Round 4 - Bahrain 2015 - Race

Greetings Internet

Well, I suppose it was too much to ask for the race to live up the marvellous spectacle we were treated to this time last year because it did fall quite a bit short. But then again anything less dynamic than Spa 1998 or Canada 2011 would struggle to be more entertaining than Bahrain 2014 - so on that note the bar was set almost impossibly high for this afternoon's race. Yet that doesn't mean it was a dull Australia style affair to any extent it was just that attention was focussed a little further forward than we have seen in the past this season - the mid-field was a little more strung out than we are used to, which seemed a little odd considering how close the gaps were between cars were in qualifying. To illustrate just how close things were at the very front of the field, if the race was only one lap longer it is highly likely we would have seen a change of lead and and change the number of points Red Bull would be taking home - and how angry they would be at their beloved engine manufacturer.

The Race

I suppose it was too good to be true, the idea of starting a race with 100% of the entrants actually sitting on the grid... it happened once last time out in China but wasn't be to replicated this weekend. This time it was Jenson Button sitting out the race as the ERS problem couldn't be repaired and so we were down to 19. As the grid cleared in preparation for the formation lap there were some personnel a little late in stepping away from Felipe Massa's Williams, as the cars left the grid the Brazilian was left stranded and had to be wheeled into the pit-lane. So we were down to 18 on the grid.

Off the line it was a reasonably conventional start for Hamilton and Vettel had to defend from Rosberg and as the second Mercedes looked for a way past the Ferrari he didn't notice Raikkonen on the outside. Kimi stole third place demoting Rosberg down to 4th. It got very busy on the short straight almost five wide in the middle of the pack, somewhere in the midst of it all Maldonado apparently went into the back of Mad Max Verstappen without lasting effects for either car. Pastor had a couple of adventures on the opening lap in his battles with the Toro Rosso's and Alonso. To make matters a little worse Maldonado also had a 5 second pit time penalty for not stopping in his grid spot on the grid for some reason. Carlos Sainz also had an early penalty picked up for driving too slowly on the installation lap before the race.

With things settling down a little - Rosberg went on the attack aiming to recover the places he lost to Ferrari off the line and in Qualifying yesterday - but today Nico appeared to have started his morning with a brave pill. The German in the Mercedes launched a decisive attack on Kimi Raikkonen - leaving the Ferrari no room on the exit and very firmly claimed third place, the Mercedes clearly had a pace advantage quickly leaving Raikkonen behind and closing the gap to the other Ferrari in second. Hamilton on the other hand was disappearing ever so slightly off into the distance. Because there was something happening at the front of the race we saw nothing of what was happening behind them aside from a brief shot of Massa carving his way through the pack after being forced to start from the pit lane taking on Daniil Kvyat in an out of position Red Bull. This was a bit of a shame because Hulkenberg was starting to collect a train of cars towards the lower end of the points including Mad Max, the Saubers and Maldonado. 

Nico Rosberg proved that the effects of that brave pill had not worn off as he made another forceful pass on a Ferrari - this time the one containing Sebastian Vettel. Sebastian attempted to defend the position but Nico was having none of that - both cars producing huge rooster tails of sparks as the new skid-blocks were working really well under the nights. So we had the default Mercedes 1-2 - on a normal day we'd say it was game over and pay some attention to the rest of the field... today was not going to be a normal day.

Felipe Massa's recovery drive caused a bit of a predicament as he was up to the Saubers - first dealing with Marcus Ericsson without too much difficulty but then he caught the Hulkenberg train and the second Sauber. I suppose it had to happen at some point this season when Felipe Massa gets involved in a battle with Felipe Nasr...Massa vs Nasr which quickly converges into a blur of confused pronunciation. But to solve any future problems Martin Brundle came up with a good way of differentiating between the two in commentary - by renaming Nasr as Fred. So with that in mind Felipe Massa eventually passed Fred and continued after Hulkenberg. Meanwhile the first round of stops were underway, and at the front an earlier stop for Vettel forced Mercedes to reverse their strategy by brining Rosberg in before Hamilton. As Vettel rejoined he jumped the race he had jumped Nico in the stops forcing Rosberg to rely once more on his brave pill. Nico had to pass Vettel again this time the Ferrari driver defended even harder - almost pushing Rosberg into the pit-lane as the Mercedes was on the inside. Both cars were chased to turn one by a tsunami of sparks - and to make things even more interesting Lewis Hamilton was exiting the pits following his stop as Nico and Vettel were charging two wide down to turn one. All three cars almost converged in turn one but avoided contact as Nico took the place from Vettel. The top three cars all running within a couple of seconds... a brief moment it looked as if we could have a repeat of 2014 but they started to separate after a few corners... no fun

In the middle of the round of stops the fastest lap was taken by Pastor Maldonado as soon as the Venezuelan switched onto a new set of medium compound tyres. You'd think that one of the other teams might have noticed that the prime tyre was performing better than the softer option compound. By virtue of staying out a little longer Kimi Raikkonen was able to benefit from this information and change onto the prime tyres at his stop. When he rejoined he started reeling in the top three, fuelling the idea of a four-way challenge for the lead of the race. Tyre conservation messages to the Mercedes drivers which had all the hallmarks of the situation that caused so much grumpiness only a week ago in Shanghai. Further back Massa and Fred were back on the same piece of track once more, now with the attentions of Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus closing in rapidly from behind. This time Fred took the position away from Massa after the Williams' tyres were stating to fade. But after Fred gain the place all three cars dove straight into to the pits - turning a battle on track into a duel between the pit crews. It was Lotus who did the better job and jumped both Fred and Felipe as he raced wheel to wheel with Fred on the pit exit... I do get a slight sense of trepidation when Pastor exits the pit-lane in the region of a Sauber in Bahrain, but this year no-one ended up upside down.

Just past the half way point in the race and Vettel seemed to forget how to drive his Ferrari as a couple of errors started to creep into his traditionally impervious driving style. Firstly he ran wide in turn one, allowing Raikkonen to close in on his Ferrari team-mate, then he made a second error in turn 11, just running off the circuit again bringing Raikkonen right into contention. Kimi radioed in at Ferrari saying that he was faster than Vettel and would pass if the opportunity presented itself. Even if there is a number one driver clause at Ferrari as Hamilton intimated mid-week Kimi frankly couldn't care for it. Fernando would probably rather he still had one of those Ferraris and some of that preferential treatment because life wasn't so comfortable at McLaren, his current strategy placed the car in the middle of a battle between Perez, and Kvyat. The Red Bull, even with the unfavoured Renault engine made light work of overtaking the Honda powered McLaren. Perez on the other hand made it look like Alonso was stuck in first gear as the Force India effortlessly breezed past on the main straight almost completing the pass before crossing the DRS line. 

While we did have a brief glimpse of Daniil Kvyat's recovery drive from his less than ideal qualifying it was time to check out how well the other Renault powered cars were doing... and it wasn't exactly promising. Carlos Sainz Jnr was parked up at the side of the road after apparently one of the wheels wasn't fitted properly. Normally that would result in a penalty, but so far these season Ferrari have proven that it is perfectly legal to do so these days, so I don't foresee a penalty there. As for Mad Max Verstappen he was having a very anonymous race outside the points before eventually running into technical difficulties and another retirement. Ricciardo however was comfortably inside the points, being the flag bearer for the French manufacturer. 

