By Matt Jones
March 16 2006

Reflecting on the Bahrain Grand Prix, RealHondaF1.com site contributor, and Honda Racing F1 fan, Matt Jones gives us his view on F1 2006 so far. The brand new season of F1 is now with us, with new regulations and a brand new qualifying format that will hopefully prove to be fantastic for us, the fans!

All the hard work of the teams has been put to the test at the very tough Bahrain circuit, with its desert heat and very heavy braking areas - it's the perfect opening grand prix to test the durability of the new cars and to pick out any teams that might not quite be up to the bullet-proof reliability that both Renault and Honda have seemingly cracked with their V8 power plants.

Honda Racing F1 spent a few days testing in Bahrain just a few weeks ago, getting data in view of hopefully bridging the performance gap between us and Renault, and maybe pinching our first race win right from under the noses of Alonso and co.

After waiting, we were finally given the treat of the new qualifying format, and didn't it work fantastically well? For the first 10 minutes the big teams relaxed and let the smaller teams take to the field to post some times. Then out of the pits came Kimi with a car Ron Dennis wants him to try before he signs the new contract which awaits him at McLaren. After he took his car out for his first competitive lap of the season, what would his first impression be? Well, I can tell you that he felt the rear suspension needs looking at. As it failed the rear wing snapped off and Kimi was sent spinning off into the run-off area without having set a single lap time, and that left him at the back of the grid for the race.

After the debris was removed from the track, the qualifying session resumed with just over four minutes left to go - enough time to post one flying lap. Whilst everyone piled to the front of the pit lane to try and get the best run I was left wondering why drivers didn't hold back for 15 seconds or so let the traffic clear so they had plenty space in order to set a competitive flying lap. Unfortunately for Toyota, Ralf Schumacher was made to suffer in particular from traffic, setting a time that knocked him out of round one and put him an extremely disappointing 17th on the grid.

Rubens looked like he was struggling in session two and I for one thought he was going to miss out on the final shoot out for pole position. However, he managed to get a time in right at the last moment to put himself in 10th and into the final round to mix it with the Renault's, Ferrari's and the sister Honda Racing F1 car.

The final session perhaps was not quite as exciting as the first two. The rules encourage the drivers to circulate the race track and that's exactly what they did - they just circulated at no great speed, cruising to burn the fuel. Then, with just a few minutes left to go, the session came to life. We made the first move, changing tyres for a hot lap. Both drivers were still a bit heavy on fuel, so the time wouldn't be our fastest of the session, but it was something to fall back on if anything unfortunate happened on our final hot lap.

Renault seemed very over confident in the first two sessions, giving there drivers just one shot at putting in a lap to get them to the next stage. Unfortunately the pressure proved too much in the final knockout stage and Alonso made a rare mistake on his hot lap forcing him to do another on tyres that were no longer giving optimum grip and, as a result, could only go 4th quickest. With Fisi's telemetry showing signs of engine problems it certainly was not the start the new world champions wanted. Button, who was having problems with under steer at the start of the session, was able to go 3rd quickest. Rubens, who seemed to be struggling all qualifying for any pace, managed a solid 5th on the grid. The Ferrari's dominated the front row, with Schumacher and Massa first and second respectively, with the top 3 being split by just one tenth of a second.

Onto the race, and we saw just what the true pace of the cars was. Unfortunately, pace is something Jenson lacked off the line, and quickly dropped down to fifth place. For the opening few laps Honda fans were treated to some fantastic wheel to wheel battles between our drivers. Whilst Jensen and Rubens were exchanging positions every lap, ITV-F1 commentator Martin Brundle commented that it was compromising the team. Whilst in some respects I agree with him, it was still a fantastic sight to see two Honda Racing F1 cars fighting in the points paying positions. Unfortunately, the two strong points positions did not stick for long, as Rubens lost 3rd gear and slowly slipped down in the order until finally finishing a lowly 15th. A very disappointing start to Rubens' stay at Honda Racing F1.

Thankfully Button's fortunes in the race were better, although every time he came out from his pit stops he always had a car to pass. It was nice to see Jenson displaying a bit of grit and determination - something people feel he has lacked in his arsenal in recent years, but it was certainly on show in the race, particularly into turn 1 where he was absolutely fantastic under braking and pulled off some smooth calculated overtaking. In fact, he was so impressive into turn one that Brundle even dubbed it "The Button Zone". However, after the final pit stops his podium position was taken by the one stopping Kimi, and Button, despite being faster, was powerless to make any impression on the McLaren and had to settle for a solid 4th position.

