My Bahrein GP

Everybody seems to be very disappointed by this GP. Medias had put too many hopes on the spectcular show it was supposed to give. But they forgot that Bahrein is a boring track and having new rules or a come back from an old champion was sure it would not change everything.

I thought this GP was interesting because it was the first time we were seeing a new type of race with different strategies. The qualifying session was interesting but weird. In Q3, drivers were all slower than what they did in Q2 despite having the same conditions (fresh soft tyres and no fuel). I thought that as they must doing their best to get the pole position, they would be the quickest of the weekend. The were not. They all say that it was because of the track on which it is difficult to avoid little mistakes. Fine.

In race, tyres were enventually hard-wearing, both soft and hard compound. But the drivers were also very carefull to preserve them to be sure to have to do only one pit stop. Then, they all did only one pit stop and they were all not pushing the hardest. It will probably change. Obligeing drivers to stop minimum twice could help. But before doing already loads of changes in the rules, let's see what happen in proper fun race track in Melbourne.

Now, my point of view on each drivers, and my stars!

ALONSO: Outpaced by his teammate in qualifying, Alonso reponded perfectly to him in the first corner. He won the race here. After overtaking slowed Vettel, he increased his pace meanwhile Massa was forced to "preserve his engine". Was Alonso able to overtake Vettel if the later did not have his problem? Was he able to keep Massa behind? Whatever, he won his first race with Ferrari. This guy knows how to win championship and victories. He will be very strong this year. *

MASSA: All these new rules and Schumacher comeback hid a bit the comeback of Massa. And what a comeback after such an injury! He was great in qualifying. OK in race, despite his team did not allow him to track down Alonso. A shame.. **

HAMILTON: I am sure that Hamilton never thought that his car would be that slow before Saturday. Big deception indeed this McLaren, still quicker than the Mercedes but far from the Ferrari and RedBull. Hamilton did a great job attacking the Ferrari at the start and then overtaking Rosberg in pits with fresh tyres. I am just disappointed that he seemed to slow down at the end despite he could catch Massa. Perhaps to preserve the engine.. *

VETTEL: A perfect weekend for him. Not for his car.. Once again RedBull produced a quick but not reliable enough car. It is a shame because with a win, he would have really impressed everybody as THE man to beat this season. Anyway, he impressed me! ***

ROSBERG: Despite the German was quicker than his "legendary" teammate, I have been a bit disappointed by his race. He was the only driver to be overtaken in pit strategy. And by the end, he was even not able to overtake Vettel even so slow in straight line. He was deserving a star for beating Shcumacher but to me, he lost it for what I've said.

SCHUMACHER: The old man might be very disappointed. The car is not as quick as expected. Himself is not in the pace yet. Will it be all the time? I think that if he can be as equal as Rosberg in the future, it would be good. But always in front of him? I am not sure he can do it. Except if he is helped by his team, as he was at Ferrari.

BUTTON: Without any surprise for me, Button has been well outpaced by Hamilton this weekend. Button is a good guy, very quick when he is in full trust (car, team, teammate) as he was last year. But he is not at the level of Hamilton at all. Clearly. Especially not at McLaren. He has been very brave to challenge this. He is also the perfect teammate for Hamilton, but only a teammate. He will be quicker than him on some occasions this year, but not more as Kovalainen did last year and the year before.

WEBBER: Considering the car he drives, Webber's race and weekend was very bad. To forget. I hope his home-GP will eventually be good for him next week.

LIUZZI: Slower than his teammate Sutil in qualifying, he did a strong race, very happy of his quick Force India, 5th quickest car of the grid behing the untouchable Big 4.

BARRICHELLO: As Liuzzi his performance was very strong all over the weekend and he showed to his young teammate what experience was meaning. He takes the last point, a good reward for his job and Williams' job. Their new Cosworth engine seems to be very reliable and competitive. A much better start for the British company than 2006, its last previous F1 season

KUBICA: The Polish man really impressed me. After the deception to find only a Renault wheel for this season, he showed to everybody that he was a quick and strong guy. As everybody thought the Renault was shit, he just demonstrated the opposite! Unfortunately he was touched by Sutil at the start and had to push a lot to hope scoring points. He pushed very well, overtook a lot but it was not enough to catch Barrichello. A great race weekend for him anyway. **

SUTIL: A similar race as Kubica's but, I do not think he tried as much as the Polish man to score. He finished 13 seconds behind him actually. But Sutil does not care. He knows that his Force India is a quick car able to give him several points. He should be careful to not miss too much occasions to score them.

ALGUERSUARI: I did not see him during the race

HULKENBERG: A hard first race for the young German. But I have no doubt he will enventually dominate his teammate Barrichello by the end of the year.

KOVALAINEN: He finished the race. What a performance! ..

BUEMI: I did not see him more than his teammate.

TRULLI: He finished as well with the second Lotus but he was almost stopped on the track in the last laps. Ridiculous.. Just for Lotus to say "we are very good, we can finish the race with both our car despite the other new team cannot"

DE LA ROSA: His Sauber was strangely not as fast as in winter tests. They need sponsors, that's why. I think, and they do too, that this car can do better in other tracks. The Sauber apparently just did not like the lumpy new part of the track. The overtaking of De La Rosa on his teammate Kobayashi was not a prove of the speed of the old Spanish man or the slowness of the Japanese. De La Rosa was just in soft tyres whereas Kobayashi was in hard compound.

SENNA: He did what he could with a car which was finished to build on Friday..

GLOCK: Such good drivers wasted in such shit cars this year.. But it is very important for him to remain in F1, whatever the price.

PETROV: What a shame for the Russian driver. Not impressive in qualifying but not too bad, it was only his first race. His start was much more interesting. He won a lot of places and was in a good position, showing a strong performance, when his suspension obliged him to stop. I am looking forward to see what he will do in Melbourne.

KOBAYASHI: Of course with a Sauber, it will be more difficult to show great things as he did in Toyota last year. At least he is F1, in a serious team to learn F1 in this first full year. I hope he will be quickly able to outpace De La Rosa.

DI GRASSI: Not seen

CHANDHOCK: Not that ridiculous as some people said easily, considering his situation. Let's see what happens in the future before judging.

Stars ranking:

Vettel 3

Massa 2

Kubica 2

Alonso 1

Hamilton 1