Post-mortem of Bahrain

Let's face it: the first race of the 2010 season was about as exciting as taking a piece of A0 size squared paper and numbering the squares. F1 has to address this dire lack of on-track action if the FIA aren't to be accused of mass-murder as the fans in the stands gradually die of boredom. The question is: How?

First off, the Sakhir Circuit, as with all facilities built in Asia and the Middle East in the past decade, just doesn't really do overtaking. F1's now-ubiquitous circuit designer Hermann Tilke seems to have it in that German mind of his that long straights mated with tight, technical sections of track breed overtaking. Yet, it's the more familar venues; the likes of Spa, Montréal, Melbourne and Interlagos that tend to provide us with the classics. Whilst there can be no denying that emerging markets in the East are key to the long-term future of F1, if Asiatic races continue to be as mind-numbingly dull as Bahrain was last weekend, then prospective economic saviours could well find themselves put off.

Another huge issue is, of course, aerodynamics. In way of good news, the teams have agreed to ban double-diffusers, which can be no bad thing since devices with aerodynamic benefit are intrinsically counter in nature to good racing - a slippery car creates a turbulent wake that makes overtaking extremely difficult (for the the benefit of those whose knowledge of the word 'aerodynamic' is limited to the song by Daft Punk). Trouble is though, said ban will only come into force at the start of 2011. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but if the teams this time last year were able to manically double their diffuser count, surely isn't the reverse possible now?

A certain M. Mosley, esq. would have you have believe that it was fuel strategies that gave the past 16 seasons that certain je ne sais quoi. With last weekend in mind, I finally see where he's coming from. A big problem with Bahrain was the 'big 8' all pitted within 2 laps of each other, which should have been foreseen given the finite life of a set of Bridgestone super-softs on which they all qualified. The fact of the matter was though that the harder medium compound tyre was more than enough to last the remaining 30 or so laps of the Sakhir Circuit, which meant the promised challenge of tyre-management never truly materialised. With that in mind, a simple solution would be to supply just 1, preferably the softer, compound at each race (and while we're at it, get shot of the nonsensical rule that requires drivers to start on the tyres they qualified on). This would open an array of strategic options - just the thing that nostalgic fans were salivating over in the off-season.

The more simple-minded may also say that later in the season, the new points system should be a catalyst for overtaking. 'Fraid not. These guys are racing drivers - they are constantly on the absolute limit, and the carrot of an extra 7 rather than 2 points for gunning for the win ain't gonna change that. Similarly, those who think bringing back KERS is the answer are completely and utterly wrong - allow me to explain. The reason we got the odd KERS-induced pass last year was because the cars from Woking and Maranello (and briefly the ones from Enstone and Hinwil too) had it, and the rest didn't. Give everyone the device, and it will take very little time for all the drivers to work out exactly best where to use the boost every lap. Then, come Sunday, everybody uses KERS in the same places every lap, and bugger all is achieved. And, for the record, I couldn't give a toss if the endangered Indonesian speckled manta-ray is saved because of the damn thing.

What might just work on the other hand, is a boost system that works on a per-race rather than per-lap basis: by giving every driver substantially less boosts than laps, it forces them to use their noggin as to when to administer their extra 60 horses. IndyCar was able to implement this exact thing last season off the back of a snoozefest of a race. Take note, Bernie.