The Final Stint looks at the main talking points from the Bahrain Grand Prix, including Raikkonen's return to the podium, the prospect of a rules revolution in 2017 and the story behind the sparks.
Kimi is back
"Kimi is back!" That was the proclamation of the charisma-bomb that is Maurizio Arrivabene following Raikkonen's first podium appearance for 27 races. Kimi might argue he had never been away and it was in fact the car that went missing last year, but in a war of soundbites you wouldn't fancy Raikkonen's chances against Arrivabene. Perhaps a better way to look at it is that Raikkonen's ability to consistently register quick laps without sacrificing lap time or taking excessive life out of the tyres finally got the reward it deserves in Bahrain. In Australia a loose wheel nut put him out of the running, a puncture after an early clash hampered him in Malaysia and in China his strategy was foiled by a late safety car that prevented him attacking his team-mate.
In Bahrain, however, the race was perfectly set up to allow him to deliver a drive worthy of a place alongside the other 77 podiums in his career and acted as proof that Raikkonen did not suddenly lose his talent when he returned to Ferrari last year. Key to his success on Sunday was Raikkonen's second stint. Rather than follow the lead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel and the two Mercedes ahead of him on a soft-soft-medium strategy, Raikkonen opted to take on mediums at his first stop and leave a fresh set of soft tyres for the final stint. It was the pace he then showed on the medium tyres - which were up to two seconds per lap slower than the soft in Friday practice - that really stood out. At the start of the stint he settled into laps in the high 1:38s and low 1:39s and roughly 20 laps later his pace was only half a second slower ahead of his second stop. Even though the lowering fuel level would have made his Ferrari quicker, such a small difference in times between the start and end of a lengthily stint is almost unheard of in the Pirelli era.
"I think he surprised himself [with that stint] and Ferrari surprised themselves!" Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said after the race. "We could see that the prime wasn't any slower at all, if not quicker if you compare it with qualifying where the prime was two seconds slower than the option - that was quite an interesting result. We were monitoring his pace and it was a flat curve - the times were not getting any worse - so I think from his point of view in P4 it was an aggressive strategy."
All that hard work on the mediums gave Raikkonen a new set of softs for the final stint which were six laps younger than the mediums on Rosberg's car. With a light fuel load and a grippy track, he was then able to make the most of the fresh rubber to close the 19-second gap to the struggling Mercedes in front of him in just 17 laps. All very impressive, let's just hope there is more of the same from now on.
Reinventing the wheel
Although an agreement is worth nothing in the paddock until it is locked down by regulation, a move towards a 1000bhp formula for 2017 is gaining momentum. To call it a "new" formula would be a stretch of the imagination at this stage as the main agreement so far has been to stick with the current V6 turbos, but changes to the look of the cars are also being discussed. The driving force behind the change is to arrest the falling TV figures seen in recent years and make the sport more exciting. The basic premise of making the cars more difficult to drive is accepted as a good idea by all concerned, but how to achieve that is still being debated.
Upping power to 1000bhp will not make the cars any easier to drive, but concerns of rising costs and throwing the baby out with the bath water has put a halt on a complete redesign of the current engines. Instead an increase in the fuel flow rate is the preferred method for giving the cars the necessary grunt to reach the 1000bhp promised land. Mercedes had been against meddling with the current formula, but upping the fuel flow might offer the middle ground needed to increase power output.
"We are pretty easy on [increasing] the fuel flow," Wolff said. "If you increase the fuel flow there are arguments in favour of it, more power and more noise, and this is one of the tools you can use. But clearly increasing the fuel flow means redesigning crucial and major bits and pieces of the engine. So we need to know earlier than later."
And that appears to be the crux of the issue with the proposed 2017 changes. The engine suppliers need to know as early as possible to factor in the most cost-efficient updates and, likewise, Pirelli needs to know what is expected of the tyres before the FIA puts its supply contract out to tender in the coming months. Of course, a continuation of Ferrari's improved form over the next few races could do away with the need for an overhaul altogether ... and it would also save a lot of money.
Chasing sparks
Rewind to 18:00 on Friday evening...
The sun has set but its heat lingers in the dry and dusty air at Turn 1. The job of illuminating the track has been handed over to 495 towering floodlights around the circuit, with an especially big example given the task of lighting the first braking point of the circuit. That's just as well as the drivers will need to pick their braking point from a speed of 330km/h in order to find the apex with any accuracy and carry speed through the exit. It's only second practice, so the pressure is off, but a gaggle of journalists and photographers have gathered on the inside of the track in anticipation of what is about to unfold.
It doesn't take long for the show to commence with a low-running Sauber at maximum attack leaving a shower of light in its wake. The journalists can't help an "ooh" and an "ahh" as the sparks spray high into the air, while the only noise from the photographers is the staccato clicking of shutters at 1/500 of a second. But what gets lost on the TV - and to an extent in the photos - is the energy and violence of the skidblocks hitting the tarmac. Speed is always lost through the camera lens, but watched first hand the sparks coming from the rear serve to emphasise the forces involved in Formula One racing. It beats any firework display.
The use of titanium for skidblocks was added to the regulations for two main reasons: To stop teams running below-regulation ride heights and for safety reasons. The old skidblocks were made of heavier, harder-wearing metals and the teams placed them around the measuring holes on the plank to protect it from wear, thus allowing the car to run lower and still pass scrutineering. On occasion these heavy lumps of metal would become detached and pose a safety risk, so the FIA decided to take a stance and make titanium mandatory. Titanium wears roughly 2.5 times quicker than the previous metals used for skidblocks and is also significantly lighter, therefore killing two birds with one light-weight stone. It just so happens it also helps to convey the forces acting upon an F1 car in a most spectacular way.