Bahrain GP Preview: Will the Bull Rumble Again?

The Chinese GP created history of all sorts—for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, Sebastian Vettel scored his second GP win and also enabled Red Bull to win its first race. 

Webber sweetly made it a perfect day by scoring second place.

The Red Bulls were invincible in the rain, and even Brawn GP—who, during the first two races, looked like they had advanced alien technology—was brought to Earth by the Red Bulls.

Bahrain GP will be very different from China, as no rain is expected. Though Ferrari and Renault are the only two teams to have won here, things could be totally different this time around.

Ferrari would be extremely happy to have two cars scoring points, while Renault may see Alonso scoring points. But then again, Nelson Piquet finishing the race without an incident will be a big deal for the team.

Brawn GP and RBR are expected to dominate the race, with Toyota and maybe even Williams expected to give them some competition. Williams have lost out on some easy points during the first three races and they would definitely hope to get a driver on the podium once again.

Toyota are highly consistent, and though winning could be tough they still can target podium places.

The German teams are having fixed fortunes, while McLaren seem to see an upswing in fortunes and even with various troubles outside the team, both its drivers managed to score points at China and they would once again be trying to do the same while BMW after a reasonably strong start to the season seem to lack pace and they would be happy with any points scored.

Ferrari has had their worst start to a season since 1981 and if they fail to score points again during the Bahrain GP, it would be their worst-ever start since the inception of Formula One.  In that scenario, the team would definitely start their focus on 2010 rather than waste their time worrying about the current season. Also, they are the only team, apart from Force India, who nearly score points in China to open up their account.

STR has not been talked about much, but in Sébastien Buemi they do have a very good young driver who has all the potential to challenge for the World Championship in the coming years. 

But if he manages to pull off another solid consistent performance, he could find himself on a roll—and may replace Webber in the RBR team next year. The car’s design is very similar to the RBR team and the Ferrari engine is also an extremely good one to have.

Force India may need luck to score in Bahrain, but it is set to be a very exciting race. I do expect Brawn GP, RBR, and Toyota to fight it out for the win, while Rosberg could provide an upset if luck helps him out.

As for the big four? Well, if they could score points, they would go into the European leg of the season happily.