He came under brief pressure from Kimi Raikkonen in the middle part of the race, but eased ahead in the final stint to win by 3.3 seconds.
Romain Grosjean made it two Lotuses on the podium, taking third place.
Vettel pulls ahead
Vettel’s start looked much like one of his 2011 getaways – he pulled effortlessly clear of the pack on the first lap.
Behind him Hamilton and Webber held their positions at the start, but Grosjean made a superb getaway to take up fourth behind the Red Bull.
It quickly became clear the Lotuses had strong pace. Grosjean passed Webber for third place then caught and passed Hamilton for second. But he couldn’t make much impression on Vettel, who was already almost five seconds ahead.
Meanwhile Raikkonen, who had slipped behind Felipe Massa at the start, re-passed the Ferrari and started to make progress of his own. He took a second per lap off the other Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, and passed him easily in the DRS zone.
Early pit stops
Despite the cooler temperatures on race day, drivers found their tyres dropping off quickly. On lap eight Button radioed his pits and warned them his tyres had gone off – he came in at the end of the lap, accompanied by Massa and Rosberg.
Next time by the pits were packed with Hamilton, Webber, Alonso, Perez, Senna, Schumacher and Hulkenberg all making stops. Hamilton fell behind many of them as he suffered the first of two slow pit stops due to a problem at the left-rear of the car.
He emerged behind Rosberg’s Mercedes and tried to go up the inside of him heading to turn four. Despite being squeezed off the track, Hamilton kept his foot in and took the place.
Meanwhile Vettel was in the happy position of being able to pit after most of his pursuers – with one exception. Paul di Resta stayed out and led a lap before Vettel took the lead back.
Grosjean also passed the Force India shortly before Di Resta headed for the pits. The gap between him and Vettel remained little changed after the first pit stops, Grosjean now 5.2s behind Vettel.
Raikkonen emerges from the midfield
But Raikkonen was coming on strong. On lap 13 he got down the inside of Mark Webber at turn 11 for third place.
He now set about reducing the gap to his team mate, who was 2.9s up the road. By lap 21 the gap was down to a second and Raikkonen prepared to attack his team mate using DRS.
Grosjean held on for a couple of laps while Raikkonen urged his team to take action, telling them “I have to get past”. By lap 24 he was through, Grosjean not fighting him for the place at turn one.
The next time by Vettel came into the pits. Grosjean came in on the same lap but Red Bull’s turnaround was quick enough to have Vettel on his way again before the Lotus had come to a stop.
Raikkonen began making inroads on Vettel’s lead after he pitted. Over the course of the third stint he edged a tenth here, a tenth there, and cut Vettel’s lead from 2.2s on lap 27 to just a few tenths by lap 34.
On the next two laps Raikkonen attacked the Red Bull driver using DRS, but couldn’t get by. At the second time of asking Vettel made a late move to cover the inside of turn one, obliging Raikkonen to switch to the outside, from where he couldn’t make a move stick.
That was the closest Raikkonen came to wresting the lead from Vettel. From then on he slipped back slowly.
Hamilton hits trouble again
Hamilton’s second pit stop went more or less as badly as his first and left him outside of the top ten for several laps.
Meanwhile Alonso was the latest driver to come up against Rosberg, who repeated his robust defensive move on the approach to turn four. A furious Alonso criticised Rosberg on the radio afterwards, and the stewards declared they would investigate Rosberg’s driving against Hamilton and Alonso after the race.
He wasn’t the only frustrated driver. Di Resta had criticised Pastor Maldonado’s defensive moves earlier on, before taking advantage of the scrap between the Williams driver and Sergio Perez to pass the pair of them at turn four.
As di Resta gambled on making two pit stops while others preferred three, he came under pressure from those who had just pitted. Webber passed him easily for fourth place.
Maldonado, however, picked up a puncture and suffered a violent spin at the exit of turn three. He later retired.
Vettel pulls clear to win
Vettel and Raikkonen came in together on lap 40 for their final pit stop. They left in the same order.
As they returned to the track Vettel reeled off a new fastest lap and began to edge away. Raikkonen, perhaps remembering the degradation that dropped him from second to 14th in China, saw the RB8 draw further ahead with each passing lap.
Raikkonen’s engineer told him Vettel would have worse tyre degradation but it didn’t come to pass. However, Red Bull were cutting it fine on fuel.
As Vettel crossed the line to win, he was instructed to pull over and stop immediately. He won by 3.3 seconds, Raikkonen followed home by team mate Grosjean.
In the points
Webber continued his run of finishing fourth in every race this year. Rosberg made a late pass on di Resta to claim fifth.
As di Resta coaxed his tyres to the end he came under pressure from Alonso – which he resisted. “The tyres were gone at the end” he told his team after finishing sixth.
He might have had a more difficult time had Jenson Button not hit trouble late in the race. He had to make a pit stop with a puncture and shortly afterwards an apparent engine problem forced his retirement.
That left Alonso seventh ahead of Hamilton, who was left to rue McLaren’s disastrous performance in the pits.
Massa picked up his first points of the season with ninth place, while Michael Schumacher took a single point for tenth.
Final finishers
Sauber failed to score points as Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi came home 11th and 13th – the latter abandoning his attempt to finish the race with two pit stops. Nico Hulkenberg finished between the pair.
Daniel Ricciardo plummeted down the order after starting sixth. He ended the first lap behind team mate Jean-Eric Vergne – who had lined up 17th – and concerned about front wing damage.
The Toro Rosso pair finished in that order, Vergne 14th ahead of Ricciardo.
Vitaly Petrov led home team mate Heikki Kovalainen who picked up a puncture on the first lap. Glock, de la Rosa and Karthikeyan were the remaining finishers, with Button and Senna classified despite having stopped.
A race to forget
The Bahrain Grand Prix is history for this year. The annals of motor racing will remember Sebastian Vettel as its winner.
But this weekend the sport was a sideshow. Formula 1 allowed those with a political agenda to exploit it, and brought shame on itself by holding this race.
Eggry (@eggry)
22nd April 2012, 16:18
Lotus’s great performance and Mclaren’s underperforming were my biggest surprise but I alao have to say Di Resta and Massa did very good race as well. I know Massa is known as Bahrain specialist and it wasn’t top notch drive but surely good.
Now Ferrari would bring huge update in Spain, hopefully it would boost both driver massively. They still have title chance yet and 5 way battle is better than 4 way!
infy (@infy)
22nd April 2012, 17:41
Alonso only expects a 0.6 second increase. He goes on to say most the teams will bring 0.4 second increases, which means Ferrari only gains a net 0.2.
Eggry (@eggry)
22nd April 2012, 17:59
I think 0.6sex is quite conservative view comsidering the car has some serious problems. Only if they can fix those flaw I think it would be worth of 0.5sec. of course it could be very successful or, simply don’t work as well. We will see it in Mugello soon…
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
22nd April 2012, 18:01
Eh… conservative means “safe” estimate – ie “less than estimated.” If 0.6 is conservative then that means the upgrade is worth at least 0.6.