Ferrari had a solid race, and proved that the pole position was true to the quality of their package. Unfortunately for them, Massa could not keep Alonso behind into turn one which turned out to be one of the many pivotal points in the race, and one which helped Alonso keep in touch with Schumacher during the first stint. It was not a great display from Massa, spinning whilst following Alonso and very nearly taking him out. In spinning and locking his brakes he had flat spotted his tyres, and the normally super-efficient Ferrari pit crew were put to work. Unfortunately, they were all running around like headless chickens, looking for a working air gun. The result? Massa having a 1 minute pit stop and his race ruined. As I predicted in my last article written for RealHondaF1.com, he can be both solid and erratic, and just does not seem a good choice for Ferrari if they are looking to challenge for the championships.

Renault almost paid the price for being over confident in qualifying. Fortunately Alonso was able to jump both Massa and Button and get straight to Michael. The Renault and Ferrari are very close in performance and, whichever driver was leading, the other was always keeping the leader very honest. Luckily for Alonso, his pit crew made a fantastic job of his stop and he was able to jump Schumacher, JUST edging him out into turn one. Fisi on the other hand had a race weekend to forget, starting with him being unable to choose high performance engine mapping and therefore not being able to get maximum out of the car. Eventually hydraulic failure saw him retire.

McLaren looked fairly solid. Kimi was able to hold of Button quite easily, whilst Montoya seemed to be struggling and could do nothing to stop the charging Button passing him twice on the track. No doubt McLaren will get things right, and no doubt they will come much stronger in the races to come as they usually do.

Williams looked pretty lacklustre, and certainly don't look like the team they were a few years ago. Whilst Webber had a quiet but strong drive to a solid 6th place, Rosberg had anything but! The rookie showed flashes of brilliance and flashes of inexperience over the weekend and on race day we saw the same two flashes - an early spin and unscheduled pit stop put him down the order. However, whilst driving himself back into contention, he set the fastest lap of the race and put a nice end to the day by taking 7th place from Klien on the final lap. The Cosworth V8 engine seemed to be working very well along the pit straight and was disposing of cars quite easily. Unfortunately Williams seemed to have failed to build a good enough chassis around their fantastic engine to challenge for anything but a few points.

Red Bull Racing looked fairly slow and off the pace. However, Klien out performed Coulthard and scored the team a point. Surprisingly both cars finished the race which is a distance that they had not covered before in testing. However, one has to be concerned that the cars might struggle in the terrific heat of Malaysia and a double retirement is not unlikely.

Toyota had a dismal race - both drivers showed that the qualifying performances were accurate of the true pace of the car, and it's a big step back for the team after a highly competitive season last year. They have a lot of work to do if they are looking to score any substantial points this year. Unfortunately, scrapping with the Midland cars is something the big spenders would rather not be doing, and the Toyota cars were even split by Rubens in the Honda with gearbox problems!

Super Aguri took their role at the back of the grid as expected. Unfortunately things did not get off to a fantastic start, with a drive through penalty for Ide not being what the team needed. However, the best way to learn is by making mistakes, and these few months they have before the new chassis arrives is going to be invaluable experience into the world of F1. Sato drove a solid enough race, bringing the car home 4 laps down, but Ide unfortunately retired from the race.

Toro Rosso was generally pretty quiet, having midfield battles with the BMW's and the other Red Bull cars along the way. BMW unfortunately suffered the first engine failure of the season, with Jacques' V8 letting go in spectacular fashion 28 laps from the end. Midland took the same position as last year and unfortunately they don't seem to have made any progress in closing the performance gap to the teams above.

A fantastic first race, and a sign of things to come. The Renault and Ferrari cars are extremely close in pace, and the race really could have swung either way. If Alonso was a tenth slower out of the pits, Schumacher would have won the race, such is the margin of error allowed in F1. However, Alonso did drive superbly and kept his line nicely into turn one, forcing Schumacher out wide and not giving him an inch to try anything. It was a move that had the authority of a champion. Another thing I did notice, and it impressed me, is Alonso coming through the back markers. Just previous to his pit stop he was being held up badly and, although he didn't keep his cool, he did keep his driving nice and clean. In the past we have seen him being a bit erratic when the blue flags aren't going his way, or when his team mate holds him up, but he held his frustration well and it' just another tell-tale sign that he really is maturing as a driver. He's certainly going to be tough to beat this season.

The results from winter testing seem to have been reflected in the race. As for Honda Racing F1, we are looking strong. It's not a race winning car just yet, but let's hope the team continues to improve and close the gap on the Ferrari's and Renault's. The new qualifying worked fantastically, and hopefully the FIA will stick with this new system - it was certainly exciting stuff to watch and it's something I am very much looking forward to seeing this weekend in Malaysia.