After Race 4: Bahrain

With the early batch of flyaway races done and dusted, it's no great surprise that Lewis Hamilton already has a championship lead of more than 25 points. One of the more intriguing storylines will be to see how Ferrari can upgrade their car through the season, and whether Sebastian Vettel (40) will be able to a) match and/or b) surpass Ayrton Senna's tally of 41 race victories before Lewis Hamilton (36). The obvious footnote to this is that the Seb and Lewis will have had longer calendars to work with. Vettel will also look to avoid curious practice incidents - as was his collision with Sergio Pérez in Bahrain. 

Elsewhere, the new GP2 season roared into life this weekend and, to no great surprise, Stoffel Vandoorne, dominated proceedings with a win and a second-place finish in the reverse grid race. It again made me ponder as to why McLaren didn't buy-out Marussia and use it as a Honda B-team – to help with both engine and driver development (Kevin Magnussen and Vandoorne, and Nyck de Vries one day too) However, talking about McLaren, it's clear – as eluded to in the F1 Power Rankings McLaren season preview – they'll be damn fast once they iron out their software and installation issues. Engine penalties are irrelevant to them this year, it's all about focusing on development. Besides, they'll inevitably have company from the Renault quartet with the sanctions! 

This week's F1 Power Rankings proved to be one of the most difficult ever: so many drivers had weekends that seemingly defied their starts to the season, which has resulted in numerous ties throughout. On the flip side, that clearly means there's a decent amount of good battling going on in the midfield.

Lewis Hamilton knocking it outta the park - just like Alfred Morris of Washington
Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas

1. Lewis Hamilton (no change)

Sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you’re good – and sometimes you’re both. Hamilton again dominated the business end of the weekend. Even brake failure came too late in the day to stop his charge to his ninth win in eleven races.

2. Sebastian Vettel (no change)

Despite an extremely ragged Sunday afternoon drive, which saw him passed by Nico Rosberg not once, not twice, but thrice – and make a few errors, which also saw him break his front wing and ultimately end up behind Valtteri Bottas; he did secure a spot on the front row and remains in touch with the Mercs in the championships standings – just in case Ferrari did pull a rabbit out of the hat in the second half of the season.

Arrivabene-cam is a must for every race
Source: Scuderia Ferrari

3. Kimi Räikkönen (up two spots)

So close! The Kimster is well and truly back and scored his first Scuderia podium since Monza 2009. Did Ferrari potentially cost him a shot at the race win with a somewhat lazy strategy in the first half of the race? – maybe.

4. Romain Grosjean (up four spots)

After a false start to the new season, Grosjean scored solid points for the second race running and is extracting the most from the Lotus. The wasted 2014 season is well behind him.

Black and gold trees, black and gold car
Source: Lotus F1 Team

=5. Carlos Sainz (no change) & Max Verstappen (down two spots)

The Toro Rosso youngsters cling onto their top five spot in the F1 Power Rankings despite a difficult Bahrain Grand Prix. Sainz qualified a superb ninth but neither he nor Verstappen were a factor in the race as STR suffered their first double DNF since Austria. It’ll be interesting to see how the team progress as we head into the European season with the likes of Force India and McLaren expected to significantly improve.

The former King of Spain was in attendance
Source: Scuderia Toro Rosso

7. Felipe Massa (down three spots)

A three spot drop for Massa is perhaps a tad drop, especially given he managed to score a point despite having to rally from a pit-lane start and early damage inflicted by Pastor Maldonado. Rob Smedley has commented that Felipe is enjoying his best season since 2008 – and he’ll look to bounce back in Barcelona.

=8. Daniel Ricciardo & Valtteri Bottas (both up one spot)

This duo find themselves again locked together in the F1 Power Rankings after two fine weekends. Ricciardo had a rather lonely race en route to P6 before his engine spectacularly gave way as he crossed the finishing line whilst Bottas enjoyed his best race in 2015 so far as he finally felt free of his back pain troubles. Comfortably beat Massa in quali and wasn’t far off Rosberg and Räikkönen, before a sterling defensive performance against Vettel on Sunday.

Bottas superbly held off Vettel
Source: Williams F1 Team

=10. Fernando Alonso (up one spot) & Felipe Nasr (down three spots)

It might be that we’ve had less than 20 cars line up on the grid more often than not but it’s proving extremely difficult to separate drivers after these earlier races in this year’s F1 Power Rankings. Alonso had an excellent weekend, making it into Q2 and coming up just short of scoring McLaren’s first points. Alonso could easily have been ranked as high as fourth but it’s simultaneously difficult to evaluate his weekend when JB’s was a non-starter. Nasr slips a few spots after a rather anonymous weekend – but he again kept his nose clean.

12. Sergio Pérez (up three spots)

Checo had a quietly excellent race as he picked up Force India’s first points since the season opener. Having narrowly missed out on Q3, Pérez defied his team’s launch-spec car to finish a fine eighth – still five places off his superb podium finish from one year ago.

