So what was all the fuss about?
Judging by the reaction of many team bosses and drivers last Thursday in China, it would have been easy to assume that the battle for the 2009 world championship had been settled some six thousand miles west in Paris the day before.
The International Court of Appeal’s decision to throw out the protests against double-decker diffusers had, according to an incensed Flavio Briatore, automatically turned the title battle into a three-horse race between Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams.
It took all of three days for that prediction to be blown out of the water.
In ending Jenson Button and Brawn’s early domination of 2009 by claiming its first Formula 1 pole position and then race victory as part of a resounding 1-2 in the wet, Red Bull proved you don’t necessarily have to have a two-step diffuser to be a factor at the front.
The ironic thing about all this of course was that RBR had been one of three teams unleashing its lawyers at the ICA hearing in a bid to get the contentious rear-end designs outlawed.
The publication of the FIA’s full decision reveals various arguments the protesting squads advanced to get the diffusers banned – but the crux of the matter was simply that they were convinced it gave their rivals an unfair advantage.
So by dominating in Shanghai, Red Bull has at least temporarily blunted the message that it and its fellow protesting teams it had been peddling.
That’s not to say the more aggressive diffuser doesn’t give a big performance advantage – it does, of the order of 0.3s-0.5s per lap – but the importance attached to it may have been, as Fernando Alonso suggested, "a little bit exaggerated".


Trading places?
It’s probably no coincidence that the most publicly vocal opponents of the double diffuser – Ferrari, BMW and Renault – were all teams that had experienced unexpected struggles with their 2009 cars in the opening two races.
Red Bull on the other hand had already proved that its RB5 could challenge the ‘diffuser gang’.
Sebastian Vettel had kept Button on his toes all afternoon in Australia and would have finished on the podium but for an unnecessary tangle with Robert Kubica in the closing stages.
So in that sense the Milton Keynes-based squad had less to lose from a defeat in Paris, knowing its Adrian Newey-designed car was already a near-match for the early-season leaders.
Now with a Brawn-beating performance behind it, and Newey back at base working on a big car upgrade and new diffuser for Monaco, might we be on the brink of an earlier than expected reshuffle at the top as F1 swaps the wet and wild Far East for the sun and sand (we think!) of Bahrain this weekend?
Well, as usual in Formula 1 there is more to it than meets the eye.
While Button admitted the Red Bull duo had been “amazingly quick” in the Shanghai rain, he and team-mate Rubens Barrichello experienced big problems warming up their wet tyres.
The points leader complained of severe tyre “shuddering” and, considering he expressed relief at simply keeping his BGP 001 on the track, it would be a mistake to read too much into Red Bull and Brawn’s respective race pace.
For that you have to go back to qualifying, and the evidence from Q3 at least suggests Brawn will remain the benchmark at Sakhir.
While pole man Vettel qualified three slots and 0.3s ahead of the lead Brawn car of Barrichello, the Brazilian veteran was carrying around six laps’ worth more fuel, which slowed him by 0.6s – meaning that in reality it was the Brawn with the 0.3s advantage.
Nevertheless it proves Red Bull is within striking distance of Ross Brawn’s men (and that’s without a double diffuser), so the question now is whether it can transfer its Chinese speed to the desert.


Head start Sakhir represents a fresh challenge for most of the grid’s new generation cars.
After the aerodynamically-demanding sweeps of Sepang and Shanghai, the Bahrain circuit is made up of long straights and tight corners – making this weekend the season’s first race where braking stability and traction are severely put to the test.
Ferrari, BMW and Toyota should have an early advantage in this respect having completed a test double-header there during pre-season, although much of the first week’s running was scuppered by sand storms.
However, Toyota is currently the only one of the three in a position to make use of any set-up head-start.
The Japanese carmaker’s impressive start to the season was slightly blotted by its performance in China, yet Timo Glock’s gritty drive from the pit lane to seventh proved the TF109 remains strong in all conditions, and the team is confident its winter work will pay big dividends at Sakhir.
But while you can expect Toyota to pose a threat to both the Brawns and Red Bulls, its winter testing partners are staring at far bleaker weekends.
Ferrari and BMW were the pacesetters last year in Bahrain – the latter claiming its first, and so far only, pole position and Felipe Massa winning for the second successive year for the Maranello outfit.
Either scenario is highly unlikely this time around, with both teams instead having to grin and bear it while they wait for desperately needed updates set to be introduced on their cars in Spain.
Ferrari may just be content to avert the worst start to a season in its proud history and open its points account at the fourth attempt, while BMW boss Mario Theissen has acknowledged his team must do better if it is to not see its most ambitious F1 target yet go up in smoke in a matter of weeks.
Those two teams in particular were desperate for double diffusers to be banned and now face a long hard slog back to the top.
Four years on from its takeover of Jaguar, Red Bull has finally got there and now has to prove that, with or without a trick diffuser, it can stay there.
James Galloway

 

Thanks for sharing that writeup, Hamad. It definitely gives me a lot to think about regarding my fantasy team order...

 

+1, thx Hamad. F1 always leaves us guessing...you gotta love this sport!

 

Nice post. Very interesting info.

 

Great post with some very interesting info. Thank you

 

Nice Bro
are you heading to BIC Fri, Sat, or Sun

 

No I'm sitting it out this year but I'll be on the Banter thread....... I'm glad you guys enjoyed it

 

That comment that the FIA court of appeals ruling was blown out of the water merely three days later is somewhat misleading isn't it? Can you really say that rain soaked cluster of a race was a true test of the teams changes in reaction to that decision? I would think Bahrain will truly show us who is ahead in the aero/traction/downforce game, double diffusers or not.

 

I was Not looking forward to this season last year becuz of all the changes...but things have certainly been interesting so far

...too bad I do have enuff fantasy team cash to buy both of the Red Bull drivers