At the second round of stops it was a case of deja vu at the front of the field as Ferrari were able to get Vettel in front of Rosberg for the second time, while Raikkonen stayed out on the harder compound tyres. Rosberg didn't need to use more of that brave pill power because Vettel escorted himself off the circuit once more in the final corner. Sebastian just brushed the edge of the gravel trap on his latest excursion but it proved to be the most costly as he incurred front wing

damage in the process forcing an impromtu stop for a new nose dropping him down behind Valtteri Bottas in 5th place. A couple of other unfortunate pit stops thinned the mid-field out somewhat - Marcus Ericsson was held for 25 seconds as the team struggled to fit a front wheel and then Maldonado creeped down the lane with an apparent loss of power. As the team inspected the car in the pit box the front brakes caught fire, but eventually the Lotus rejoined the race but was severely compromised from then on. Combine that with the demise of both Toro Rosso's and there were huge gaps in the middle of the pack... it's just as well things were heating up at the front. 

Raikkonen finally stopped to switch back onto the soft tyre despite the Finn's like of the opposing compound during the preceding stint - but in the later stages of the race it seemed to be right call. Kimi was considerably faster than both Rosberg and Hamilton in front - meanwhile Vettel struggled to make any form of influence on Bottas. Valtteri drove almost as if the recovering Ferrari wasn't there - and there were times when Sebastian got very close, at one point the German almost drove straight into the back of the Williams. Vettel was not having a particularly good day. Raikkonen's charge for the grand finale was temporarily interrupted as the top three cars had to negotiate clusters of lapped cars - none of which quite elicited the same strained response from the Ferrari driver. It was only really Rosberg who seemed a little grumpy on the radio after his engineer updated him on the decreasing gap to Raikkonen. The German who had been demanding more information in the race back in Malaysia and China suddenly didn't want it any more - he knew the Ferrari was approaching at speed and all he could do was keep going as fast as possible. At one point things got a little messy as Rosberg and Raikkonen were lapping Alonso's McLaren, because Perez in the Force India exited the pits at the same time almost making it three wide in turn one.

With only a few laps remaining Raikkonen had brought the gap down from 19s after the pit-stop to next to nothing and was staring at second place. On the penultimate lap things started to go wrong with both Mercedes cars, as they ran into difficulties with the brake-by-wire systems. Rosberg couldn't slow the car down in turn one and ran off the circuit, gifting the place to the Ferrari, releasing Raikkonen to try and get to Hamilton. Lewis' brakes had also started to fail, but he had just enough of a gap to be able to back off without giving Raikkonen the win. If the race was just one lap longer the Finn would have taken the win. As it was Lewis crossed the line to take his third win of 2015 just ahead of Raikkonen and Rosberg. Bottas put up a steely defence against Vettel to maintain 4th place ahead of the second Ferrari. As Ricciardo approached the finish line his Renault engine erupted, unleashing a volcanic cloud of smoke as it just managed to crawl across the line to claim 6th place. Grosjean finished as the last car on the lead lap in 7th, ahead of Perez and Kvyat. Felipe Massa claimed the final point after his recovery drive from the pit-lane and post race discussions also revealed that Felipe was driving a damaged car following an unseen collision with no-one other than Pastor Maldonado. The only running McLaren finished 11th, so close to the points, Spain looks promising for the gradually improving Honda power unit.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

After a whole host of motorsport action today, including a colossal amount of action in the BTCC series and support categories there are so many people deserving of bonus points. Most of the Ginetta GT4 Supercup grid deserve points after their second race at Donnington because it was several shades of awesome. The same could be said for the Clio Cup grid and many drivers in the final BTCC race - so magnificent. But in Bahrain there were also plenty of points worthy drives.

• 25pts - Nico Rosberg - That's more like it, took a brave pill and pulled off some forceful moves, a world apart from the hesitant low risk Sepang race
• 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Despite a slightly too long middle stint the Finn still recovered with some very quick laps... still no Kimi happy face on the podium however...
• 15pts - Felipe Massa - Pit-lane to the points with a damaged car deserves some points
• 12pts - Daniil Kyvat - After being knocked out in Q1, the Russian made good ground back into the points 
• 10pts - Valtteri Bottas - Remained completely indifferent to the pressure of Sebastian Vettel in the final phase of the race
• 8pts - Felipe 'Fred' Nasr - Some good overtakes today, particularly on Massa before the pit-stops
• 6pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Again the best of not only the Renault collective but the Mid-field as a whole, and for that spectacular finish
• 4pts - Romain Grosjean - More points for Lotus while Maldonado continues to run into difficulties
• 2pts - Team Lotus - The team have to score some points for that pit-stop when they jumped both Massa and Fred
• 1pt - Will Stevens - Finishing a whole lap ahead of your team-mate is a notable achievement

Looking to Spain

And so looms the start of the European season, where car development switches into top gear - without being suspended - as hordes of upgrades are brought from the factories to the paddock. Renault hope to bring a new fuel composition to extract more power from the engine while Ferrari and Mercedes probably will be making changes to their chassis along with everyone else. It will be interesting to see whether the relative performance between the teams changes as the upgrades take effect, as some teams may get it right and others may not. On of the focal points will be to see if returning to Europe allows McLaren to make some significant steps towards competing for points on pace without the reliability issues they've faced thus far. 

Round 4 - Bahrain 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

I know it is a completely artificial spectacle brought in to change the TV schedule times and to blank out the barren wilderness outside the perimeter fence. But converting the Bahrain GP into a night race has been a magnificent idea, the first event under the lights last season was marvellous - and this year again the track looks wonderful. Lights on, and in the palm trees at base of the sandstone cliffs just make the venue look a little less like a remote desert wasteland. It is nice to see how these newer tilke tracks have evolved since their first race, and even in the daylight, the Sakhir circuit has evolved the most and looks fresh and new each year... especially in HD. It is also one of those tracks that grows on you over time, even though it is compose of jaunty angled corners with tied together - I just can't despise it any more. In fairness it is very difficult to come up with an entire circuit that is terrible - even Valencia had a fantastic final sector when the rest of it was nonsensical. One way of putting is that Bahrain is one of those circuits you don't mind racing on when it appears in a video game, but you wouldn't select it for a quick race because you enjoy it. 

What the track has done is set us up for a very interesting race tomorrow, qualifying has provided all the elements we need for a potential replay of the 2014 spectacular. There are fast cars out of position, there are two different teams represented on the front row, and another car piloted by a German with an increasingly grumpy face. Place all of those ingredients underneath the floodlights and you have a recipe for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon. 

Q1

Coverage opened to a particularly windy Sakhir which gave the helicopter pilot

no end of encouragement to fly over the arrangement of flags depicting the flag of the host nation. Which over the course of qualifying got more TV time than Manor have all season. Initially it was Kimi Raikkonen who became the focal point for the coverage, as he started his first flying lap - but as the Finn approached turn one he locked up the inside front and ruined the tyre... not an idea start to his preparations. Yet it could always be worse, he could have been Jenson Button - McLaren showed improved pace in FP3 so hopes of escaping Q1 were raised... However none of those hopes quite materialised in Jenson's side of the garage as his car shut down and had to be escorted off the track. Half a lap into his qualifying session and it was game over and a confirmed back of the grid start. The other Honda powered car was doing a little better, currently running inside the top ten. 