Source: Sahara Force India

=13. Nico Hülkenberg (no change) & Marcus Ericsson (up one spot)

As mentioned above, and before in this column, Force India are in damage limitation mode until their new challenger comes along. On Saturday, it was The Hulk who put in a superb performance to qualify P8 – but it was a position he struggled to maintain as the race wore on. Ericsson, meanwhile, was again outqualified and out-raced by his rookie team-mate, but those don’t reveal the full story. A disastrous second pit-stop saw him lose almost half a minute and dropped him from a possible points-scoring position – a shame, given he had made an excellent start.

=15. Nico Rosberg (up one spot), Will Stevens (down three spots), Daniil Kvyat (up three spots)

On a week filled with ties in the F1 Power Rankings, this trio is a microcosm of how difficult it was this to place the drivers after Bahrain. Rosberg was again poor on Saturday and lost out to Räikkönen at the start. He proved to be very racy thereafter before his late brake troubles. Regardless, he was still blown away by Hamilton. Stevens again beat his team-mate in the Manor battle. His three place fall comes after it emerged that Merhi is losing out partly due to his weight disadvantage. Kvyat made a silly error in FP3 as he beeched his car in the gravel before going out in Q1. It looked like he was heading for another underwhelming weekend before the final third to his race where he methodically worked his way up to score a couple of well-earned points.

Rosberg showed his aggressive side against the Ferraris
Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas

18. Jenson Button (up one spot)

Without doubt, this must have been the worst weekend of Button’s F1 career. Through the whole weekend, FP3 was the only session where JB registered any meaningful running. And yet he still moved up a spot, can you guess why?

An ultra-rare sighting of JB on track
Source: McLaren

19. Roberto Merhi (up one spot)

Much like Button, it’s a surprise that Merhi was able to move up a spot. He’ll be off to Aragon this weekend to compete in FR3.5, rather bizarre in the modern era of F1. With both series featuring on Monaco GP weekend, he’ll have a busy time come the end of May.

20. Pastor Maldonado (down three spots)

Oh Pastor… This is a rare column that stands up for the Venezuelan – repeatedly pointing out his scintillating Barcelona 2012 victory. But he doesn’t make it easy for himself. Another Q1 exit was followed by Pastor inexplicably lining up in the wrong grid slot before exploring the Bahraini desert on the opening lap and then hitting Massa. If that wasn’t enough, he then managed to switch his engine off as he made his final pit-stop. This should’ve been a routine top-ten weekend, as it was for Grosjean.

Sparks!
Source: Lotus F1 Team

All views expressed in this blog are my own and no copyright infringement is intended.

After Race 3: China

We’ve come full circle. With Bahrain next up on the agenda, we head to the scene where the real fun and games allegedly began at Mercedes one year ago – fresh off the back of a rather comical post-race fallout between the team-mates.

Following the shock of Sepang, it was very much business as usual for the Silver Arrows in Shanghai. They were never truly threatened all weekend – and you only have to look at the pace Lewis Hamilton had in reserve at the end of his second stint for proof. With only four power units allowed this season (one down from last year), Merc only need to do the minimum possible to win the race – that’s how F1 has always been. As such, Hamilton controlled the pace of the race.

At least the Merc family photo was affected by the squabbling - and they even had space for the legendary Ed Moses (bottom right)
Source: F1 Fanatic / AMG Mercedes

 Now, let’s try and get to the bottom of “he said, he said” quicker than the Chinese marshals moved Max Verstappen’s stricken Toro Rosso. It’s a fair point to make that Rosberg could have been slightly compromised by his team in qualifying – having to possibly over-stress his tyres on his out-lap, ultimately costing him the half-a-tenth that would have given him pole position. Not only is that a hypothetical scenario, but there’s then no guarantee Rosberg would have kept the lead heading into Turn 1. Rosberg played “Mr. Nice Guy” in the first two races but he unleashed his frustrations this weekend. His post race video when answering fans on Twitter is both commendable but also misguided. Credit his interaction with the fans more than anything – but it also comes across as rather desperate. If Rosberg had lost out to Vettel, he would have had a point. But he didn’t. The same way Nico couldn’t stay close to Lewis because he would ruin his tyres, so too Vettel ruined his by trying to keep close to Nico.

1. Lewis Hamilton (up one spot)

Regains his top spot after the pole/win/FL combo, and we’ve already discussed his weekend above. Let’s move on!

Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas

2. Sebastian Vettel (down one spot)

If not for the late SC, it would have been interesting to see whether Vettel would have held on to his podium. As it is, Verstappen’s late demise helped ensure that the same three men stood on the podium in the first three race for the first time in F1 history.

The same trio have topped the podium in the first three races for the first time ever
Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas

3. Max Verstappen (up one spot)

Both STR youngsters fell out in Q2 and it was Max who was given the aggressive strategy, starting on the softer tyre. He quickly worked his way into the top ten with a couple of cracking overtakes on the Saubers before he settled into a comfortable P9 – which became eighth thanks to Pastor Maldonado. Just like Melbourne, he was robbed of points – although we were treated to some light relief from the Chinese marshals.

