Coghlan's Questions: investigating the issues from Bahrain

                 After a couple of relatively underwhelming races in Australia and Malaysia, the Bahrain GP saw Formula 1 regain its mojo with one of the most exciting spectacles in recent seasons. To be sure, the thrilling performance given by Mercedes will secure the race a place in Formula 1 history as the spark that caused the Hamilton-Rosberg saga to explode onto the scene. It wasn’t all about the dynamic duo up front, however, as the outcome of equally enthralling battles further back permitted some teams to jump for joy, and gave others cause for concern…

A Force to be reckoned with?

Sergio Perez was magnificent, but was Nico Hulkenburg better?
Source: motorsport.com 

               The race in Sakhir will be particularly memorable for Force India, who secured their best ever

result with third and fifth place. As the race couldn’t have come at a better time for Formula 1, a podium couldn’t have arrived sooner for Sergio Perez, who has a big point to prove after his ejection from McLaren last season. The emphasis the track placed on having decent straight-line speed and supreme traction (as well as having the first dry qualifying session of the season) allowed the flying Mexican to finally fulfil his potential, qualifying an impressive fifth on the grid and thrashing team-mate Nico Hulkenberg’s slighty underwhelming twelfth placed effort. A stellar drive to the podium topped off a glorious weekend for Perez, and will undoubtedly give him the psychological boost he desperately needs in the wake of his disappointing performances in Melbourne and Sepang.

In all honesty, the podium place should have gone to Hulkenberg, as he was consistently quicker than Perez in both qualifying and the race. Had it not been for his mistake at turn 11 in Q2 and the ERS issues that plagued him in the closing stages of the race, he would have undoubtedly come out of this weekend the top dog. Indeed, the German’s pace was so great that he could undercut Perez at the first pitstop and leapfrog him to run in front. From eleventh on the grid, and on an identical strategy to Perez, that is no mean feat, and shows that Hulkenberg was definitely the quicker man on the day. Perez couldn't match this pace, and it was only his team-mate's botched attempt to overtake Williams’ Felipe Massa on lap 26 that allowed him to slip in front. Nevertheless, Perez managed to capitalise on that and defend against a quicker Hulkenberg all the way to the finish – much like Hamilton did with Rosberg. It was a supreme demonstration of driver skill, and shows that Perez is certainly a force to be reckoned with on his day.

Where’s Williams?

                After a season defined thus far by missed opportunities, Williams desperately need to get their act together. As was shown in qualifying, their car is genuinely fast, thanks to a sound aerodynamic package and that mighty Mercedes powertrain. In terms of raw pace in dry conditions, they have easily been the third fastest team in Formula 1 this season. Indeed, their fastest lap in both Australia and Bahrain was third only to those set by Mercedes and Red Bull. The Williams racers made a good enough start in Bahrain – Massa and Bottas maintained third and fifth place respectively until their first pit-stops –, but persistently bad tyre degradation meant that they both had to run a three-stop strategy, which allowed the tyre-friendly two-stopping Force Indias to leapfrog them in the middle stages of the race. Qualifying demonstrated that Williams were ultimately as fast as – if not slightly faster than –  Force India, but they failed to convert that speed into race pace. This was entirely avoidable, as the team completed a mere 65 laps over the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, claiming that they had plenty of tyre data from the pre-season tests. Force India, on the other hand, completed 115, and were thus able to get a better understanding of the set-up required to maximise both pace and tyre management. Had Williams done this, we probably would have seen a Brazilian driver standing on the third step of the podium and a flying Finn holding off Daniel Ricciardo for fourth. Williams need to capitalise on their car’s ability at this stage, as it is unlikely that they will be able to maintain the level of development required to put a car on the podium throughout the season. If they don’t consolidate their position soon, not even their Mercedes powertrain will save them from an unceremonious slide down the pack.

Not bad for a number two driver?

Daniel Ricciardo looked like the top dog in Red Bull last weekend.
Source: motorsport.com

                Unlike the wasteful Williams, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo made use of every opportunity he could get to gain a psychological edge on quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel. The manner in which Ricciardo walked over Vettel in this race was truly astonishing, and would have undoubtedly made Mark Webber squirm with delight. Despite starting three places behind Vettel, the young Australian took the challenge to him by calculating a superior tyre strategy. Starting on the soft compound tyres proved to be an inspired decision, as it allowed him to simply walk past his team-mate on lap 16 – not something traditionally seen in the Red Bull camp as fans of Webber will remember. What’s more, after his pit-stop on lap 35 Ricciardo managed to close the three second gap to Vettel by the time the safety car emerged on lap 41. That is mightily impressive, as Ricciardo was on a set of medium compund tyres, whilst Vettel was on a brand new pair of softs. Considering the fact that the softs were supposedly half a second faster than the harder mediums over a single lap, it is safe to say that Ricciardo was on fire. To add insult to injury, the Australian pulled a fantastic manoeuvre on lap 50 to snatch fifth from the Weltmeister, walked past Hulkenberg on lap 54 and proceeded to hunt down third-placed man Perez at a rate of a second per lap. All things considered, Ricciardo wiped the floor with Vettel on the Sakhir circuit, comprehensively beating the German throughout the weekend and giving a one-fingered salute to any notion of a number two philosophy. Without a doubt, his surge from thirteenth to fourth more than made his presence in the race - and the intra-Red Bull pecking order - felt.