race saw Adrian limping on Lap 1; but a pit stop ensured that things were set in order and he regained his composure and raced to a 13^th place finish. Paul Di Resta (PDR), on the other hand, maintained a strong P3 after overtaking the ailing Ferrari of Alonso and an incident-free race for him meant he maintained a possibility of a podium finish until the flying lotus of Romain Grosjean overtook him while his tyres were worse for the wear midway through the race. Nevertheless, Force India and Paul Di Resta played an impressive strategy and secured 4th position at the end of the race.

Lotus had an equally good weekend at Sakhir. Even though their qualifying sessions didn’t go well, Lotus managed to correct their setup for the race and an impressive tyre strategy saw them convert Kimi’s P8 and Grosjean’s P11 into P2 and P3 respectively at the end of the race. What was really noticed all along was the pace the Lotus was able to produce while still maintaining their tyres all the way from the start to the finish.

Mercedes saw some disappointing tyre degradation which forced a P1 Nico Rosberg to finish all the way down at P9. In addition to their tyre woes, a few tactically flawed pit-stops for Nico saw him lose his potential podium finish. However, a resurgent Lewis Hamilton, who was penalized at the start for a gear box change, raced through the lot during the end stages and posted a very competitive P5 which put Mercedes in a better position than expected at the start of the race.

McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Sergio Perez had a bad qualifying on Saturday, to say the least. Jenson posted a quiet P10 and Sergio, who was knocked out in Q2, posted a P12. Those grid positions didn’t stop them from showcasing some very entertaining peer rivalry and a lot of competitive racing all through the race. Sergio, who found some decent grip on his harder options, forced Jenson over the chicanes a few times, providing some wheel banging and causing Jenson to complain over his pit radio to his race engineer. Eventually Chico ended up posting a decent P6. Jenson, who had to pit due to tyre wear, posted another P10, not improving on his grid position.

Red Bull’s strong performance at Bahrain in the past showed how dominant they could be once they were ahead. Sebastian Vettel’s composed drive and a few fastest laps saw him create a very large gap at the beginning of the race. Armed with his grandmother’s lucky charm and a very appealing Red Bull Stratos helmet, Sebastian’s grit, determination and patience proved that he was indeed a race-winning talent. However, concern over Mark Webber’s performance loomed heavily in the Red Bull Pit Garage, a disappointed pit lane crew showcased how sour things had gotten over the past few days. As if that was not enough, rumours about Mark making an exit at the end of the season were not helping things at the RBR camp on Sunday either. A 3-place grid penalty saw Mark drop down to P7. Eventually, after another incident and collision (which was to be inspected by the race stewards), Mark finished right where he started – at P7.

The final standings brought in an eerie sense of deja vu. The 2013 Bahrain GP saw the same drivers – in the same finishing positions – with the same teams at the podium as last year. Something to take back from this is how Kimi aptly put it at the post race interview – “Today we got good points, we didn’t lose too many to Sebastian but obviously it doesn’t help to finish second if he’s winning all the time.”

Conclusion:

With the F1 season well and truly underway now, will Red Bull continue their dominance for a 4^th straight season or will we see Ferrari and Lotus stepping up to take their rightful place on the podium?

Only time will tell.