2024 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, Feb 29 - Mar 02

[Cs98]

Bahrain was RB's most dominant race last year on pace despite them nursing a PU issue. They won by 40s to Alonso with Max driving to a delta. That might've been 30-35 seconds if Leclerc had remained in the race. This year Sainz finished 25 seconds behind despite being held up in the first stint and doing quite a bit of battling. Imagine if Leclerc hadn't had his brake issues and had been able to drive behind Max, kind of like 2023, then we might've been looking at 15 seconds gap instead of 25 seconds. All of which is to say this race is actually WAY more promising in terms of the full season than what we saw 12 months ago.

[CouncilorIrissa]

The "RB20 is akchusally not very dominant at all" narrative getting set up nicely for the second year in a row, eh.

[Cassius]

Bahrain was RB's most dominant race last year on pace despite them nursing a PU issue. They won by 40s to Alonso with Max driving to a delta. That might've been 30-35 seconds if Leclerc had remained in the race. This year Sainz finished 25 seconds behind despite being held up in the first stint and doing quite a bit of battling. Imagine if Leclerc hadn't had his brake issues and had been able to drive behind Max, kind of like 2023, then we might've been looking at 15 seconds gap instead of 25 seconds. All of which is to say this race is actually WAY more promising in terms of the full season than what we saw 12 months ago.

You cannot compare. We don’t know whether Max was nursing more than last year. Last year was hotter so that excarbated the gap for RB with their better deg.

Also waiting longer to pit than anyone else is lowering the risk for safety cars and giving you always the fresher tyre, but it is not beneficial for the overall gap. His hard stint was too short for example as he pitted later than anyone else but then covered immediately on 2nd stop.

[AR3-GP]

The "RB20 is akchusally not very dominant at all" narrative getting set up nicely for the second year in a row, eh.

In the Ferrari team thread you have post like this:

Charles seems very clear that 2nd would have been possible without issues: https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/lecle ... /10582411/

That's not the question and he knows that, why would he be so angry about a missed P2? What makes him so furious is feeling he could have fought Max for the win. He won't say it now of course, but we all know it would have been a different race had he been in a position to do to Max what Russell did to him in the 1st stint.

The issue Leclerc had made the RedBull look better than they were. It was a massive compromise, probably worth half a second per lap at least in the first 15 laps. Having to start braking 3 meters earlier and still locking up sounds like a major inconvenience for the driver.

Sainz managed to reduce the gap to RedBull to half from last year (+48 sec) to this year (+25 sec). That’s an impressive improvement on a track which in my opinion does not suit the SF-24. In Jeddah the gap to RedBull will be less.

It seems like people want to hold multiple views at the same time. That a) a team is closer than it looks and b) RB is dominant and no one is close, season boring, etc. It cannot be all of these things at the same time.

[Sofa King]

Max is brilliant, RB deserve all their success, but that was boring. First time in years I skipped through a recording of the race

[CouncilorIrissa]

The "RB20 is akchusally not very dominant at all" narrative getting set up nicely for the second year in a row, eh.

In the Ferrari team thread you have post like this:

Charles seems very clear that 2nd would have been possible without issues: https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/lecle ... /10582411/

That's not the question and he knows that, why would he be so angry about a missed P2? What makes him so furious is feeling he could have fought Max for the win. He won't say it now of course, but we all know it would have been a different race had he been in a position to do to Max what Russell did to him in the 1st stint.

The issue Leclerc had made the RedBull look better than they were. It was a massive compromise, probably worth half a second per lap at least in the first 15 laps. Having to start braking 3 meters earlier and still locking up sounds like a major inconvenience for the driver.

Sainz managed to reduce the gap to RedBull to half from last year (+48 sec) to this year (+25 sec). That’s an impressive improvement on a track which in my opinion does not suit the SF-24. In Jeddah the gap to RedBull will be less.

It seems like people want to hold multiple views at the same time. That a) a team is closer than it looks and b) RB is dominant and no one is close, season boring, etc. It cannot be all of these things at the same time.

Closer than results suggest != close. Both can be true.

