My Bahrain GP review – or is that “Bore-ain GP?”

Well this is my first ever attempt at writing a blog, so here goes.

2008’s Bahrain GP started with Lewis Hamilton deciding to put his car into the barriers at the end of Friday’s 2nd free practice session. Looking at the TV and onboard replays, it was clear he took too much kerb and lost the rear. Now, we know Lewis likes to drive fast and use all the track, but that’s not something we normally see him do. Was he spooked? Or did his obsession of trying for a quick lap get the better of him this time?

Nevertheless, the weekend produced a new pole sitter in Robert Kubica. His stunning last effort in Q3 gave him and BMW their first start from P1. Mario Thiessen claimed they weren’t expecting it. But then they all say that don’t they? “Oh, we never thought we’d get pole, we just put him light on fuel, ran soft tyres and went out for the hell of it.” You never get the winner at Wimbledon saying “Well, even though I beat the guy 3 sets to 2, I wasn’t going for the win to be honest.” Just be honest, Mario. You wanted pole and you got it. No need to hide the fact you were pushing for it.

Anyway, the “Pole on pole” (now the most annoying saying of the weekend, thanks to the papers) threw his advantage away by giving the start to the Ferraris, who swept past when the lights went out and from then couldn’t be touched. Hamilton? He made a complete hash of the start, claiming his was late pressing the correct button. Distracted, were we, Lewis? Losing 7 places all because of 1 button. Bit ironic, no?

His efforts to try and claw his way back up the field were haulted by his arch enemy – El Diablo! Oh sorry, I mean Fernando Alonso. Lewis came out of Turn 1 on lap 2 behind him, and rather than attempting to pass the Renault the usual way, the McLaren driver decided “No, I’ll go OVER his car rather than round it!” That proved to be a rather stupid decision, as it tore off his front wing and ruined his entire race. His pace was so off, at one point Button was lapping quicker than him! Looks like the “Golden Boy from Stevenage” isn’t shining so brightly right now.

From then on, the race turned out to be one big, long, dragged-on procession. Apart from Button’s Honda trying to persuade Coulthard’s Red Bull to give him a piggyback about a 1/3 of the way through, it was, without doubt, boring. B O R I N G. These new aero regs coming out for 2009 can’t come soon enough. I thought by now we’d be seeing overtaking by the bucketload. But instead, it’s another case of “follow the leader” like we used to see when Michael Schumacher was the dominant force. If I wanted to see a long train of cars for an hour and a half, I’d go sit by the roadside. Next year sees the banning of all those stupid little winglets, horns, anvil wings, etc. and I for one will be glad to see them go. An F1 car is supposed to be a thing of automotive beauty, not some thing on wheels with the odd wierdly-shaped piece of coloured carbon fibre sticking out in odd places, just because it increases the amount of air flow to the rear wheels or something. Do you really think the average F1 fan cares about that? I think not.

By the end of the race, I’d resorted to reading the latest issue of F1 Racing. The articles I found in there were much more interesting and exciting than what was going on in Bahrain. To sum up the whole race, the Ferraris ran away with the race, Hamilton ruined his race on lap 2, there was virtually no passing and no incidents of any kind after the first 2 laps.

Oh, and just for the record, it was Felipe Massa who was the better of the two Ferraris ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Kubica.

My only hope is that the 3 week break will do everyone, including the F1 teams, good and we’ll all come back ready to see some top quality racing with plenty of shunts, spins and passing. Now, where is Round 4 taking place?…….Barcelona? Oh god help us…….