Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher together have produced another winning car!
Prior to Schumacher and latterly Brawn leaving the Mercedes, they concentrated fully on the 2014 spec car and their mastery in the art of developing race winning cars are unfolding before our eyes with Lewis and Nico.
We finally see the F1 2014 season coming alive. The cars are more reliable, there is overtaking on track and strategic moves during races are back. However, the undeniable truth (unfortunately from pure F1 point of view) is the massive advantage the Mercedes has over the rest of the field. Seeing Nico Rosberg ease his way through the rest of the fastest cars (i.e. Ferrari, Redbulls and Williams) indicates how strong they are this season. With at least a second in qualifying pace and almost 2 seconds (at times) on race pace, it would be a miracle if any team could close that gap before end of the season. However, considering the fact of it being a new season with space for major improvements (as we saw from Ferrari) the optimists could keep their fingers crossed.
Circuit wise, Shanghai is similar to the previous track in Bahrain. Hence, we were expecting the same kind of results unless any team was to come up with major changes to their cars. By the looks of it, Ferrari had gained the most. The first inter-seasonal test allowed by the FIA happened in Bahrain right after the race concluded on the 6th of April which saw many teams’ tryout new things. Now it is known that Ferrari did a change in their engine mapping which saw them increase their speeds. The same mapping was provided to the Sauber team that also runs on Ferrari Engines. This saw both teams come up the field considerably though Kimi for Ferrari and Sutil for Sauber did have other issues to cope with.
An intelligent risk free drive from Hamilton saw him claim his 3rd consecutive win. He was followed by team mate Nico Rosberg who started p4 and eased up the field (though with an initial glitch). Lewis has been to the dot perfect this season and one would not bother to wonder whether he would have won in Australia given his car didn’t fail. Nico will have to really ‘up’ his game if he is to give Lewis a fight and keep his Championship dreams alive. (Nico still leads the Drivers’ Championship)
Considering where Kimi ended (P8), it was an absolute brilliant drive from Fernando Alonso to claim 3rd place behind the Mercs. It was a calculated, risk free drive and race strategy which saw him take the 3rd step of the Podium, his and Ferrari’s first (Podium finish) for the season. The other brilliant drive came from Dan Ricciardo who actually was much faster than his World Champion team mate Vetal. Vetal was quoted saying that he has not yet come to grip with the car as Dan has.
It was surprising to see the McLaren teams’ lack of pace given them using the same Merc engines and the pace shown during the winter tests and first few races. Let’s hope they bounce back for the sake of F1 where we need to see more teams battling it out at the front.
The rest of the field did not provide anything interesting apart from the battle between Kobayashi and Bianchi which went on till the last lap. During this drive, it was fascinating to see Kobayashi pass Vetal to un-lap himself. The live circuit animation was fun to watch to keep track of this battle as the TV cameras were always focused on the lead battles. You can check this live stream on http://f1.narezka.org/?lang=eng from next race onwards. It is quite fun to keep track, know the times each driver sets etc. Try it out.
For the full race Analysis by team and driver click here – http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2014/4/15760.html
Next we go to the start of the European leg of the F1 2014 season. Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/spain_919/) in Spain. One of the most remarkable and symbolic tracks; supposed to be one of the fastest in the F1 calendar. The race is on the 11th of May giving teams a 3 week long break for preparation. Many teams are looking forward to bringing many upgrades for this race. Hence, watch out! There could be some changes in the pecking order. However, it is unfathomable if any team could come up with any upgrade that could beat the Mercs.