Source: Mattzel89 (Twitter)

4. Felipe Massa (up two spots)

Massa has quietly enjoyed a terrific start to the new season. He outqualified and out-raced his team-mate in Shanghai but Williams were again caught in a no-man’s land behind the top two teams but ahead of the rest – much like BMW-Sauber in 2007.

=5. Carlos Sainz (down two spots) & Kimi Räikkönen (no change)

Having held third spot in the F1 Power Rankings after both of the first two races, it’s a two-place drop for Sainz after a scruffy weekend. An early rookie error in Turn 1 – similar to Marcus Ericsson’s race-ending incident in Malaysia – saw him tumble down the order before a gearbox issue saw him plummet further.

Räikkönen was denied a shot at the podium in the closing stages due to the SC. An excellent first lap saw him overtake both Williams and he also led a race for the first time since his return to the Scuderia.

7. Felipe Nasr (up one spot)

Nasr has been one of the pleasant surprises of the season and the rookie has already firmly asserted himself as de-facto team leader. Ninth in quali, eighth in the race, and ahead of his more experienced Swedish team-mate in both.

Nasr scored points for the second time in three races
Source: Sauber F1 Team (Facebook)

8. Romain Grosjean (up seven spots)

Grosjean is the undoubted massive gainer in this week’s F1 Power Rankings after finally breaking his points-scoring duck, which stretched back to Monaco. He finally realized the potential of the Lotus E23 and drove a controlled race to a fine P7.

=9. Daniel Ricciardo (no change) & Valtteri Bottas (down two spots)

As the lights went out at the start of the race, these two went in immediately opposite trajectories as Bottas chased down the top three from P6 while Ricciardo saw his anti-stall kick-in. As it was, Bottas fell back to P6 by the end of the opening lap – which is where he ran all day long while Ricciardo methodically worked his way up the field to an eventual ninth on another trying weekend for former quadruple world champions.

For the second year running, Ricciardo's RBR team-mate had selective hearing on team orders
Source: Infiniti Red Bull Racing

11. Fernando Alonso (up two spots)

The double world champion’s misfiring start to the season is just beginning to spark into life. McLaren-Honda are gaining pace at a rapid rate of knots and it seems as if reliability is picking up too. Points are not far away.

12. Will Stevens (new entry)

This might be a bit of a shock to you but stay with me… Stevens finally made his 2015 race debut and comfortably out-performed his team-mate in both quali and the race. It’s unlikely he’ll stay in the lofty heights of P12 in the F1 Power Rankings but all of those behind him have had some sort of black mark next to their name for whatever reason – so consider Stevens the barometer who splits the good from the not-so-good.

It was great to see both Manors on track on Sunday afternoon
Source: Manor F1 Team (Facebook)

13. Nico Hülkenberg (down two spots)

The Hulk suffered a Q1 exit but he made up for it with a cracking first lap that saw him put himself firmly in the midfield battle before his early gearbox exit.

14. Marcus Ericsson (up one spot)

Before the season, if you had said that Ericsson would be in Q3 in China and score points, you’d almost certainly have felt that he’d be well inside the top ten in the F1 Power Rankings. The fact is he was once again firmly beaten by his rookie team-mate.

15. Sergio Pérez (up three spots)

I mentioned after Sepang how Force India are very much in damage limitation mode until they get their upgraded challenger. The team switched Checo to an aggressive three-stop strategy early on and it almost paid dividends as he was able to push his tyres throughout the race, finishing an agonizing P11 – just outside of the points.

16. Nico Rosberg (down four spots)

Oh dear, Nico. He is well and truly losing the mental battle at Mercedes and his post-race outburst was just plain unnecessary given the team secured a 1-2 finish, despite Rosberg’s allegations that his race was being significantly compromised.

17. Pastor Maldonado (no change), Daniil Kvyat (down eight spots) & Jenson Button (down five spots)

China 2015 was a microcosm of Pastor’s career, absolutely frustrating inconsistency mixed with bad luck. Missed out on Q3 by 0.007secs but a couple of excellent overtakes early in the race saw him run with Grosjean until a simply unforgivable mistake prior to his second pit-stop as the infamous Chinese pit-lane once again caught him out. A fun-looking high-speed followed thereafter before his race was prematurely ended as Button rear-ended him.

Kvyat’s miserable start to life at the senior team continues: brake failure saw him hopelessly hit the barriers on Friday before his Renault spectacularly exploded on Sunday. Meanwhile, it’s a harsh drop for JB after a poor race from the champion as he ended Maldonado’s race.

20. Roberto Merhi (down one spot)

Merhi props up this week’s F1 Power Rankings after a fairly anonymous race. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing – rookies should be doing just that, keep out of trouble and gain experience. Unfortunately for Merhi, he was quite soundly beaten by his team-mate.

All views expressed in this blog are my own and no copyright infringement is intended.