Bahrain GP 2010 - BIC

[_GOGGS_]

I understand what you're saying, and I'm not disagreeing fully. My point is that something else is wrong if both the FIA, WMSC and FOTA can't unanimously agree on a set of rules that makes the sport, safe cometitive and viable as a product for the fans. DiMontezemolo doesn't have many fans, not even among the Tifosi, but he was the chairman of FOTA not it's only voice. We'll see what Whitmarsh can do, but all other teams must share the blame as well my friend. You can't point the finger at the public face of an entity that has more than one member (In the case of Mad Max, it might be an exception).

Either way, I know we can both agree that a fundamental change is required and it leans towards the arena of freedom of design.

[Just_a_fan]

Hows about this layout for next year:



From a guys suggestion over on F1Fanatic.

Like it. The Parabolica style final corner won't help overtaking though as the cars will be too far apart going on to the start/finish straight.

When I look at that layout I can see bits from different circuits. The Parabolica bit, the run down the right hand straight, round the right hander in to flowing left / right reminds me of the start of Suzuka in to the S, the section from 4 to 9 reminds me of Traguardo to Villeneuve at Imola only in reverse.

I hope the Bahrain guys see it and run with it next year...

[Ganxxta]

Not to mention Webber starting a metre ahead of his grid slot! He was incredibly lucky that wasn't even investigated!

Prost must've dozed off!

digging up old corpse, but never saw anything written about this after the race! well if not got noticed by the stewards, but Fil, where did you find this info?? any source pls. would like to watch a photo if possible.....

Here it is, look at the right side:

[rubbergoat]

Hey Guys,

So after every Grand Prix I like to look at ‘Driver Consistency’ and Fastest Laps for each driver, so here is a summary of the post for the Bahrain Grand Prix from my blog ‘Making Up The Numbers'. The original is here: http://f1numbers.wordpress.com/2010/03/ ... rain-2010/

After a long and eventful off-season, much was expected in one of the most anticipated starts to the season in years. Who would be quick? Would Alonso usher in an era of success for Ferrari? Would Button or Hamilton get the upper hand at McLaren? How well would Schumacher do on his comeback at the age of 41? Would the new circuit layout improve the racing?

But by far the biggest question was how the ban on refuelling would affect the action on the track? Would it spice up the action and increase the passing on the track, or would the race become a dull procession?

If you are reading this then you probably saw the race. My thoughts are that the race was really dull – almost nothing happened on the track and the pit stops were effectively useless because they were so short. There was a pass for the lead, but only because Vettel had a spark plug problem which caused him to lose power. All of the drivers complained that they could not push as hard as they wanted to because they had to save the tyres. In fact, pretty much all of the drivers ran a one-stop strategy today, so long and careful stints were required on the tyres in heavy cars too – not quite the short sprints and to the limit driving we have seen in the last few years.

But was the lack of action purely due to the lack of refuelling? Well, I don’t think that this is solely to blame for what happened in the Grand Prix. Sure, nobody really had any strategy and could not use pit stops to overtake another driver, but this tactic alone has been the mainstay of F1 for years purely because the cars have difficulty overtaking each other. A series of decisions in the last 30 years have led to wild changes in the technical rules which have given us a Formula that is very heavily aero-dependent and homogenised in terms of engines, tyres and a lot of other mechanical parts. If the cars are all the same and need a lot of clean air for grip, this makes overtaking a lot more difficult. Why can’t we have a set of rules where the cars have small wings, big fat slicks and loads of power? Surely this would look more entertaining at least?

The track certainly has to take some of the blame for this. Bahrain has been on the calendar since 2004 and has not exactly set the world alight as an F1 venue. Sure, it’s nice to see that the locals and the government care about putting on a good show, but what use is it starting the season in a hot sandy dustbowl with no atmosphere. It didn’t work when the season started there in 2006 and to my knowledge has never really produced a really good race.

