Bahrein GP: desert déjà vu

The first round of fly-away races is over, and it was closed in the same fashion it was closed in 2012, with a Red Bull victory by Vettel and a double podium finish by the Lotus boys. Nevertheless, the way things have gone over the first four races of the 2013 season has been quite different from what we saw last year.

But first things first, the race was dominated by Vettel from start to end, nevertheless kudos to him, as he put himself into the position of doing that. Firstly, by performing a cracking overtaking manoeuvre over Fernando Alonso, who had passed him at the start and later by showing an impressive pace on a three stop strategy that was out of reach for everybody else. He also benefited from the Spaniard’s misfortune, as the F138’s DRS actuator got stuck passing Rosberg at the opening stages of the race.

It´s been two fiascos for Alonso over the first four races of the season so far, which are almost as many as he had in 2012. Last year, both Ferrari and him performed brilliantly strategy, reliability and racecraft wise, but were penalised by an underperforming car. 2013 looks set to be the other way around. It is too early to say, but if the Italians are to win this championship, they need to raise their game. The car is quick, and gentle on the tyres, but in order to defeat someone like Sebastian Vettel, not even the smallest error is allowed.

Back to the race, we had an impressive comeback from the Lotus duo, who had planned a two-stopper strategy, though Grosjean had to switch to three stops after a McLaren front wing endplate blocked one of the sidepods of his car (!). The Enstone based squad benefited from a car that’s second to none on tyre degradation as they cruised to the podium, denying in the way of doing so a first ever podium finish for Di Resta and Force India.

Further down the order, McLaren struggled again for performance all weekend, although their two drivers put on a good show as Perez relentlessly charged over Button. Difficult times for them as they try to sort out the MP4/28. To do so, the upgrade package planned for the Spanish Grand Prix will play a key role. If they manage to make it work and gain at least 0.5 seconds per lap, there is still hope for them. If not, they’d better focus on 2014.

Looking at the start of the European season, Red Bull have put themselves into a good position to fight for a fourth consecutive world title. Lotus and Ferrari appear to be their toughest challengers. There is always a shade of doubt about Lotus’ ability to develop their car over the year, as they have struggled to do so in the past. If they do it, they will probably be in the hunt until the end of the season. Ferrari so far have shown good promise, the car is quick, possibly the quickest in race trim and they know it, but they need to polish the small mistakes they’ve had so far if they want to get to Brazil looking down at Vettel instead of looking up, as they have done the last few years.

In three weeks time we will start seeing who will be up there until the very end, and who will have to start thinking on 2014.