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There was far more commotion surrounding this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix than there was in the race itself.

The off-again, on-again event was finally held on Sunday in the midst of protests over the country’s crackdown on political dissent. Formula 1 being a global sport, and one that’s consistently prided itself on paying lip service to a higher social conscience (even if the main concern of the powers-that-be has been and always will be money, first and foremost), there were serious doubts as to whether the event would actually proceed. In the end, though, the race weekend moved forward and Sebastian Vettel won from pole position in his Red Bull, a bit of deja vu to anyone who followed his dominance last season.

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean rounded out the podium for a strong showing by the Lotus Renault team. The second-place finish was particularly vindicating for Räikkönen after his single-lap meltdown last race in China. Both Williams cars retired, another setback for what was supposed to be a resurgent year for the storied British team. As for “my” driver, Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari had a decent drive from 9th place on the grid, but couldn’t manage better than 7th. At least he finished in the points, and with four different winners in the first four races of the season, is within spitting distance of the top of the leaderboard.

Spain in three weeks! Can’t wait for the European leg of the F1 season.

The drivers’ points standings after the race:

1. 53: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault
2. 49: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes
3. 48: Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault
4. 43: Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes
5. 43: Fernando Alonso, Ferrari

What’s going on with Formula 1 this year? Rather than the typical domination by one or two teams, almost every team and driver on the grid seems to be in contention for a top grid or podium spot on any given weekend. At least, judging by the first three races.

The 2012 Chinese Grand Prix continued the trend, and this weekend, it was the Nico Rosberg and Mercedes F1 show. Both Rosberg and his teammate, 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher, qualified extremely well (Rosberg on pole), and would have both proceeded to own the race if it weren’t for an unfortunate pit incident that sidelined Schumacher. Rosberg, for his part, soldiered on, maintaining a solid 20-second lead on the rest of the pack to clinch the win.

Speaking of the rest the pack, I can recall entire F1 seasons that didn’t contain the amount of overtaking present in this one race. Drivers were passed only to retake their lost position in the following corner or two; some drivers surged and gained 3 or 4 places in the span of one lap, while others (Kimi Räikkönen namely, on account of over-worn tires) fell 10 positions in the span of 2 laps. Apart from Rosberg, securely ensconced in 1st, it’s like the deck was shuffled every five minutes. At the finish line, 2nd and 13th places were separated by a paltry 30 seconds. It made for some exciting racing, and the drivers’ skill and gusto came to the fore. Fun to watch.

My driver, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, didn’t fare as well, being one of those who fell more than a few places in 2-3 laps, but eked out a 9th place finish, and held on to third place in the 2012 driver’s standings. Ah well. Bahrain next week!

The second round of the 2012 Formula 1 championship at Sepang in Malaysia was an eventful one, if only because of the weather.

Most of the kinks having been worked out of the new 2012 cars, qualifying was less a parade of second-stringers than in Melbourne a week ago. For the second straight week, Lewis Hamilton clinched the pole, flanked by his teammate Jenson Button for a solid McLaren front row. If this season seemed to be shaping up to be dominated by McLaren in the manner last year was owned by Red Bull, and specifically Sebastian Vettel (who qualified 6th this week), the actual race would debunk that notion.

Malaysia’s unpredictable weather not only meant the rain came and went within the span of half an hour, it also made some parts of the circuit relatively dry while others were practically flooded. The net result was that tire strategy and driving skill came to the fore like it had in few other F1 races in recent memory.

Cars switched continually between full wet tires and intermediates, some drivers opting for slower but safer full wets, and others electing to continue on the intermediates in the hopes the rain would subside and they would save themselves a pit stop. And after much shuffling of the field and a remarkably low number of retirements given the poor conditions, along with a full stop of the race when the downpour was at its most intense, Ferrari driver and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso emerged far ahead of the rest of the field, tailed only by rookie Sauber driver Sergio Perez. The latter put up a good fight against the faster Ferrari, but ran wide during an attempted overtaking maneuver late in the race and had to concede the win to Alonso.