Mercedes obviously set the initial pace, only using the harder of the available compounds while the majority of the field preferred to go straight for the softer option. Before the final runs it looked as if Mercedes might be safe not to need the faster tyres, but a combination of track evolution and a large difference in lap time provided by the differing tyre compounds, made their position a lot less secure. As a result both Mercedes cars had to retake to the track as Hamilton and Rosberg both saw themselves slide down the timesheets as everyone else improved. At the bottom of the field in the relegation zone - both Will Stevens and Roberto Mehri for Manor were within a couple of tenths of the cars in front of them. Unfortunately, this was a maximum pace of their cars, Will Stevens more than a second ahead of Mehri - whereas the cars just in front of them could go a couple of seconds faster... and did. With Button and Manor out only two more cars could be relegated, one of those places was taken by Pastor Maldonado as engine malfunctions hampered his laptimes... in a functioning car he is going to be fun tomorrow. The remaining relegation place looked to be heading to one of the struggling Renault powered cars, or the remaining McLaren. Fernando removed his name from the equation by putting a lot of distance between himself and the relegation cut-off time. As both Toro Rossos moved up the grid the final responsibility of escaping Q1 fell to Daniil Kvyat - and no matter how intense the death stare upon his face the Russian couldn't move the Red Bull into Q2. The higher downforce configuration clearly not working out this time...

Q2

With times so close in the second half of the grid, making it out of Q2 and into Q1 was going to be difficult where the margins to be measured in hundredths and thousandths rather than whole tenths. With the gap between success and failure being so small, the teams were a little more tentative than usual to venture out onto the track. One minute passed and then another - it was if everyone had forgotten how qualifying works, and that you actually had to leave the garage to set a time... Eventually Force India made the first move and sent Sergio Perez out onto the circuit, and with that the floodgates started to open.

Mercedes followed suit, and like in China they planned to only complete one run on the tyres they've picked out for the race. Rosberg set a conservative yet

quick time looking to not take too much life out of the race set of tyres. Williams and Ferrari were close to Rosberg's time - Raikkonen, Vettel and Massa all managed to beat the Mercedes. But then there was Hamilton, who on the surface wasn't being so conservative setting a lap time that could only be described as meteoric. Carving out a 0.8s lead over Raikkonen and a crushing 1.2s over Rosberg... Neither Ferrari nor Mercedes needed head out again in Q2.

In the battle for to avoid relegation positions changed places rather rapidly which was always going to be the place considering nine cars were arguing over the four remaining places in Q1. Before the final runs took place is was Sauber, Ricciardo and Grosjean holding onto those opening places. But Force India launched a late strike as both Hulkenberg and Perez moved into the final two promotion places, at the expense of the Saubers. Even they were not safe from the rest of the mid-field, Alonso had a go - but although McLaren have made steps forward a top ten may still be a few races away yet. Instead it was Carlos Sainz Jnr who has been slightly eclipsed by the reputation preceding his younger team-mate to gain promotion into the top ten. Knocking Perez out by six hundredths of a second - the only consolation to the Force India it will starting on the clean side of the grid tomorrow.  

Q3

The first part  of Q3 started off with the slightly unusual strategy of completing the first laps on a used set of tyres, which in reality serves no real purpose, subsequent laps are always going to be faster and you are taking more life out of tyres that might be needed in the race. One thing that it does do, is put more cars on track, and I'm all in favour of putting more cars on the circuit. So

Mercedes and Ferrari opened their account with a pair of reasonably mediocre lap times. Ricciardo on the other hand started Q3 with a new set of soft compound tyres claiming a very early provisional pole position. Ferrari, at this point in time were close to of one of the Mercedes' - which might be rather telling for the race. Because if Ferrari can be quick on used tyres - the long run pace may be a serious threat to Mercedes... making things rather interesting indeed if the German team won't have things all their own way.. However Hamilton was still in the lead, but only by a couple of tenths.

After a slight stop for some new tyres it was time for the all important final runs, where Hlukenberg and Sainz - or Sainzo as the BBC write up suggests - joined the fray after sitting out the first half of Q3. Riccardo's lofty position was under significant threat from the faster teams switching onto newer tyres. Vettel was the first to take the provisional pole position ahead of Hamilton on used tyres and the Red Bull. Rosberg was next to cross the line and the German in the all conquering Mercedes could only manage second place - cue a very grumpy post race face... To rub salt into those wounds Hamilton on new tyres Lewis Hamilton emphatically claimed pole by bettering the monstrous time he set in Q2. It could have been even worse for Nico as Raikkonen was only a tenth shy of defeating the Mercedes as well, which would have demoted him to the dusty, sandy side of the grid. Bottas and Massa found themselves in no-mans land they floundered around in during the Chinese GP. Still comfortably ahead of the mid-field teams lead by Ricciardo flying the underpowered flag for Renault.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

There were many interesting performances and large differences between team-mates some resulting in grumpy faces

• 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - A top ten qualifying place for a Force India for the first time since Monza 2014 with an largely untested car
• 8pts - Daniel Ricciardo - As the complaints continue against Renault, Ricciardo still places the car as the best of the rest
• 6pts - Sergio Perez - So close to joining Hulkenberg inside the top ten
• 5pts - Will Stevens - For the second race in a row, Stevens smashed Mehri to over a second in qualifying
• 4pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - When Verstappen struggled the other Toro Rosso steps up and makes it into Q3
• 3pts - Fernando Alonso - The McLaren is free from Q1, free it tell you
• 2pts - Sebastian Vettel - Front row for Ferrari, just to make tomorrow fun
• 1pt - Lewis Hamilton - Pole number 42 gets a point simply for it being number 42

• -2pts - The Stewards - One negative point for failing to penalise Ferrari for releasing Vettel's car with a loose wheel causing it to hit Perez's Force India in FP2. The second for only giving Raikkonen a reprimand for a larger infringement than Grosjean was penalised for in Malaysia - overtaking after the restart following Vettel's accident also in FP2.

Looking to Tomorrow

As the first race of the season that can be broadcast here at blog HQ live without clogging up the sky+ storage drive... because that is going to get a hammering tomorrow with BTCC, GP2 and WTCC all in action throughout the day. Add that to the Indycar GP of Long Beach in the evening and you have a very busy and entertaining schedule so busy the sky box is already quaking at the thought. Headlining such a packed day of panel banging racing is the second Bahrain GP to be held under the lights - if the last one is anything to go by it is going to be phenomenal. This time however there are more cars in the mix for that win under the lights - Ferrari could be very strong in race conditions, but whether they will be strong enough to hold on to the back of the Mercedes' is a different matter. Can Rosberg get past Vettel and take the fight to Hamilton - using the power of that grumpy face to score some vengeance against his team-mate. Oh how I'd like to see some vengeance.

If that wasn't enough - we have Maldonado, Kvyat and Jenson Button all starting behind where their cars should be, more so in the case of Pastor and Daniil who are roughly ten places behind the car's potential. Jenson on the other hand is only about five places too far back since McLaren is still a work in progress. Put all those things together with the tendency for things to be a little more chaotic at night and things get interesting, very interesting indeed.