Eggry (@eggry)
22nd April 2012, 22:35
sorry, what I supposed to mean was 1) fixing flaws = 0.5 sec 2) plus more sec from aero development 3) so I think 0.6 is fairly easy target. that was it.
F1andy83
22nd April 2012, 20:06
Alonso responded to the decision via Twitter: “I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy! ;)))”
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
23rd April 2012, 1:55
haha..Fernando trying to be cheeky, but clearly ******.
I think Rosberg’s move aggressive, but then again, Nico has always been tough to get past. Alonso didnt back off either, so it was like fighting fire with fire, either one wasnt willing to lift.
The stewards have been at it again, not consistent. I dont know what it would take for them to get their acts together!
gwenouille (@gwenouille)
22nd April 2012, 16:21
OK, done with Barhein. Now, bring on Europe !
thejudge13
22nd April 2012, 17:09
Great summary of race as always from Keith. ALSO fantastic handling of the whole sad and sorry weekend by this site.
For those who have critcised the Keith’s stance on the Bahreini situation, a Nobel Peace Prize winner makes clear his views…
“If you are a neutral in situations of injustice, then you have sided with the oppressor”, D Tutu.
Sheriff
22nd April 2012, 17:24
Really??? A little harsh….
thejudge13
22nd April 2012, 18:22
probably borne out of suffering at the hands of a pretty harsh regime
claudioff (@claudioff)
22nd April 2012, 19:02
Wonderful citation. Greatly summarizes my feelings about this weekend.
Mike (@mike)
22nd April 2012, 21:24
Agreed, well put.
cmancuzo13
23rd April 2012, 2:19
I just don’t get it thought. What kind of cell phone do you use? Computer? Most likely made by underpaid people in an somewhat oppressive country. I understand this regime is punishing people. But they are rebeling. Not supportive of violence against peaceful protests. But don’t boycott a race bc of circumstances that somewhat mirror those of other
countries/regimes/ideals of which products you support. F1 is a product. Use it. Just like I use toothpaste. And toilet paper. You are no better then I for watching or not watching. Boycotting only robs yourself of the enjoyment of the entertainment you’ve surely paid for in the past. I don’t support Bahrain and the regime but no one is better than anyone else morally for watching or not watching.
david
23rd April 2012, 0:36
Just think how disorganized and messed up the world would be if EVERYONE who felt injustice rebelled against it. I mean, seriously, it’s an injustice that I spent money on doughnuts this week that tasted horribly but last week tasted great. (Example, because I don’t like doughnuts that often).
CH
22nd April 2012, 16:31
Am happy for Grosjean, nice to see him so joyful, doing so well… but too bad Eric maybe let his French bias get the better of him? (Anyone recall Eric and Kimi at odds last year as well…) The team probably would have won (maybe even 1-2) if Kimi had been let by immediately, for pushing Seb we see now would have had him coming up short of fuel. They were on different strategies after all.
Lex
22nd April 2012, 17:17
yea i agree. Kimi would of have more than enough rubber to push past Vettel had he not used it up stuck behind Romain and gap Vettel enough to win the race.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
22nd April 2012, 17:42
I think Lotus allowed both their drivers to race fair. They allowed to race fair and they get critisised for being bias towards the French and if they tell the French to allow the Finn, they are also crtisised for being bias.
In other words, they get critisised either way, right?
BaKano (@bakano)
22nd April 2012, 21:44
@neelv27, you are right! People say that the team favoured the driver in front by not telling him to give a free pass to the driver behind? Crazy…
Had it been ALO, HAM or VET behind it’s team-mate and the call to let them pass done by the team, loads of people would be criticizing hard, but now Lotus that did not make any call, is criticized for favouring the French driver! Ridiculous!
bearforce1 (@bearforce1)
23rd April 2012, 6:27
Kimmi was amazing.
The big question is where will he drive next year?
Every major team will want Kimmi for sure. Kimmi will have his pick of teams. I wonder which apple cart he will upset. Some number 1 driver is in for a shock when Kimi arrives at their team.
Alex
23rd April 2012, 7:10
I hope Lotus improve on their critical decision making during the race. They seems to have good financial back up in form of Unilever, that will gladly give them more money for development if Lotus constantly show up on podium. With all that I don’t see any reason for Kimi leaving even for more money.
suka (@suka)
23rd April 2012, 7:30
Ever since his comeback, he’s been amazing. Thank you Kimi for coming back.
Alonso is wishing to buy his contract out of Ferrari:)
Alex
23rd April 2012, 7:43
Kimi wins this year Championship with Lotus.
Somehow Alonso forces his way into Lotus for 2013 and pushes Kimi to Ferrari.
Kimi wins 2013 with Ferrari.
Alonso: doh….
ps. funny highly unlikely :)
bearforce1 (@bearforce1)
23rd April 2012, 8:47
lol, you never know though, it is F1.
Todfod (@todfod)
23rd April 2012, 9:05
I really want to see Kimi at Mclaren again. So.. I’m hoping either Lewis and Mclaren part ways, or Jenson gets back to his mediocre ways. I know it’s only wishful thinking, but stranger things have happened.
If not Mclaren then Kimi should replace Schumacher at Mercedes
Poul
23rd April 2012, 9:59
Why does he even have to be in a different team? Lotus is quickly improving the car and they seem to be making less mistakes than the big guys, save maybe Red Bull.
It is fantastic to have Kimi back and some of his overtakes were absolutely amazing. I think it was Brundle that called it “controlled aggression” and Bahrain was a prefect display of that.
During Vettel’s dominance he’s been under less pressure from the normal pursuers than than he came yesterday from Kimi – though he came from 11th.
Bahrain 2012 was totally Kimi’s race – just like it was in 2006. Well done, and welcome back, whichever car you drive!!
Todfod (@todfod)
23rd April 2012, 10:11
The reason I wouldn’t want him to stay at Lotus is because of their uncertain future. Genii capital seem like they would plan an exit as soon as some good results would pump up the team’s monetary worth. Right now the Lotus group’s interests seem elsewhere.
At Mercedes, they seem to have a bright future, and I think Kimi would be the right man to deliver.
Poul
23rd April 2012, 10:38
@ Todfod That’s a fair point but I’m not sure the future is safer at Merc. They have good backing right now but it could be cut again if they don’t improve and their performance seems very unstable.
Maybe Kimi wouldn’t even dare to drive another Merc. engine :-)
Nara (@narazdache)
23rd April 2012, 11:24
Merc is also under a lot of pressure from their shareholders who would like to close down the team. That Mercedes win couldn’t come at the better moment.
Best place for Kimi is RedBull. Especially if you look at Kimi’s rally pictures and videos you’ll see that no one else in F1 right now can sell Red Bull brand better than Kimi :))))
bearforce1 (@bearforce1)
23rd April 2012, 12:52
I agree with Todfod. The reason Kimmi shoudl move to one of the other major teams is they are consistently better. Lotus future is a little uncertain at present.