I was pleased with the outcome. I like Ferrari’s quasi-underdog status this year, and Alonso is an excellent, solid driver whose talent has been proven in a number of different machines. It was a hard-earned win, and will hopefully inject some confidence (as if any were lacking) back into the Maranello team after a few seasons nipping at the heels of Red Bull and McLaren.

On an aesthetic note, I noticed something about the cars that had been built into their design since the beginning of the season, but I just now caught: Most of them are shovel-nosed, like so:

Apparently, there was a regulation change that lowered the maximum height of the nose, but retained the max height of the structure supporting the driver, and as a result, most constructors have adopted a “stepped” nose design. It may be functional, but good gosh, can you say “Ugliest F1 cars ever?” They’re just terrible.

No nerves for McLaren’s Jenson Button during the first grand prix race of the 2012 Formula 1 season today in Melbourne, Australia.

After all the usual off-season F1 drama (team/driver clashes, name changes, calendar shuffles, etc), Button, the ’09 F1 world champion, showed that he’s still at the top of his game by notching a solid win for McLaren, his teammate (and ’08 world champion) Lewis Hamilton taking third and sandwiching ’10 and ’11 world champion Sebastian Vettel on the podium for a star-studded victory celebration.

If the race was a more-or-less straightforward affair, marked by the usual contact and crashes (most painfully a last-lap foul-up that cost new Williams driver Pastor Maldonado more than a few places), the real surprises came during the qualifying session as the drivers grappled with their new machines under race conditions. McLaren posted a strong showing, with Hamilton on pole followed by Button, but from 3rd on down it was as if the constructor’s deck had been shuffled, with a Lotus and Mercedes in the 3rd and 4th slots, and the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa all the way down in 12th and 16th, respectively.

As mentioned, the race straightened things out, more or less, with Alonso completing a particularly strong drive to come in the points in 5th. The location was beautiful as well, with long afternoon shadows from palm trees gently painting the circuit as the new 2012 F1 cars—more high-nosed than last year’s, with sleeker bodywork—powering around the tight circuit. Stay tuned for the next chapter in the unfolding 2012 F1 season, the Malaysian GP, in two weeks.

A bit of a side note: I really have a bone to pick with Speed’s coverage of the race. It’s the only station that shows F1 live (or at all) here in the US, and this year they’ve decided to do away with their afternoon replays of the race. The upshot today was that the race was shown on Speed at 1:30 AM EDT, and not re-shown later in the day. That’s a real problem for those of us who don’t have the ability to record the race, and an unfortunate decision one year before the US Grand Prix returns to the F1 calendar in 2013. I understand the channel probably had to pay twice as much for the broadcast rights to show the race again in the afternoon, but it raises the question of what other programming shown on Speed is really so compelling that they’d bump an F1 race for it? Disappointing.

Let’s talk about Spa for a bit. Yesterday’s post featured a clip showcasing the track’s most famous corner, the Eau Rouge / Radillion combination, but the whole circuit is noteworthy for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that, as mentioned, many prominent Formula 1 drivers have ranked it among their very favorites.

Located in the Francorchamps suburb of Spa, Belgium (hence its name), an F1 victory at the circuit doesn’t hold quite as much prestige as a triumph at Monaco or Monza, in spite of its popularity among the drivers. That said, there are few tracks with a more distinctive layout, looking as it does like a kind of gun. It is to F1 circuits what Orion is to constellations: An instantly-recognizable figure. Measuring nearly 4.5 miles in length, Spa is also one of the longest F1 circuits, and the Belgian Grand Prix runs for a fewer number of laps (only 44) than other races on the calendar in order to reach a preset race distance. Spa is a fast track as well, with only two slow corners, the rest consisting of straights or long, sweeping bends. Apart from the aforementioned Eau Rouge corner, the backfield of the circuit, from Rivage on, can be exceptionally enjoyable for drivers who establish a kind of rhythm through the succession of high-speed esses.

