2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
(19 March 2010)
2010 has been heralded as the start of a new era in Formula 1. The racing was going to be a closely fought hand-to-hand - sorry, wheel-to-wheel battle, refuelling was to be abolished, the dimensions of the front wheels were to be reduced. There were three sets of tyres to be used in dry conditions: soft, intermediate, and hard. The points system was to be altered so that it would be imperative for a driver to finish in as high a position as possible in every race in order to accrue the maximum number of championship points at the end of the season. I always thought that was the general idea anyway, but there you go.
The new word in F1 was going to be "procession" . . . no, sorry for the mistake. That was the old word. The new one was one We haven't seen evidence for in years - "overtaking"! Unfortunately, by the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix it was obvious that I hadn't made a mistake after all. "Procession" will still be the operative word for the foreseeable future.
If one views the first Grand Prix of the season as a portent of things to come, one's first thoughts could well be summed up as "pretty grim". We were all told that it was going to be a new beginning of exciting racing. If the first Grand Prix was anything to go by, 2010 will be yet another damp squib.
It is alleged that drivers were complaining of not being able to overtake because their rivals were not in the pits long enough since there wasn’t any refuelling. I always thought that the objective was to out-drive the guy in front, but no - apparently you still have to overtake by "strategy". You catch the other guy when he is safely in the pits taking on fuel and tyres. You can't get close enough to the car in front to get by in the race because you lose downforce. Tyre management now also appears to be a particular problem with the extra fuel, which prevented drivers from extending their cars early in the race because of tyre degradation.
When I read things like the above, I remember Valentino Rossi overtaking his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on the inside at the final corner in the MotoGP event at Catalunya last year. It was absolutely impossible, and yet he went by using just his skill and mental discipline to keep him on the track. He had to of course, since the risks of injury are so much greater.
Grand Prix drivers are true racers in exactly the same way. Guys like Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Webber, Schumacher (who raced bikes after he retired) and others, would provide fantastic racing if only they had suitable equipment. The problem is that if things continue in this way, and one driver has to be stationery in order for another one to overtake the public will inevitably lose interest.
With regard to the drivers in 2010, I feel that it will take at least three races before a pattern begins to establish. There is no doubt in my mind that Vettel would have won had it not been for the sparking plug problem. It is alleged that Alonso at the beginning of the race was "biding his time" - one way of explaining the fact that Vettel had gained two seconds on him on the first lap. Fernando is, however, a double World Champion, and it is nice to see him in a good car this season.
Massa put in a great performance in his first race after his accident; therefore I am sure there is still more to come from him once he gets settled. The same goes for Rosberg, Hamilton, Schumacher and Webber. But one must make some further comment regarding Sebastian Vettel, since there is no doubt in my mind that he is "the man" this year.
One of the great advantages of F1 TV broadcasting is the in-car camera, which allows you to watch a race driver at work and listen to the engine revs rising and falling in relation to the driver's line and movement of the steering wheel. From this you can see that most of the time Sebastian uses the kerbs to an absolute minimum, and appears to have so much time to do everything. A real class act.