Still stunned by Kimmis performance.
Todfod (@todfod)
23rd April 2012, 13:32
@narazdache . That’s right, I never thought about Red Bull.. who could find themselves to replace Webber with a more exciting prospect. And the fact that Seb and Kimi are buddies might help too.
But if you honestly ask me, I could see Mercedes being stronger than Red Bull in a couple of years. I just think Red Bull’s era is coming to an end.
nackavich (@nackavich)
22nd April 2012, 16:37
A thorough recap of the race. And I’m glad a personal, subjective statement about the race was shared at the end of that piece.
The race is now just a statistic, nothing more.
Tim
22nd April 2012, 16:42
What concerns me about McLaren is that it’s not just the last few races they’ve had pit troubles. As I recall they’ve consistently been slow in the pits even on good days. And the number of pit lane errors, strategy errors, etc over the past few years is incredible for such an experienced team. I don’t see how they can expect to win races, especially this year when everyone is so close, when even on a good day they’re losing 2+ seconds in a pit stop, let alone 10-20 with mistakes.
James (@goodyear92)
22nd April 2012, 16:44
Mclaren need to take a serious look at themselves after this weekend and really bounce back. The Drivers are doing their jobs perfectly and have had only one mistake between them (JB Malaysia). They started the season as fastest and have finished the flyaways with only one win, second in the driver’s championship, second in the constructor’s and they seemed to be about as fast as Ferrari in this race, which as we know is a dog of a car. The constant pit stop problems are ruining their chances and I’m now glad Lewis hasn’t re-signed, because if their form doesn’t improve, he should be looking elsewhere.
Well done to Vettel, but I was hoping Kimi could win as I prefer him and it would mean minimal damage in the points for Lewis. Grosjean did a good job too. MW nice and consistent, but nothing to write home about. Nico deserves a penalty for his moves with FA and LH. We all know if it was Lewis, it wouldn’t have even been left till after the race, he would have been given one there and then. Can’t believe two things failed on JB’s car, exhaust and the diff. Ridiculous. Brilliant drive by Di Resta and Schuey aswell.
Snafu (@snafu)
22nd April 2012, 17:27
I think (and I’m not sure) that Mclaren never did good in flyaways except Australia and china before…so I’m looking forward to see their development program take a serious step forward and bring them on top in spain…in this race they even lacked the pace needed to finish on podium and considering the characteristics of Barcelona I think it’ll be a test for them to see if they’ve quickest car or not.
and pit stop errors…let’s not talk about those anymore…it’s just frustrating!
they should really look into that rear left wheel nut!
James (@goodyear92)
22nd April 2012, 17:36
No they haven’t these past few years and Lewis normally gets in the groove abit more when the European season kicks off. I think it would have been close for a podium with LH, if they had got all three pit stops in the 3 sec window. Their fastest for him, 5.4 secs, which is ridiculous with the field as tight as it is. You just can’t afford to be throwing away that much time every race. In this one they cost him nearly 20 secs, unbelieveable. Their pace was the most shocking thing though, barely keeping touch with the Ferraris. You’re right, they really need to make their mark in Spain with updates, strategy and having a weekend with no pit stop problems. Let’s wait and see.
BBT (@bbt)
22nd April 2012, 19:00
Mclaren having the quickest car is already in the distant past, they might regret not scoring more points in the first few races.
There race pace is poor (by their standards) even without the pitstop errors
Snafu (@snafu)
22nd April 2012, 19:39
well at least this season they started with fastest car, so the car is good in it’s essentials…but I think they just dropped the ball in development area after Malaysia…maybe they want to bring their big guns in Mugello?? we have to wait and see…
Libellula (@ladyf1fanatic)
22nd April 2012, 18:59
Good JOB McLaren! CONGRATS Sam Michael! i saw what’s the utility of your job did there…:-( :-( I’ve never been so deluded in all my f1 life. thank you for this poor show, for screwing Lewis HAMILTON for the 3rd time in the race and showing to the world your dedication to him, since he’s always lost position during a race, time in the pit-stops this season… keep it up! you’ll never win again! but i know karma is a bitch…TO BE CONTINUED!
kimiwillbeback
23rd April 2012, 9:28
I have commented on the subject before this race, and the indications are even clearer now..
I think McLaren made smaller changes to the car this year than the other teams. After all they allready had a nose that was low enough for the new regulations. that meant that McLaren was able to produce an evolution of last years car changing only the back of the car du to the new exhaust requirements. McLaren could actually revert to their car from pre-season testing in 2011 (before they startet copying Red Bull), fix the problems with that car and have a pretty known entity for the beginning of 2012. I was thus not surprised McLaren hit the ground running in 2012.
The other teams had to make more fundamental changes to their cars. That meant their cars were more of an unknown entity when they started the season.
What does this and the development during the first four races mean?
In my opinion it might mean that the McLarens as an evolutionary car was closer to the car`s maximum potential when the season started than the other teams. That`s the reason we see the other teams closing up and even pass McLaren in terms of performance as these teams get to grip with their new designs. It might also mean that the configuration with a higher front end and a stepped nose has greater potential than McLarens low front end..
I don`t know, but the fact that several teams have been able to beat McLaren in different conditions indicate that McLaren might struggle even more as more and more teams get to grips with the setup of their cars.
McLaren better get their act together and score big points while they still have an advantage.
OOliver
22nd April 2012, 16:52
The moment they stopped Button first, I knew Mclaren were taking themselves out of contention for a podium or 4th position.
It was inconsequential that Hamilton had a slow pit stop, Mclaren had dropped back even further behind Webber.
They were already failing on the strategy side, pit errors were for desert.
The team is doing great at intreviews though.
DaveW (@dmw)
23rd April 2012, 0:39
My moment of clarity came when grosjean blew by Hamilton like he was chained to a post. I had to rub my eyes and wonder if i just saw a lotus slash whatever dust a mclaren like it was a backmarker.
dragon
23rd April 2012, 7:01
you can thank Pirelli for that. Lotus were just ‘getting their tyres to work’
No wonder Schumacher is disillusioned enough to speak his mind
mixwell (@mixwell)
22nd April 2012, 17:00
Amazing drive by Vettel, Kimi
Very happy to see Grosjean on the podium. I hope to see him more often.
McLaren (and Merc) need to stop making errors in the pitlane. They have two of the most talented drivers but the team mistakes cost them badly.
Merc have a gem of a car compared to some of the teams and they can fight for podiums if they work on the reliability. It pains to see Schumi out of the race or having to switch gearboxes (same for McLaren / Ham) .
I maybe a fan of Vettel / Alonso / Button (in that order) but i’d love to see these teams sort their issues so we can have even more cracking races in the future.