All in all, a fantastic track, and one that’s maintained its status as one of F1’s premier venues through all the regulatory upheaval of the past 20 years or so, having undergone notably few alterations compared to other circuits such as Silverstone. As far as I know, only the Chicane has been significantly reprofiled (previously it consisted of a pair of back-to-back chicanes and was named Bus Stop), the rest of the track layout remaining largely the same.

Watch the clip below as Jenson Button delivers a flying lap in his ’04 BAR-Honda:

Editor’s note: This post is part of an ongoing series discussing legendary and notable racing venues from around the globe. Read the other installments here:

• Hockenheim
• My Top 3: Monaco, Laguna Seca and VIR

I thought of the idea for this post the other day, just running errands with the kids in the back of the minivan. Pulling away from a stoplight, all the cars accelerated at roughly the same rate, and I thought, “There’s an expected g-force envelope that all cars fall into, more or less.” It’s true—even high-end sports cars with hundreds more horsepower than our lowly van still only “turn it up” a few notches over the average family sedan. They still play by the rules, so to speak; they’re just really good at the game. Driving or riding in one is fun and impressive, to be sure, but the experience isn’t different enough from an ordinary commute that it’s something our brain has trouble relating to.

And then there’s F1. Play the above video, if you haven’t yet. The location is the famous Eau Rouge corner at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, a track many famous F1 drivers have listed as a favorite.

In the left frame, track-prepped sports cars navigate down the hill, around the bend and up the hill to the Kemmel straight. Were any of us to ride shotgun, we’d feel g-forces throwing us around in our harness as the car skirted around the edges of the traction circle. It’d be fast and violent, but we’d still be able to keep our wits about us.

The right frame, on the other hand, holds a different world. Late model Formula 1 cars literally blast through the bend in a fraction of the time it takes the already-capable “regular” race cars to make it through. It’s just…I can’t even conceive of what it must feel like to be behind the wheel. Neither my daily commute nor even the most extreme “automotive situation” I’ve ever experienced offer me any kind of framework for understanding that kind of speed, that power, that neck-breaking grip… When I first saw the clip, I was sure the F1 half was sped up, but no; it’s real-time.

Watching F1 on television, it can be easy to become numb to the otherworldly racing environment F1 cars and drivers inhabit. Viewing a clip like the above is something of a reality check, and if anything, increases my esteem for the athletes that participate in the sport.

As much as automakers (especially those in the performance business) would like you to think otherwise, 95% of any road car’s external shape is driven by style. The aerodynamicists may have a bit of input around the edges, and there are certain interior volumes dictated by marketers and engineers, but by and large, style rules the roost.

Race cars, on the other hand, are designed and built with no concern over whether or not a pleasing shape results. If severe, brick-like contours will help it “do the job” and cut through the air faster on its way to a win, those are the priorities that shape the car. That said, in spite of the fact that form overwhelmingly follows function in the auto racing world, stunning and often beautiful bodywork frequently emerges from the engineers’ drawing boards. Today we begin a new series looking at race cars that, successful or not, in their single-minded pursuit of speed, happened to be visually arresting as well.

The Ferrari 412T, campaigned by the storied Italian team during the ’94 and ’95 F1 seasons, with Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi at the wheel, was the last hurrah for the Ferrari V12 in Formula 1. After turbocharging was banned starting with the ’89 season, teams had reverted to naturally-aspirated 3.5l V8s, V10s and V12s, Ferrari being the last holdout for the latter configuration. Compared to its competitors, the Ferrari engine was more powerful, offering more straight-line speed, but was heavy and complex, impeding handling and making reliability an issue.

Still, the 412T undoubtedly represented the beginning of Ferrari’s comeback after the championship drought of the ’80s and early ’90s, a resurgence that culminated with Michael Schumacher’s string of 5 world titles starting in 2000. Conservative and simple, the 412T also happened to be quite a beautiful car, and its shape, along with Ferrari’s underdog status that year, secured my fandom for the seasons that followed.