Round 4 - Bahrain 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

You know, I am rather disappointed - you see following the last race in China, the one where team-mates fell out with each other again and the world took some time to point and laugh at Pastor Maldonado. Well, it all went quiet, no arguments in the media, no team principles stepping up and telling the world what discussions had taken place behind the garage shutters. We haven't even been apprised of what Bernie and Toto spent so much time discussing throughout the weekend... although I might have something to do with the comment Bernie made about Toto being responsible for "Killing F1" implying it would be eventually carved into his tombstone... which was a little on the excessive side. To sum up how confusingly sedate the brief transition from Shanghai to Sakhir has been - there was even a comment from Red Bull professing allegiance to Renault and encouraging collaboration in recovering the performance losses as a team... I wonder if Bernie has been round the garages and told everyone to stop being so argumentative... no fun... Even in the air of turbulence that usually surrounds the upcoming Bahrain GP, things have been rather quiet - there was a report of 21 activists of some form being arrested in some kind of pre-emptive effort by the authorities. But there was no guarantee they were actually going to do anything disruptive.

So with things on the quiet side it might be a good time to analyse another one of Bernie's mad ideas that he suggested prior to the Chinese GP. This one involves creating a separate formula in parallel to F1 for female drivers, the crazy gnome didn't specify the chassis' he intends to use or their comparable performance. Depending if I find time and get round to it, there will be a separate post on the rational and realism behind the idea - pointing out why it is just the product Bernie's strange view of the world. But in short, it is a bit mad isn't it - there is no need for some form of segregation the likes of Bietske Visser, Simona Di Silvestro and Danica Patrick all compete against their male counter parts and are by far and away not brushed aside in the process. Simona scored a top five finish in the most recent Indycar event in Louisiana - I didn't actually see the race as it was on the same night I couldn't write up the Chinese GP race so circumstances may have been involved. But that aside demonstrates that there is no requirement for separation, just more competitors joining and taking part at the junior level in F4,F3 GP3 and so on. Sponsorship needs to be available, because it is very limited at present - for both genders. 

Sakhir

Well despite being another of those omnipresent Tilke engineered creations it is a world apart from the last one we endured in China. Instead of being a circuit crafted on the back of some mad artistic idea this one was put together after Herman Tilke was locked in a shed with only a ruler and a protractor, if we felt generous he was allowed to use a set square as well. Because the Bahrain international circuit is all angles and straight lines - there are a couple of token curved sections to create the illusion that something other than a primary school geometry set was used to complete the design... with the pair of compasses removed, because Tilke probably can't be trusted with pointy objects. Despite these potential facts, and a surrounding landscape which is about as exciting as a bread sandwich, and just as plain the track is quite good. Which is inexplicable because it certainly doesn't conform to the simplicity that works for Austria, Australia and Canada and it doesn't have the big presence of Spa or Suzuka. It is just bland but functional and very effective - 2014 delivered arguably the best race of the entire season. 

You'd be excused of thinking that Tilke used his geometry set to build something after seeing a scrawling about the future plans for DRS because there are straights a plenty. The main straight is monolithic - not quite the length of China's back straight - but a considerable piece of tarmac, leading into the turn one hairpin. This hairpin feeds into a pair of angular corners designed to allow battles to continue all the way to turn four, which worked out marvellously for the outstanding Mercedes battle this time last season. A good exit from turn four can lead to another re-pass, might be worth noting the from the exit of turn one to turn four is not a DRS zone and the racing was just as good without it. 

The start of the middle sector features one of the token curved sections and a little bit of an elevation change as the track descends through a series of quick sweepers down to hairpin number three... Originality isn't that possible when the majority of the track was designed with a ruler and a set-square - but it does make for more overtaking opportunities which were capitalised on in the great battle that took place behind the Mercedes duel involving Williams and Force India which ultimately was won by Perez. One hairpin leads to another in the second part of the middle sector which is a little unnecessary - I can't help but think that Tilke was given a number of corners to stick to and started folding the track in on itself.

The final sector is a little more pacey and purposeful - with something that seems out of place on a Tilke track... a pair of brilliant corners as the track climbs up it's highest point. The elevation change conceals the turn in point for the second of the two corners which sits on top of the crest. The penultimate corner is just there to funnel the cars onto the back straight - because there was always room for one more straight.. But it opens up another, less obvious overtaking spot in the final corner. According to the track map there is one more corner, but it is doesn't count...

The Form Guide

It was Bahrain 2014 when Mercedes turn the power up to 11 and opening the biggest can of F1 flavoured Whoop-ass and destroyed the competition. Behind them everyone was fighting over third place - Williams, Force India and Red Bull all trying to take the single remaining podium spot. Ferrari were being passed by everything on the myriad of straights - setting in motion the series of complaints which lead to Luca Di Montezemelo and Stefano Dominicali's departures from the red team. It became one of the pivotal moments in the early part of the season. Will lightening strike twice - I rather hope so.

After the post-race comments in China I envisage and hope that Rosberg is planning to arrive in Bahrain ready for vengeance, oh how I'd like some vengeance - as long as he doesn't ask Maldonado for advice on how to conduct this scheduled vengeance. The battle in 2014 was marvellous, lets have round two thank you very much. Behind Mercedes it could be Ferrari vs Williams for that third place - Force India won't be joining in the battle this year. I suspect the gap between Ferrari and Williams will be a lot closer than it was in China where I couldn't be certain Williams were actually in the race given their lack of TV coverage and general activity. So, all being well it create a four car fight for third place.

The mid-field should, in threory contain everyone else - many straight don't bode well for the Renault powered teams and may fall into the same trap Ferrari did last season. Red Bull will be probably have to spend most of the time trying not to be embarrassed by a pair of excitable youths in their junior team, from upstaging the main squad. All of this will probably taking place behind Lotus and Sauber who I imagine could have the beating of the Renault powered cars. Force India, despite having the stronger engine package might just be behind Red Bull and Toro Rosso on pace, but close enough to get involved in the battles. 

Out back McLaren have been quoted as saying that Honda are planning on turning up the power of the power unit this weekend, which means they might be aiming at escaping Q1 for the first time this season. Potentially at the expense of a Force India, or two. Manor on the other hand may get to the end of the race as their car using the more established 2014 engine is more reliable than it's competitors. But it will be a long way of the pace - until their real 2015 car is completed with the new engine installed they will be anchored to the final row of the grid.

Bahrain 2014 was a masterpiece, an indication that moving the race to a night event suggesting that the floodlights unleashes the 'crazy' - will 2015 be more of the same. I'd like to think so.

Round 3 - China 2015 - Race (Delayed)

Greetings Internet, 

I know, I know - today is Monday, which is not quite the conventional day for these sort of things but there were some mitigating circumstances wherein my presence was required elsewhere. So while I was outside listening to various loud music based things in Newcastle no actual blog writing got done - especially due to the fact that a traditional Sunday post generally takes upwards of four hours to write out. But although I can imagine the vast majority of you lot out there on the internet will be rather pleased at the lack of contributions from my dismal corner of cyberspace it is time to pick up where I left off over the weekend.

