Ferrari 1-2 Finish In Bahrain Spoils Schumacher Return
By Asanka Brendon Ratnayake
Like Nigel Mansell and Kimi Raikonnen before him the Spaniard Fernando Alonso debuted for Ferrari with a win in the season opener in Bahrain. In what proved to be a good day for the Scuderia, Alonso’s team mate Massa, in his first race back since his horrific accident in 2009, nursed his Ferrari safely into 2nd place as a temperature issue forced him back from fighting his team mate for the lead. Alonso bravely overtook his team mate on the second corner on the opening lap and resisted any challenge.
The highly anticipated season opener at the Sakhir circuit saw the return of seven time world champion Michael Schumacher teaming up for the 3rd time with engineer and team principle Ross Brawn in the newly formed Mercedes GP. The 41 year old was quoted as feeling “positive” after his 6th place performance but admitted more testing and aerodynamic changes will be necessary to catch up to his rivals.
Fellow German and rising star Sebastian Vettel who started on pole held a commanding lead until what was originally thought to be a cracked exhaust (later confirmed to be a failed spark plug) on the 33rd lap had hampered his chances of victory and saw him overtaken by Alonso and Massa. Vettel admirably held onto 4th place with 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton in 3rd. When Vettel was asked how hard it was to maintain 4th place he responded “Very hard. On the straights there was nothing coming back with ‘pedal to the metal’ and only in the corners could I think of defending my position”.
The race in itself was viewed as being rather dull by international media, mainly due to the new set of rule changes that now forbid re-fueling during the race. The rule change sparked criticism from a number of drivers and made overtaking opportunities sparse especially on a track such as Sakhir. With pit stops now basically 3 to 4 second tyre changes, pit stop strategy is no longer a factor. Schumacher was quoted as saying “Overtaking is basically impossible, other than if somebody makes a mistake”. The decision to ban refueling In an effort to curb running costs has seen Formula 1 boss Bernie Eccelstone almost pleading for pundits to show patience letting media know that reinstating refueling is also now impractical due to the designs of the 2010 cars, leading Ecclestone to admit that the rules for now are set in stone.The next race sees the F1 circus move onto Melbourne Australia. A track not renowned for its overtaking opportunities either, the track was once describe as “a bit boring” by Schumacher in 1997.
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