For a Tilke-drome the layout used to be half decent and at least provide a little opportunity for overtaking, but this year a new section was added, which added 8 turns to the circuit between corners 4 and 5. This increased the lap length to a very long 5.6km (meaning a 49-lap race) and meant that the circuit now has 23 corners:



When you look at the layout, the new section completely ruins the flow of the circuit and is twisty, fiddly, narrow and bumpy. None of the drivers liked it and it makes the circuit too much like Abu Dhabi or any other of the Tilke-Fails on the calendar. It seems that everyone except those who design and build the circuits knows what makes a good racetrack these days. As mentioned in my qualifying post, Will Buxton feared the layout would not make for good racing having seen a direct comparison with the GP2 Asia cars from the ‘old’ circuit to the new one.

But why make an addition to the circuit? The Sheikh of Bahrain claimed it added prestige to the circuit, but I think all it does is make a section which is nice and TV-friendly while allowing for the lap to be lengthened so that the painfully slow newer teams would not get lapped so fast.

But it’s not all doom and gloom though. People have been very quick to jump to the conclusion that the events that unfolded in Bahrain mean that every race in 2010 will be as boring as this one. I am a bit more optimistic, because this is only the first race and Tilke-Dromes never seem to produce good races. In fact, the next race in Australia is always exciting and eventful, so I am sure we will be in for a good race there, along with a few others this year. Even in the best of F1 seasons there have been both good and bad races…

My point here is that one swallow does not necessarily make a summer, and while things in F1 are far from perfect, I think the reaction to the race has been too strong and too soon. Give it a few more races and then we shall see…

Driver Consistency
As per 2009, this post is also about looking at the lap times to see who was the fastest and most consistent. Just in case you have forgotten how it works during the off-season, you are welcome to read my page on Driver Consistency Explained before we continue:



It is interesting to see that qualifying pace seems to translate into race pace, I was expecting a bit more of a mix-up in the order today.

It’s a shame that the Red Bull was fast but fragile, I hope that this race was a one-off for them and they fix the problem. Good to see Alonso back in a decent car, but I am surprised McLaren were so off the pace – especially Button. Also surprising was Rosberg beating Schumacher. I’m not much of a Rosberg fan and I really thought Schumi would tear him apart.

Is it too early to call who will be fast or slow I wonder? There is certainly a pattern emerging here and I think we will see the ‘Big Four’ of Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren share the spoils this year. Maybe it is too soon to judge who will come out on top though…

I think Williams and Sauber disappointed me today by not being able to show the same strong pace in testing. However, the midfield seems to be quite tight with only the new teams being well off the pace. Virgin and Hispania did not last very long today, sadly.

But awesome work from Lotus to get both cars to the finish, considering the other new teams have had loads of problems. I do wonder if the teams that fired Gascoyne (especially Toyota) would have done a lot better if they had kept him, because that is an awesome effort by them.

A special mention has to go to Chandhok, who despite having a really difficult debut to F1, managed to handle himself with a smile and was a really good sport. Sadly his race did not last long, but it made a big impression.

Finally it is worth noting that the field is much more spread out than last year, with or without the new teams.

But what does the graph look like when we remove the pit stop laps?



The first thing worth noting is that the driver order has not changed too much here. With fewer and shorter pit stops, the lap times are not as affected by them as they were in 2009. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the shortest pit stops were about 4 seconds long, and HRT had the longest pit stop at 10 seconds. The field spread has now decreased slightly, but the lap times have only decreased a little bit and have in fact increased on average.

The conclusion here is that with a ban on refuelling, the strategy element has been completely removed from F1. Therefore a driver has to get things done on the track if they want to overtake in 2010.
Finally, let’s have a look at who got the fastest lap time today:



So Alonso was about a second a lap faster than everyone else. But look who was second fastest! If Sutil had not had a spin at the start (caused by Webber doing his best oil dump trick from Wacky Races), maybe he could have finished higher than he did (assuming he had a chance of overtaking). From Hülkenberg backwards, the fastest lap times really drop off to the slowest being more than ten seconds off the pace. The average fastest lap time is quite high just because of this.

