First perceptions of the 2016 season
The cars are louder and fastest hybrid yet. Hamilton at Bahrain beat the fastest lap time set by the old three litre V12 engine. Which demonstrates how incredibly brilliant the hybrid engine technology is.
Ferrari are closer to Mercedes, close enough to punish them more severely when they [Mercedes] make a mistake. That said, the Ferrari is hampered by reliability issues which sort of dampens the extent by which Ferrari could capitalize on the Mercedes off moments. Talking about Ferrari, Kimi has noticeably upped his game and is a closer threat to Vettel in the other Ferrari.
Rosberg has carried over his advantage of adapting better to the evolution of the W06 from the last three races of 2015 into 2016, with Hamilton looking more ill at ease with the new Mercedes clutch. However, Rosberg has won two easy races with no real challenges from Hamilton or Vettel. We will see how he fairs in China, if Hamilton and Vettel can sort out their car gremlins and take the fight to Rosberg. If Rosberg can win the next two races, you have to say he is looking good at lifting the driver's title this year. Hamilton seem to be still recovering from achieving 3 driver's title, Rosberg has to capitalize on this moment without mistakes to have a foot firmly ahead.
We are clearly set for a great season of racing with Ferrari so close to the Mercedes and Hamilton down by 17 points to a strong Rosberg charge forward with two wins.
The Haas team has turned up in the midfield and given the typical leading teams in the midfield bloody noses as they perform significantly better than would otherwise have been expected. Some say the help from Ferrari was more significant than was expected, others question the rules. Whatever the case, Haas is over the moon with such a great start. And what seemed like a daft idea of Grosjean moving from a potential Renault team to a new entrant to f1, has become a fairytale that has propelled Grosjean into the limelight, the American Dream as he put it. We would see if they can keep up with the rate of development of the other midfield teams as the year progresses.
Two of the leading midfield teams that has suffered bloody noses from the Haas success are Williams and Force India. While the qualifying pace of the Williams was great, its race pace was questionable. They are still weak in the race strategy department which has prevented them form retaining their great track positions at the start of the race in Bahrain. And has seen their cars drift backwards during the race. Most notably, both cars were overtaken by the Haas car to 5th position in Bahrain. The Redbull seem poised to snatch 3rd position in the constructors championship from Williams. The Force India was just simply off their game as its owner answers financial malpractice questions from authorities in India. Distracted it would seem.
Toro Rosso was surprisingly disappointing as they fail to capitalize on their perceived advantage of having the 2015 engine. 6th in Bahrain was good for Verstapenn, but not having both cars in the point is failing yo maximize the opportunity. The 2016 Renault engine in the Redbull chassis has turned out to be a better combination than anticipated. And promises to be more competitive as the season progresses. Which implies that Torro Rosso may not beat its sister team by mid-season as many anticipated.
Radio silence during the race was abit eerie for couch spectators watching the race on TV. That train of information that gave us an idea of what was going on with the car and the team strategy is no longer available. The bright side is the drivers are no longer muppets. And now have to manage their race on their own. It was obvious some drivers were struggling to cope with this. Most noteable was the Verstapenn frustration as he begged for team orders to allow him to pass his team mate which in my opinion was not in the spirit of the new change. He should make the pass on his own without the help of the team.
It would seem the grid is no longer three tiered but two tiered. The so called midfield has disappeared. We now have the race and the sharp end. The Sharp end consisting of the Mercedes and the Ferrari's. The race consisting of the rest of the teams in a much closer bunch of cars with varying advantages based on tyre strategies. Teams in this group get punished twofold when they don't get their act together; firstly, the knockout qualy punishes them fiercely if they are poor in their car preparation by qualy time. Secondly, if they make a poor race strategy. Track position is golden in this part of the grid as well as making the right tyre choices at the right portion of the race. Haas has benefited greatly from this aspect of the racing.
We have seen some great new rookies to the sport. Werhlein has really put the Manor firmly in the mix of the midfield. The Mercedes engine in the Manor has effectively removed the so called back marker tier of the grid. Having a chance to see Vandoorne in action has given us a tantalizing glimpse of what is to come in 2017 or 2018. Vandoorne finishing in the points at Bahrain, suggest that the Mclaren-Honda has stepped forward markedly. With a more experienced Alonso or Button at the helm, the Mclaren-Honda may well have finished higher. It would be exciting to see an Alonso - Vandoorne pairing. It would be Alonso - Hamilton over again. Ofcourse it would depend on whether Vandoorne is as good as Hamilton was when he was paired with a much younger and hungrier Alonso; in comparison.
Redbull seem to be on course to close the gap to Ferrari, if the rate of engine development at Renault continues. Ferrari having the Redbulls on their tailcoat may be distracted them from taking the fight to Mercedes. Besides the Ferrari seems weak in reliability and may be vulnerable to a Redbull onslaught.
Magnussen has had a poor start to the season. He does not seem to be grasping his opportunity in a Renault car with both hands. Palmer has out performed him in the last two races, which really shows what a racer Palmer is.
Back to 2015 Qualy format for China; hooray :-)