MahavirShah (@mahavirshah)
22nd April 2012, 17:09
I for one was really impressed by Di Resta’s drive. I think he had one race last year where in the wet he matched Webber or Button for pace. Apart from that Vettel deserved the win. The way he drove keeping Kimi behind him for those crucial 8-10 laps was really superb. At the same time Kimi drove like a champion, making places at the start, then overtaking everyone in front of him and most of them were un-assisted. Romain Grosjean had a beautiful drive as well matching Kimi on many occaisons, Lotus have a great team. Another off day for McLaren and Ferrari might be happy that they finished not too far away from McLaren.
On a side note I hope we can leave the issues of Bahrain behind us now. I think all of us on this site had some opinion about the event and it has probably led to some really somber debates here. At the end F1 for me was about fun which this weekend clearly was not, with all the issues. I wish the next 3 weeks sees a return to normalcy for F1 as a sport and the fans as well.
David
22nd April 2012, 17:16
What a load of old tosh! That must qualify as one of the most boring races in Grand Prix history.
No wonder Bernie Ecclestone doesnt even know the names of the UK’s political parties – he has lost the plot and his grip on reality.
infy (@infy)
22nd April 2012, 17:40
Are people meant to know that stuff? The only ones I know of are Democrats and Republicans? Have I lost my grip too or is the world more than just that one Island?
gwenouille (@gwenouille)
22nd April 2012, 17:55
Bernie Ecclestone is British…
infy (@infy)
22nd April 2012, 17:59
Was*
F1andy83
22nd April 2012, 20:12
I beg to differ. The race was quite exciting. Just because the winner wasn’t who you wanted doesn’t make a race bad.
matt90 (@matt90)
22nd April 2012, 17:24
@keithcollantine Fourth?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd April 2012, 17:50
Thanks, changed it.
bt55
22nd April 2012, 17:26
1. was vettel using the new spec or old.spec car today?
2. who is the Mclaren built around this year? jenson or Lewis?
dennis (@dennis)
22nd April 2012, 17:37
1. new
2. none it seems
F1fanNL (@)
22nd April 2012, 17:39
1. Vettel used the new spec. The same as Webber.
2. Button and Hamilton say they pretty much enjoy the same type of car so I doubt the car is built around either of them.
davey (@djdaveyp87)
22nd April 2012, 17:34
A few things stuck out about this race for me.
Lotus’ great pace was quite a surprise and a pleasant one at that. Raikkonen really could have won had things gone a bit more his way.
After Red Bull struggling with tyres earlier in the season, they seem to be managing them better than anybody els enow (well at this race anyway).
McLaren have issue with their pitstops and really need to sort it out. They couldn’t win today but could have placed higher. Strange issue for Button too! They have had slow pitstops ever since refueling was banned, especially compared to ferrari and red bull.
Webber had a rather quiet race.
Paul di Resta had a fantastic race. He is a very intelligent racing driver with skills to match.
Rosbergs defending was a disgrace today.
Shimks (@shimks)
22nd April 2012, 19:51
I thought so too, wondering why he wasn’t black-flagged, but then I read this:
http://www.pitpass.com/46153-No-further-action-against-Rosberg
It makes total sense and shows how amazingly well Rosberg defended. Just shows I know nothing about F1! :O)
infy (@infy)
22nd April 2012, 17:38
“The Bahrain Grand Prix is history for this year. The annals of motor racing will remember Sebastian Vettel as its winner.
But this weekend the sport was a sideshow. Formula 1 allowed those with a political agenda to exploit it, and brought shame on itself by holding this race.”
Speak for yourself…
F1fanNL (@)
22nd April 2012, 17:44
+1
I didn’t see any propaganda, I didn’t see any political statements.
I saw a race between 24 cars on a Tilke track. Just like we’ll see a few times more this season and have seen a lot in the past.
In 3 weeks time nobody here will even mention Bahrein. So disappointing to see Keith join the hypocrisy and (ab)use the sport to make a political statement.
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
22nd April 2012, 18:00
Actually there’s a lot of propaganda that is centralising itself around f1 in Bahrain right now.
Here is a very light example.
F1fanNL (@)
22nd April 2012, 18:56
But there’s nothing like that we see on screen during the race.
It would have been an entirely different matter if there’d been propaganda or political statements in the FOM coverage.
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd April 2012, 19:15
It might have been different, had it not been FOM that broadcast the race. Bernie was never much likely to allow any of that to get on screen, was he?
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
22nd April 2012, 19:57
Yes but Keith only said using the race for political agenda – not necessarily through the TV.
sid_prasher (@)
22nd April 2012, 20:01
I agree…the world media has milked the story enough and will soon forget about it until something major happens there. The sad thing is pressure is being mounted on a sporting body instead of world governments to do something about the situation there.
F1fanNL (@)
23rd April 2012, 23:06
Exactly.
dennis (@dennis)
23rd April 2012, 7:49
If anything, I feel that with all the reports about protests and human rights violations, what Forumula 1 did was bringing those issues back into peoples minds.
I’m sorry, but those protests run for over a year now. And apparently no one seemed to give a crap. Now when Formula 1 appears at the scene, suddenly everyone is a human rights activist. In my opinion, the race was good. And what it did as a positive side effect was exploit the government as the criminals they are, especially because they tried so hard to hide it.
I can’t possibly be the only one who thinks it’s a good thing to have at least one way to remind people of the situation there, even if it is through F1, as opposed to bailing out and not going there for political correctness, so that everyone can go on living in bliss and not have to see people being oppressed by their government.
Ben Curly (@ben-curly)
23rd April 2012, 9:01
“… so that everyone can go on living in bliss and not have to see people being oppressed by their government”.
But that’s exactly the image promoted by the al Khalifa family, with the help of Bernie and FIA. “We are all big, happy, unif1ed country and no one is being oppressed here”.
dennis (@dennis)
23rd April 2012, 11:04
I agree, but boy has it worked!!
There’s literally NOTHING in the press about people protesting and reporters getting sticks thrown between their legs. If anything, we were all witnesses of what a farce the government there tried to get through with. And it has not worked. And now that we’ve all seen this stuff, we might think of actual ways to help those people in Bahrain instead of trying to block Bernie’s interweb access…
AlAmmari (@alammari)
25th April 2017, 23:29
Keith have proven many times how he doesn’t understand politics, why talk about politics in a country when ur writing a report about the race?!
Plus as a Bahraini I am not siding with anyone but when I come here all I want to read is about is F1 and Sports not ur opinion Keith which u seem to give a lot even when u don’t understand the situation! It was a good race period.
Vettel1992 (@vettel1992)
22nd April 2012, 17:40
FANTASTISCH!
VR
22nd April 2012, 17:47
When was the last time we had 4 different winners in the first four races? I sat this one out however, Sounds like a great race. Hats off to Keith for mixing in the politics and sport in a very sensibly balanced way. We all need to be reminded that however great this great race, it should not have happened. F1 has few morals left now.
