2018 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, April 6-8

[timbo]

Interesting, quite close competition all across the field. This season starts to look like 2008 to me, not bad.
But we'll see...

[Redragon]

I put a bet on Raikonnen to win this year the championship

[Singabule]

Well, No.2 has to put up with these small inconveniences. How else will No.1 will look good.

- They used de facto team orders in the first race of the season . It goes downhill after that.

Haven't watched but:
- Another chapter of creative excuses for Sixth Sense driver: unspecified (=made up) problems in Aus, power increase from heavens now .

- FIA should look closer into Toro Rosso = Red Bull partnership. Unfair and potentially illegal advantages like that are against the spirit of F1. Did you notice that headlines about FIA investigating Haas (they made sure to put "cheating" in them) were big and those with "clarification" either small or non-existent?

Different engine, aero, backend, Everything is different. Your logic is so correct...

[LM10]

They used de facto team orders in the first race of the season . It goes downhill after that.

I don't know how it's team order to pit your leading driver? It's a thing every team does. This was the most possible way to do an undercut or put pressure on Mercedes. If they had pitted Vettel first, Mercedes would have told "Thank you" and just kept on driving and also looking after tyres. What's more, then again people would have told that Ferrari pitted Vettel first to put pressure or even overtake Kimi. VSC was a lucky thing and Vettel would have not even overtaken Kimi, if it didn't happen.

I'm not saying that there is no team order at Ferrari. There is, but it isn't as dramatic as people try to make it look. Even Kimi told after Melbourne that strategically there wasn't anything which affected him or made the difference. Again, without VSC he would have finished second.

[MtthsMlw]

[Vasconia]

That sure is a surprise after Melbourne.

Is the Ferrari now the car that is good on your average Tilkedrome and not so good on street circuits?

Thats an interesting point because it may be true, Ferrari is now more aero efficient?

for the record, Gene has said that China will be quite more difficult track for them so it will be interesting to see where is the ferrari really fast, I guess we need more races

Congratulations for Toro Rosso, that was a stunning performance, Mclaren must be shocked with this

[foxmulder_ms]

That sure is a surprise after Melbourne.

Is the Ferrari now the car that is good on your average Tilkedrome and not so good on street circuits?

Thats an interesting point because it may be true, Ferrari is now more aero efficient?

for the record, Gene has said that China will be quite more difficult track for them so it will be interesting to see where is the ferrari really fast, I guess we need more races

Congratulations for Toro Rosso, that was a stunning performance, Mclaren must be shocked with this

haha, I cannot help but smile. Keep blaming engines Mclaren and Redbull.. Horner will ask for the "white smoke ban" from the Ferrari engines after the "party mode ban".

[foxmulder_ms]

Raikkonen claiming traffic affected his final run. Any evidence to support this?

He to back off behind Ric for his outlap then Sainz and Hulk got in the way during his flying lap, no blatant blocking just affecting downforce into those high speed sections. Ferrari should've had him out right behind Seb but there you go.

I don't really believe Ferrari did this on purpose, do you? I mean, why should they risk losing a car on front row? If Mercedes could have improved on their second runs, Kimi would have possibly dropped to P4.
If they wanted to favor Vettel, they would do it in the race after starting both cars in front row instead of purposely losing important team points to Mercedes.

What "if". You think they dont

[Radley]

I don't like the engine rules where the teams limit time on track and performance to save their engines.

I don't like the new rule of venting the crankcase to the atmosphere. