Despite high hopes, the opening 2010 Formula 1 race in Bahrain delivered absolutely nothing in a thoroughly boring race for fans. Should there be immediate action from the Formula 1?
The season had all the hype, much of it focused around the return of champion Michael Schumacher. The new rules, including no more race refuelling, looked to provide new excitement and do away with the passing in the pits.
Expectations were sky high.
The only problem was someone forgot that most of the overtaking actually does happen in the pits in Formula 1. With less pit stops, there wasn’t much else happening. That same person must have also forgotten that Bahrain is a shocking circuit to start the season on, and the new goat track, sorry, “endurance” section the cars raced on for the first time was bumpy, narrow, twisty and hopeless for racing.
All this despite the entire track taking 8.3 million man hours to build, and having won an award for excellence from the FIA in 2007. Clearly not an award for racing excellence.
Instead of an exciting race, we watched as fast cars were stuck in hot dirty air washing over them from the slower cars in front, reducing traction and cooking tyres. We didn’t even see an attempt to overtake from anyone in the top 10, even when the clearly quick Red Bull of Mark Webber drove up close behind Schumacher early or Button later in the race.
Drivers being overprotective on their tyres was the chief problem.
Instead of drivers seeking glory, most tried to go gently-gently on their tyre compounds to make sure they lasted the full race. Even World Champion Jenson Button admitted he was was protecting the tyres rather than hammering flat out.
But you can’t blame him because even if he tried to go flat chat, overtaking was impossible, anyway. The other benefit to the teams of going slow was getting more engine life, of which only 8 are allowed over 19 grand prixs before penalties are applied. This isn’t beneficial to the spectacle, though.
No one calls conserving tyres and economical driving real racing.
Webber summed it up on his Twitter account: “Wow! New rules, not so sure huh? Why do they keep dicking with it? … No chance of overtaking – again”.
But bringing back refuelling won’t solve anything. That would be a simple reaction to a symptom of the problem, rather than an attempt to fixing the root problem itself, which is the lack of overtaking.
It is too early to tell if this season is doomed to be boring.
The slippery Albert Park track in Melbourne usually serves up a cracking race. But F1 needs to be on the front foot to fix the problems facing the sport to have spectators once again in awe of the pinnacle of motorsport.
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