Onwards to our first night race, Bahrain. Bahrain first held a race in 2004 and was the the first Formula 1 race to be held in the Middle East.
The most successful driver at this track is Fernando Alonso with three victories. Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel have two victories each. Could it be that Hamilton or Vettel join Alonso this coming weekend on three victories apiece? I'd say there's a pretty good chance!
The most successful constructor here is Ferrari with four victories. Could they extend that to five? Two of their previous victories were courtesy of Felipe Massa, who incidentally will be the only driver to have competed in every Bahrain GP. Sounding like a bit of a 'Massa track' . Williams looked off it last weekend, perhaps this will be their comeback track? That's open to debate (massadebate)
This is one of only three current tracks that McLaren have never won at. I think you'd get very long odds if you fancied a punt on them altering that statistic this coming weekend.
Something worth keeping an eye on as the season progresses, is the relative performances of team mates in the top three teams. Are we seeing number 1 drivers emerge, not by design but by outcome? It's early days for Bottas in a new car, but he needs to step it up to keep Hamilton honest. Raikkonen is losing credibility. It's a bit closer call thus far with the Bull boys.
This track can be difficult to set the car up for, with its long main and back straights connected by corners with a variety of speeds. Added to that there is the sand blowing into the track from the surrounding desert. So practice sessions are going to be important.
The first corner is tight, Last year Bottas hit Hamilton and received a punishment for his efforts. But you could say the greater punishment fell to Hamilton. He eventually recovered to 3rd place. Had he finished 2nd or above he'd have been 2016 F1 World Driver Champion. Now that they're teammates, let's hope they don't get up close and personal in the first corner this year!
“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”
China was an immediate tonic F1 needed, let's hope Bahrain can at least give us 2-3 high quality overtakes between front runners and the happiness and renewed joy can carry on.
2019 - The year Mercedes knocks Ferrari off their perch.
Yeah, this is a serious power circuit with late braking overtakes available. Remember this is the place that gave us the Nico, Hamilton duel that seems so long ago already. Never did we see that again.
It would be nice to see the same between Vettel and Hamilton here this year, instant everything is right with the world feedback from all the Ferrari fans coming out of the woodwork. We would have a nice season after that indeed.
Bottas has to take points away from Ferrari starting with this circuit, otherwise he's done at the end of the year, probably wind up back at Williams.
When you are torn between choices, always pick the one that will make the best story. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Let's face it though, that 'epic' battle was simply the way all the jigsaws fell into place perfectly; A lesser driver having a big technical advantage, and an absolute legend having to defend his position against that lesser driver.
2019 - The year Mercedes knocks Ferrari off their perch.
Watching the driver interviews and MY GOD Vandoorne is dull! He tried to make a joke and it fell so flat, even those who might have thought he was serious didn't care!
I felt bad for Palmer and Magnussen being on the same interview as Alonso. He really has stolen the headlines this week. 90% of the interviews with all drivers I've seen across NBC/Sky/FIA have been questions on Indy!
There was no point whatsoever running in FP1 the temperature differences are just too great, we'll probably see a lot of the same for FP3. FP2 is going to be crazy busy though.
Merc on completely different programme for FP1, FP2 mighty close between all three teams. Hamilton got his lap screwed by Hulkenberg and aborted..was going 2 tenths quicker than Vettel in S1, finished 5th.
2019 - The year Mercedes knocks Ferrari off their perch.
Rumors abound this weekend as Ferrari's sudden change of fortunes this year may be coming to a quick crash now that there's more evidence of what they're doing both with the rear wing/diffuser and the floor of the car. You know how it ended for Red Bull's floppy wings, I'm thinking we're going to get some serious clarification of the rules along with some new testing for the parts in question.
The suspicion is that the various floor elements above are contracting and expanding at different rates with heat perhaps from cooling oil, to effectively curve the floor and get better ground effects out of the downward movement. Can you say moveable aero boys and girls?
The other part in question is their use of two rear wing support, something that's an aerodynamic disadvantage, yet Ferrari are running with it. The idea is that there's movement from the diffuser pushing the rear wing up reducing drag in the straights, increasing their top speed.
Hopefully the FiA will sort this all very quickly.