2022 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 18 - 20

[taperoo2k]

RedBull with be thankful that it’s not tied to components. I’m wrong on that point.

I think it depends on which part of the fuel system went wrong. Might not be an easy fix for Red Bull.
The fuel system is a critical part of the PU, it's not something you want to have issues with.

[Mchamilton]

How wrong I was!

Ferrari not only is the fastest car but did not have any technical failure, RB, on the other hand..... what a nightmare race for them.

Nah Ferrari not the fastest car. That difference was down to Leclerc's clever driving and tyre management. If anything the cars were more or less equal in race trim. I actually expected RedBull to walk away with it but tyre issues came to be the decider today.

I see it different. This is a Ferrari track. I suspect Ferrari to be strong on traction limited tracks. Looks great out of the slow stuff

Yep i agree. I expect RB to be ahead at jeddah with all the high speed and top speed sections

[PlatinumZealot]

How wrong I was!

Ferrari not only is the fastest car but did not have any technical failure, RB, on the other hand..... what a nightmare race for them.

Nah Ferrari not the fastest car. That difference was down to Leclerc's clever driving and tyre management. If anything the cars were more or less equal in race trim. I actually expected RedBull to walk away with it but tyre issues came to be the decider today.

Sorry, but I don't think this is the case. Leclerc was faster than Max , Max could only get close due to undercut but after that he could never stay close and Sainz was never really threatened by Perez. Ferrari had the best car today, even though not dominantly so, but of course Leclerc did a fantastic job.

For whatever reason, Friday tricked us regarding race pace.

Ah! You didn't notice that for strategic reasons RedBull started Max on used softs. This is what explained the first stin. After that Max had similar pace or better before his tyres started to go off.

I was actually impressed how the RedBull swallowed up so much road on the main straight to catch Charles. Impressive car.

Still nip and tuck but visually the RedBull has the better overall balance. They just didn't get the tyre management right in this race.

[chrisc90]

Epic race!

At last Red Bull and Max get what they deserve...! Leclerc is the only guy that can play Max's games and still beat him fair and square! Hamilton wasn't quite that aggressive last year...

The new cars seem to do exactly what they were designed for...everyone was so close together and cars following never looked unsettled by the car in front!! Bravo F1!!

Ahh the pettiness stll continues from the Merc boys.

Wouldnt say the new cars did much different from last year either. 1/3 of the grid got lapped by lap 40 and huge gaps between everyone.

Only bonus was cars seemed to sit right behind better.

[Mr5in1]

Overall a decent race, I think the safety car injected a bit of excitement but for all new rules and cars it was fine.

Congrats to Ferrari they look solid very good performance all weekend, Red Bull unlucky at the end there hopefully not a recurring issue for them.

I am a Mercedes fan and hope they can peg back some performance back, they looked OK for a couple of laps but looked very draggy and slow to stop, very compromised set up, be interesting to see how performance compares on a less traction limited track.

Very surprised to see Aston Martin and Mclaren struggling so much. Hopefully they can get in the mix soon and join Haas / Alpha Romeo / Alpine they are all doing good jobs too.

[NathanOlder]

Why? This is the way it has always been. Seems Masi's shennanigans last year muddled up your understanding of the rules.

I think we can now stop blaming Masi, after the FIA report, as FIA did not blame Masi, so it must be somone higher up who got it done through Masi, and then made him the scapegoat.

No they just blamed ‘Human error’. Now which Human could they be talking about.

The human who got sacked ?

[Schippke]

Just saw one of the post race interviews with Charles, saying he was joking about having power unit issues towards the end of the race... Might've hit a bit closer to home when both of the Bull started stuttering...

[dialtone]

Nah Ferrari not the fastest car. That difference was down to Leclerc's clever driving and tyre management. If anything the cars were more or less equal in race trim. I actually expected RedBull to walk away with it but tyre issues came to be the decider today.

Sorry, but I don't think this is the case. Leclerc was faster than Max , Max could only get close due to undercut but after that he could never stay close and Sainz was never really threatened by Perez. Ferrari had the best car today, even though not dominantly so, but of course Leclerc did a fantastic job.

For whatever reason, Friday tricked us regarding race pace.

Ah! You didn't notice that for strategic reasons RedBull started Max on used softs. This is what explained the first stin. After that Max had similar pace or better before his tyres started to go off.

I was actually impressed how the RedBull swallowed up so much road on the main straight to catch Charles. Impressive car.

Still nip and tuck but visually the RedBull has the better overall balance. They just didn't get the tyre management right in this race.

Everyone noticed it. LEC was the only one on new softs with MAG. And that turned into an advantage for VER at the start of the second stint when he could attack while LEC was on used softs.

Any other case in the race was never in contention.

[PlatinumZealot]

How wrong I was!

Ferrari not only is the fastest car but did not have any technical failure, RB, on the other hand..... what a nightmare race for them.