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
22nd April 2012, 18:20
1983! If my memory is working.
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
22nd April 2012, 18:32
The correct answer is 2003.
matt90 (@matt90)
22nd April 2012, 19:22
4 different teams winning is correct though. And to think, even if Kimi had been successful in passing Vettel this stat would still be true. There’s an outside chance of it becoming 5 different teams (which I think might be the record).
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
22nd April 2012, 19:59
Darn I was wrong! Well the 4th winner back then was a German, and he went on to dominate the season… if history follows that pattern I wouldn’t mind :P
OOliver
22nd April 2012, 17:58
Vettel might just win a third championship simply by participating.
No doubt he has the skill, and the Redbulls have been the most consistent team by law of averages. Mclaren seem to be trying to take themselves out of contention with their rotating car strategy and pitstops that are making HRT look very professional.
The Ferraris are not yet fast enough to be a threat.
Lotus-black are finding their true form, and may become serious challengers for podiums in Barcelona.
Mercedes are still the big unknown in the equation.
JUGNU (@jugnu)
22nd April 2012, 18:03
Consistent errors during pitstops and strategy by Mclaren are almost unacceptable considering they are such an experienced team. They are making these errors for 2 years in a row now, last year as well Redbull was much stronger in strategies and pitstops.
The pit stop errors cannot continue especially when you are consistently doing 3 pitstops and the field is so close together. Every second lost or gained in pits will play a bigger role than ever in the outcome of the race. Also i think Mclaren are quick in qualifying but not the quickest in race trim. At best they are second quickest in race trim. Today they let down Lewis a lot and also JB was unfortunate.
Libellula (@ladyf1fanatic)
22nd April 2012, 19:11
Problem is everyone now has acknowledged Lewis is being letting down in every race, bad strategy, awful pit-stop, they never gave him some help this season to gain position, avoid back-markers or pull a decent lead…like he’s getting the second driver service and always released in the traffic just to eat his tires after. I’m waiting for the press and people to start a serious talk about McLaren’s issues this year, i don’t understand how a team principal has the balls to defend the pit crew in these conditions. Both drivers have been perfect minus Jenson in Malaysia, since Australia things are only going backwards…Hope for a change , I’m so fed up!
dirgegirl (@dirgegirl)
22nd April 2012, 19:47
@ladyf1fanatic – Everyone has not now acknowledged that Lewis is being let down in every race – speak for yourself! You make it sound like McLaren are doing it all deliberately to hurt Hamilton’s chances, which is patent nonsense. And what’s this about “second driver service”? Didn’t Button have a poor pitstop last week?
I thought Martin Whitmarsh dealt with questions about the pitstop blunders very well. What’s he meant to do – point the finger of blame at someone who’s probably beating himself up already? Blamestorming in public doesn’t take “balls”. It’s a sign of poor management.
If anything your earlier comment about Sam Michael’s responsibility as head of trackside operations is more on the mark. If he was brought in to improve McLaren’s fortunes in this department, he doesn’t seem to be succeeding so far. I didn’t see him achieve much at Williams either. But that might have been budget related rather than his personal failings. Wait and see, I guess – it’s early in the season.
spacák (@spacak)
22nd April 2012, 18:11
I wonder what they will do with those repeated Rosberg’s blocks. They were almost worse than that of Schumi on Barrichello in Hungary.
N
22nd April 2012, 18:19
Exactly
And in typical fashion, they do the unexpected and do not punish Rosberg for both inncodents
sid_prasher (@)
22nd April 2012, 20:08
interesting tweet by Fernando –
I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy! ;)))
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd April 2012, 23:19
@spacak Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso cleared over incidents
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
22nd April 2012, 18:17
Strange that nothing has been heard from the stewards yet. With the Rosberg-Hamilton incident, my first reaction was: Ok, that’s the end of Hamilton’s race. The way I saw it, Rosberg was almost at the edge of the track already when Hamilton (no doubt with pent-up frustration of struggling for pace and having been stationary for 10 seconds too long in the pits) appeared from underneath his rear wing.
The Rosberg-Alonso might prove to be a blessing for Hamilton, because it doesn’t put Rosberg in a good light (and Alonso already had a wheel alongside Rosberg when Rosberg kept moving right).
I missed the post-race discussions on Sky, and haven’t seen many reports on Autosport yet. Have Hamilton, Button, Webber, etc. made any noteworthy comments?
timi (@timi)
22nd April 2012, 18:19
According to Lee Mckenzie on her twitter, and the BBC website there will be no penalties for the incidents regarding Rosberg, Alonso and Hamilton
timi (@timi)
22nd April 2012, 18:20
oh, and check out GP Update. they’re usually the quickest with driver quotes.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
22nd April 2012, 19:25
@timi thanks for the tip, they did have some more driver quotes. As it turned out, Schumacher did have something interesting to say:
Wow. On the one hand, I agree with him; on the other hand, I have to acknowledge that the Pirelli tyres have significantly spiced up the racing.
timi (@timi)
22nd April 2012, 21:59
no worries @adrianmorse
Yeah I read that as well, very interesting stuff there. I strongly agree with him. In my opinion there are 3 (maybe 4) key elements to exciting racing with overtakes;
the track
the regulations regarding car aerodynamics
the tyres
(and possibly engines, but there’s no way a limit on hp will be lifted especially with the 4cylinder turbos coming in)
In my view the pirellis are just a tad extreme, add 5 or 6 laps to each compound, else every race will just be a standard 3 stopper. It’s pretty clear now that only a fool would do a 2 stopper, the tyres have gone off at the end of all 4 races now! It’s sort of like watching an adult take candy from a baby,- note Raikonnen at the end of the Chinese GP. Sure, there are increased overtakes but they’re pretty boring, with little defending. Same with DRS. The fundamentals of today’s age of F1 are flawed with regards to excitement and overtaking.
So many tracks are just plain bad for a race to be held on, such as Bahrain. Change the tracks, simple. Monza always produces great races, as does silverstone. Tilke shouldn’t have a monopoly over the tracks being designed and used in F1.
The other solution,- change the aero rules. I personally suggest any set of aero rules from 2000-2008. Obviously with tweaks to allow for the new longer chassis due to no refuelling. The problem with the current regs is the turbulent air left in the wake of a car, thus the following car has to be either very grippy or just substantially faster to get close enough to pass. That way we can eliminate DRS as well.
So basically, my plan is to re-write the regs, get rid of tracks such as both Spanish GPs, Bahrain, Monaco, maybe Singapore. Add 5 or 6 laps to each tyre, and then boom get rid of DRS.
Sorry for the rant haha!!
jpowell (@jpowell)
22nd April 2012, 18:32
So fantastic result….., at last MSC. gives us his TRUE.opinion on F1. Some of you may say sour grapes, and I have no doubt your opinion will concern the 7 times world champion.
Mikkel Sørensen (@)
22nd April 2012, 18:56
I don’t follow… Where has Michael expressed his true opinion on F1?
