Michael Schumacher may not win every race in 2004. He may not even win the title this year. At Sakhir, in Bahrain, at what this humble scribe believes is the best venue the sport has ever had, Michael proved that nobody has the combination of car and talent required to depose him. If he loses races or titles this year, he will do it on his own, or he’ll lose to a car that was not present in Bahrain.

I suggested in my last posting that Ferrari would win and I also suggested that Kimi would either perform well or his car would break, as would others (break that is). All these came true, as did my prediction that David would drive conservatively again. Ralf actually surpassed my expectations.

Bahrain was an interesting race, if you ignore the fact that MS wasn’t really in it. Accept that he was doing an exhibition drive out in front of the field and there was some excitement to be seen. Barrichello won the race of the other drivers, and deserved to. Montoya came 13th but deserved 2nd. Button came second, but was outdriven by Sato on the day so didn’t deserve to. Trulli came 4th and deserved a 3rd.

Schumacher drove flawlessly, never once did he look like being threatened and, as usual, he did as little as he needed to in order to ensure his win.

There were a number of notable performances behind the German machine. Sato gets an honourable mention – he convincingly outperformed Button all weekend and were it not for Ralf (more on him later) would have almost certainly finished in front of him. What Sato proved was that he needs a circuit where there is no grass if he’s going to succeed. This is the first time he’s ever driven on a track without grassy verges and it’s the first time he’s performed credibly and stayed on the surface designed for racing. Alonso drove well enough from the back of the field but did not manage to overtake any of the fast cars with fast drivers in coming through to finish 6th.

Klein performed way above my expectations, driving a professional race with few mistakes, after having out-qualified Webber. He scrapped with Raikkonen and showed that reputations and faster cars don’t faze him. He did well! Webber? He didn’t. After a disastrous but very fast Sepang, Mark had a slow and very ordinary Bahrain. He did not come to terms with the track or the car and his performance was highlighted by a very clumsy and potentially dangerous blocking move on Alonso. Mark has long been a favourite of mine but his performance at Bahrain leaves much to be desired. Mark apologised to Alonso after the event but it would have been better had he not had to do so in the first place. He needs to get his act together and he needs to do it soon.

David Coulthard’s performance I can’t really whine about this time. He drove a very strategic race, trying to nurse the car home into the back of the points. It didn’t work, but I can’t blame DC for that, he knew that pushing would break the car, so he didn’t. Kimi on the other hand had a new engine so he didn’t know it would break. It did anyway, in a most spectacular fashion. What Kimi did show during the race, or at least the short time he spent in it, was that the McLaren Mercedes is a dog. Raikkonen has the talent but he couldn’t dispose of Klein’s Jaguar, ‘nuff said!

Kimi too has long been a favourite of mine. Mark disappointed me but Kimi reinforced my opinion that he is as good as they come, and that includes the Teutonic Superman. The most impressive performance of the entire weekend was Kimi’s Qualifying 1 Lap. This useless irrelevancy (Q1) produced possibly the greatest lap I have ever seen, and it wasn’t Ralf’s. In the Friday and Saturday practice sessions Raikkonen went from car problem to car problem, culminating in a blown engine. The result of that was less track time than anyone else out there, and by a significant degree. A first qualifying lap equal to his teammate would have been a remarkable performance in the circumstances. Kimi took a car that couldn’t do it and blew them all away, on a track that he had less exposure to than any of them, coming in a brilliant 3rd behind the two Williams BMW’s. Alonso is good, Montoya is too, Raikkonen showed the stuff of greatness in that lap. Now if he could only get into a car that is competitive.

It is a damn shame that the Also-Ran awards died with the Real Race a couple of years ago. Never have I seen a more underwhelming performance than that of the Number Two driver for Williams BMW. Even Alex Yoong at his most deserving couldn’t match Ralfie at Bahrain. I have said it before and he proved it again – Ralf does not deserve a drive in a billy cart, let alone one in the premier formula of automotive endeavour. He capped a very ordinary performance over the weekend (P1 in Q1 notwithstanding – when it counted he was somewhere else) with a very ordinary attempt at getting by Sato on Sunday, ruining Sato’s chances of a much better result than the one he got. Then he had the stupidity or temerity to blame Sato for his error. I suppose some would say I am being too harsh on baby brother; after all he has no experience at overtaking. Quite seriously, I invite any of Ralf’s 3 remaining fans to tell me I’m wrong but I cannot recall a single successful overtaking manoeuvre by Ralf in his entire career. I’m not talking about lapping backmarkers, pit stop passing, rounding up expiring cars or coming through Minardis etc. I’m talking about a genuine, on-track passing of a top-four team car in a racing move. Any takers for showing me I’m wrong?

Bahrain is simply a magnificent circuit. Sure, there are a few detail issues left to address but if you are sitting in the Oasis Complex, as we were, there is simply no better spot to watch a race from anywhere in the world. The track rewards talent and punishes poor performances while providing some overtaking opportunities, a rarity in modern designs. I see some great races here over the coming years. One area where I will be quite critical is the lack of support events. The organiser’s need to visit Melbourne next year to see how it should be done. An area where I must give a huge plus to this event is the television coverage. I haven’t sat and re-watched the race but the coverage on the large screen in front of us was pretty good and I assume that feed was what went out to the networks.

The weather was VERY kind this year. At 10:00 am on race day, driving to the circuit, we got a picture of what could have been. I’ve experienced sandstorms before and I’ve experienced thunderstorms before. I’ve never experienced both simultaneously. Imagine driving on a skidpan while buckets of wet sand are thrown on your windshield, you’re getting pretty close. The drivers must have been terrified watching it. Several times during the weekend sandstorms were evident off in the north and northwest and it did manage to rain a couple of hours before the race (bloody cold rain too I might add) but in the end all the racing sessions were unaffected.

Security concerns were non-existent, which was just as well, security was non-existent as well. As a lesson in how not to do it, Bahrain was perfect. Lots of high visibility police presence throughout the island (all in packed four-wheel-drives parked at strategic intersections of course) was the only security element provided, oh, except for one officer at the track who stood holding a scanning wand while thousands of people trooped past carrying backpacks, overnight bags, Rocket Propelled Grenades etc (ok, I’m exaggerating, I didn’t see a single weapon all weekend – I also didn’t see him stop a single fan).
At the detail level it didn’t work, which was rather fortunate for a member of our group who shall remain anonymous!. He loses things you see. First he lost his bag at the airport, which he finally recovered after we had a few uninterrupted trips back and forth through the Customs exit gate. Then, on Sunday, before we got into the track, he lost his ticket to the race. Disaster, you may think? Nah. Without going into details on how, he sat in his assigned seat and enjoyed the race. All done without the benefit of an original, or even a replacement ticket (“So sorry – we can’t reissue tickets and that stand is fully booked so you can’t buy a new one”) or any other valid document.

Now it’s on to San Marino, to the first of the home games. There seems little chance that Michael’s car will break, so he will win. Rubens should take the second step and Button must be ready for relegation to the ranks again. He’s had two good podiums and he’s driven pretty well but both have been handed to him by failures from better cars than the BAR. Only Michael can expect that kind of lucky streak to continue. Montoya should fill out the top three, although Alonso might actually pip him if he can perform on Saturday. Kimi’s car will break (again) and there will be a few interesting inter-team performances to watch. Sato and Klein have both upstaged their leaders at Bahrain (results notwithstanding – they were the better drivers), lets see if they can keep the momentum up.

The future, unfortunately, is still Red!

The Quali-flyer

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