Bahrain Postscript

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton captured his 24th Grand Prix victory and first in Bahrain.

A Force-India blew past a Ferrari. Four-time reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel was asked to move over for a driver who has yet to record an F1 podium finish.

Throw in the close, wheel-to-wheel racing we saw throughout the field, a closely contested battle between teammates for the win, and the spectacular visuals that accompanied Formula 1’s first night race in Bahrain, and yea, the 2014 Gulf Air Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix will go down as a memorable one.

Below, we will cover a few of the stories to emerge from this weekend’s F1 race in the tiny desert island Persian Gulf nation.

Lewis Hamilton

The win in Bahrain was the 24th of Hamilton’s career, placing him in a tie with Juan Manuel Fangio for 10th on the all-time list.

Now, I should note that comparing drivers of different eras tends to be a rather imperfect science. There are all sorts of criteria I can point to but generally speaking modern F1 drivers have some advantages over their predecessors from other eras. For one, the schedule nowadays has more races. Fangio, for example won his 24 races in 52 Grand Prix, while Hamilton has contested 132. Also, the safety of modern F1 has been a contributing factor in greatly extending careers. This weekend’s race was the 250th start for McLaren’s Jenson Button, placing him fifth all-time. Of the drivers ahead of Button, (Ricardo Patrese, Jarno Trulli, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello) only Patrese did not compete after the turn of the century.

Last, drivers such as Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso, and Raikkonen have benefited from the luxury of breaking into F1 at an earlier age. Back to Fangio and Hamilton, the Argentine legend didn’t score his first Grand Prix win until the age of 39, whereas Hamilton is currently 28.

But without getting bogged down in the details, suffice to say the possibility of a long career is much greater nowadays than in previous generations.

Still, whatever factors current drivers might benefit from, a driver still has to go out and win the Grand Prix. And don’t look now, but the drivers ahead of Hamilton on the all-time wins list include, Niki Lauda and Jimmy Clark with 25 victories and Jackie Stewart with 27. Given the fact he is in the best car, and a team currently in top form we could be witnessing the beginning of quite a run for Hamilton.

Mercedes

The Mercedes AMG Petronas team has been widely praised for essentially Hamilton and Rosberg to decide the race on track. And from a spectator viewpoint, a straight fight for the win, is obviously the preference over any sort of team orders.

My question however, is not whether such a scenario makes for better entertainment, but if such a policy is wise. In other words, should the team’s performance advantage continue, the only way Mercedes doesn’t win both championships is with some sort of self-implosion. And while Hamilton and Rosberg both tend to keep things pretty clean, does the Mercedes brass want to find out what happens when push comes to shove? And how exactly is Mercedes going to handle such situations going forward? Because judging from the first three Grand Prix, the likelihood of finding themselves in a similar situation again is pretty high.

The Race for 2nd

What might simply make Mercedes’ decision easier is the fact no bona-fide #2 team has emerged behind the Brackley squad. The struggles of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull, combined with Force-India and Williams performing better than expected has allowed Mercedes to further capitalize on their dominant early-season form.

Now, as things currently stand, it doesn’t look like anyone is catching Mercedes anytime soon. But I can assure you this: if no one emerges as the clear #2 team from the Force India, McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari crowd, any concerns Mercedes has about handling the intra-team driver battle becomes something of a moot point.

Ferrari

If a picture could ever tell a thousand words, it was the look on Chairman of Ferrari Luca di Montezemolo’s face when the Force India blew past the Ferrari going down the straight. For a company which has built its global brand on the power of its engines, that had to be one gut-wrenching moment. And kudos to the production team who made the split-second decision to focus on di Montezemolo.

No Sound Lots of Fury

The entertaining race in Bahrain has briefly quieted the vociferous complaints about the rather uninspiring sound of the new turbo V6 F1 engines (err…power units). However, I doubt the outcry over the droning, vacuum cleaneresque sounds of the new power plants is going away anytime soon. Nor should it.

While the race in Bahrain was entertaining and compelling, let it be known that the F1 global brand was not built on the promise of action-packed wheel-to-wheel racing. If that was the case, those 400 million global television viewers per race would have tuned out long ago.

Rather, the F1 brand, which has captivated the imagination of millions, was built on the image, both real and imagined, that F1 was and is the pinnacle of motorsport; an image that has been reaffirmed time and time again by the accompanying sights, smell and yes sounds, long synonymous with F1.

Now, I understand the sport’s need and desire to be “industry-relevant." I also know that the automobile manufacturers are the lifeblood of any racing series, and the need to appease them is paramount to the health of any racing series.

However, an F1 car has long been viewed as the most powerful, most technologically-advanced automotive machine on the planet, which only the bravest, most daring drivers could master. A fundamental accompaniment to that concept was the visceral, spine tingling sound, that a screaming V8, V10, or V12 powering through the Parabolica at Monza or Eau Rouge at Spa served as such a powerful reminder of; a powerful reminder that we now sadly speak of in the past tense.

Brian Carroccio is a columnist for AutoRacing1. He can be contacted at BrianC@AutoRacing1.com.