Nah Ferrari not the fastest car. That difference was down to Leclerc's clever driving and tyre management. If anything the cars were more or less equal in race trim. I actually expected RedBull to walk away with it but tyre issues came to be the decider today.

Again I think you watched a different race… Lec had a 0.1-2 advantage in pace AND both FER were managing tires better, even SAI was lapping at the same pace as VER at the end of their stints.

At the moment that FER is the benchmark car. Might not last but it’s a fact now.

One tenth to two tenths is within the standard error for drivers. Look at Carlos vs Charles. Perez was actually closer to Max's pace than Carlos to Charle's.. So yeah two tenths is withing driver skill. Leclerc is just that good at managing his pace... Or maybe the RedBull takes more out of its tyres this year. But the RB looks more balanced to me and it has higher top speed.

[Big Tea]

Leclerc was also saying on the radio that he had engine problems on the last lap.

Could you possibly find a link for that? Didn't get any of that on the broadcast...

He said in the interview he was kidding. And his engineer did not like it

[Bill_Kar]

Nah Ferrari not the fastest car. That difference was down to Leclerc's clever driving and tyre management. If anything the cars were more or less equal in race trim. I actually expected RedBull to walk away with it but tyre issues came to be the decider today.

Sorry, but I don't think this is the case. Leclerc was faster than Max , Max could only get close due to undercut but after that he could never stay close and Sainz was never really threatened by Perez. Ferrari had the best car today, even though not dominantly so, but of course Leclerc did a fantastic job.

For whatever reason, Friday tricked us regarding race pace.

Ah! You didn't notice that for strategic reasons RedBull started Max on used softs. This is what explained the first stin. After that Max had similar pace or better before his tyres started to go off.

I was actually impressed how the RedBull swallowed up so much road on the main straight to catch Charles. Impressive car.

Still nip and tuck but visually the RedBull has the better overall balance. They just didn't get the tyre management right in this race.

Yeah but the second stint was the same story, the gap was crawling slowly but steadily towards 4-5 secs. Maybe I accept that blocking his tyres played a role, but even on the mediums Verstappen was never close and the gap creeped up to 4 secs again before the final pit stop.

[NathanOlder]

Yeah, it was not good from Max.
he was complaining like a child (Ted put it very well on live tv)

It's a good thing F1TV finally got hold of some good commentators this year who aren't absolute morons such as 80% of sky crew, so I finally no longer have to listen to them. Pff, what a relief. Ted is the biggest clown of them all, followed by hill and herbert.

Funny how Ben Edwards and Jolyon Palmer are able to stay nearly perfectly neutral despite also both being British.

I think Martin Brundle is a gem and neutral. I prefer it for that reason. But I'd love to have Ben Edwards beside him or James Allen

Come on man, James Allen!!!!! Never in a million years! He was 100 times more hyper and crazy than crofty

[chrisc90]

Wonder if we going to have a hugely powerful undercut with these tyres this year. Twice max managed to take out a good 3 seconds by pitting first.

[PlatinumZealot]

Epic race!

At last Red Bull and Max get what they deserve...! Leclerc is the only guy that can play Max's games and still beat him fair and square! Hamilton wasn't quite that aggressive last year...

The new cars seem to do exactly what they were designed for...everyone was so close together and cars following never looked unsettled by the car in front!! Bravo F1!!

Ahh the pettiness stll continues from the Merc boys.

Wouldnt say the new cars did much different from last year either. 1/3 of the grid got lapped by lap 40 and huge gaps between everyone.

Only bonus was cars seemed to sit right behind better.

Jokes on you!! AMG Tarzan is NOT a Mercedes boy. He is a Schumacher fan and he is very critical of Merc actually.

[lh13]

Sorry, but I don't think this is the case. Leclerc was faster than Max , Max could only get close due to undercut but after that he could never stay close and Sainz was never really threatened by Perez. Ferrari had the best car today, even though not dominantly so, but of course Leclerc did a fantastic job.

For whatever reason, Friday tricked us regarding race pace.

Ah! You didn't notice that for strategic reasons RedBull started Max on used softs. This is what explained the first stin. After that Max had similar pace or better before his tyres started to go off.

I was actually impressed how the RedBull swallowed up so much road on the main straight to catch Charles. Impressive car.

Still nip and tuck but visually the RedBull has the better overall balance. They just didn't get the tyre management right in this race.

Yeah but the second stint was the same story, the gap was crawling slowly but steadily towards 4-5 secs. Maybe I accept that blocking his tyres played a role, but even on the mediums Verstappen was never close and the gap creeped up to 4 secs again before the final pit stop.

RedBull were also having brake overheating issues the whole races, as reported during live broadcast, so that could be it. Plus RB looked to have gone with lower downforce than Ferrari here, and with their top speed advantage, perhaps they can afford to add a bit of dirty downforce to take care of their tyre degradation a bit better.