The ground war begins

The Chinese Grand Prix marked fourth Grand Prix of the Formula 1 season and also the end of the fly away races. It was another opportunity for Formula 1's drivers to showcase just how talented they are. In a race of changing conditions it was Jenson Button who emerged victorious but the Britain did not have an easy day at the front of the field.

Button started from the third row of the grid but after Liuzzi crashed into Koybiousi and Buemi at the start the safety car was deployed. With light rain falling, and an expectation for heavier rain the majority of the field pitted for Bridgestone's intermediate tyres. In the past the intermediates have offered an exceptionally large operating window, from near monsoon conditions to a near dry line the intermediate was suitable for both. The tyre was hard enough to withstand the strain of a drying line but could lift enough water off a very wet track to make it desirable in any conditions. The tyre effectively made the full wet tyre redundant.

For this season Bridgestone changed the construction of the intermediate, and it is now considerably softer and less durable. This came startlingly into light in the early stages of this race with Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg and Button leading the way ahead of intermediate shod cars that had a considerable advantage for the opening lap after the safety car pulled in but they overheated their tyres due to heat build up on an already drying line.

All the intermediate shod cars had to pit again for slicks. This left runners such as the jump starting Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull front row starters Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber all down the field and at one point over 50 seconds behind the race leaders. Hamilton put in a spirited drive with some stunning overtakes, particularly against Vettel but when the 2008 world champion came up behind Michael Schumacher he seemed star struck and spent a few laps before making his move against the German clearly slowed with an ill handling car.

This was the latest in a string of poor performances from Schumacher. He has been beaten by Rosberg in every qualifying session and race this season and must be starting to reconsider his comeback. In conditions in which he used to excel and was the master of the German seemed tentative and struggled to feel his way around the track. He had very little traction out of second and third gear corners and was a sitting duck on the back straight when Hamilton eventually passed him. Schumacher will have a major upgrade on the Mercedes in time for the Spanish Grand Prix and it cannot come soon enough. Even though he seems satisfied in interviews about how things are going in his comeback performances he did not return to what had previously been HIS domain to make up the numbers and support a faster team-mate. The seven times world champion is too competitive an animal to accept such short comings for too much longer and with the ground war now starting he will look to move forward through the field.

The ground war begins in Barcelona with all the teams bringing in the first of their major developments. After four fly-away races where teams basically had to keep the packages they had at the start of the season the first race in Formula 1's European heartland should see some major changes to cars. Teams will have major aerodynamic upgrades on their cars when the action starts in Spain and it will be interesting to see if Red Bull can maintain its position as the grids fastest car.

The Austrian owned team based in Milton Keynes has had pole position in all four Grand Prix this season but has only been able to convert them into one win. In Formula 1 you need to 'strike when the iron is hot' and capitalise on your strong performances. Red Bull has failed to do this through the season, and while the team will state that wet weather upended the form book the championship table at this point just shows that the team has failed to convert the fastest car on the grid into strong results. With the development race in full flight teams will close the gap to the RB6 and Red Bull could well be left to rue only having won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

McLaren will be very satisfied with the start to their season. After four races the Woking team has won two races with Jenson Button who leads the championship. The reigning world champion was criticised by many for choosing to leave the Mercedes, nee Brawn, team where he was firmly established as the team leader and join McLaren where Lewis Hamilton has been ensconced for many years. So far though Button has acquitted himself very well; out qualifying his team-mate three times and winning twice. The fact that Button won both races in changeable conditions should not be discounted. On both days Button judged the conditions perfectly and adjusted his strategy to take account for the weather. He reaped the rewards of a risky strategy in Melbourne by changing to slicks earlier than everyone else, after those new Bridgestone inters had overheated, and comfortably won. In China he stayed on slicks longer than his rivals and took advantage of Nico Rosberg making a mistake to take the lead and was not headed again.

Rosberg has been the surprise of the season for many. The young German has long been held as a talented driver but due to the constraints of poor Williams’ cars he never got to really shine in his first four years on the grid. He has achieved Mercedes first two podiums of their new incarnation as a Formula 1 team and has been exceptionally impressive in dealing with the pressure of Michael Schumacher returning to the sport. Rosberg has been undaunted by his compatriot and has been faster in each meaningful session of the season. It will be interesting to see which driver the team will support in developing the car. Rosberg is second in the championship but Schumacher has long been able to bend engineers to his way of thinking and with Ross Brawn having experience of how successful Michael can be when he is happy and confident in a car the team will have a difficult decision to make in relation to the development path that the car and team needs to take.

This year has seen a change in the race stewards and how they deal with issues during a race. An experienced ex-driver joins the panel at each race and helps give a drivers perspective on incidents. In theory this should work well and a more balanced system should ensue but there has been inconsistency from one race to another and in China a dangerous precedent was set with Hamilton and Vettel only receiving reprimands for dangerous driving in the pit lane. The duo raced along the length of the pit lane side by side close to air guns and mechanics. Vettel actually tried to cut down the pit lane and force Hamilton into ceding the lane. Hamilton refused and was pushed towards the garages. Thankfully no mechanics were working on cars but Hamilton should have fed in behind Vettel after he had lost the high ground to the German. Both should have received grid place penalties in Spain for their actions but instead get away with a slap on the wrist. It's worth remembering that Hamilton received the same penalty for weaving during the Malaysian Grand Prix as well, so the question needs to be asked of how many times you can be reprimanded before getting a penalty?

There were also incidents with drivers overtaking each other on their way into the pit lane. The pit lane entry is still part of the race track, until the speed limit line, and so these overtaking moves should be deemed perfectly acceptable. The only thing of note was when Alonso passed team-mate Massa prior to both making a stop. Ferrari had expected Massa to be in first and were prepared to change his tyres, which are bar coded and tagged to each driver prior to the race, and yet Alonso came in first. If the correct tyres went onto Alonso's car the team did a magnificent job on the Spaniard's car.

Alonso has been impressive this season for Ferrari and has made himself their team leader after outperforming Massa for most of the season. The Brazilian has been hit and miss this season, not helped by the changeable weather conditions which have always proved a challenge to him. Alonso has had two engine failures already though so will have to curtail his practice laps through the rest of the season as he seeks to maintain a championship challenge, it was engine problems and lacking running that arguably curtailed Vettel last year. The team are confident that they have the weaponry in their arsenal to challenge Red Bull over the course of the year. Tyre wear is one of their strengths and with some very abrasive tracks upcoming there is potential for more victories to follow on from the Bahraini season opening success.

One of those abrasive tracks is the next Grand Prix in Barcelona. Ferrari will be very confident heading to this race in Alonso's home country. Barcelona is a track that needs a very good aerodynamic package and a car that is soft on its tyres. The Ferrari has both of these qualities and whereas the Red Bull is still the fastest and most efficient car on the grid it struggles with tyre wear in comparison to the Ferrari car and this could be crucial as to who can win in Spain. If Ferrari can win, the pressure will really be on Red Bull for the summer as they seek to win their first title.