Karthikeyan (@ridiculous)
22nd April 2012, 18:47
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99102
Rubbish
Kev
22nd April 2012, 18:55
Interesting to see Alonso’s comments now. If Ferrari don’t get quick enough with the updates, I reckon Alonso will get reckless and put in moves since he has got absolutely nothing to lose.
I hope he does it, for he has been at the wrong end of stewards decision for many times now. We have to see how consistent the stewards are then.
dcjohnson (@dcjohnson)
22nd April 2012, 18:54
Damned if do, damned if you don’t…Rosberg’s defending was very harsh today, but maybe he has been passed to easily in the past…Luckily there was plenty of run off….!! I agree with MSC, the tyres are turning the drivers into tyre management pilots…personally I want to see the best drivers making a difference…at the moment its a tyre lottery…with “Drivin Miss Daisy” skills on show…sure tyre management is a skill, but forcing drivers to drive smooth and slow, afraid to overtake from fear of ruining tyre, is not what its all about… we now have fake tyre overtakes that are worse than DRS overtakes !!!
soundscape (@)
23rd April 2012, 0:32
@dcjohnson
soundscape (@)
23rd April 2012, 0:34
Sorry got a bit excited with the block quote. Quote ends after the first line.
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd April 2012, 19:18
I must say, it seems it was quite a good race from what I see here in the report.
For me, I take that last lines from Keith as the most important ones in this instance, after having been avoiding any news on the race or footage from it (i.e. boycotting the coverage).
katederby
22nd April 2012, 19:45
I said before the race that knowing Ricciardo’s luck he’d finish behind JEV.
Shame for Pic to have an engine failure when he was leading the “new car race” at one point.
Webber held position at the start and that was without KERS which only came back “a little bit” after the first few laps, when Webber lost out to the 2 Lotius’.
Seriously, RBR you need to sort this out.
Shimks (@shimks)
22nd April 2012, 20:05
A couple of you have mentioned tyres in the comments and Schumi made the post-race comment that there’s far too much tyre management necessary. I totally agree. I was watching RAI behind VET on about lap 49 and I was thinking to myself: “This guy’s not pushing. He’s waiting and hoping VET’s tyres go”. Because if Rai had had a go too early, he’d have squandered his rubber and had no chance at all.
This is really ridiculous. It’s not proper racing.
However … great race!
I can complain about the tyres. I can complain about DRS. I can complain about the technical rules hindering any great advancement by one single team. But look at how close the field is this year. It’s great fun!! So you see, I’m completely on the fence at the moment.
DMC (@dmc)
22nd April 2012, 21:39
When schumacher says “Its like racing behind the saftey car” you know something is wrong. Personally i feel f1 is becoming a fake formula full of boost buttons and fragile tyres that neuter the real racers.
JUGNU (@jugnu)
23rd April 2012, 5:59
Schumacher is right. The tyres are now getting frustrating. All the drivers and teams are only talking about tyres and the races are all about tyres. While watching races you always think about tyres that ‘he is got newer tyres, the other guy cannot defend, he saved a new set yesterday….blah blah’.
I think this should change, F1 has become 85-90% about tyres and i think this should be reduced to 50%. Now i think with DRS, F1 can go back to Bridgestone like durable tyres. DRS+Bridgestone tyres will still produce exiting races with plenty of overtakes because drivers will be pushing to the limit and then we will see overtakes and mistakes from them. Now drivers are not pushing 100% of their’s and car’s capabilities just to prolong the life of tyres.
FIA please do something, ask Pirelli to make better and durable tyres and with DRS there are still going to be plenty of overtakes so no worries about the ‘show’. We are missing on the limit racing and on the limit racers like Hamilton, Schumacher, Kobyashi…etc becuase of these tyres.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd April 2012, 23:20
@shimks
That’s quite a contradiction! Are you feeling a bit conflicted about this?
Shimks (@shimks)
23rd April 2012, 8:50
I am indeed in conflict, Keith! It’s confusing because the last couple of F1 years have been the most exciting for a long time. No more leading car far far ahead of everyone else, which was incredibly boring.
Murray Walker
Less Trulli trains because faster cars can negate all that bad air flow from following an F1 car by using DRS and KERS. And equally fuelled calls which has made a big positive difference too, I think.
So the spectacle has improved and I am definitely enjoying the racing now more than a few years ago. Even with a dominant Vettel in 2010/11, it was still a great couple of years of racing. Which is remarkable, really.
The problem is that lying just below that renewed enjoyment is the knowledge that there is now a sense of artificiality and manipulation for the benefit of the spectacle. The main culprits are DRS, tyre degradation and homologous car designs as a result of the tight technical rules. Pure racing at the top level is suffering in two major areas:
For one, F1 is no longer about design innovation pushed to the limits – at this rate, we’ll never again be surprised by a 6 wheel Tyrrell P34 or a turbo Renault RS01. We do still see some surprises, though, like the Brawn double-diffuser. But this is more about designers picking through the technical restrictions to find a beneficial loophole rather than pure blank-piece-of-paper innovative design.
The second and even worse problem is that you can really feel that drivers are no longer pushing to the limit. What was the point of returning to slicks? Just because they look nice and make us all feel warm and gooey about by-gone eras? Slicks are supposed to allow racers to drive faster, harder, tackle corners and overtaking with greater confidence. Instead, it’s all about tyre management. If you don’t look after your tyres, you’re screwed: look at Raikkonen in China – from 2nd to 14th in one or two laps.
But this is not the only reason drivers aren’t pushing to the limits. The new points system was chosen to encourage drivers to fight for the win at the closing stages of the race but I don’t see this often happening – at least not to a do-or-die level. There is now a policy of bagging the points from 2nd or 3rd place and not taking too many risks. “It’s a long season” we hear again and again. Where have the days gone when nothing mattered except the win? I miss them.
There is the lack of pure speed nowadays too. For safety reasons, there are limits to how fast an F1 car can be designed. You can really feel this. Everything has slowed down. When I watch old footage on youtube of classic F1 scraps such as Gilles Villeneuve vs. Didier Pironi at San Marino in 1982, you really can feel a difference of speed between then and now. And what the hell is going to happen to F1 racing when we switch to V6 engines in 2014?
Saying all this – and going back your original question, Keith – if the FIA listened to me and reverted the rules back so that I was watching a procession of cars following each other for 50+ laps with almost no overtaking and the leading car a minute ahead of the rest of the field, I think I’d be damn sorry I’d opened my big pie hole.
It really is a tough one!
nivek252 (@nivek252)
22nd April 2012, 21:25
Does anyone know what was Alonso’s reason for swerving towards the pits and serving back onto the track during the race today?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
23rd April 2012, 13:36
@nivek252 Either he aborted pit-stop or he was trying to benefit from someones slipstream as much as possible. Probably the former.
