F1 Fanatic round-up: 15/3/2010
We’ve got the first race of 2010 in the books – more reaction to the Bahrain Grand Prix later today. Here’s the Monday round-up:
Links
James Allen’s Bahrain GP verdict (ITV-F1)
“This handed the lead to Alonso, who was in that position because he had passed Massa at the start. It was a very smart move by the Spaniard, who went around the outside of his team-mate into turn one and then passed him in the ensuing left-hand kink of turn two. It was an important move and one which handed the initiative back to Alonso after he was outpaced by Massa in qualifying. In the post-race TV interview I asked him if this gave him the bragging rights in the Ferrari team and he said that it was not important, but this was just a political answer. That pass was significant and Massa goes away knowing that.”
Vettel hit by engine, not exhaust issue (Autosport)
“Red Bull Racing has revealed that Sebastian Vettel’s chances of winning the Bahrain Grand Prix were hit by an engine problem, and not by an issue with the exhaust as the team initially reported.” It’s 2009 all over again…
Comment of the day
An interesting thought from Ichtyes on the biggest discussion point after the Bahrain Grand Prix:
What is it those saying it was a boring race want? I know what it is, and let me say, they’re not things that can be forced into existence by the rules short of making F1a spec series. I voted a 7, and in my view the race deserved no more and certainly no less. It’s not F1’s fault if you’re not interested in races that have the potential to develop in an exciting way but rather demand everyone be artificially forced to be close together, ironically what people were supposedly against in the off-season when discussing the tyre rules. You can’t have it both ways, freedom in all areas and close racing. Sometimes they will work against each other, and only sometimes come together to make a great race, which is what makes great races what they are. It seems people want an F1 as close as lower series whilst making it less “artificial” or constrained than lesser series. Bad news: there’s a correlation between the two.
Icthyes
Happy birthday!
No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1
Two years ago Robert Kubica’s pace in qualifying for the first race of the season had us wondering whether BMW could mount a bid for the championship.
Not quite, as it turned out – but Kubica did score his and the team’s first win later that year.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 15th March 2010, 14:43
Spot of server trouble here today which affected sites other than F1 Fanatic. Back up again now, sorry about that.
wasiF1 said on 16th March 2010, 1:31
It seems like the problem is over now.
Cacarella said on 15th March 2010, 14:57
Wow. I’m Surprised by all the posts the last couple of days from all the ‘Fanatics’. I waited impatiently for the last few months for the season to start, anticipating some incredible action on track, wild rivalries between teammates, and the return of ‘The great one’, as did many of the ‘Fanatics’ on this site. Now, after the first race, Alonso didn’t slap Massa in the face, Micheal didn’t win the championship, and cars didn’t overtake that much. It looked like a standard F1 opening race to me. Except for the fact that it had a new (very prominent) feature that we haven’t seen in a long time, the driver actually had to look after his car for the duration of the race.
I liked watching what looked like Alonso stalking Vettel to the end of the race, wondering if and when he would attempt to make his move. If Vettel would burn out his tires trying to keep Alonso at bay or if Fernando would destroy his own. Similar to Spa last year when we all knew Fisichella had the faster car and wondered if and when he could make the move on Kimi as he couldn’t do it in the pits. It seemed like there was more of a PURE strategy developing throughout the race rather than before the start, one that was being decided by the Drivers with the help of the engineers instead of the other way around. Once the teams get all the bugs Ironed out and a few new Ideas up their sleeves I think we’ll witness some great stuff.
I expect to see some amazing races this year and look forward to seeing Micheal win 15 races, Lewis getting a new car in China while Jenson drives the older model
until Japan, and of course Alonso and Massa having a slapping fight after a turn one incident in Monaco (in front of the King).
maciek said on 15th March 2010, 20:19
Great comment, in my opinion.
BasCB said on 15th March 2010, 15:44
Seems like diffusor trouble is coming along again!
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82159
Let us just hope Todt (and the FOTA) manage this better than last year.
Tomás said on 15th March 2010, 17:16
Not a great race, true. But I wonder if most teams weren’t playing a very conservative game. After all, the high temperatures and bumpy track conditions were way different to what they’d experienced in pre-season testing in Spain. Beyond engine conservation -enforced- there may have been doubts about tyre wear and suspension components taking a bashing under the new, heavy loads.
That said, something MUST be done to decrease download and clear the wake, making overtaking a real option!
John H said on 15th March 2010, 19:16
On the McLaren/Mercedes diffuser issue:
Article 3.12.7 states: “A single break in the surface is permitted solely to allow the minimum required access for the device referred to in Article 5.15. [supposed to refer to starter motor, although this is Article 5.16]“.
The problem is that the regs do not specify the size of this hole. Why the hell not??? Surely after the DDD affair last year they went through their own rules to check for potential loopholes… but of course this is the FIA :(
cpeterip said on 15th March 2010, 20:22
All the comments talk about “next” year when they ban double defusers cars will race closer! We all know it was not banned last year to suit Max’s agenda against certain teams – so wht was it not banned for 2010, together with narrowing the front wing to INSIDE the front tyres? Then we could have stuck with a decent set of no extra cost rules for a few years that would have been effective!