Barcelona: the traditional start of the main European Formula 1 season. Where the real challenge begins in the fight for the world championship. So what did we learn from the opening four flyaways? Those races told us, in terms of single-lap pace, that Red Bull has the fastest car. In terms of smart, sharp decisions by a racing driver, Jenson Button has been flawless. And in terms of someone suffering a luck allergy, Sebastian Vettel has the biggest right to feel aggrieved, given his three pole positions delivered only one grand prix victory.
BUTTON: KING OF COOL What a great boost for Jenson, to come back to Europe leading the championship like this time last year. He has definitely built upon his reputation this season as it was one thing to win the world title by taking advantage of the fastest car, but it¹s a different level of credit and respect to win races in a car that wasn¹t the quickest in single-lap speed, but also in such difficult conditions. He¹s the king of the cool head, and proved all those doubters wrong who said he¹d be blown away by Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. The other main talking point has been Michael Schumacher¹s pace. I believe he will be feeling a mixture of doubt and optimism heading into this weekend. Doubt, because things haven¹t work out relative to Nico, as he would have imagined. Optimism, as he will be looking forward to the upgrades Mercedes GP are bringing to Barcelona. Given that Barcelona is the start of the European season and an accepted proving ground amongst the teams, it¹s the perfect litmus test of who¹s hot and who¹s not for the rest of the championship.
UPGRADE OR RISK STANDING STILL It would be a fairly mighty upgrade for someone to leapfrog Red Bull¹s single-lap advantage this weekend, but we did witness impressive progress from McLaren last year. Consider they started 2009 over 2secs off the pace, and ended up winning races, those were pretty spectacular improvements that prove anything is possible. Everyone¹s had the chance since the winter testing began to work hard back at base, look at other people¹s cars, optimise interpretations of the rules, and produce their upgrades. Usually, from race to race, we see small tweaks, but this is a convenient juncture for teams to revise suspension, wheelbase, floor, top body, wings all major parts with long lead times. For example, we¹ve learned that Mercedes is lengthening the wheelbase of its W01. When you do that to a chassis, it¹s not just the physical lengthening of the car that is the issue. There are many knock-on effects, such as weight distribution, centre of gravity, aero balance, etc. We know that Michael loves that powerful front-end to his racecar, and it¹s not looked like he¹s had that Œpointy¹ car to be aggressive and get stuck into it. Clearly the car is quicker in the hands of Nico Rosberg, without ever looking like being quick enough to win, so let¹s see what the upgrade brings to Michael¹s party.
CAN ALONSO PRANCE AGAIN? It seems crazy to say it, but it does seem a long time since Fernando Alonso¹s victory in Bahrain. He will want a big result, not just because it¹s his home grand prix, and a track where he¹s traditionally been very strong, but because he wants to win a third world championship. He will want Ferrari to deliver, like he does behind the wheel, and we¹ve seen a chink in its armour with a recent spate of engine failures. At this stage of the season, I wouldn¹t be too concerned about Ferrari¹s reliability in this department. Given that the engines are blueprinted and FIA sealed, there is obviously an issue that¹s arisen since last year. It has to be a manufacturing issue, or a material fault, so because they¹ve had reliability in the past with that motor, then surely they can regain that. It should be identifiable and therefore fixable. He needs it to be sorted asap if he¹s going to challenge for the title this year.
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