AlexNK
22nd April 2012, 21:35
Re Michael’s comment on the tyres, obviously there’s some frustration from poor results so far, but certainly rubber is getting so much attention doesn’t feel quite right. Tyre management has always been a necessary skill, even with bulletproof Bridgestones there were problems with graining etc., but this year it’s much more than that. This year’s Pirellis are not only wearing fast, they are also quite unpredictable because of their extremely narrow performance range. I mean, drivers & teams are working two days to find the best setups, and on Sunday all this work goes to the dogs just because the temperature has dropped a couple of degrees. If you add the parc ferme conditions and the lack of morning warmup to correct setups, this turns into a complete game of chance – which may be fun to watch, but obviously far less fun to participate in. Yes, today Lotuses looked the fastest cars on the track, but it is quite obvious that the team itself does not really know why and what to do to get the same speed next time. Same thing with McLaren, they definitely had the first-row capable car on Saturday and yet finished a minute behind the leader on Sunday.
At the moment the sporting aspect of racing is affected too strongly by chance. It’s out of balance and should be corrected by Pirellis bringing somewhat more predictable tyres.
@HoHum (@hohum)
22nd April 2012, 23:21
Here, here, I like the variety of cars on the podium but do not want to watch a game of chance, I want to see a display of skill and engineering excellence. My main criticism of Indy-cars is the that winning is a lottery created by the constant full course yellows, this necessitated by the one design car, hopefully their new regulations will improve the racing and encourage further loosening of the design restrictions.We need an alternative to keep F1 honest.
@HoHum (@hohum)
22nd April 2012, 23:41
MEA CULPA : I was so wrong when I said Mclaren had the faster car, Hamilton qualified only a tenth slower than Vettel , a tenth faster than Webber and had a 10kph top speed advantage, what went wrong in the first few laps?
How did Vettel manage to get so far ahead that Hamilton could not use his top speed advantage in the first DRS zone?
Pit stops and tyre wear aside why wasn’t Hamilton leading at some stage in the first stint?
The Loti made the lower downforce higher top speed strategy work, why couldn’t Mclaren?
Finally congratulations to the RedBullRacing team, Seb ( and his fans ) and Mark ( decent start, decent finish ).
me262
23rd April 2012, 1:05
were blown diffusers allowed for this race?
Alex
23rd April 2012, 6:09
Thought crossed my mind :) Red Bull and Lotus were so much more solid entering and exiting corners.
Also noticed Kimi had different end bodywork (between exhaust pipes at the end), wonder if it’s because he was running different floor.
Anti-RBR (@matt2208)
23rd April 2012, 1:52
Mclaren will NOT win a championship with Jenson.
Mclaren can keep trying to get jenson ahead.
Lewis is the better driver it aint gunna happen mr Whitmarsh.
Its funny Everytime lewis is infront of Jenson something goes wrong with lewis. it’s not just this year its the past 3 years. They keep making mistakes because they’ve gotta get jenson out ahead of lewis.
David-A (@david-a)
23rd April 2012, 8:07
Amen.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
23rd April 2012, 13:32
@matt2208 I fail to see how people come up with these conclusions about preferred drivers at McLaren. What possible benefit would they experience if they purposefully wanted Button ahead of Hamilton?
Thecollaroyboys (@thecollaroyboys)
23rd April 2012, 2:14
Doesn’t the pic of Vettle look like someone has just pulled his finger?
JohnBt
23rd April 2012, 2:24
Fantastic season, four different winners from 4 races. This will be a great season, I suspect it will be better than 2010. Coverage of the race was well done by masking the empty grandstands helped a lot. I sought of forgot about the protests and threats. And watching Kimi gaining positions to 2nd was the best part.
toddjamin (@toddjamin)
23rd April 2012, 3:59
I have steered clear of all f1 coverage this week as a personal boycott. interesting result, just still think it shouldnt have h
appened at all
EricInUSA (@ericinusa)
23rd April 2012, 4:53
I have to say, it was a fun race to watch – and a competitive season so far, but kind of scripted by the powers that be. In addition to the millimeter precise regulations, I’m not sure I’m fond of Pirelli having such a big say in the outcome of the race. It seems like the same tires at each race are different from the race before. Pretty much a crap-shoot. I know that race conditions are different, but look how the top 10 has tip-toed through Q3 to preserve their rubber so far. At home with 3 announcers filling my ear with the minute details of why, I understand. If I was sitting in my $350+ seat in the stands I’d probably be muttering “what the ****” – why didn’t xyz take to the track?
Since following F1 since 1975-ish, I guess I’d just like to see the boys drive balls-out using each of their unique skills and not have to worry about nursing their tires or some other arcane stragegy because of some artificially injected rules. I know I’ve contradicted myself a little here – and this has been covered before, but wouldn’t it be great if Seb, Kimi, Lewis, Jensen, Roman, Fernando, et al. could just drive the crap out of each lap instead of worrying about that their tires will drop off in a few more laps?
Maybe my first sentence said it all. “it was fun to watch” and that’s where the money is.
Just my 2 cents…
Nara (@narazdache)
23rd April 2012, 9:07
I do understand you point. But I think many people missing following thing:
If we allow drivers to be on the limit with regards to tyres all the time. This makes aerodynamics extremely important, this will automatically be a step backwards and suddenly drivers wont be able to closely follow cars in front. Thats scenario from 10 years ago, when most overtaking happens in pits.
As you noticed cars for some reason can follow very close behind this year, and maybe that is one of the things drivers need to think about. It’s very complicated. Tyres that are more stable and durable wont change a thing.
I think Heikki Kovolainen said it best, they should race these cars without front and rear wings :)
Rahim.RG (@rahim-rg)
23rd April 2012, 6:25
Spain is gonna be awesome….Lotus is very good..
BaKano (@bakano)
23rd April 2012, 10:01
I have to admit I am amazed to see so many bad comments on Pirelli. Some time ago people were praising the tires for allowing proper racing and overtaking and now Schumacher complains and “everyone” agrees its bad?
It may be that people need to carefully manage the tires, but still everyone is on the same page, except the teams that cannot manage the tires well, but that’s a problem with car and set-up not the tires!
Probably it’s the human nature, that we need to complain about something because something is always wrong!
About the race, I think Kimi lost it mainly to the times spent on the pit-stops. Lotus is slower than the top teams more than 1s in average, and this prevented Kimi to really be closer to Vettel. Even if he had passed on the 3rd stint, I think he would have dropped back around 2s after the last stop. That would mean a smaller gap to narrow done in the end but Vettel had new tires and was fast in the last stint.
If Lotus can qualify better and keep the race pace, they will be hard to beat in Spain as they were clearly the strongest team in terms of race pace.
And this brings me to McLaren. No doubt Lewis lost a huge amount of time due to the pit errors, but still McLaren’s race pace is disappointing considering they had the fastest car at season start. And again Lewis seems not to have a good race pace. He lost a lot of time to Vettel and was clearly slower than Grosjean even before the pit error, so I don’t think he would ever be a podium contender. I don’t think he could have kept Webber behind even if everything ran smoothly in the pit-stops.
