Formula One suffered a bit of irony in the season opener at Bahrain.
It was clear early on in the race that passing was going to come at even more of a premium than usual despite F1's intention to create more overtaking by altering some key rules in the offseason.
The primary rule change, a refueling ban, was at the heart of the changes. Michael Schumacher, who ran in sixth place for most of the race, voiced his displeasure with the new race rules, as did many other drivers. Who can blame them, as there seemed to be only a handful of notable passes, none of which presented much excitement: Lewis Hamilton besting Nico Rosberg during pit stops, Fernando Alonso getting by teammate Felipe Massa in the first turn of the opening lap, and the Ferrari duo overtaking Sebastian Vettel's ailing Red Bull Renault on the front straight at the conclusion of Lap 34.
The perceived lack of passing on the track should not come as a big surprise, though. In recent years, teams have had varying levels of fuel at the start of the race in comparison to rival teams because of race strategy. That led to cars with significant weight differences at the start, which in turn created more passing because the front-runners were not all running the same pace. Altering the cars via a uniform fuel level therefore likely will not increase passing but almost certainly will decrease it.
Despite the criticisms, nothing should be taken away from Alonso's win. His first victory with Ferrari was also the 22nd of his career, tying him for 10th on the all-time wins list with Damon Hill. Remarkably, Alonso has the chance to finish this season in the top five of that list; with five more wins this season, he would tie Jackie Stewart for fifth. The win bodes extremely well for Alonso if recent history has anything to say about it, as the past four season-opening winners have also won the championship that season.
In fact, since 1990, there have only been four seasons in which the opening-round winner has not gone on to win the title (2005, 2003, 1999, 1997). Extend that a race further, and only once in those remaining four seasons did the eventual champion not win in the second race (Schumacher in 2003). Clearly, the beginning of the F1 season is an incredibly accurate fortune-teller, and the upcoming race at Australia likely will tell even more of that story.
F1 season-opening winner, past five seasons
Year -- Driver -- Final points finish
2010 -- Fernando Alonso -- ?
2009 -- Jenson Button -- First
2008 -- Lewis Hamilton -- First
2007 -- Kimi Raikkonen -- First
2006 -- Fernando Alonso -- First
What likely needs no further clearing up is the strength of the four teams at the top. As expected, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes were considerably stronger than the rest of the field. Those four teams occupied the first eight places on the starting grid and the first eight finishing positions. Only five other cars finished on the lead lap. It appears there are more legitimate title contenders than ever, yet also a greater distance between the top teams and everyone else.
Ferrari's 1-2 finish was impressive, but had Vettel not run into trouble, it could have been an exciting final few laps. If Vettel's early pace was indicative of his season to come, he could be in line for an even better year than in 2009. As for Ferrari, the Prancing Horse matched its win total from all of last season and occupied the top two spots on the podium for the first time since Magny-Cours in 2008. That streak of 27 races without a 1-2 finish was the longest such drought for Ferrari since a considerably longer one from late 1990 through the middle of 1998. Further back in the field, Schumacher's return to Formula One was relatively positive with his sixth-place finish, although his goal for Australia most certainly will be to finish ahead of teammate Rosberg, who was fifth.