Today I shall attempt to recount the events of yesterday's Chinese GP, which is all but a distant slightly faded memory - bearing in mind that remembering what happened this morning is a challenge all of its own. One thing that I do remember is that there was an intriguing degree of animosity making a reappearance in the pit-lane. Some might say that in-fighting and grumpiness does not make for a good image for the sport or reflects poorly on those involves. Here in Blog HQ, I think pairs of grumpy drivers is magnificent - hearing their snide little comments and accusations is rather amusing. I mean during the race at Malaysia, some of the most comical highlights can be pulled from Hamilton's radio transmissions. Then again in Shanghai we have several intriguing messages being broadcast from Kimi Raikkonen's car - then again many amusing things a generally heard from that particular cockpit. So arguments aside there was a race taking place yesterday - mostly amongst several better tempered competitors.

The Race 

Hooray, or some such, expression - for yesterday was the first race in the 2015 calendar where we actually got to see all 20 cars lining up on the grid, not in the pit-lane and not in the garage. It is something of a miracle, that Manor have made it this far and maintain a 100% finishing record  is still quite impressive. On the grid there was one oddity, and that was Lewis Hamilton - even more so than the normal oddity that he seems to have devolved into, with his increasingly 'gangsta' persona... This time it appeared Lewis, in accordance with gangland tradition, parked his Mercedes at an aggressively jaunty angle. Pointed directly at Rosberg... and this just summarised how the day was going to play out.

Off the line - the two Mercedes made an even and uneventful start - one belying the aggressive stance. While they were boring, Ricciardo had a notably disastrous venture towards the first corner, the car was rather reluctant to start and ultimately dropped down the order to join the rest of the Red Bull fraternity in the melee of the lower mid-field. It wasn't all doom and misfortune as there were gains to be made - Raikkonen managed to negotiate his way past the two Williams cars in front of him while they were a little pre-occupied battling with one another.The opening lap wasn't without a little bit of contact where the two Red Bull teams decided that instead of arguing with Renault - as there would be time for that later - Kyvat and his death stare was in the midst of a little push and shove with Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso. Both cars survived a the little bit of wheel to wheel contact on the exit of turn six, but Sainz  ran into more difficulties on the following lap where he simply drifted out wide in turn one and span into the most dull spin he could have mustered. 

After it all settled down for a bit, it was time for some people to start making progress  - Maldonado and Verstappen seemed to be having the most fun, and the Saubers were constantly on the receiving end. It seemed as if Sauber had finally found a way of getting more than three cars onto the grid - in every shot there was a blue and yellow car under pressure from someone different. Pastor Maldonado was the first assailant, taking on Marcus Ericsson round the outside of turn one before dealing with Felipe Nasr in much the same way. At this point in the race the commentators were lavishing praise on Maldonado for completing two well executed overtakes... oh how things would change by the end of the race, to the point where references to his accident prone past were brought up once more. So while one driver was temporarily defying his eccentric reputation - another driver was carving his own impression. Little Max was quickly growing into Mad Max as he waged war against Marcus Ericsson in the third or fourth Sauber... I'd lost count of how many there are at this point. Out of nowhere the Swede suddenly found the junior Dutchman barrelling down the inside of the final hairpin. Despite the crazed nature of the manoeuvre Verstappen remained completely in control of the car and Ericsson demonstrated cat-like reactions to get out of the way of the errant Toro Rosso. The Sauber was so scared of the pass that it dropped into anti-stall mode before eventually rebooting.

Even further back, we found Ricciardo caught up behind Daniil Kyvat in the other Red Bull car - 75% of the Renault powered brigade were a long way from the points. Down in these lower reaches of the pecking order - it was odd to see the Red Bull battle marginally ahead of McLaren. Two teams responsible for five of the last seven championships arguing over 14th place... At the front of the queue Daniil was, encouraged to allow Ricciardo through - but slammed the door on his Australian team-mate as he considered a pass on the inside of turn

one. If this was the end of the intra-team misgivings then the news over the intervening days before Bahrain would be a lot less interesting. The only member of the Red Bull cohort who was having a day worth mentioning was Mad Max, who again made a very late but very controlled pass on Felipe Nasr at the hairpin. But the prospect of further battling was temporarily put on hold as some pit stops intervened.  Except for Hulkenbergs case, as his Force India dropped out of the race with a gearbox failure. Daniil Kvyat also encountered technical difficulties... ones that may warrant another disagreement in the Renault camp, as the Renault engine disintegrated, reduced to a cloud of smoke.

Once the engine smoke had settled - and a liberal amount of fire extinguishant as well - we were left with what will probably not be known as the infamous middle stint. The stint which is the source of all the controversy within the Mercedes team - because Hamilton was playing a sly game, a completely legal and justified game, but a devious one nonetheless. Lewis was saving tyres, driving well within the pace of the car - this ultimately slowed Rosberg down allowing Vettel and Raikkonen to close in. As Rosberg saw the Ferrari's appear larger in his mirrors - he demanded Lewis pick up the pace - Mercedes also noted the threat Vettel posed and relayed the instruction to the leader. Hamilton obliged - driving just to the lap delta instructed by the team, not a tenth more.

This did not appease Rosberg who was trapped in the turbulent air behind his team-mate - Nico couldn't close in on Lewis because although he had more pace the turbulent air would ruin the tyre life and make him even more vulnerable to a Ferrari counter attack. A second call was made to Lewis asking for a little bit more pace - a four tenth improvement - but it wasn't fast enough to drop the Ferraris or keep Rosberg happy. We all assumed Hamilton was having tyre conservation difficulties... but after Rosberg and Vettel pitted to complete the stint Hamilton magically set a series of storming fastest laps... So much for being on the limit of tyre degradation. Seeing these laptimes post race... just added more fuel to the smouldering fires within the Mercedes team... and made for a very displeased German.

Away from this fight we saw another magnificent duel forming at the tail end of the points involving Daniel Ricciardo and Marcus Ericsson, driving the seventh Sauber. The problem Ricciardo had was small, French and increasingly unfavoured - because Ericsson was in possession of the more powerful Italian equivalent making overtaking the Sauber very difficult. But Daniel fought on, eventually passing round the outside of outside of turn one/two but he ran wide in turn six giving up the position he worked so hard to claim. So while Red Bull were ruing their power-plant, Toro Rosso were having difficulties with theirs... or at least Carlos Sainz was as for a brief time as his car was crawling down the back straight with more gearbox issues. But the Spaniard was able to reset the car and get going again, not before losing a considerable amount of time. It took a while but Ricciardo finally managed to overtake the Sauber... but they would both have to pit again and battle would be resumed later on. Speaking of difficulties, Pastor Maldonado was turning his originally positive day into a slightly more errant affair. To start off he missed his braking point arriving in the pit-lane and only just missed the barrier - on site marshals pushed the car back into the race as the Lotus team looked on, wondering where their car had gotten to. When he rejoined, the Venezuelan contributed to the self-destruction of his Sunday morning by power sliding the car through turn 7 and spinning off the track. The car was undamaged and Pastor continued on.

