Ferrari 1-2 In Bahrain as Red Bull Has Problems

Much to the shock of everyone, myself included, I nailed the prediction for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Ferrari took it because the Red Bull ended up being unreliable.
 
Now, I must admit I did have it a bit wrong. I though Massa would win, but why quibble? He would have done it had Alonso not gotten around him at the first turn of the start. From there, the race was rather boring. The new section of the Bahrain track proved to stifle much action, the exact opposite of what it was supposedly set up for! Instead of action, we ended up with a long train of cars just going round and round.
 

Front Runners
 
The front runners were clearly Red Bull and Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel looked dominant on the soft tires early as he comfortably controlled the race. A switch to the hard tires saw Ferrari close up a bit. Then the questionable reliability of the Red Bull came into play. Something broke. It was reported on the telecast to be an exhaust header, but the team has since announced it is something to do with the Renault engine. It is odd that Red Bull still uses this engine as you may recall it was the weak link last year. Regardless, once the Red Bull was down on power, the Ferrari’s and eventually Lewis Hamilton ate Vettel alive.
 
Best Team
 
The best team award has to go to Ferrari. After last years miserable season, the 1-2 finish with Alonso on top is a master stroke. The fact the car is very competitive is also a good sign for the future as Alonso is so good at developing cars. Still, a word for Vettel who looks ripe to win his first driver’s title if the flimsy Red Bull can stay together.
 
McLaren also gets a tip of the hat. Although clearly slower than Red Bull and Ferrari, the car looks much better in race trim than it did in qualifying. That being said, McLaren face two tough problems. The first is qualifying is incredibly important as this appears to be another year where it is difficult for the cars to pass. If McLaren is continually qualifying in the fourth through eight positions, it is going to be to difficult to get to the front.
 
The second problem is Jenson Button. I like his personality, but it looks for all the world like he is just an average driver. Yes, he is a World Champion, but much off that seems to be due to the masterful 2009 Brawn. Nobody can take that championship away from Jenson, but don’t count on him winning many more.
 
Worst Team
 
The Mercedes was unimpressive. Schumacher gets a pass since he hasn’t raced for three years, but Rosberg looked very average. He got around Hamilton when Lewis swung wide in the fourth corner at the start, but spent the rest of the race fending him off. I’ve never understood the hype about Rosberg, but the biggest problem seems to simply be the Mercedes doesn’t look particularly fast. Of the “Big 4”, it is clearly number four and one can’t help but think Robert Kubica might give it a run for that spot on occasion. How the mighty have fallen.
 

Worst Driver
 
Mark Webber is still an enigma. He can have races where he looks like a potential champ, but then he mixes in just as many as this pig. His teammate is blindingly fast and Webber is bobbing around in the middle of the field. Poor qualifying and poor finish. He is the weakness of the Red Bull team, particularly when you think about the effort to win a constructor’s championship.
 
The New Teams
 
So, this is what Max Mosley was hoping for? The three underfunded, green teams were pretty much the disaster most expected. Only Lotus made it to the end of the race and should be given kudos for doing so. That being said, what is the point of a bunch of privateers doing laps three to ten seconds slower than the big boys? It wasn’t a problem in this race, but you just know it is going to be at some point in the season when a leader is cut off by one of these. Imagine the problems at Monaco for instance? It’ll be a traffic jam!
 
2010 Season Prediction
 
16 of the last 20 drivers to win the first race of the season have gone on to win the driver’s championship. That seems very iffy this year. Ferrari and Red Bull look to be the class of the field. I love Alonso, but it is hard to bet against Sebastian Vettel. Much will depend on whether Red Bull can find reliability or not. Given the over aggressive nature of Newey designs and the questionable Renault power plant, that is a big “if”. Still, I’ll pick Vettel for world champion and Ferrari for constructors. McLaren may have something to say about it, but we’ll just have to see.
 
Here are the specific Bahrain Results:
 
1 Fernando Alonso     Ferrari       1:39:20.396
2 Felipe Massa         Ferrari     + 16.099
3 Lewis Hamilton     McLaren     + 23.182
4 Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull     + 38.799
5 Nico Rosberg         Mercedes GP     + 40.213
6 Michael Schumacher     Mercedes GP     + 44.163
7 Jenson Button     McLaren     + 45.280
8 Mark Webber         Red Bull     + 46.360
9 Vitantonio Liuzzi     Force India     + 53.008
10 Rubens Barrichello     Williams     + 1:02.489
 
Points End
 
11 Robert Kubica     Renault     + 1:09.093
12 Adrian Sutil     Force India     + 1:22.958
13 Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso     + 1:32.656
14 Nico Hülkenberg     Williams     at 1 lap
15 Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus         at 2 laps
16 Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso     at 3 laps (DNF)
17 Jarno Trulli     Lotus         at 3 laps (DNF)
18 Pedro de la Rosa     Sauber         at 21 laps (DNF)
19 Bruno Senna         HRT         at 32 laps (DNF)
20 Timo Glock         Virgin         at 33 laps (DNF)
21 Vitaly Petrov     Renault     at 36 laps (DNF)
22 Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber         at 38 laps (DNF)
23 Lucas Di Grassi     Virgin         at 47 laps (DNF)
24 Karun Chandhok     HRT         at 48 laps (DNF)

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