In a constant state of development throughout the ’94 and ’95 seasons, the 412T appeared in two primary external shapes, the switchover happening partway through the ’94 season. The first iteration was called the 412T1 (shown at top) and featured a raised, rounded nose and smaller sidepod air intakes. The 412T1B and 412T2, the latter pictured above driven by Jean Alesi, eliminated the raised nose and greatly enlarged the sidepod intake area. Coupled with the knowledge that they’re sporting a hugely powerful, classic Ferrari V12, either variation of the 412T shape is brutally elegant and completely stunning. In my mind, it’s the last “classic” Ferrari F1 car, its immediate successor the F310 and all the cars that followed being maimed by safety and regulatory changes, and looking far too computer-designed as well. The 412T was the swan song of the organic, assembled-by-an-actual-human Ferrari F1 car, and as such it stands alone.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series examining the aesthetic merits of cars designed almost wholly with function in mind. Read the other installments here:

• Ford GT40
• Toyota GT-One

It’s that time of year again. The time when F1 awakes from its winter slumber, the teams shake the cobwebs off their drivers’ uniforms and the engineers reveal the designs they’ve been burning the midnight oil over all winter long.

First of the major teams to unveil a 2012 standard-bearer, McLaren rolled out their MP4-27 (shown at top) last Wednesday. With few appearance-altering regulation changes from 2011, other than livery adjustments, most teams’ 2012 cars will resemble last year’s a great deal, and McLaren’s is no exception, showing only a few sidepod tweaks, a lower aft body area and a reprofiled nose.

A once-great team that hasn’t seen much success since the ’03 season, Williams recently pulled the wraps off their latest effort at a comeback, the FW34 (pictured above). Having secured a supply of top-tier Renault RS27-2012 engines (shared with the dominant Red Bull team), if the chassis and drivers are competitive, this could well be the year of William’s revival.

Speaking of Red Bull, the defending 2011 champions presented their reloaded racer, the RB8, on Monday. With the return of their seasoned 2011 driver pair in Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, they’ll be the team to beat this year.

Can you tell I’ve been in withdrawal during the F1 off-season? March 18, Australia, here we come!

Closing out the 2011 Formula 1 season, the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix saw Mark Webber’s long-awaited first win of the season, some technical difficulties for the now-crowned 2011 champion Sebastian Vettel, and good drives by the supporting cast.

After last race’s rear suspension failure that sidelined Vettel’s Red Bull on the first lap, today’s gearbox troubles at Interlagos weren’t terminal, but did keep the German prodigy from notching his 12th win of the year, relegating him to second place behind his teammate Webber. The Australian qualified second, and had an excellent drive, with Vettel keeping the pair of Red Bulls comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack.

I was especially disappointed for Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari, after undertaking a brilliant passing maneuver to take third place from Jenson Button’s McLaren early in the race, only to see the British driver retake third in the closing laps and secure the final podium spot. Not only was Alonso unable to participate in the trophy-hoisting post-race, the three additional points tallied by a third- over a fourth-plate finish would have pushed the Spanish double world champion past Webber for third in the season-ending points standings.

In the spirit of the newly-descended Christmas season, here’s a brief wish-list for F1 next year:

• After the dominance of the “Big Three” of Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, it would be nice to see another team make a comeback (Williams?) or stake a new claim on the sport (Mercedes? Sauber?)
• The jury is still out on the merits of DRS after its first season in F1. It undoubtedly allows for more overtaking, but adds another layer of regulation to an already over-regulated sport. Still, I’d like to see what, if any, new strategies emerge in the offseason to exploit its full potential. Here’s hoping for its return.
• I sincerely hope the US Grand Prix returns to the calendar. Its status is somewhat in limbo at the moment, but if everything is ironed out to the satisfaction of all parties involved, it will be great to have F1 return to the States, putting more race distance between the present and the infamous 2005 US GP, the bitter memories of which still linger.

Stay tuned for 2012!