Bahrain Predictions

By Ian Lockwood
March 29 2005

With two races of the 2005 season already under our belts, I look at how things are shaping up for Red Bull Racing in Bahrain and look at the other teams chances. Will we be spraying the psuedo Champagne or will we be blown away with the sand?

The first two races of the season have been excellent for Red Bull Racing. Very few people would have predicted four strong points finishes from the opening two races for the newest team on the grid.

 

As good as this is, in F1 you are only as good as your last race, so with the season starting to take shape what can we expect from Red Bull Racing in Bahrain?

 

 

The car is clearly aerodynamically sound and has a good engine. The traditional front running teams and those with huge budgets have been developing their 2005 cars already with new parts appearing on the car in Malaysia and more to follow in Bahrain. Red Bull Racing’s development programme will only start in earnest once F1 returns to Europe, so we may be slightly disadvantaged this weekend.

 

The Cosworth engines used by DC & CK have now been dismantled and inspected and the reports show that the engines have held up extremely well – this bodes well for the future, meaning that perhaps we can afford to to be less conservative in future races and turn up the performance a bit. That said, although Malaysia in particular was extremely hot, neither of the first two races is particularly hard on engines, with limited running at full throttle due to long sweeping turns. The engine for the next two races by contrast has first to deal with being sandblasted in Bahrain, before being subjected to the Imola circuit.

 

The new Ferrari will break cover at this race and the team report it is a big jump forward from the interim car they ran at Oz & Malaysia. I therefore expect this to occupy two point scoring positions. Renault will continue their excellent form and will hope to bring both cars home in strong points paying positions. Toyota too are finally enjoying what they have been paying millions of dollars for since their entry into F1. Bahrain will show whether their performance in Malaysia was a promise of things to come or merely a blip before they return to mediocrity.   

 

Williams will be hoping to get two cars over the finish line for the first time this season, and if they can manage that I would expect them both to be in the points. Two big disappointments so far this season are BAR & Mclaren. Jenson Button was very critical of his Honda engine at Malaysia and commented that no big improvement was on the near horizon. Combine a fragile engine with a couple of bucket loads of the Gulf’s finest sand and a double DNF could be on cards again from the Brackley based team. BAR Honda have been testing at a damp Paul Ricard circuit in France last week, though, and Honda engineers are confident that they have solved the problem.

 

The Mclaren duo have had a scrappy first two races with punctures, and losing bits of aero-bodywork and I do not think we have yet seen their true potential.

 

That leaves Sauber who have lost their way with a car that they don’t fully understand and drivers who are unable to drive around the problems. Jordan who seem to be using the year just as a transition phase to the new Midland set-up & the perennial back markers Minardi.

 

So where will Red Bull finish at Sakhir?

 

Given strong reliability thus far, I would hope for a double finish. It is realistic to expect two Ferrari’s, and two Renaults to come in before us. After that I think it is too close to call  between us, Williams, Toyota, Mclaren, & even BAR if they can be reliable. I would hope though that at least one Red Bull Racer will be get a points finish bonus cheque on Sunday evening.

 

What do you think? Visit the message board & post your Bahrain GP Predictions

 

Ian Lockwood