Pit-stops over and done with, pairs of battling racers started to emerge on the run to the flag - Verstappen was at it again making more late braking passes first Sergio Perez in the Force India, then it was Felipe Nasr in the twelfth Sauber. Speaking of Saubers - again - Marcus Ericsson this time driving what I can only assume was the twenty-third Sauber found himself under-pressure from Ricciardo once more for the final world championship point. Just like last time the Red Bull had nothing for the straight line speed of the Sauber - but was considerably faster in the corners. The Australian made another go of it in turn one - but Ericsson stayed alongside to reclaim the position - this time Daniel was a lot more decisive throwing the Red Bull down the inside of turn 6 not leaving too much room to spare. The only other real battle of interest belonged

to our good friend Maldonado, after his various misadventures he became embroiled in a battle with the two McLarens well outside the points. Only Sainz and Manor were further back. As the Lotus was faster it was being held up by Alonso and Button. The process started with a brilliant duel with Fernando through the high speed sweepers, the ones that Pastor span off on earlier. The duel eventually ended in Maldonado's favour under braking for turn 9. Pastor's attack on the second McLaren was a lot less straight forward - as Jenson proved in Australia, he quite enjoys getting involved in the little battles the McLaren finds itself in. After successfully re-passing Pastor, Jenson fell behind again on the back straight - the second effort at re-taking the position didn't quite work. Button considered having a look down the inside of turn one but only ended up ramming the Lotus instead. Jenson sustained front wing damage, but Maldonado was forced to retire due to the damage. The real winner was Fernando Alonso who instantly gained two places...

At the front there was the feint hint of a battle brewing at the tail of the lead quartet as Raikkonen on fresher tyres was closing in on Vettel for the final podium place. But on the way Raikkonen encountered some slightly inconvenient lapped traffic - prompting some good old Kimi complaints. "get this McLaren out of the way" was the first command in relation to lapping Alonso, only to be followed up with "get these two cars out of the way" referring to the Maldonado/Button battle which hadn't cleared itself at this point. I was rather enjoying the idea of an all Ferrari fight for in the remaining laps... but there was a problem. And if a certain Red Bull overlord is to be believed all the world's problems are Renault related... in this case it proved to be accurate. The transmission in the back of Mad Max's Toro Rosso ground itself into oblivion - making the kind of noises that would bring an engineer to tears on the main straight. As the rear wheels locked the car was stranded in a rather dangerous position. A safety car had to thrown to safely clear the car... it set up the race

for a magnificent one lap shoot-out... all that needed doing was to wheel the Toro Rosso through the nearby gate in the middle of the pit straight. But thing's didn't go at all to plan - instead of moving the car, the marshals rammed it repeatedly into the wall... attempting to turn it through an impossible angle. In the end the Toro Rosso team had to remove the nosecone manually because the marshals refused to reposition the car for a better entry. The length of this annoying and slightly amusing delay meant the race couldn't be restarted and thus finished under the safety car... no fun...

Hamilton crossed the line in an anti-climactic false restart ahead of a still grumpy Rosberg and the Ferrari pair. Contrary to popular belief Williams were in this race and finished a rather anonymous fifth and sixth places. Grosjean drove a trouble free race for Lotus to pick up their first points of 2015 ahead of Felipe Nasr in the 36th Sauber, Ricciardo in the only fully functioning Renault powered creation. Marcus Ericsson in the Nth Sauber rounded out the points in tenth.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

The race was a story of contrasting fortunes, conflicting views and close contests - so plenty of scope for bonus points... both positive and negative.

• 25pts - Mad Max Verstappen - Many high risk overtaking manoeuvres but all under complete control
• 18pts - Marcus Ericsson - Brilliant defence against Ricciardo and good reactions to avoid Verstappen
• 15pts - Pastor Maldonado - Easily the most entertaining driver of the day, good early passes and good old fashioned hilarity later.
• 12pts - Fernando Alonso - Great fight with Pator and Jenson - two wide through the sweepers with the Lotus was brilliant
• 10pts - Jenson Button - Enjoyed his defiance in re-passing Maldonado, but lost points in ramming the Venezuelan
• 8pts - Sebastian Vettel - His continued pressure forced the hilarious shenanigans at Mercedes
• 6pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Was setting up a marvellous race conclusion, but also contributed more Kimi radio magic
• 4pts - Mehri/Stevens - Another two car finish for Manor, 
• 2pts - Lewis Hamilton - Race winner, fastest lap, devious individual - only two bonus points for you today/yesterday...
• 1pt - Daniil Kvyat - Gets a point for adding to the musical radio contributions of Vettel and his 'Blue flag, Blue flag' remix with Kvyat's new single "I'm on fire, fire, fire"

• -1pt - The Chinese Marshals - The handling of Verstappen's car was borderline farcical
• -1pt - Lewis Hamilton - That was a little devious but acceptable - having no idea of how close Nico was and dismissing the threat is a little underhand

Looking ahead to Bahrain

For a circuit traditionally held as a relatively dull tilke-drome out in the middle of the desert - the 2014 race was one of the best races of the entire season. It had the first - and only really lap on lap battle between Lewis and Nico, it had Maldonado delivering his most dramatic act of Maldonado-ism in flipping Gutierrez. There was a huge battle between Force India and Williams for the final podium place and many angry faces on the Ferrari pit-wall as their cars were overtaken by everything in straight line. If next weekend's race is half is good as that I'll be very happy thank you very much.

Bahrain 2014 was the first race when Mercedes turned the pace up to 11 and showed what they are really capable of and it was brutally quick. This time I can't see that happening - Ferrari and Williams will be closer, and I suspect closer to each other. For some reason things get a little crazier under the lights for a night race.

Round 3 - China 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

Normal service has resumed - at least in the first part of the weekend, the top three teams occupy the top three rows of the grid and for the first time in 2015 it does appear that all 20 cars will be taking the start tomorrow morning. The closely fought battles of Malaysia were not really on the cards for today's qualifying session, but like the tropical realm of Sepang, pole position did come down to a matter of hundredths rather than tenths. 

Q1

After making a slight error of judgement in Malaysia, Mercedes sent their cars out on the harder of the two compounds so that they they have enough tyres for the race tomorrow. Although after the session Rosberg told Sky TV that the soft tyre would not be a useful race compound...somehow I think Ferrari might have a different opinion given their tyre preservation capabilities. But it was Manor and McLaren taking to the track first - Alonso parted his garage first but as Merhi's garage was further down the pit-lane the Manor car became the first car to take to the track. Naturally Roberto's time wasn't going to challenge any other team's car. Some pre-session chatter suggested that this was going to be first race of the season wherein McLaren would be able to escape the depths of Q1 - likely at the expense of a Force India or a particularly unlucky Sauber or

Lotus. The pace did seem like a marked improvement on Malaysia and certainly on Australia - both Jenson and Fernando were well inside the top 15 during the first set of laps in the session, but their times were a little slower than the predicted cut-off time as more cars were to move onto the soft tyres. The threat of soft tyres was placing pressure on several teams inside the current top ten - including Ferrari. Vettel was fractionally safer than Raikkonen, but the two cars were only a few tenths apart on lap time. 

