Road to Bahrain | MINARDI “Villeneuve lost a chance to keep quiet”

We are on the eve of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the second round of the Formula 1 World Championship that had its first act in Melbourne which gave us some verdicts that may be confirmed or overturned in Sakhir. Jacques Villeneuve upset the last few days when he used some inelegant (to say the least) words concerning the return of Robert Kubica. I believe he lost the chance to keep quiet. With all due respect for the results achieved, maybe his career in Motorsport would not have begun without his surname. Kubica’s decision must be respected.

To me it seems more correct speaking about Motorsport rather than creating disquiet with sterile debate, where we find Ferrari that exudes tranquillity with the statements by Binotto, Vettel and Leclerc who do not make glaring claims even if I fear that the true Mercedes is the one we saw in the penultimate lap in Australia with Bottas who, with extreme ease, lowered the best time by 1”.

We come to a true track with parametres that make the thermometer important for the future of the season and where the high temperatures will have an important bearing on the reliability. The one to watch will be Red Bull – Honda that two weeks ago gave proof of great strength with the first podium reached by the Japanese in the hybrid era.

There will be a great struggle behind the first three, as we saw right from qualifying in Melbourne with sixteen drivers within a range of 1” in Q1 where Gasly paid a high price for a mistake in strategy.

Getting back to the matter of Kubica, Williams was the negative point and I truly hope that they have identified the area where they must intervene even if, seeing the big gap, it will take time to recover. In many cases you resort directly to the B version of the racing car. Luckily the budget is not a priority problem for them.

Gian Carlo Minardi