[Official] Rate the Race: GP of Bahrain

[Graz]

Originally Posted by Adam43

0, I fell asleep and now feel like an idiot.
It would have been a 10 if we had refueling.

It's nothing to do with refuelling. It's to do with the design of the cars such that they can't follow each other. That's the problem. Overtaking should be on the track, not in the pits.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

Boring track with pointless new section, boring acres of runoff, boring sand, boring tyres, boring racing, boring winner.

Well, at least the 'new section' wasn't boring.

[Tourer]

Down here in Oz Grands Prix are mostly in our night time. Not a good spectacle, not a good race - I couldn't stay awake zzzzzzzzzz

It can only get better from here you'd hope.

[Bakersboy]

Yet again changes to encourage overtaking, yet again it doesn't work. Boring I'm afraid. Glad I'm at Oulton Park in less than two weeks.

[brown dog]

Originally Posted by JohnD

Just watched the Bahrain GP and what a wasted afternoon.

This is the 60th anniverary of F1, and they assembled all the living Champions at Bahrain to mark the event. Some drove their old cars in demonstration laps, some drove even more historic cars like the MB W125. That one was David Coultard, who is a commentator for BBC F1. What coverage did we have of that? About 5 seconds, of the champions or the C125, and David was asked one question about his drive.

F1 is nothing without its history and now it's nothing anyway.
John

thats interesting - there was no mention of the demonstration laps on the coverage we got here in NZ, and it sounds like no one else saw much of that either. Which begs the question, if the demonstration was not destined for the TV audience, then was it done solely for the 200 strong crowd that turned up to watch the race live?!!!

A relatively dull race I thought that did not live up to the pre season hype, but I guess that was always going to happen. I'll give it 5, just because of the new faces and cars on the grid.

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Well, at least the 'new section' wasn't boring.

Pointless and boring

Originally Posted by Bakersboy

Glad I'm at Oulton Park in less than two weeks.

My thoughts exactly, apart from one week later (I think) for F3/GT! I watch F1 at any Tilke circuit and think "I could do that, what would I have to to lose?". Fair enough, I'd be complete rubbish if I could even get the thing out of the pits and my neck would probably snap after a few corners. But even watching weedy 200-odd-HP F3 cars at a proper circuit like Oulton Park, I still get the sense of awe, of "how the hell can they do that?" I had when I first discovered motor racing. It's a pity that for many potential fans motorsport is F1, and they automatically write it off as boring when they see a processional race at somewhere as soulless as Sakhir.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Graz

It's nothing to do with refuelling. It's to do with the design of the cars such that they can't follow each other. That's the problem. Overtaking should be on the track, not in the pits.

I quite agree.

[jab]

I think it's more that refuelling wasn't there as a back-up to provide some positional changes and general interest rather than causing the problem of overtaking itself. It's not the fault of the refuelling ban we had less overtaking but it's partly the fault of the refuelling ban that we had a poor race

It's got nothing to do with the circuit either

[Moneyseeker]

What do people think the changes are needed to the cars? As I recall over the last few years, people have called for the following...

Ban grooved tyres - move to slicks - done.
Ban all aero extremities - done.
Limit endless testing to reduce relentless development - done

All the above were supposed to improve the racing, yet the overtaking/car following problem remains and we have ingenious designers starting to nail extra bits onto cars.

On the subject of the track,circuits like Bahrain are the best advert for the traditional circuits back in Europe where they pack in crowds of enthusiastic fans, are colourful and a spectacle in themselves. When will they realise that empty grandstands and souless venues look bad on TV and don't represent F1 well?

[Moosehead]

Recorded it and watched it this afternoon. Nodded off 2 or 3 times, rewound to bit I remembered, nodded off again.

Lots of pre race hype and story lines but result was so boring. Not racing as far as i'm concerned.....................when does Moto GP start?

[Knowlesy]

That hasn't been exciting since 2006.

[Flavio Galtieri]

Sheer tedium.
3.

[Pitstop]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz:

But, well done to Alonso!! cool and fast!

Roll on Melbourne - PLEASE!!!!

Spectators would be nice instead of sand.

[mattt]

Originally Posted by Graz

Did you see the V8 Supercar race form there 2 weeks ago? They proved it's a track with corner sequences that lend itslef to good racing.

Nope, I really mean not bad for a F1 race at Bahrain

[rocketracer]

about as tepid as they come..... 2

(with the excitement of being the first race and all the interesting aspects that brings rescuing it from a 0)

[the sniper]

Hardly a thriller, but not bad for Bahrain. I gave it a 4.

[dsg]

Dull track but at least the season has started. 5

[AussieTimmeh]

I'm praying they're not all like this. 3.

[BAZzzzz c]

3. Feeling generous 'cos they did all turn up and Shoey did good for a first time back after so long. My bugbear was the lack of the fuel stop. Massa said it ALL in his after-podium interview. " I was conserving fuel for the last 25-30 laps so didnt challenge.." etc. No doubt they ALL did that. !!! Ehat is this these days, A fast and furious RACE, or a bloody Club day Economy run.? Outrageous. These cars need fuel so why starve them.?? A plus though was the top of screen lap count. back to how it should always be. (lap)2/49, 3/49, 4/49, etc etc, not the way it's been for about three years where you were told laps reMAIning. (and then had to work out what lap we were on... nah, the race was a fizzer for me and after sitting up until 3.15 a.m., I was glad to get it done with.

[Rick]

all this talk of "good for Bahrain/Tilke" - I thought we use to see a reasonable amount of overtaking at the end of the straights in Bahrain, or am I dreaming?

No hope in these cars.

[Juarez Jed]

When I heard Michael Schumacher commenting on his comeback that he made an okay start but you can only pass people during the race when they have a problem, I realised that we had better start waving the chequered flag at the end of the opening lap so that the championship is decided on ability.
It was bloody boring. That was driving, not racing. The Indy race was infinitely better as a spectacle, and it even had a red flag in the middle so the drivers could take a pee and the viewers could get a beer, or vice versa.

[bjohnsonsmith]

It reminded me of one of those GPs in the mid '70s; I can't remember which one exactly, except John Watson was missing.

[Andy77]

3/10

The circuit is ok and I don't want to blame missing action on the layout.
First off, it was good that we got rid of fuel stops but this was only a half hearted attempt to get rid of pitstops as a tactical element. The still allowed tire change forces all other drivers to come in as soon as the first made his stop.

There are just two possibilities from here, from my point of view anyway. One is that bridgestone has to deliver tires that make the race distance or multiple tire manufacturers get allowed again so that there is competition on that front to avoid the one comes in and everyone follows. This could produce interesting races like Mexico 1986 too.

[jellison]

What a Pile of DULL Over hyped Crap. Roll on MotoGP.

As Schumi said it was impossible to pass - so why have the series, UTTER TOSH. Hardly WTCC or BTCC - christ at least cars pass each other with daring overtakes.

Back to the recorder and watching this Rubbish in 30 min tops.

The need V10's so they are ALOT harder to drive (cars exactly the same bar 950 vs 720bhp.

[Super Hans]

I'd give it a solid seven though I think that might partly be down to the fact that it was the first Grand Prix of the season. The major worry was that Schumacher, Webber and Button drove around in formation for so long, seemingly unable to chance an overtake.

Roll on Melbourne.