After a moment of euphoria tweeting my appreciation of the entertainment provided by the Australian Grand Prix, I’m afraid I’ve been back on the rant the past week as our sport stumbles forward in an embarrassing farce of qualifying U-turns, while the dreaded CVC who own the controlling share of our ‘sport’ look to sell it for a $6.9 billion profit having sucked $4.4bn out of it in the ten years since they bought it.
Meanwhile the show goes on and we move to the deserted desert track of Bahrain – one of Hermann Tilke’s first ‘masterpieces’ that typifies everything that is wrong with his tracks. I was there for the third running of this event in 2006 sharing a V8 Holden Commodore with Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt in a fun filled Celebrity bash and I couldn’t believe how tight all the corners are for normal racing cars.
Tilke feature number one is the huge long main straight with its impressive Grandstand where whatever spectators do turn up will be watching from. A very tight Turn One offers a good overtaking opportunity but it’s immediately followed by one of the classic two-turn bottlenecks Hermann seems to love! The problem this causes is that if you only make it half past you are forced to back out for Turn Two or collide in Turn Three …
Even without a DRS approach, Turn Four is perhaps the best chance to make a place with a slightly longer run to get the job done afterwards before another left-right congestion leads into a nice, quick downhill left unfortunately followed immediately by a full stop Hairpinright! Fast Turn Nine then another full stop to the ridiculously tight Turn Ten that gives the TV director endless opportunities to show slowmos of locking-up front left wheels.
Turn Eleven is a challenging mid-speed left immediately followed by a fast right over a crest that you are just starting to enjoy when it’s hard on the brakes again for Thirteen which, like the final double right of Fourteen and Fifteen, is an awkward tightening corner which causes a frustrating exit that spits you out over the kerb instead of opening up and allowing a flowing exit.
This problem is exaggerated by the fact these sort of corners promote understeer and, if you are following closely, your aero grip is washed away so you’ll drop a couple of car lengths. DRS from Thirteen to Fourteen will allow you to close back up onto the tail of the car in front – but then you immediately lose those crucial two lengths again before you hit the main straight…
2006 Bahrain also happened to be young Nico Rosberg’s Grand Prix debut driving a Williams-Cosworth in which he set a stunning fastest lap on his way to 7th place. It’s also the Grand Prix that saw the debut of a new qualifying system split into three sessions which seemed to work pretty well…
However, while Nico obviously likes the place so do Lewis – on pole last year – and the Ferraris of Vettel who qualified second and Raikkonen who had one of his best races of 2015 chasing Hamilton home just three and a half seconds behind as Rosberg struggled with brake problems.
So expect another tense fight at the front where hopefully Ferrari won’t switch both cars onto a wrong strategy again! At which point I must apologize for getting things slightly wrong in my last blog as I thought you had to run two designated compounds and could then chose to use your option if you wanted to whereas in fact you just only have to use any two of the three. Interestingly both Mercedes are taking 6 Supersoft and 6 Soft with only one set of Mediums for the weekend while Ferraris both go 6, 4, 3.
Red Bull and Williams should be next up – although I thought the Martini boys were a bit disappointing in Melbourne – while the Toro Rossos should be stirring up a bit more trouble in their midst. I still find young Max a little too cocky and over confident and he acts like a spoilt child when he can’t get his own way. No doubt his level of self belief will stand him in good stead when he inevitably goes on to be a star of the future but I’d just like to see him stuck behind Carlos for a few more races in the hope he might learn a little more humility…
I can’t see a Haas finishing sixth again this weekend and probably not again this year but that was one of the great feelgood results of the opener while I worry that Force India and Sauber are going to fade away with budget restrictions holding back development. McLaren and Renault are the teams I see gradually edging ahead of them and into the top ten while Manor hang on to everyone’s coat tails.
While the track frustrates me there’s usually some good racing thanks to the DRS and I’m looking forward to seeing a red suit on top of the podium to get the season going!
The Circus is Back