Bahrain Grand Prix 2015: 5 Key Storylines Ahead of Sakhir Race
Less than a week after the Chinese Grand Prix, the 2015 Formula One season will resume at the Bahrain Grand Prix, which is the fourth round of the campaign.
Seven days seems like no time for Nico Rosberg to recover from his post-race meltdown at the Shanghai International Circuit, but the German driver's strong performances at Sakhir in years gone by will be a source of confidence as Rosberg looks to finally get the upper hand over Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Having won eight of the last 10 grands prix, Hamilton is the favourite to claim his third victory of the year in Bahrain. However, could the demands of the desert allow Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen to take advantage?
Force India certainly had an advantage in last year's Bahrain GP as the team secured their first podium finish in over four years, but the 2015 event is set to provide a greater challenge for the Silverstone-based outfit.
With a look at McLaren-Honda's current standing and whether the Bahrain Grand Prix can provide another all-time classic after a hugely exciting 2014 race, here are five storylines ahead of the weekend.
Can Nico Rosberg Do His Talking on Track for a Change?
1 of 5Nico Rosberg let himself down badly in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Unable to challenge Lewis Hamilton for the third successive race weekend, the German's sunny demeanour on the podium was an optical illusion, disguising the true frustrations of his start to the 2015 season.
Those frustrations became increasingly evident as Sunday drew to a close as Rosberg explained his unhappiness with what he believed was Hamilton's unnecessarily slow pace in the second stint at the FIA post-race press conference.
"It was a fact my race was compromised," he was later quoted as saying to Sky Sports' Pete Gill and Mike Wise. A post-race Q&A session, in which he replied to a fan's accusations that he was "crying," hardly helped matters.
Against the backdrop of his Shanghai rant, the Bahrain GP perhaps comes at the wrong time for Rosberg, but the 29-year-old's record at the Sakhir track can be a source of hope as he tries to turn his campaign around.
Rosberg, at the age of 20 years and 258 days, became the youngest-ever driver to record a fastest lap on his grand prix debut in the 2006 Bahrain race, according to the official F1 Twitter account. He set pole position at the 2013 and '14 events—just missing out on victory last year.
If he can secure a hat-trick of poles and follow that up with a first win since last November's Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, his 2015 title prospects will suddenly appear far more promising.
It's about time Rosberg did his talking on track for a change.
Are Ferrari the Team to Beat?
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After their surprise victory in Malaysia, Ferrari were put back in their place to some extent in China.
Although Sebastian Vettel claimed his third successive podium finish of the season at Shanghai, and Kimi Raikkonen secured his second consecutive fourth-placed finish, Ferrari's deficit on pure pace to Mercedes was evidenced by Vettel qualifying 0.905 seconds off Lewis Hamilton's pole time, as per the official F1 website.
In a straightforward race in China, where two pit stops were the order of the day, Ferrari had no answer to Mercedes.
But the Bahrain Grand Prix will not be quite so straightforward.
The Sakhir event, now a night race, is held in warm conditions, and the track, according to Pirelli's race preview, "has the highest degree of asphalt roughness seen all year," which "accelerates thermal degradation on the tyres."
In the 2014 grand prix, this led to a mixture of strategies as some teams experimented with a three-stop race as others got by with just two visits to the pit lane.
An abrasive track surface? Warm, if ever-cooling, conditions? A range of strategies? Bahrain sounds very much like Malaysia.
If Ferrari, like at Sepang, can make just two stops while Mercedes, with a car which is much harsher on its tyres, are forced to employ a three-stop strategy, Vettel and Raikkonen will effectively have a 20-second advantage over Hamilton and Nico Rosberg from the outset.
Should the Bahrain Grand Prix come down to speed versus strategy, we make Ferrari the favourites for victory.
What a Difference a Year Makes for Force India
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In the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix, Force India secured only their second-ever podium finish as Sergio Perez crossed the finish line in third place.
The 25 points earned on that Sakhir evening—Nico Hulkenberg came home in fifth from 11th on the grid—was a fitting reward for the plucky Silverstone-based outfit's strong start to the season.
The result elevated Force India to second in the constructors' championship ahead of the likes of McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Williams.
Although the team would eventually be overhauled by each of those teams, the Bahrain GP was a springboard for Force India's best season to date, which must feel like a lifetime ago after the opening three races of 2015.
With deputy team boss Bob Fernley telling Autosport's Lawrence Barretto Force India's B-spec car won't take to the track until midseason, Perez and Hulkenberg have had to make do with what is effectively an interim machine, registering just seven points between them thus far.
Despite Force India's access to the rocket that is a Mercedes power unit, only the Manor Marussia and McLaren-Honda cars are slower than the VJM08 on raw pace at present as Hulkenberg and Perez merely make up the numbers at the tail end of the midfield.
After last year's success at Sakhir, expect Force India to struggle this time around.
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Can McLaren-Honda End on a High?
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The McLaren-Honda team that lines up on the grid at next month's Spanish Grand Prix will supposedly be unrecognisable from the outfit that appears in Bahrain this weekend.
As long ago as pre-season testing, racing director Eric Boullier was quoted by Crash.net as claiming McLaren will not be truly competitive until the European leg of the season begins in Spain. The three-week gap between the Bahrain and Spanish GPs is set to see the team introduce a range of updates for both the MP4-30 chassis and Honda power unit.
Before a potential leap in the pecking order, however, and before the team can start dreaming of podiums, victories and championships once more, there is the small matter of the Sakhir race to get through.
Since their disastrous winter preparations, McLaren have made steady progress across the opening phase of the season, culminating in both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button completing a race for the first time in China after sparring with other teams.
With Boullier telling Autosport's Ben Anderson and Lawrence Barretto that McLaren, boosted by their double finish at Shanghai, will now focus on improving the car's performance, the team could make another step forward in Bahrain.
Scoring a point or two at Sakhir would represent a worthy reward, and a morale boost, for the team as McLaren prepare to leave the bad memories of early 2015 behind.
Can Sakhir Do It Again?
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The Bahrain International Circuit made up for nine years of moderately dull grands prix last year by producing what was widely regarded as the most exciting race of 2014.
Switched to a night race for the first time to mark Sakhir's 10th Formula One event, the Bahrain Grand Prix contained everything from wheel-to-wheel battles to mid-race somersaults and surprise results, showcasing all that was good about the sport at a time when F1 needed it most.
The racing was, of course, particularly exhilarating at the front, where Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg enjoyed an evening-long fight for the win—dubbed the "Duel in the Desert"—as the rivalry between the Mercedes drivers was elevated to another level.
Sakhir, a track previously dismissed as uninspiring, went a long way toward repairing its reputation in 2014, but can it repeat the trick this season and produce another spectacle?
If there were any conclusions to be made from the opening three races of 2015, it is that the cars—as a direct result of the teams finding heaps of downforce over the winter—are struggling to follow one another as effectively as last season, which has had a detrimental effect on the quality of the on-track action.
The Bahrain GP, therefore, should prove whether the Sakhir circuit was criminally underestimated for a decade and can indeed encourage close racing year after year, or whether the 2014 event was nothing more than a flash in the pan.
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