Bahrain GP

jaslfc · Post 12 Apr 2007, 18:20

since we are hours away from the start of the bahrain gp weekend i think its tiime for us to go into the weekend prediction.
Will ferrari come back and win this race or has mclaren found the edge?
personally i think itll be a closer fight between alonso and kimi.. massa cant seem to handle the pressure

personally im hoping for a resurgence of renault and maybe bmw fighting up there... when the new tyre rule came about i was hoping for the good old days of f1 where at least half the grid can fight for the win.. but its looking like a 2 horse race again!

tomislavp4 · Post 12 Apr 2007, 18:29

I hope Kubica will score few points, enough with the problems allready

I think it will be close fight between Fernando and Kimi... maybe kimi´s going to win...I dont know man, I´m not so good in predictions

Carbon · Post 12 Apr 2007, 18:42

I'm going with Kimi this weekend, followed closely by Alonso and Hamilton. Massa may make it to 4th - if, IF - he has a clean race. The BMW folks will may make a cock-up of my predictions for 4th, sliding in ahead of the Scuderia. Toyota might score a point or two as well.

It will be interesting to watch the mid-field battle again, works vs. customer cars. Predictions on that front?

SA vs. Honda? I'm going with SA outpacing the Honda's again.
Williams vs. Toyota? Tough one, but my hard earned money is on Toyota.
RB vs. Renault? Another tough one, me thinks RB will shine over Renault

But, all my predictions can go to pot with the start of the engines today.

DaveKillens · Post 12 Apr 2007, 19:10

It's only been a week since the last races, and many teams admit they aren't able to install any upgrades. So my scenario is that things will remain static, with no team making any big moves. But most everyone will have fresh engines, and will make things interesting. It took Massa's mistake and Kimi's supposed lame engine to allow McLaren their perfect weekend, Ferrari should take the fight back to their rivals. BMW want to solidify their position as third best team, I'm sure all they seek is reliability. But Williams are in the same position.
Massa has been the man winning practices, so far he has not shown the kind of ability to convert that into race wins. Kimi will be on max attack, he's my pick.

Tom · Post 12 Apr 2007, 20:01

Fernando, Kimi, Lewis, Nick, Nicko, Felipe is my guess. I think Massa might struggle again in a hot Tilke track and Lewis must be suffering, enough to drop him behind the Ferrari anyway. Alonso will beat Kimi off the line I think, though the Fin will be on pole.

DaveKillens · Post 12 Apr 2007, 21:32

In Malaysia, even though the Ferraris started 1st and 3rd, they were on the dirty side of the track. Bahrain has a similar starting scenario, a long straight going into a hard right. So far the McLarens have made fantastic starts, they seem to find great traction just after the initial launch. I do wonder if this is because of the car, drivers, or whether starting on the dirty side of the track. We shall just have to wait to see, because so far the start has been ultra-critical.

m3_lover · Post 12 Apr 2007, 21:54

Ive been reading that the Mclaren is very good aerodymaically in the fast corners but not so good compared to ferrari in the slow corners. So it looks like a Ferrari front row because Bahrain does not have a lot of fast corners compared to Sepang

wazojugs · Post 12 Apr 2007, 22:01

its definatly ging to be mclaren and ferrari fightng for the podium places.
BMW providing kubica gets realsed by his team in time for flying lap at the end of qualy 2 he and nick will be right up behind the leading two team for any scraps.

Renault will hobble home mixing it with the williams and red bulls. Super aguri will make the earth car crumble

FLC · Post 12 Apr 2007, 22:50

I think people are writing Massa off way too soon. He had a bad start last season also, and recovered wonderfully.
I also think that the internal battle between Hamilton and Alonso, giving that Ferrari isn't going to make Mclaren's life easy, could bring to some interesting incidents.

Torso · Post 12 Apr 2007, 23:32

I believe Massa is the hottest "potato" out-there right now. I believe he is the current fastest driver among those sitting in potential racewinning machinery, but he needs to deliver a full distance mature drive to get back into the title fight.

Massa for yet another pole...but with the good help of his assistant Hamilton I am sure Alonso could ruin the day for Ferrari once again.

mx_tifoso · Post 13 Apr 2007, 00:01

Massa may be the fastest driver at the moment, but what continues to evaid him is being a mature, consistent and level headed driver. As we see in Alonso, he is in my opinion the most complete driver on the grid this season. He has proved that he can take tremendous amounts of pressure and not crack, that along with his proven speed is what continues to improve and will help him win yet another DC this year, thats certainly if Massa and Raikkonen keep on having issues with their performance. I hope that the entire Ferrari team improves, that includes drivers, management, and everything that helps the team get the most points possible. I would be happy if Ferrari get the Constructors Championship, but if either Massa or Raikkonen get the DC it would make things SO much better!

As for predictions for this weekend's race: NOT SURE YET
But I'm hoping for Ferrari 1-2 and no Mclaren in Top 3, or even better, no McLaren in Top 5

Scuderia Ferrari 2007 WCC

mx_tifoso · Post 13 Apr 2007, 04:32

A question:

Seeing how both GP2 and F1 are in Bahrain this week, does the Sakhir circuit have two seperate pitlanes/garage areas for both events?
Because both events will be held up until this weekend, I'm basing my question while believing my assumptions are correct.
This just occured to me while seeing some pix on motorsport.com of the garages for the GP2 teams. And i didnt understand how that works, because both events seem to be quite set-up by now and I didnt know how they fit so many cars/teams in there.

pRo · Post 13 Apr 2007, 06:39

FLC wrote:I think people are writing Massa off way too soon. He had a bad start last season also, and recovered wonderfully.

I have a feeling he wrote himself off already. He had a lousy start in Oz, not his fault, but I feel he could've done so much better in the race. In Malay, he had every chance to even win the race, or at least be seconds ahead of Kimi, but he blew that chance too.

Even though Ferrari has said that there will be no team orders, there just might be, especially if McLaren can keep up the pace and be a threat to Ferrari. Even if Massa might have better personal relationships to the big guys, in the end they will want to fight for the championship. If and when they realize Massa just doesn't have what it takes, they will make the decisions. Massa is a great #2, last year I would've said the best of them, but now I'm not sure...Hamilton is actually looking a lot better than Massa right now, though it's a bit early to say that.

It seems Kimi is just too fast for Massa, even if Massa gets good times on tests.

leomax · Post 13 Apr 2007, 10:33

Practice 1 over
Kimi is fastest, 0.5s quicker than massa (!) and nearly 1s (!!) quicker than mclarens..
Trulli at 5th followed by both bmw's..

manchild · Post 13 Apr 2007, 12:42

Apart from obvious podium contenders I think that Nico and Kubica could shine. Perhaps even first victory for Hamilton.