After a surprise victory for Valteri Bottas in Australia, the postponement of the long-awaited confrontation between Ferrari and Mercedes (and between Hamilton and Vettel), the first podium for a Honda-engined car since 2008 and Kubica's return to Formula 1, the focus is on are already placed in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
First held in 2004, the Bahrain Grand Prix was the first to take place in the Middle East. Since then and until today, only in 2011 was not raced in Bahrain. From 2014 onwards, the Grand Prix started to be held at night.
In terms of victories, Ferrari's dominance is clear, having won that circuit six times (including the inaugural race in 2004), twice as many times when Mercedes climbed to the highest place on the podium. Among the riders, Vettel is the most successful, having already won the Grand Prix of Bahrain four times (in 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2018).
Stretching over 5,412 km and 15 corners, the fastest lap on the Bahrain circuit belongs to Pedro de la Rosa who, in 2005, covered it in 1min 31.447s in the command of a McLaren. It remains to be seen whether the extra point for the fastest lap will provide extra motivation to try and beat this record.
The big three…
For the Bahrain Grand Prix, the spotlight is on the “Big Three”: Mercedes, Ferrari and, a little further back, Red Bull. In the Mercedes hosts, the main question that concerns Hamilton's reaction after Bottas' surprising and dominating victory in Melbourne.
Most likely, motivated by his teammate's victory, Hamilton will go on the attack, seeking to add his third victory in Bahrain to his record (the other two date back to 2014 and 2015). However, after achieving his first victory since 2017, Bottas seems to have renewed confidence and will probably want to silence anyone who said he would leave Mercedes.
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As for Ferrari, things are a little more complicated. After a disappointing race in Melbourne in which Vettel even questioned the engineers about why the car was so slow compared to the competition, the big curiosity is to see how much the team managed to improve in the space of 15 days.
With Vettel aiming for a third straight victory in Bahrain, it will be interesting to see how Ferrari manages the relationship between their two drivers, after in Australia they ordered Leclerc not to compete for fourth place with Vettel, going up against what the team manager, Mattia Binotto, had stated that both would have “freedom to fight amongst themselves”.
Finally, Red Bull appears in Australia motivated by the podium in the first race disputed with the Honda engine. If Max Verstappen is expected to fight for the first places, the doubt is with Pierre Gasly, who in Australia was in tenth place and behind Toro Rosso by Daniil Kvyat.
…and the rest
If there is one thing that has been confirmed in Australia, it is that the difference in pace between the top three teams and the rest of the field remains remarkable. Among the teams that use a Renault engine, two things stand out: reliability is not all there yet (as Carlos Sainz and McLaren say) and performance is below the competition.
Given the negative symptoms revealed in Australia, it is unlikely that in Bahrain both McLaren and Renault will be able to approach the front seats, and after Honda's rise in form it is becoming difficult to disguise the limitations of the power unit of Renault.
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Haas, on the other hand, will try, above all, to hit the pit stops to avoid incidents like the one that led to Romain Grosjean's withdrawal. As for Alfa Romeo, Toro Rosso and Racing Point, the chances are that they won't walk very far from the places achieved in Australia, it is curious to see how far Daniil Kvyat will be able to continue to “annoy” Pierre Gasly.
Finally, we come to Williams. After an Australian race to forget, the most likely is that in Bahrain the British team will close the peloton again. Although George Russell has already said that the "fundamental problem" of the car has already been detected, he himself said that the resolution is not quick.
It remains to be seen to what extent Williams will be able to finish the Grand Prix of Bahrain without being three laps behind the leader as was the case with Kubica. The Pole returns to the track where he took his first and only pole position in 2008, this after a week in which Jaques Villeneuve said that Kubica's return to Formula 1 "is not good for the sport".
The Bahrain Grand Prix will take place on March 31 at 4:10 pm (Portuguese time), with qualification taking place the day before, March 30 at 3:00 pm (Portuguese time).