2022 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 18 - 20

[GrizzleBoy]

Looking kinda.....processional.

[Restomaniac]

Looking kinda.....processional.

Tyre management.

[Juzh]

Leclerc and Verstappen now on mediums have the same pace basically with maybe a slight advantage in leclerc's favour so no way Verstappen is ever overtaking him on track without an undercut.

Well, if he was to pit and take on another set of softs, it was cost him the good part of 25 seconds or so? He'd have to be at least 2 seconds a lap faster with about 15 laps remaining to have any kind of chance to make an undercut work... He'd surely take second place regardless with a big enough gap between Sainz and Perez... and surely take the fastest lap for the extra point.

By now undercut is pointless anyway, leclerc is 4.2s ahead and the gap from qualifying has pretty much transferred into the race. Doubtful verstappen would be able to stay ahead even if he overtook Leclerc earlier.

[Mchamilton]

Or merc lookin like 0.7ish slower per lap than ferrari in race trim, given they ran the hards for a stint

[Hoffman900]

Looking kinda.....processional.

This is all racing. You don’t bang wheels all race.

That said, these cars were never going to run nose to nail like a spec series would.

[Bill_Kar]

Ferrari seriously tricked us, they are quite faster than RB.

[Dr. Acula]

with DRS Lewis could barely get along side Alpha Tauri after the straight, so they definitely have issues on the PU side, as was evident after testing, and fixing porposing meant lower downforce over all (I suspect they raised the car to not get into the resonance window), and hence they thought the hard tire will work out better instead of mediums, softer tyres would simply burn up for them

but overall it doesn't seem yet that they have some fatal problems that would ruin the season, we can't guess right now how the car will work once they sort these things out, I'd expect it will be quite quick

and we also don't know how much development potential there is in the other design philosophies, it is entirely possible that this is close to all there is in the Ferrari and RB design, but Merc have much more to come from theirs, they aren't that far back IMO for a car that is "half broken"

edit: and lets not forget McLaren and AM both on the "weak" Merc PUs, so I'm guessing those 2 will bounce back once Merc fix their engine for this new fuel

Depends. Don't forget they can't just throw money and man-hours at a problem anymore like they could 2018 for instance. They have limited CFD and Windtunnel time and also a limited budget. So if they should find out that they can't solve the problems within a certain timeframe, i believe they will simply throw the towel for this season and go for the next season early.

[chrisc90]

Late double stop for redbull. Interesting.

[f1jcw]

Perez getting right royally shafted here

[Juzh]

Perez getting right royally shafted here

WTF u on about?

[chrisc90]

Perez getting right royally shafted here

All back to normal now sainz pitted

[GreyFox1]

This entire Mercedes pit strategy has been bizarre.

[GrizzleBoy]

Would you look at that.

[oT v1]

Unlucky Gasly.

Bit of drama incoming

[jz11]

so, how many will say that Gasly burned his engine so Max would end up behind Lec on new tires!? LOL
edit: for people that have no sense of humor - this is a joke