Nara (@narazdache)
23rd April 2012, 11:30
Good summary.
I also think that Kimi would have much easier time getting and staying in front. If Lotus stuck with their original strategy being putting Kimi on softs on their second pit stop. That would have allowed Kimi being in clear air to catch up Grosjean and then unleash his controlled anger on Vettel, instead they changed their mind and wasted soft tyres to gain 5seconds.
DaveW (@dmw)
23rd April 2012, 18:05
Good summary but there is the thing about the Raikkonen and Hamilton races, contingencies have intervened to mask true pace and performance thus far this year. I think we don’t know much at all to this point. In Bahrain, Vettel and RBR were supreme, but they were nearly run down by a man starting 11th, in a Lotus, which finished 14th last time on pace. If you look at where they were respectively on lap 2, you have to conclude that the Lotus, in the race, was by far the superior car/driver on the day. Where did that come from? In any case, the tire issues prevented Lotus and RBR from lining up for a straigth fight on Sunday to let us know. If Kimi had started on the front row, maybe he buries the field as Rosberg did last week. And lets look at the man last seen dropping 20s on the field—where was he? way off the podium, swerving around the track trying in vain to keep people behind. And this after he swore to the press that his lack of Q3 speed was down to a “race” set up. As for Hamilton, we are left with another enigma. He had no major pace but would have have finised behind Webber, Rosberg, a FI and a Ferrari? He lost about 15s straight up in the pits. Then he lost more battling Rosberg and Massa and others as a result of his poor stops. Give him 20-25s back, he comes out of this looking as good as Webber or better, in the “control” RBR, so to speak. If we go back to China, where did the Mercedes pace come from? We don’t know how it measured up to McLaren because the quicker of them started in 7th and nonetheless finished 3rd after epic battles for that position. In China, in the dry, the Sauber and Ferrari were likely the class of the field. Where were they Sunday?
This season remains a complete enigma. The best we can say is that the null of McLaren performance advantage has been falsified. However, the Sauber and Mercedes threats have not been confirmed and possibly debunked. RBR appears to have come to the fore but the Lotus performance suggests that Vettel really profited from Kimi starting so far back, and from clear air to run a managed pace. Next race no one could really be shocked to see Force India or Ferrari beat down the field by 20 seconds.
This would all be really exciting, but for the nagging feeling that, as MSC suggests, we are really seeing the result, not of tire wear, but of tire uncertainty. It is as if every driver leaves the grid not knowing how much fuel he has on board. You can’t “manage” uncertainty, only risk. The uncertainty looks exciting, bue at some point you wonder if you just watching a kind of lottery.
Ash (@zodman)
23rd April 2012, 10:33
It’s about time people started to complain about the gimmicks in f1, it’s not pirelli’s fault they have built a tyre to the specification that was required by the FIA, but the are degrading far to fast most drivers were suffering after lap 8 yesterday, and they are having to conserve their tyres from the start of all their stints. HELLO this is supposed to be F1 motor racing the pinnacle of the sport but instead we are subjected to watch all the drivers being careful, in the Bridgestone days at least the drivers were going around flat out. Instead we have 22 tyre managers and the person who gets out in the front first will more than likely win as any following cars can’t follow them for too long as their tyres will become useless as the dirty air lowers the grip levels and cause the tyres to wear out faster(as per Kimi vs Vettel)I could not imagine NASCAR telling their drivers to take it easy on their tyres as they want them to last 10 laps the Americans would spit their corn dogs out in disgust. While the Pirelli tyres were a good change last season the introduction of the false overtaking system and the equalisation of the regulations have negated the need for silly clown car tyres. So can Pirelli please build some decent tyres which are going to make F1 the pinnacle of Motorsport?
Aled Davies (@aledinho)
23rd April 2012, 11:28
@zodman I think its a difficult balancing act. The tires have definitely been the biggest reason for the increase in overtaking the last 2 years. The problem is it seems to be a bit of a lottery to me. Jenson “The Tyre Saver” Button was complaining after only 8 laps yesterday which speaks volumes. There seems to be an extremely narrow operating window for the tires, Lotus hit the sweet spot yesterday and they could have won the race even though Kimi started 11th. In china, it was Rosberg who got the tires hooked up perfectly. It just seems to me that any of the top 6 teams could win a race if they get the tires within that window which to me isn’t what f1 is about. There is an element of endurance to F1 but I just think its been taken a little too far with these Pirelli’s. If I wanted to see a load of people driving cars well within its limit on a Sunday id park up next to a dual carriage way and watch that. I want to see drivers pushing their machinery and themselves to the limit not at 85% because the tires cant take any more than that.,
There is the benefit now that there is more overtaking and it’s easy to forget how boring the races could be a few years back (2010 in my opinion was a complete snore fest) but there also needs to be some balance because F1 is supposed to be the Pinnacle of Motorsport, the best team/car/combination on the day coming out on top, and yes on occasion that will bore some people because there will be the same winner, but F1 is a sport not a soap opera and on occasion someone will do a better job consistently (Vettel in 2011, Schumacher 2002/2004) Its the same in other sports, Football is dominated by the same clubs all the time that’s what sports all about, the pursuit of excellence.
To me, the balance of performance has switched too far from driver/car to tires now, I dont think Lotus know what they did yesterday to get them working so well, it just seems to be a complete lottery.
The ironic thing is I’ve enjoyed all the races this year, but it isn’t what made me fall in love with the sport in the 1st place.
Just my 2 cents.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
23rd April 2012, 11:22
I know it is early to comment on this but I haven’t seen anything different from the current STR drivers than what I saw from it’s drivers in 2011.
BaKano (@bakano)
23rd April 2012, 14:10
Yeap. If it keeps going this way, they are going out at the end of the season.
Maybe Helmut Marko and Red Bull can decide to stage a kind of Reality TV show: “The Toro Rosso Survivor” where 2 young drivers have to endure difficult chalenges in order to survive and continue driving for the team another week…
DaveW (@dmw)
23rd April 2012, 18:22
I think Keith’s choice of picture is a bit cruel. Let’s be honest, he looks like a doofus there, or my toddler after a vigorous self-examination of her nose. There are more flattering images, even those including the cocked finger. I have a fear that kids in kart leagues around the world are at this moment brandishing a Vettelfinger for their parents’ post race snapshots, which will soon flood Flickr as some kind of terrible meme.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
23rd April 2012, 20:34
I honestly don’t share that view – if I thought it made him look stupid I wouldn’t have used it, at least not for an article like this. The Caption Competition, on the other hand…
katederby
23rd April 2012, 19:20
How did the floor of Webber’s RB8 get damaged “during the race” as has been stated in Autosport? I didn’t see him have any contact or incident not since the Chinese Wheelie… which can’t be the cause because surely that would have been noticed beforehand.