Kudos to the first Bahrain Grand Prix and a polished performance by Ferrari, but the Scuderia’s competitors were in absolute shambles, writes CAR deputy editor John Bentley.
The Middle East’s first F1 Grand Prix was an unqualified success, the Kingdom of Bahrain providing magnificent facilities, slick organisation and a modern, state-of-the-art track that encourages overtaking.
In fact, the Bahrain Grand Prix must have featured more dramatic overtaking manoeuvres than the first two races of the season combined.
Sadly for the popularity of Formula One, however, all the action was behind
the Ferrari 1-2 steamroller. The red cars again put on a near-perfect performance, while the opposition fluffed their game.
But that’s the crux of the matter: don’t blame Ferrari for dominating, censure the opposition for doing a less than professional job.
Certainly, as at the opener in Melbourne, and at the second round in Malaysia, unexpected cooler conditions on race day may have made things a little easier for the Scuderia and their Bridgestone tyres.
But, by and large, the opposition’s woes had nothing to do with a tyre disadvantage. To
varying degrees, sloppy driving, sloppy pitwork and a lack of reliability all played their part in the downfall of Williams-BMW and McLaren-Mercedes-Benz.
Will things be more evenly poised at Imola in three weeks time? I fear not.
After all, Michael Schumacher blitzed the lot of them at the final pre-season test session at the circuit before the teams left for Australia.
– John Bentley