Bahrain Grand Prix Fixed Odds Betting Preview

Another exotic venue faces the F1 teams after two thrilling opening races to the season which have been dominated by the Renault squad, who finally seem to have found the missing ingredient and pulled the whole package together.

The R25 in the hands of Fisichella and Alonso has looking well balanced, pacey, reliable and easy on tyres. Bit of an all rounder really. In contrast the Ferrari has looked edgy, inconsistent and chews through its rubber at a surprising rate.

Such is the Scuderia’s panic that they have opted to bring out the “proper” 2005 car earlier than planned. This suggests that the new car must be faster, although many have expressed doubts about the reliability and of course the performance of the whole package is strongly influenced by what tyres Bridgestone come up with.

Whilst there have been a few notable surprises in form this season, it has to be the impressive reliability shown by the engines which is most noteworthy now they are required to complete two full race distances. Bahrain will stretch this reliability to the limit as the track is fairly well covered in sand when the wind blows, inevitably some of this will find its way into the delicate engine components and grind away at the finely toleranced innards leading to a few failures.

The sand also has a profound effect on the grip level on the track making it a difficult circuit to find a set up for. Ideally you need a car which performs consistently in a wide range of grip levels and remains well balanced, again hinting towards another good race for Renault. Braking is also of paramount importance, another Renault forte.

Mclaren has had a weak start to the season, especially considering the impressive off season form they showed. The weekend has started badly with Montoya breaking his shoulder during a tennis game meaning he has to sit this one out and hand his car over to Pedro de le Rosa. It’s fair to say it’s not all doom and gloom at Mclaren however, the cars were fast in Malaysia and only a series of bad decisions/incidents stopped Kimi hitting the podium. In fact the Mclaren is the only car which cares for its tyres better than the Renault, so the abrasive sandy surface in Bahrain could be strongly to their advantage.

1997 World Champ, Jacques Villeneuve, is under serious pressure to perform having shown very little of his old form since his return to F1. He’s not so much one to buckle under pressure, more likely to just walk away. Personally I would love nothing better than to see the old electrifying JV back on the podium but he just doesn’t seem to be adapting to the latest style F1 cars. This will also be the ex-champs first time at the Bahrain venue, already putting him a step behind the majority of the front runners. Maybe it really is time to call it a day.

Red Bull Racing and Toyota will be very keen to keep up their present form and there is little to stop them. Development between the first few races is always painfully slow meaning what you brought to the season opener is generally what you are stuck with until the European season begins next round, meaning other teams have little hope of clawing back lost ground until after Bahrain.

Qualifying is likely to be a scrappy affair with the drivers still trying to get used to the circuit. If the new Ferrari shows the pace it promises then Barrichello at 16.5/1 with Betfair is an excellent price.

The race itself is unlikely to go Ferraris way with their car’s reliability yet to be proven. Due to the abrasive nature of the surface, I’d go for Kimi Raikkonen to turn the Mclaren potential into hard points at 7/1.

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