In general, the Difference to the fastest laps set in qualifying is about four seconds a lap. It is no wonder the drivers confessed they found the race easy going today and that they were not pushing the cars too much – that is about a 3% drop in performance!

Vettel is also ‘stuck in the midfield’ in terms of fastest laps – mainly because he had a problem with his car for the second half of the race and could not push as much. Therefore when Alonso set his fastest lap at the end of the race, Vettel was nursing his car home. In fact, Vettel’s fastest lap was set right before his problem and was the fastest lap of the whole race at that time. So the Red Bulls are quick too, and if you check out StartledBunny’s F1 Lap Leaders Championship, you can see how unlucky Vettel was as he led most of the laps…

The rest of the top half of the field are very close to each other – within about a second of each other, so on pure pace, the cars are quite close.

So that’s all from Bahrain then. I know everyone is down about the race today, but keep the faith as it’s too early to call whether we will be in for a bad year or a good year. Maverick from VivaF1 and StuartC also concur with this view, but what do you think? Are we in for a good or a bad year, or are we all over reacting on the strength of a typical Tilke-drome?

As always, let me know what you think in the comments below and I hope you enjoyed the article


RubberGoat
http://f1numbers.wordpress.com/

[godlameroso]

I honestly believe that the supposed "lack of action" has nothing to do with the racing which is the same as all other seasons. No I think that the real reason we conclude the race was so boring was the expectation that the race was not going to be boring. I can remember everyone chattering about how exciting this season was going to be, and when reality showed that it wasn't going to be any more exciting than series past, our disillusionment set in and concluded that the race was a huge boring let down. It's not that the rules made the racing boring, it's that for the most part f1 is boring. Last season's Bahrain GP was also a snooze fest, once the Toyotas lost position to the Brawns (on the first lap mind you) there was nothing else of interest except for the odd skirmish between the non-diffuser teams.

[volarchico]

Maybe I'm too new to this sport, because I still find every race interesting and exciting. There was a decent amount of overtaking, we had collisions, spins, oil smoke-screens, mechanical failures, scary/wobbly pit stops from the new teams, and good consistent driving from the rest.

Was there ever a time that every lap had drama and over-taking back and forth between drivers? (Not just one race...but an entire season)

[roost89]

Maybe I'm too new to this sport, because I still find every race interesting and exciting. There was a decent amount of overtaking, we had collisions, spins, oil smoke-screens, mechanical failures, scary/wobbly pit stops from the new teams, and good consistent driving from the rest.

Was there ever a time that every lap had drama and over-taking back and forth between drivers? (Not just one race...but an entire season)

I doubt there was. You're quite right there. (I prepare to be hit with some historical races where this was so)

I think most of the disappointment was due to the large amount of hype surrounding this seasons start, with the new teams and the new regulations. So people thought it was going to be alot better when it was, in my opinion, more of the same.
The track doesn't lend itself to racing either, thus reducing the excitement level.

However, I agree there were many points of interest during the race. Just many tend to forget them and the media likes to run away with something, like this, thus it gathers more steam and (the important bit) perceived importance.

I have to say, I'm with Mr Ecclestone on this one.

Off-topic slightly: This does remind me of an experiment done by phsychologists. Not sure of the name but the jist is this:
2 groups of people were given online baseball teams (with fake baseball players) and a league was drawn up around them. Games were played and people were allowed to trade players. As rhe games went on they monitored how each player was ranked, the better the more each player is worth.
What the scientists did was create hype about the less good players. This in turn increased the rubbish players worth among the subjects involved in the study, creating a false representation of the players ability.

Kinda sounds like this: Media creates hype about brand new season, season opener fails to reach expectations, revolt?

[Just_a_fan]

I honestly believe that the supposed "lack of action" has nothing to do with the racing which is the same as all other seasons. No I think that the real reason we conclude the race was so boring was the expectation that the race was not going to be boring. I can remember everyone chattering about how exciting this season was going to be, and when reality showed that it wasn't going to be any more exciting than series past, our disillusionment set in and concluded that the race was a huge boring let down. It's not that the rules made the racing boring, it's that for the most part f1 is boring. Last season's Bahrain GP was also a snooze fest, once the Toyotas lost position to the Brawns (on the first lap mind you) there was nothing else of interest except for the odd skirmish between the non-diffuser teams.