[LM10]

In the Ferrari team thread you have post like this:

It’s none of your business what Ferrari fans in the Ferrari thread post about Ferrari. What’s your goal quoting us to a different post in a different thread? If you explicitly want to read how the RB20 is the most dominant car, Max the most dominant driver and RedBull the most dominant team in the history of mankind, you surely are in the wrong thread.

[Formula 1 fan]

After this race I am 99, 99 percent sure that I fully understand Lewis' decision to move to Ferrari, I will wait for the race in Saudi Arabia to be 100 percent sure of my thinking on Lewis' move to Ferrari.

[AR3-GP]

The "RB20 is akchusally not very dominant at all" narrative getting set up nicely for the second year in a row, eh.

In the Ferrari team thread you have post like this:

That's not the question and he knows that, why would he be so angry about a missed P2? What makes him so furious is feeling he could have fought Max for the win. He won't say it now of course, but we all know it would have been a different race had he been in a position to do to Max what Russell did to him in the 1st stint.

The issue Leclerc had made the RedBull look better than they were. It was a massive compromise, probably worth half a second per lap at least in the first 15 laps. Having to start braking 3 meters earlier and still locking up sounds like a major inconvenience for the driver.

Sainz managed to reduce the gap to RedBull to half from last year (+48 sec) to this year (+25 sec). That’s an impressive improvement on a track which in my opinion does not suit the SF-24. In Jeddah the gap to RedBull will be less.

It seems like people want to hold multiple views at the same time. That a) a team is closer than it looks and b) RB is dominant and no one is close, season boring, etc. It cannot be all of these things at the same time.

Closer than results suggest != close. Both can be true.

Close than result suggest would imply the RB20 is not dominant. That is my point.

[SoulPancake13]

In the Ferrari team thread you have post like this:








It seems like people want to hold multiple views at the same time. That a) a team is closer than it looks and b) RB is dominant and no one is close, season boring, etc. It cannot be all of these things at the same time.

Closer than results suggest != close. Both can be true.

Close than result suggest would imply the RB20 is not dominant. That is my point.

Either way, why bring up the Ferrari team thread here... it's really none of your business. And to your point, that makes little sense. If I am 7 tenths off but should be 5 tenths off, the car ahead is still dominant...

[AR3-GP]

Closer than results suggest != close. Both can be true.

Close than result suggest would imply the RB20 is not dominant. That is my point.

Either way, why bring up the Ferrari team thread here... it's really none of your business. And to your point, that makes little sense. If I am 7 tenths off but should be 5 tenths off, the car ahead is still dominant...

The claims being made put Ferrari and Mercedes at 2-3 tenths deficit after we account for Merc's engine issues and Leclercs brake issues. That is within the track to track team performance tolerances (i.e not dominant).

[Xyz22]

Considering that usually Charles is around 0.25s quicker than Sainz in Bahrain and Max was clearly managing in this race it's highly likely that the real gap is probably between 0.3s and 0.4s which makes the RB20 absolutely dominant.

Such a gap would result in Max still finishing 20s before anyone else.

The season is completely over and RB will probably win all the 24 races but that was to be expected. Some people tried to push insane false narratives last year that were clearly either made by diehards Verstappen fans or LM PRs to spin the new regulations are amazing.

[AR3-GP]

For me, only half a second or more is dominant but I understand that this is a subjective decision. A 3 tenths margin will be overcome by track-to-track variations of relative car performance so cannot be dominant.

[Xyz22]

For me, only half a second or more is dominant but I understand that this is a subjective decision. A 3 tenths margin will be overcome by track-to-track variations of relative car performance so cannot be dominant.

A pure 0.3s advantage makes a car absolutely dominant.

[AR3-GP]

For me, only half a second or more is dominant but I understand that this is a subjective decision. A 3 tenths margin will be overcome by track-to-track variations of relative car performance so cannot be dominant.

A pure 0.3s advantage makes a car absolutely dominant.

Considering that the typical big upgrade package of a team can be worth 3 tenths, then 3 tenths is not enough for a team to be out of reach over a season. Especially not when you consider both an upgrade package and track to track favoritism.

That is why I put the dominant gap at 5 tenths or more. You are dominant when you are still leading after another team brings a big upgrade package and you didn't change your car. It's incredibly rare to see a 5 tenths upgrade package which is why it's a good number.