Honours Even In Battle Between Hamilton and Vettel

The first three retirements in last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix boasted just four previous Formula 1 race starts between them.  Lance Stroll never saw a challenging Sergio Perez nip up his inner and turned into the Mexican on the opening lap.

Meanwhile, Antonio Giovinazzi made the rookie error of flooring his car when travelling sideways off the racing line through a puddle resultantly playing meet-and-greet with the pit-lane wall on lap 3 (Jolyon Palmer did similar in Monaco last season).  And Stoffel Vandoorne had the misfortune of his petrol pump packing up on lap 17.

Such incidents, with blame attached or otherwise, cannot do the confidence of any young driver much good.  And one must also question how the veteran Kimi Raikkonen and Finland’s Valtteri Bottas are feeling right now.  They clearly have the second fastest car yet are placed in fourth and fifth amongst the early World Championship standings.

One thing is abundantly clear Lewis Hamilton has lost none of his swagger and Sebastian Vettel looks and acts every part as good as he did during his four World Championship reign when driving the invincible 2.4Litre V8 Red Bull.

So will this season be determined by driver resolve, good fortune, bad fortune or the ability of Ferrari, Mercedes or even Red Bull to develop their cars quicker than their rivals?

The facts may still hide the truth

The record books now show it is a win and a second apiece for Vettel and Hamilton so far but is this a true reflection of proceedings to date?  One suspects not, Vettel was caught behind a slower teammate and two Red Bulls for the best part of 18 laps last weekend due to an unfortunate Safety Car appearance.  It cost him considerable time and despite Hamilton enjoying a solo-run in the lead, the German driver had the advantage down to just 6secs at the chequered flag.

Therein, despite Mercedes claiming the race win in China, there are good grounds to believe Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari will be the car to beat in Bahrain this Sunday.

The Bahrain and Chinese Grand Prix’s come back-to-back every season and historically the form of one translates well into the other.  Unsurprisingly really as the circuit was designed by Herman Tilke and these two, along with another of his wonderful creations, Malaysia, are practically identical.  

The spectacle on offer is ‘point and squirt racing’ meaning low speed/gear corners and long straights.  However, a wet circuit is very unlikely this weekend and the width of the circuit means accidents and resulting safety car appearances are rare.

Just whose hands Bahrain’s track configuration will play into remains to be seen. So far Hamilton has claimed two pole positions but if having a flutter on Sunday’s race be mindful the front-marker has only converted his starting advantage into a race win three times during the past decade.