Alonso Dominates; New Ferrari Disappoints
Bahrain Grand Prix

By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

The rule changes implemented this year haven't changed much. You still have one person dominating both qualifying sessions and the race. Nobody was even seen as a threat. What makes this season a little different than the last five is that instead of a cool-under-pressure German in a red Italian car as the center of attention, we now have a sometimes-hot-headed Spaniard in a blue and yellow French car.

The French team is, after all, the same team that propelled Michael Schumacher front and center in the early 90's to his first two championships while they were held by the Bennetton family. Briatori is still at the helm and still convincing fat people everywhere that they too can score with supermodels. The only thing that is surprising is that it took so long to rebuild after the key protagonists were attracted to Ferrari for the liras.

Alonso built up his lead in the points after driving flawlessly this weekend, and with the win last week, seems to be the early favorite. If they were copying last year's Ferrari playbook, then Fisichella played the role of Burino very well by parking the broken car after four laps. Someone has to play the lightning rod on the leading team and attract all of the bad luck.

What is surprising is that Jarno Trulli was on the second spot of the podium for the second week in a row. Ralf Schumacher wasn't too far behind in fourth. The Japanese team is starting to look like a world class team that could be a spoiler. Still too early to tell, but things are shaping up for them quite nicely.

Darth Vader's team didn't look too happy to be beaten by the Toyota, but at least they were on the podium. The Iceman's horned ride gave him an uneventful race, but points are points, and after finishing fifth in the championship last year, McSmoking-McClunken will take anything they can get. Pedro de la Rosa filled in for Montoya who managed to break a bone playing tennis and missed the race. The other Spaniard did very well finishing in fifth and put up a hell of a fight with Webber during the closing laps. So good that old sour puss face Ron Dennis should consider making the substitution permanent and saving a few bucks to buy the team real race day tee shirts that didn’t look like they were produced for a gay pride parade in San Francisco.

The good Sauber driver had a good race this weekend as Massa drove well and finished in seventh and a lap back. I still don't have anything nice to say about his team mate so I will stick to the facts. Eleventh place. Three laps behind the leader. AND A LAP BEHIND A JORDAN. I very much hope that Peter Sauber has him on a performance based contract, because he is saving money right now. Not getting too many points in the championship, but saving money.

The last point of the race went to David Coulthard. Still in the points, but not a threat. That means that the Red Bull Racing ride is as good as the McLarens were for the last several seasons that the Scot was driving for them. His team mate stalled the other car on the grid and didn't start.

Okay, that covers the points paying positions, who have we left out. Mama mia, where's Ferrari? The boys in red did debut the new car three weeks ahead of schedule, but to be honest, it was a non-event. Even painting the noses black to mourn the loss of Pope John Paul II wasn't enough to get an extra blessing from God this weekend. Barrichello finished a lap back in ninth. Schumacher was running very well after qualifying second and giving the tifosi hope that all would be right in the world, but after challenging Alonso hard, the car gave up after running less than 15 laps. The devout were on their knees praying for speed and reliability Sunday afternoon...

BAR-Honda didn't show any of their legendary reliability with both cars failing before the end of the race.

Both Minardis were still running at the end of the race, but I'm not sure than anyone noticed.

Everyone will be closer to home as racing returns to Europe in three weeks. Hopefully, Ferrari will figure out what is wrong with the new car and close the gap. We'll know soon if the Toyotas really have what it takes. And finally, we'll see if there is a team that can knock Flavio down off of Mt. Ego.