The irony is that one of the few real overtaking duels occured in the first few corners and was totally missed by the TV coverage. Alonso taking Massa was just caught but Hamilton's pass on Massa (with Massa pushing him off the track in an attempt to avoid being overtaken) was totally missed. As was Rosberg managing to get by Hamilton at the next corner because Hamilton out braked himself slightly.

Had he managed to get in front of Massa we might have had a more interesting racing because there would have been some fighting between Hamilton and both Ferraris. Or even if he'd just stayed ahead of Rosberg - who turned out to be fairly slow in race trim.

Indeed, other than Vettel being passed whilst stricken with a poorly car, the only action at the front was that little cameo in the first few corners and it was missed.

Those in the UK can watch an interview with Hamilton (where the overtakes were shown and discussed) on the BBC website. I was interested to hear Hamilton not being too worried by Massa's blocking attempt even though the pundits were all obviously upset by the whole thing (or were trying to get a response from LH). I guess Hamilton gives it hard on track and is prepared to accept similar from others. Unlike many drivers we could mention (including a world champ or two currently racing in F1). LH did say he wouldn't do the same to others but I'm not convinced...

[WhiteBlue]

One thing the driver consistency in a race session doesn't show is the influence of track position. Schumacher was stuck all day behind Rosberg and basically shows the same consistency. When you look at fastest lap he is clearly faster but not by an amount that would allow overtaking on this track.

So you ask yourself how this would have shaken out with fuel stops. My view is that we had probably seen another four or five position changes within the top eight drivers and Rosberg ending behind Schumacher without doubt. There are few driver pairings that make the advantage of qualifying position in the non refueling era clearer than the Mercedes team.

It is clear hat the FiA wants a significant reduction in fuel consumption and even more cost reduction. The FOTA on the other side isn't keen to compete on power train efficiency, KERS and HERS. This antagonism will probably cement the non refueling rule for the remainder of the Concord. It is very bad news for FOM who will suffer most from boring races.

I ask myself if the ban on DDDs and the reduction of the diffusor to 125 mm will be enough to facilitate overtaking next year. The new cars are being conceived right now and going back to refueling for instance isn't a legal option for 2011 any more unless each and every team agrees.

I'm disappointed that a legal downforce limit and movable wings are still not implemented in F1. It is a 100% sure way to make everyone compete for reduction of drag and it makes it possible to reduce downforce equally for all if they find that the level is too high or too low. It would also reduce the fuel consumption significantly. It is a shame that the FiA cannot implement such a solution for the good of the sport.

[Just_a_fan]

This in turn increased the rubbish players worth among the subjects involved in the study, creating a false representation of the players ability.

In short: marketing

One of the classic examples in "real life" is VW and their phrase "if only everything in life were as reliable as a volkswagen".

It's been a mainstay of their campaign for years. Result: people say "oh, very reliable cars" if you tell them you have e.g. a Golf (I know this happened to me when I bought one). The reality is that VW aren't especially reliable - as evidenced by the various reliability surveys etc.

Sorry, bit off topic there. I'll stop now

[ringo]

One thing the driver consistency in a race session doesn't show is the influence of track position. Schumacher was stuck all day behind Rosberg and basically shows the same consistency. When you look at fastest lap he is clearly faster but not by an amount that would allow overtaking on this track.

So you ask yourself how this would have shaken out with fuel stops. My view is that we had probably seen another four or five position changes within the top eight drivers and Rosberg ending behind Schumacher without doubt. There are few driver pairings that make the advantage of qualifying position in the non refueling era clearer than the Mercedes team.

It is clear hat the FiA wants a significant reduction in fuel consumption and even more cost reduction. The FOTA on the other side isn't keen to compete on power train efficiency, KERS and HERS. This antagonism will probably cement the non refueling rule for the remainder of the Concord. It is very bad news for FOM who will suffer most from boring races.

