Sebastian Vettel's Error-Strewn Bahrain GP Display a Positive Sign for Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel had that familiar glint in his eye after qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Seven days after finishing 0.9 seconds adrift of Lewis Hamilton's pole time on the Saturday of the Chinese GP, as per the official Formula One website, the German had managed to split the Mercedes cars, punting Nico Rosberg down to third.

Vettel had once again extracted the most out of Ferrari's F15-T and, perhaps for the first time since late-2013, was entering a race as the man to beat.

An abrasive track surface—Pirelli's race preview revealed the Bahrain International Circuit has "the highest degree of asphalt roughness seen all year"—and warm, if cooling, conditions were set to create a highly strategic race, the type of event that saw Ferrari record their first victory in almost two years in Malaysia.

Starting second on the grid, a position Hamilton utilised to snatch the lead at the first corner of the 2014 event, the odds were in very much in Vettel's favour.

It was, to all intents and purposes, his race to lose.

Lose it, however, he did. In truth, Vettel never appeared to be in contention for victory from the moment those five red lights beamed above the start line.

The very trait that allowed him to produce that superb qualifying lap 24 hours earlier, his high-input driving style, was what counted against Vettel in the race, according to Sky Sports' Mark Hughes. He was unable to conserve his tyres as effectively as team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Indeed, soon after Vettel's first error of the evening on Lap 8—running wide at Turn 1, which let Rosberg close up to and overtake his compatriot the following lap—Raikkonen radioed the team to explain how the German was already holding him up, as per the FIA television feed.

Further mistakes followed, the last of which required a trip to the pit lane for a new front wing, as Vettel continued to fade from the front.

This meant by the time both Hamilton and Rosberg suffered brake-by-wire failures within the last two laps, Vettel, rather than being in a position to capitalise on Mercedes' misfortune and claim his second victory of the season, was some 40 seconds behind, trying and failing to pass Williams' Valtteri Bottas for fourth place.

After an accomplished start to his first season as a Ferrari driver, recording three consecutive podium finishes and returning some pride to the Prancing Horse following its five-year impersonation of a bucking bronco, Vettel's performance in Bahrain was baffling.

Even in 2014, the most damaging campaign of the German's F1 career as he struggled to adjust to the demands of the V6 turbo regulations and failed to win a race, Vettel didn't make as many notable mistakes over the course of a single grand prix as he made at Sakhir last weekend.

Ferrari's technical director, James Allison, told Motorsport.com's Pablo Elizalde it simply "wasn't his best day in the office," adding it was "one of those things."

But Vettel himself offered a far more eloquent explanation, telling Sky Sports' Pete Gill how he "probably tried a bit too hard today," before elaborating to Autosport's Ben Anderson and Jonathan Noble, stating: "I was probably pushing very hard and did some mistakes. I think all in all, not a perfect race.

"Obviously, I did not get in to the rhythm and lost positions when it [was important] not to lose positions for the overall race."

For all the similarities between Malaysia and Bahrain, from the grinding asphalt to the tyre-limited pace, there was one key difference between the grands prix, which didn't become entirely apparent until after the chequered flag.

While Ferrari's long-overdue win at Sepang came as a surprise to everyone, including Mercedes—whose team principal, Toto Wolff, referred to the result as a "wake-up call," as per Sky Sports' James Galloway—Vettel was expected to mount a challenge at Sakhir, with Sky Sports' Mike Wise quoting Hamilton as naming the German as his "biggest rival" on the eve of the race.

That alone, in a season of limited opportunities given Mercedes' sustained pace advantage, generated its own pressures and required Vettel to drive on the edge at the increased risk of getting it wrong.

Whereas the win in Malaysia almost came naturally, Bahrain encouraged Vettel to actively pursue victory— easier said than done when a driver has been starved of the winning feeling, and the primal instincts it stimulates, for an extended period of time.

To watch Vettel in early 2015, in fact, is to be transported back to the days of 2009 and 2010, his first two years at Red Bull Racing, when winning was still a new, enchanting experience which carried so many possibilities.

In search of the first of his four world championships, Vettel would frequently alternate between the brilliant and the bad, dominating from pole one weekend and colliding with another car, a barrier, or incurring the wrath on the race stewards the next.

Those fluctuations in form no doubt played a crucial role in his development as a driver and were perhaps a factor behind his dominant spells in 2011 and '13 in particular. It is telling that since his move to Ferrari Vettel has behaved with the same raw enthusiasm and freedom of his early years.

After his humbling 2014 campaign—which if Christian Horner's comments to the Guardian's Paul Weaver are to be believed left the German contemplating his future in the sport—the back-to-basics approach has revived Vettel in his new environment this season.

Ferrari didn't reap the rewards of that in the Bahrain Grand Prix, but they will sooner than later.

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