F1 Is Back
Is Ferrari, As Well?
Bahrain Grand Prix

By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

The 2006 F1 season kicked off March 12 in Bahrain this past weekend and, judging by the Ferrari 1-2 result in qualifying, tifosi may have reason to smile this season.

If you listened to the rumors floating up and down the paddock, the three way race this year was going to shape up to be a battle between reigning champion Renault, a more focused Ferrari, and a still-looking-for-reliability McLaren-Mercedes. Guess what? When the race was over, the curmudgeons called it. And in that order.

Ferrari tried to play the now classic strategy of having the pole car speed off into the distance and the second car play moving chicane for the rest of the field. Going into turn one, the strategy seemed to be working, but Fernando Alonso soon caught and overtook the blocking Felipe Massa before the first lap was over. I'm sure that Massa is going to hear about it (and probably in several languages). Alonso didn't have the same margin over the field that he had during the 2005 season, but he did put up quite a fight. The race came down to pit stops with Alonso gaining the lead after just coming out ahead of Michael Schumacher during his final stop.

Renault was said to have spent additional time with the setup of the car, including the engine mapping, specifically for this track and it seemed that the blue and yellow car did have just a bit more grunt coming out of the corners compared to the rest of the field. Looks like the technical talent has stayed focused over the winter break. The fact that Schumacher finished second showed that Ferrari has crunched the numbers and made a car that can run with the rest of the field again.

Kimi Raikkonen finished on the last spot of the podium after a hard charge through the field after starting dead last. An off during qualifying left the Finn at the back of the pack. Within several laps he had caught the back end of the drivers that were in this to win and not just happy to be there. McLaren-Mercedes fans will have to wait for the next race to see what the silver arrow can do if it starts closer to the front of the grid.

Kimi was able to hold off the much hyped Jenson Button who can run at the top, yet hasn't really made a demonstrated name for himself, yet. Honda did do much better than the other Japanese team. Again. And, as usual. Bragging rights in the Land of the Rising Sun will stay in Honda's court and there will be more yelling for results around Toyota's boardrooms. If Toyota keeps performing like this even with the budget they have, you have to wonder when they're going to throw in the towel.

Juan Pablo Montoya showed again that he's good but not great and brought the other McLaren-Mercedes home in fifth place. Nowhere near the performance needed to get Ron Dennis to crack a smile. It was enough to make the McLaren-Mercedes contingent happy that they placed ahead of both Sauber-BMWs. Nick Heidfeld was outclassed and finished a lap down. And Jacques Villeneuve, well, it's too early in the season to start using that language. But the die hard readers of this column should note that my opinion of him still hasn't changed. And, probably never will.

Speaking of relatives of great drivers, Nico Rosburg made a fabulous start to his F1 career by bringing his Williams-Cosworth home in seventh place, behind his much more experienced team mate. A good start for the young German.

And the last point of the first race went to Christian Klein in the Red Bull Racing car showing that the "new" team might actually have a chance to get some advertising for their drinks. One has to ask if the $2.50 per can that they're charging for Red Bell is paying for the team or if they're going racing to sell drinks.

Okay, now the fun part. Toro Rosso (STR-Cosworth)? Who cares. Toyota? Tons of yen, not much to show for it. Super Aguri? Very happy that the 107% rule is gone. Midland (MF1-Toyota)? Who?

It is nice to see that this year doesn't seem to be a run away for any of the teams at this stage of the game. Should make it more interesting for the fans, but it just means antacid sales for Ferrari fans are going up this year. We'll start to see what the trends are after Malaysia next week.