I ask myself if the ban on DDDs and the reduction of the diffusor to 125 mm will be enough to facilitate overtaking next year. The new cars are being conceived right now and going back to refueling for instance isn't a legal option for 2011 any more unless each and every team agrees.

I'm disappointed that a legal downforce limit and movable wings are still not implemented in F1. It is a 100% sure way to make everyone compete for reduction of drag and it makes it possible to reduce downforce equally for all if they find that the level is too high or too low. It would also reduce the fuel consumption significantly. It is a shame that the FiA cannot implement such a solution for the good of the sport.

So you are saying shumacher is faster? I don't really believe that. I know it's hard to see Shumacher, the greatest, being slower but I accept that Rosberg is the faster driver at the moment. Remember Shumacher was being chased, he had to be pushing at all times. Where as Rosberg was all by himself going around the track.
Rosberg was probably keeping Shumi at arms length. That was quite an easy race for the young German. I am not convinced Shumacher would have caught Rosberg under any other circumstance. Maybe on a crowded track shumacher would have an advantage with his race craft and experience. Australia would definitely play to his strengths. But so far i can't say with pit stops shumacher would beat rosberg without a doubt.

If Shumacher is still the king, he should be superior to Rosberg under all circumstances and regulations; with no excuses. I'd give him 3 more races to even be equal with Rosberg. I wont even mention destroying Rosberg, that sounds like late season prospects.

About the rule changes, australia 2009 when most teams were on single diffusers, was a good example of what i would like to see again. The race was pretty close with a lot of action. The cars were following wing to gearbox. Just that ruling alone will go a long way to bringing back some excitement. I will be happy with even every race being like that 1 race last year.

[WhiteBlue]

So you are saying shumacher is faster? I don't really believe that.

I have given quite a differentiated opinion which you seem to ignore. Bottom line is: Schumacher has the same consistency and higher race pace as shown by his faster lap. He suffers from a lack of one lap speed which was commented in detail by James Allan quite reasonably:

Schumacher hadn’t mastered the first lap on the new tyre, especially when the track got hotter in the decisive Q3 session. What happened then was that he overheated the tyre in the middle sector, which featured the twisty new section. And because of the way he had the Mercedes set up, the tyres did not cool down on the straight which followed, so he wasn’t quick through the final sector. Everyone was faced with the same problem and the big margins between cars on the grid are as a result of this. It’s something that Vettel and the Ferrari drivers got right.
“(The front tyres) are very small and narrow for my style of driving and so I cannot get the car into the corners the way I like to,” he said after the race on his website.

The basic characteristics of the car in terms of tyres and downforce distribution are not going to change and I don't expect Schumacher to dominate Rosberg this year. Perhaps he comes nearer by changing his driving style but domination isn't on the cards IMHO.

[ringo]

I get your point, and I am not trying to haggle you, but check this out:


Here is a good picture of the situation. Virtually similar times as you say, but most of the time Rosberg has a faster lap. You can go as far as to say he has a better race pace. Shumacher may have squeezed out a lap a couple hundredths quicker, but a couple hundredths could be the difference between a twitch of the steering wheel or a bump in the track.

Shumachers average race lap time is also slower by +0.081s

However I do agree Shumacher will beat Rosberg within a month. He is still the best driver in terms of technique.

[raceman]

Not to mention Webber starting a metre ahead of his grid slot! He was incredibly lucky that wasn't even investigated!

Prost must've dozed off!

digging up old corpse, but never saw anything written about this after the race! well if not got noticed by the stewards, but Fil, where did you find this info?? any source pls. would like to watch a photo if possible.....

Here it is, look at the right side:

hey Ganxxta, thnx much for the foto

Webber really started ahead of his starting line. I am amazed no one noticed and no one complained after the race now that it is known by World by this time.....

damn lucky you Webber

[djos]

hey Ganxxta, thnx much for the foto

Webber really started ahead of his starting line. I am amazed no one noticed and no one complained after the race now that it is known by World by this time.....

damn lucky you Webber

it's about time he had some good luck!