Of course the two second lap delta on tyre performance was of little concern to Mercedes, who only needed one run on the slower option to secure a place in Q2. Hamilton retained the few tenths advantage he had throughout the practice sessions in Q1 over Nico - but an interrogation on the pit-wall revealed that Mercedes good fortune is all down to a certain 'lucky panda' positioned in front of the data monitors. The extent of the soft-tyre advantage could be ultimately exemplified by Nico Hulkenberg - before the grid switched to the faster compound he and his Force India was third fastest. As soon as the rest of the grid bolted on the faster tyres - Nico rapidly fell down the order. With only a few minutes to go, Hulkenberg was looking rather closely at the relegation zone. McLaren were also sliding closer to dropping out Q1, as Sauber moved up the grid. On the final lap, Lotus and Sainz were the only people keeping Hulkenberg and the two McLarens in contention. Grosjean went fourth, Maldonado 11th and Sainz 12th. A final effort by Hulkenberg allowed him to jump ahead of both McLarens - but not out of relegation. The only thing McLaren could do was settle the order between themselves - to which Jenson Button eked out a 0.004s advantage in the glorious battle for 17th and 18th place.

Q2

The second part of qualifying got underway with a little less enthusiasm than Q1 - nobody was storming out of the pit-lane to join the circuit. Mercedes ventured out eventually under the radio message stating that both cars were on the set of tyres they would be starting the race on. Ultimately pointing out that the team would only be doing one lap, and that it would be enough to ease themselves through into Q3. Given what happened in Malaysia you might expect the team to have been a little on the conservative side - but both drivers completed their first laps ending with a considerable advantage, verifying their apparent confidence. At this point they were well over a second quicker than anything else on track - with Williams being the closest competition in third and fourth place. But of course, we hand't seen the first of the Ferrari's at this stage, and they had a seemingly unassailable target to reach as set by the Mercedes team. Vettel was the fastest of the Ferraris to take to the track, and he was rather competitive only a few tenths slower than Rosberg. 

But Q2 isn't really about who is fastest, at the sharpest end of proceedings, it is all about who is going to be relegated - considering everyone outside the top three teams who hasn't been relegated already is running on the same pace - it is rather close. It is in these situations that a little extra engine power could go a long way to guaranteeing a place inside the top ten. That seemed to be precisely what was happening in the Sauber team, blessed with a new Ferrari engine. With a few minutes remaining on the clock it seemed as if both the blue and yellow machines - which could still do with more yellow - looked as if they were destined for relegation. Ericsson looked to be wrestling the car round the track, but amidst the frenzied steering and sideways action - the Swede managed to evade the drop zone. From the perspective of my sofa, which is not the most knowledgeable place in the known universe it does seem as if the chassis is not up to speed with the cars Sauber are competing with, but the engine is more than making up for it. In a way, it is the same sort of revival that Williams noted in 2014 - a quality power unit making the difference. 

But where there are gains, there will be others losing out - once more it was the Red Bull powered cars. Toro Rosso were anchored in the relegation zone, unable to make any real challenge, and Red Bull were not doing too much better. If it wasn't for Ricciardo none of the Red Bull branded cars would be in the top ten. Daniil Kvyat was finding that his slightly erratic driving style didn't suit the Red Bull car he had transitioned into - locking both wheels under braking for the turn 14 hairpin. But in this instance, I don't think we can blame the terrifying death stare because Sainz in the Junior team was also encountering braking difficulties. As a result 75% of the Renault fleet was eliminated, along with Maldonado and the remaining Force India.

Q3

After a powerful display in Q2 it certainly seemed as if the battle for pole would be another internal competition within the Mercedes team - just out of reach from the even the most optimistic hopes within the Ferrari garage. Times in the low to mid 1:36's would be easily enough to claim the front row as their own - so when Hamilton left the garage and set a time of 1:35.7s the session may as well have been declared over there and then. Rosberg remained the customary 3 tenths further back in a comfortable second place - both cars in a league of their own. Like in Q2, it was Williams who were the next cars in line behind the Mercedes pair - Ferrari on the other hand were two seconds behind the top times. This was down to the fact that the Ferraris went out on used tyres for some inexplicable reason - the tyres were bound to be slower, but they used

them anyway. This odd move by Ferrari created an odd predicament for Mercedes, they had no idea what Ferrari were truly planning in preparation for the final run. However it shouldn't really matter, as the battle for pole meant both cars had to run again anyway - unless Toto consulted the lucky panda and decided to call it a day in order to save tyres. Because in the end, given how the weekend had transpired it seemed unlikely that the positions would change.

For round two, all cars were on new soft tyres, with Ferrari taking to the track slightly earlier than everyone else - a tactic that has seen them come undone in the past as their flying laps coincide with everyone else's outlaps. In Raikkonen's case it didn't quite seem to be working, not due to traffic, but due to it seeming as if Kimi's car was possessed - just like Ericsson's car in Q2. It took multiple attempts to turn into the corner, and trying to break loose on the exit. Raikkonen hung onto the car and dragged it round to beat the Williams cars by just over half a second. Vettel went faster, 6 tenths faster, but still almost a second slower than Hamilton. So that left us with the final runs and the battle for pole position - Lewis' sector times were less than ideal giving Rosberg a faint hint of a chance to claw back the deficit. Hamilton failed to improve, and Nico was on a faster lap, but in the end he fell short of taking pole...only by 0.04s. So close, but still not good enough... Nico was a grumpy Nico both on the radio and in post session interviews. But perhaps that frustration can be used to make a race of things at the front tomorrow. 

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

The conditions were slightly warmer than we'd normally expect in China, but it clearly wasn't enough to encourage a multi-team battle for the front row. Instead we have the bonus points, and here are the winners from qualifying.

10pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Despite all the difficulties all Red Bull branded cars have Ricciardo qualified as the best non Mercedes/Williams/Ferrari car today
8pts - Romain Grosjean - Another respectable job for the Lotus driver
6pts - Felipe Nasr - For someone who has never seen the track before in a team which scored no points in 2014 - another top ten grid spot is rather good
5pts - Marcus Ericsson - Completes a double bonus points score for Sauber, as the swede who was almost permanently last in 2014 starts 10th.
4pts - Alonso/Button - Lots of people complained that the supposed improvements on the McLaren still got them relegated in Q1, but only 0.2s away from promotion is much better than the past two rounds
3pts - Nico Rosberg - After being considerably beaten all weekend, cutting the gap to 0.04s is a very valiant effort
2pts - Will Stevens - His first qualifying session for Manor and he hammered Mehri into submission in the battle for last place
1pt - Valtteri Bottas - Has to score the remaining point for the best powerslide of the session through the exit of turn four.

-1pt - Bernie - Stop saying mad things you crazed fool
-1pt - Dietrich Mateschitz - After signing a long term sponsor deal the Austrian strengthens claims that Red Bull may depart the sport if Renault can't sort things out.... stop whining and start working to fix everything.

Looking to Tomorrow

Despite being one of the most frustrating attempts at a circuit the Chinese GP often provides an interesting race - as it is the first race of the season that provides a typical race scenario that we shall experience throughout the rest of the season. It isn't the temporary circuit of Melbourne or the extreme tropical heat and humidity of Malaysia, delivering the first look at the normalised pecking order. How will that influence the events of tomorrow morning, well I don't see Ferrari taking the win away from Mercedes, but their strong tyre conservation and long-run pace means that I don't think the silver cars will trounce the competition. If they drop the ball, or make a poor strategy decision, Ferrari, and possibly Williams at a push could capitalise on those errors. I sort of expect Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams to separate into their own private battles while everyone else fights for the rest of the points. 

