F1, without being overly Eurocentric, returns home at the start of the
European season.
Upgrades, upgrades, upgrades
It’s far from the sexiest topic in Formula One, but Barcelona is traditionally
the venue where you will see the most dramatic shifts in the pecking order
from the opening races here.
This year is an exception to this rule, but the teams test here relentlessly
(there is an in-season test next week after the race), and it is usually a
good indicator of the formbook for the rest of the year (Fernando Alonso’s
win in 2013 and Pastor Maldonado’s the year before are, again, exceptions to
this rule).
As a result, with the slight break after China, the teams will have focused
enormous resources on bringing updates to their cars. In 2012 Ferrari went
from being way off the pace to right in the thick of it, for example.
This weekend presents the perfect opportunity for Renault to bring a major
upgrade, which could totally transform Red Bull’s fortunes. They have so far
been crippled by their lack of grunt (the team seem happy enough with their
performance in the corners), and Spain will show if they have the tools to
compete with Mercedes. In short, we should have a clearer idea after the
race if Red Bull have much chance of making up ground and mounting a
challenge for the championship.
The return of Eddie Jordan to our TV screens
As I write onboard my easyJet flight to Barcelona (it’s all austerity at
newspapers these days), the orange safety information card reminds me of a
certain colourful figure who has been missing from the BBC’s coverage so far
in 2014.
Call him loud and a little bit obnoxious if you will, but Eddie Jordan is
great entertainment. Christian Horner will once again be on alert for
Eddie’s arm appearing on his shoulder for an impromptu interview as he walks
through the paddock. Random engineers will be petrified at the thought of
being accosted in their garages. And some of the small teams will be
prepared for yet another barrage of ‘Jordan managed to have success on low
budgets’.
But, tight trousers aside, the BBC has missed Eddie. He brings forthright
opinion (David Coulthard and him always work well as a double act, even if
they pretend to be at each other a little bit), a huge amount of experience
in Formula One, and he makes for entertaining television. We look forward to
one of his three-minute off-topic asides.
Raikkonen’s/Rosberg’s response
Kimi Raikkonen is patently not amused when people question his attitude. Ever
since he was seen eating an ice cream in the Ferrari hospitality in a rain
delay in Malaysia in 2009, people have been quick to label poor performances
the result of his laidback attitude.
“I don’t know why you always come up with motivation – if I didn’t have
motivation I wouldn’t be here. It’s f**k all to do with this.”
Expletives aside, the Finn has been utterly dominated so far by Fernando
Alonso. It was billed as one of the great inter-team tussles of the year,
but Raikkonen has barely entered the contest in the first four races.
Alonso, on home soil, who incidentally has not won a race since this event
last year, will be even harder to beat this weekend, so it will be
fascinating to see if Kimi can get anywhere close. It doesn’t seem all that
likely.
Nico Rosberg, meanwhile, has had a much more impressive start to 2014. But he
still needs to raise his game if he is to challenge Lewis Hamilton. The
Briton has been faultless, while the German failed to use better rubber to
pass in Bahrain and made a couple of mistakes in qualifying last time out in
China which left him on the back foot for Sunday.
Improvement is needed if he is to keep with Hamilton, who has been flawless
thus far.
Step change at McLaren?
This time last year, after an even more dismal start to the season, the then
team principal of McLaren assured that upgrades would help turn their 2013
around. They didn’t, and Martin Whitmarsh eventually paid with his job.
So what happens this year? Regardless of how big a step forward the team make,
Eric Boullier and certainly Ron Dennis’s jobs are safe. But McLaren cannot
tolerate being in the kind of positions they occupied in China for very
long.
When Dennis returned at the start of the year he declared that the team will
win races this year, a prediction which is looking a tad optimistic on
current form.
Jenson Button, who has driven everything from woefully uncompetitive cars to
the class of the field, seems positive enough, suggesting the team simply
need to understand how to extract more speed from what they already have. If
they don’t manage to do so quickly, then the chance of a return to the
podium, let alone a race win, looks slim.