Bahrain and Spain marked the end and the beginning respectively. It was the end of the first four away races, with all the teams trying to get to grips with their cars and their Pirelli tyres’ behaviour.
Ironically, prior to the Bahrain GP, Infiniti Red Bull Racing complained that the tyres were not to their liking; then Sebastian Vettel stormed to a commanding victory, with the RB9 showing a class of its own.
But Bahrain will be remembered for the battle between McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Sergio Perez. The two drivers offered a spectacle, but Jenson Button did not favour these fancy manoeuvres from his teammate, following which Perez was ordered to hold his position in Spain when he was on the attack behind Button. The team later explained that this was due to excessive tyre degradation.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes seems to be going through the same saga that Ferrari suffered last year in trying to understand their front pull rod suspension. Ferrari were always a second away from the front-runners and the Woking team seems to be trailing the same path.
Back in Bahrain, Ferrari had a weekend to forget, with Fernando Alonso having a drag reduction system failure, with the Spaniard unable to overtake a single competitor. Felipe Massa damaged his front spoiler in a close contact. The team opted not to change the spoiler yet the Brazilian had to pull in for an extra pitstop due to massive degradation of his rear right which was the diagonal point where the front spoiler was damaged.
Kimi Raikkonen was back on the podium with teammate Romain Grosjean occupying second place. Yet in a male-dominated country like Bahrain, Red Bull wanted to go a step further then just dominating the Grand Prix. Representing the team for the award-giving ceremony was Gill Jones, the team’s head of trackside electronics with responsibility for all the electronics in the racing cars and garage.
To me, the Spanish GP is one of the best, and although I’ve attended for the past 17 years I still enjoy the race. Attendance this year was very good considering the recession in Spain. Alonso’s excellent and dominating win with four pitstops broke yet another record – for the last 23 editions, all winners came from the first three positions.
Alonso’s storming start and overtaking two cars by turn three showed that the results obtained on Friday and Saturday morning practice sessions were not a fluke. Ferrari are still not there in qualifying trim, unlike the Mercedes AMG F1 team, which seem to get their qualifying runs right but are suffering in race trim.
Once more, Lotus F1 team were competitive. It is a pity their driver Grosjean had a suspension failure because both Lotus drivers would have replicated the Bahrain result. On the technological side, Ferrari launched a dedicated digital application in their premises at Grand Prix events, offering some impressive interactive services. The future is definitely digital.
The next race will be in Monte Carlo next week.