Bahrain Qualifying: A second ahead of the game...

The best thing about the Grand Prix in Bahrain is the certainty that there will be no rain. That is until we consider that Mercedes are shaping up to dominate the entire season and the absence of rain may mean that Hamilton and Rosberg can simply drive away from everyone else and take an easy win. Some might say that it is a little early to suggest that Mercedes have the season in the bag, but the start of the 2014 season is a complete opposite to the start of the 2012 season, in which we witnessed a different winner in all of the first seven races, and even last season was far less predictable.

As Q1 reached its half way point it was staggering to see the two Mercedes cars sitting at well over a second faster than everyone. Us F1 fans are a fickle bunch and we will get very bored very quickly, if the same team continues to outclass everyone else. Fortunately, many of the cars put in faster times than Hamilton and Rosberg just before the end of Q1, however it quickly became apparent that the only reason for this was that they had put on the more favourable Hard tyre. There was a ludicrous incident in the closing laps of the first session, when an over zealous Adrian Sutil decided to force Romain Grosjean off the circuit and, essentially, in to the desert. The move was a tad aggressive for a qualifying session and Sutil's excuse and justification was utterly pathetic. He'd better not use the same justification when appealing to the race stewards, or he might as well pack his bags and fly home now.

It appears as though Vettel and Ricciardo are actually alternating there luck from race to race, despite the fact I was only joking in a previous post. Sebastian Vettel tumbled out in Q2, putting himself in eleventh place for the race. Surprisingly, and refreshingly, Sebastian was extremely graceful in his post qualifying interview. That familiar grin was playing across his face as he diplomatically stated that he "just wasn't quick enough". In contrast, Ricciardo managed to bang in a third place qualifying lap, but he has a frustrating ten place grid penalty, which will hinder him massively again
. However, nobody was able to challenge the Mercedes cars, with both Lewis and Nico qualifying almost a second ahead of everybody else, and they are looking more and more dominant as the season gets underway.

Its nice to know that we can all watch Formula One free of guilt, as these hybrid, environmentally friendly racing cars hurtle round a circuit lit by thousands of energy guzzling light bulbs. It's fantastically contradictory and makes a complete farce of the whole eco-friendly F1 generation, but at least the sport can pretend its doing its bit.






The Grid:

No	Driver	Team	Grid
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	2
77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	3
11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	4
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	5
22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	6
19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	7
20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	8
14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	9
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	10
27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	11
26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	12
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	13
25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	14
21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	15
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	16
13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	17
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	18
17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	19
9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	20
4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	21
99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	22

Australian Grand Prix: A few cylinders short of a V6!

It was the story of the cylinder failures this weekend in Melbourne. Most of the retirements were down to engine problems, which was widely anticipated, with the introduction of the new 1.6 litre, V6 grumblers. The absence of noise took away a lot of the excitement, especially at the start. The lights went out, the cars started moving and the noise was a murmur. For some of us it was squeaky bum time as some of the drivers flew from one side of the track to another, narrowly missing each other as they crossed paths. Regardless of the wild lunges, everything was going swimmingly towards the first corner, until Kobayashi's Caterham decided to keep hurtling at 100mph in to the braking area. He slammed in to Filipe Massa, who was looking forward to his first race out of the shadow of Fernando Alonso, ending both of their weekends in one fell swoop.

After the start, which saw Sebastian Vettel tumbling down the order, the first couple of engines gave up the ghost. Those engines happened to belong to the reigning world champion, Vettel, and the bookies favourite for the title challenge, Lewis Hamilton. Vettel was having a torrid time anyway, receiving a dose of what his team mate last year had grown so accustomed to, crawling away from his grid box, like an old gramophone being wound up. Predictably, Seb was reported as being ever so professionally frustrated, as he berated the team down the (now crystal clear, in the relative silence) team radio. Hamilton was similarly frustrated, but both drivers graciously glossed over the fact that their team mates were doing very well and running comfortably in first and second. Whilst it was great being able to hear the team radios better with the quieter engines, I couldn't help thinking an opportunity was missed, when Alonso's race engineer didn't ask him "can you hear the drums now, Fernando?"

It's difficult to pick out any but McLaren as stand out teams with pace. They will be breathing a huge sigh of relief, since this time last year they were just embarking on one of their most unsuccessful seasons of all time. By the chequered flag McLaren were the only team who looked unwaveringly good. Other teams that faired well were Force India, a team championed by myself in previous blog posts. They were constantly featured during the Grand Prix and regularly overtaking or gaining on somebody rapidly. Williams also looked good and Bottas is my 'driver of the race', despite the over eagerness, that lead to him clipping a wall and damaging his right rear tyre. He would almost certainly have been guaranteed a podium finish if it hadn't been for that incident.

