Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix-view

Well, I woke up early this morning, after a very fitful night of irregular sleep, I might add, and watched the practice session for this weekend’s Grand Prix in Bahrain. I think that I might like this track, as there seemed to be a decent amount of action, especially for a practice session.

The track, located in the middle of a desert, has a fair amount of elevation change, though obviously nothing like Spa. See, unfortunately I’m jaded. I mean, anyone would be jaded after seeing a race at Spa. Even you despise Formula 1, Spa is one of the most beautiful tracks on Earth. But Bahrain is different from the other tracks we’ve seen so far, with the only remote comparison being Melbourne. Even though Bahrain has an entire desert to cover, it looks to be about a 3.5 mile track squeezed into about four hundred square feet.

The surface is tricky, as winds will often blow a considerable amount of sand onto the track. RBS Williams driver Nico Rosberg, who for the whole season has been consistently fast in Practice (although he’s yet to translate practice speed into race speed), claims that Bahrain is one of his favorite tracks to race at.

Now that the diffuser issue has been settled, the seven teams without the “trick” diffuser of Brawn, Toyota, and Williams will be rushing to redesign their cars to incorporate the design.

Ferrari has denied claims that they are considering scrapping the 2009 campaign to focus on 2010, but they have held a crisis meeting (at least once).

McLaren is sitting on edge at the moment, as their date before the World Motor Sport Council looms (April 29). McLaren’s sponsors have already started asking for leniency, claiming that a stiff penalty will force them from their sponsorship, and will likely ruin the team. Of course, I believe that the team has been punished enough, as they were disqualified from the race in which the infraction occurred. Any further penalty would seem to be an instance of “piling on” by the FIA. Then again, I truly think the FIA has it out for McLaren. As does team Principal Martin Whitmarsh.

McLaren was called before the WMSC for lying to the stewards at Melbourne. Whether you believe that the team should be further penalized or not is irrelevant. The question I think people should be asking is this: Why did it take race director Charlie Whiting so long to get an answer to McLaren? If he had been a little quicker and more forthcoming with the answers the team requested, this incident likely would not have occurred.

As for today’s practice, it was once again Williams, Toyota, and Brawn toward the front. Fernando Alonso, who had claimed that Renault could fight for the title this year, ran at the back for most of the session. The bottom five had some pretty big names in it, and at the end of practice looked like this:

16 Felipe Massa - Ferrari
17 Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber
18 Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari
19 Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes
20 Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber

So, what about our prediction for Bahrain? Well, here it is:

1. Jenson Button - Brawn GP

2. Nico Rosberg - Williams

3. Mark Webber - Team Red Bull