What sort of anniversary awaits Williams?Marking the first anniversary of their long-awaited and very welcome return to the winner's enclosure after an eight-year absence, this weekend's trip to Barcelona is bound to be a bittersweet affair for the Williams outfit with the memories of last May's triumph soured by this year's sharp regression. A glittering triumph has faded into the depression of a false dawn.
A few green shoots of recovery were apparent in Bahrain as Pastor Maldonado progressed from 17th when the lights went out to 11th at the chequered flag, but the fact remains that a Williams car has been eliminated from Q1 in each of the four events thus far. Avoiding an early exit 12 months after Maldonado took pole at Barcelona will be the team's first objective this weekend, although any expectation of a giant leap forward is unrealistic: after losing their way with a now-you-see-it, now-you-don't Coanda exhaust, Williams are four months off the pace in an eight-month season. It's a long road back from here.
And what about Valtteri Bottas? The Finn has been an anonymous figure since his much-heralded entry into F1 and disappointment at his failure to make his presence felt so far in 2013 cannot be entirely mitigated by the FW35's inadequacies. But perhaps this weekend will be the occasion when Valtteri finally makes his F1 mark. Already familiar with the Barcelona circuit from winter testing and Formula 3 events, what better proof could there be of genuine talent than the head-to-head defeat of last year's victor at the Circuit de Catalunya?
PG
How far can Heikki take Caterham?It would be easy to overstate the role Heikki Kovalainen played in helping Caterham finish ahead of Marussia in Bahrain for the first time this season, given the team brought a substantial update package and the Finn had limited time to influence where they were heading ahead of the race.
However, his presence will certainly have been a shot across the bows of Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde and knowing your seat could be under threat almost certainly helped unlock extra performance.
The 31-year-old may have been six tenths slower than Pic in practice, but his car did not have any of the updates the Frenchman's carried in Sahkir, rendering a pace comparison impossible. However, what we can read into the results from Bahrain is that the car has a lot more potential than it has shown thus far.
With two relatively inexperienced race drivers, it is conceivable that development feedback had not been as good as Caterham were used to with Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov and Jarno Trulli and certainly having had the chance to exploit the knowledge of a veteran of 110 grands prix for the last three weeks can only benefit the team. In Barcelona, Kovalainen will drive the new car, effectively back-to-back testing it against the hybrid version they started the season with, and it will be interesting to see how his times compare with not just Marussia, but Williams and Toro Rosso as well.
WE
Are Lotus poised to launch a sustained two-pronged assault?It would perhaps be rather harsh to describe Romain Grosjean's involvement in the 2013 season as anonymous prior to Bahrain, but the Frenchman had certainly run a little too far under the radar in the opening three rounds given the proven capabilities of the car at his disposal - slightly problematic chassis or otherwise - thus making his impressive surge to third place at Sakhir all the more timely.
Of course, that result still wasn't quite good enough for Grosjean to topple the in-form Kimi Raikkonen from the top of the Lotus intra-team tree but there was a far wider importance for the Enstone's prospects: the double podium pushed them ahead of Ferrari into second place in the Constructors' Championship. Such positions are always somewhat fluid in the early rounds of a campaign, and so consequently too much shouldn't be read into the standings as yet. However, if Grosjean's Bahrain form finally proves the rule rather than the exception then there's every reason to believe they could stay there - especially as there's a clear current disparity in the team-mate head-to-heads at both Red Bull and Mercedes, and a lesser extent Ferrari.
So what chance one, or both, Lotus drivers challenging for the team's first victory on European soil since the outfit's golden Renault owned era back in 2006? The E21 was certainly one of the most impressive around the Circuit de Catalunya during the winter and the fact that the acrobatic layout places a premium on rear wear should again play to the car's inherent tyre preservation strengths. A win would duly be impressive enough - but another double black and gold Sunday surge would really lay down an ominous gauntlet.
JG