Everybody seemed genuinely elated to be on the podium, which is a refreshing sight. It makes a change from seeing a dejected Alonso on the third step or a fuming Webber climbing on to the second step after passing the victory to an undeserving Vettel. Australian fans were treated to finally seeing a fellow countryman on the podium. A quote from the past floated back in to my mind, as I watched Daniel Ricciardo holding up his second place trophy; "Not bad for a Number Two driver!" I half expected to glimpse, during Ricciardo's second pit stop, the eyes of Sebastian Vettel through the visor of the crew member at his right rear, a Dick Dastardly smirk playing across his lips as he pushed a drawing pin in to the tyre.

With the first Grand Prix of 2014 over, I would conclude that 1) I hate the new engine sounds, 2) the engine failures are frustrating, because it was something that had been almost completely eradicated from the sport, and 3) the nose cones look utterly ridiculous. The racing last season was exciting and Formula One didn't need to pander to the Environmentalists with troublesome hybrid engines. In my humble opinion, the FIA should have stuck to the mantra "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"


Check out The F1 Spectator Australian GP podcast and listen to The F1 Spectator himself.

The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	57	1:32:58.710	3	25
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	57	+24.5 secs	2	18
3	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+26.7 secs	4	15
4	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+30.0 secs	10	12
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	57	+35.2 secs	5	10
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	57	+47.6 secs	15	8
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	57	+50.7 secs	7	6
8	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	57	+57.6 secs	11	4
9	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	57	+60.4 secs	6	2
10	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	57	+63.5 secs	8	1
11	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	57	+85.9 secs	16
12	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	13
13	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	20
14	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	55	+2 Laps	17
Ret	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	49	+8 Laps	18
Ret	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	43	+14 Laps	22
Ret	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	29	+28 Laps	21
Ret	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	27	+30 Laps	19
Ret	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	3	+54 Laps	12
Ret	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	2	Engine	1
Ret	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	0	Accident	9
Ret	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	0	Accident	14

Australian Qualifying: V6, turbo charged, hybrid engines? Like farting in to a paper bag, underwater!

Let's make one thing clear, straight away. The cars sound horrendous. As the first qualifying session of the season got underway, and the first few cars left the pit lane and entered the circuit, I thought my TV was broken. I reached for the remote and turned the volume up... and up and up. Suddenly my ear drums were almost blown out by David Coulthard's voice belting out of the speakers. I've heard chavs driving Vauxhall Novas that are louder and more powerful. Oh, but the hybrid technology! Clean and green F1 cars! We can't forget how eco-friendly the sport has become! (we'll just brush the 3,000,000 Watts and 1,500 lights at the Singapore night race under the metaphorical carpet).

As for the anteater noses, well its as if the race regulators challenge each other, season after season, to create a regulation that will make the cars look utterly ridiculous. I can see them now, sitting in their living rooms snickering and scoffing as they watch the ugly beasts murmuring around the circuit. In all honesty though, despite sounding like old men, quietly grumbling about the youth of today and the price of parking, the cars are still incredibly fast. It takes a little concentration to convince your mind that the low growl doesn't correspond with the speed, but when that realisation dawns, its clear that the combination of reduced downforce, massive speed and finely balanced hybrid power distribution, will make the racing electrifying.

The qualifying in Australia didn't throw up the kind of excitement we were all anticipating. It's fair to say we were expecting engine blowouts from the Renault powered teams and drivers spinning off left, right and centre. However, it was a shock to see the reigning World Champion failing to make it in to the top ten shootout. I have to admit, and many will agree whole-heartedly, that it was relatively satisfying to see Sebastian Vettel waving his hand in frustration, after completing his final fast lap, off the pace and out of the session.

The Mercedes team is looking strong in qualifying again and pretty much pick up where they left off. It's surprising really, seeing as Lewis Hamilton is now weighed down by more bling than Mr T. It was extremely refreshing to see youngsters like Kvyat and Magnussen showing the old hands how its done. The biggest success story of the qualies though, was Daniel Ricciardo's fantastic performance, which put his teammate to shame. It was unfortunate that he was unable to treat his home crowd to a pole position, but the front row is a highly acceptable qualifying spot. I hope this Aussie manages to take the handbrake off and put his foot down better than his predecessor.

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:31.699	1:42.890	1:44.231	22
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:30.775	1:42.295	1:44.548	20
3	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:32.564	1:42.264	1:44.595	21
4	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:30.949	1:43.247	1:45.745	19
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:31.388	1:42.805	1:45.819	21
6	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:33.488	1:43.849	1:45.864	21
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:33.893	1:43.658	1:46.030	20
8	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:33.777	1:44.331	1:47.368	20
9	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:31.228	1:44.242	1:48.079	21
10	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:31.601	1:43.852	1:48.147	19
11	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.396	1:44.437		13
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:32.439	1:44.494		13
13	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:31.931	1:44.668		13
14	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:33.673	1:45.655		12
15	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:34.274	1:45.867		13
16	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:34.141	1:47.293		13
17	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:34.293			5
18	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:34.794			5
19	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:35.117			7
20	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:35.157			5
21	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:36.993			6
22	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	No time			3