Lotus, Sauber, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, and potentially Force India will all be arguing over effectively four points paying positions - all of which may be a little too far out of reach for McLaren and certainly Manor.... Unless of course there is carnage and madness, and of course I do like some carnage and madness...

Round 3 - China 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

After the war of words that filled the air in the run up to the Malaysian GP, things have been considerably quieter this time around. Christian Horner hasn't piped up with more complaints about equalising Mercedes' performance advantage - mostly because Ferrari are leaving the Red Bull enterprise for dead, and the fact that even the junior team are beating their elders. But just as we thought the matters were put to bed, for now at least, the Red Bull overlord Dietrich reinforced his claims that Red Bull would depart F1 if Renault continually failed to deliver a competitive power unit. Renault themselves made a statement that the quality of their engine is weaker than what they completed 2014 with. So there is certainly an issue there, one that is hampering both Red Bull and Toro Rosso's progress... but they are still better than Honda are at the moment. If the drinks company do retreat from the pit lane and back into a sport they can win all the time, do we lose both Toro Rosso and the main team. The theory is that Toro Rosso may become a Renault factory team - Renault Squadron 2.0... or 3.0 depending on how you count it. 

In other news, there is the matter of the now absent German GP, another victim of the ongoing transformation of the sport under the immense pressure of financial demands. The Nurburgring has been struggling for some time now, and was unable to pay Bernie's special fee, the owners of the Hockkenheim circuit stated that they were unable to take over running of the race due the short notice of Nurburg pulling out of this season's calendar. As a result there will be no visit to Germany for the first time since the the championship began 65 years ago. It is a reminder that heritage and tradition mean nothing in comparison to good old fashioned money. Bernie is also reported to be putting pressure on Monza to cough up it's fee or face losing rights to the race in the near future. I can understand that the calendar will evolve over time, great circuits, with long motor-racing histories have vanished from the championship in the relatively brief time I've followed the sport - Imola and Magny-Cours for example. Nothing lasts forever, I'd welcome both of them back at the expense of places like China and Russia because they are better circuits - even if the racing falls short of their illustrious reputations. But that's not how things work - a world championship needs to visit more of the world... not just a little corner of western Europe, even if that's where the good stuff is. The only thing I'd ask is, if Germany has to go the same way as France and San Marino, replace it with something awesome. Please... although I think Azerbaijan or Qatar are the desired targets...

Shanghai

Starting as a brand new venue outside of China's financial hub, the Shanghai circuit has since been consumed by the sprawling city - the backdrop to the main straight has seen skyscrapers sprouting from the formerly open land. While many nations are experiencing a continued phase of economic strife, strife which has seen the grid shrink, crowds diminish and sponsors back away - China has been expanding and developing. Yet none of that enthusiasm has made it's way in to the Chinese grandstands - empty seats are an omnipresent sight around the venue. To the point where the organisers have boxed out the stands at the start of the final sector with some sort of display because they can't be filled. It's a similar situation to the one I noticed when attending the group stage matches of the Olympic Women's Football matches in Newcastle. Tickets were primarily sold for the seats opposite the TV cameras so the stadium looked more full. While the stands on the other side were completely empty. It doesn't fool anyone I'm afraid, high ticket prices, low national interest keeps crowds down - but China is such a large international market we keep coming back year on year.

Normally I wouldn't mind, and in many respects I still don't, but the Shanghai circuit is disappointingly lacklustre. To some extent it looks as if someone left the blue-print for the Sepang track out in the rain and copied the soggy mess to make the venue for round three. The design for turns one-three could have easily been stolen from an angry toddler's failed attempt at using spirograph. It is one of those - "it seemed like a good idea in theory" - moments, but in practice it just doesn't work. Perhaps if turn one ended in a Laguna Seca style corkscrew rather than some lazy double hairpin it would be both unique and interesting. After the monstrosity of this opening element - turn five is the fist prime overtaking opportunity, despite being a generic hairpin the slight kink on the approach makes the braking area rather interesting.

The middle sector is another throwback to the Sepang layout we just fled a fortnight ago - but once again it is a little warped out of shape. Even so it is the most redeeming feature of the generally tedious race track - the sweepers of turns seven and eight provide enough from for a particularly ballsy outside pass. But the problem is that these sweepers don't lead anywhere interesting just feeding into the braking area for two unimpressive pieces of angled tarmac. Bordered in the drab curse of astroturf and bleak tarmac run-off space. Just when it seemed the wave of mediocrity was over the diabolical mess that is turn 11 appears through the gloom and smog engulfing the short intervening straight. Turn 11 is horrific, and ultimately a waste of space - it is another legacy of the original design principle being based around the idea of turning a Chinese character into a race-circuit. For art perhaps, or some crazed design concept... not a real world track.

To finish things off there is the obligatory DRS straight, brought onto the calendar before the plaque of DRS was even thinking of forming in a misguided synapse in a mad corner of Bernie's mind. I think one of the driving forces behind this particular incarnation was the aim of extending braking zones by planting a really slow corner at the end of a really fast straight. Despite it being excessive and borderline ghastly - I can't argue that it doesn't create a lot of action in the final hairpin. So it is strange that in a track which was conceived under the premise of artistic license rather than functionality concludes in a section that proves to be primarily functional - dull, bleak but it gets the job done somehow. The track works and the racing works inexplicably so, even if it is an irritating ribbon of malformed tarmac.

The Form Guide

If the first two races are have told us anything, it is that Mercedes - while they are the dominant force - are not infallible any more and can be beaten. But the conditions do have to be right for Ferrari to be close enough to capitalise on the performance gains they have made over the winter. Other than a jump in engine power the Red team have made gains in tyre management - something that designer James Allison's former team at Lotus were synonymous with getting right... before the tyre change cancelled out that advantage. In the colder temperatures of China, this might not be enough for Ferrari to repeat their Malaysian success. I think normal service will resume - Mercedes out front leaving the pack behind, while Ferrari and Williams fight over the final podium position

Does the weekend bode well for any of the Red Bull teams, well probably not - the similarities between Malaysia and China may anchor the two outfits to the bottom end of the points. If the track and conditions work out for the likes of Sauber and Lotus, then the hope for Renault powered points starts to run a little thin. On the positive side, there is a slightly greater dependence on chassis performance at Shanghai over Sepang that might keep Red Bull and their junior but faster team Toro Ross in contention with the rest of the mid-field.

At the very back McLaren might be a little quicker as the cooler temperatures might allow the clever folk at Honda to turn up the power a little more without risking an overheating issue. But whether it will make them quick enough to get of out Q1 is an entirely different question... and a slightly unlikely prospect. Manor are also waiting on a power upgrade as the team have announced that their upcoming 2015 car will be running the newer, more powerful Ferrari power unit. Depending on how quickly the new spec chassis makes an appearance and fuses with the 2015 engine... McLaren need to start looking in their mirrors, well probably not. Even a new Manor car would need a gargantuan improvement to be on the pace with someone else on the grid.

The Chinese GP may not be hosted by the most enthralling circuit in the world, or probably even in China - but it still works, many races have been far better than the surroundings would suggest. But that is the thing with creations with an artistic design principal - only a certain set of mal-adjusted indivuals can truly appreciate the aesthetics and understand the impact it can have. For the rest of us, well, we shall just have to see what happens.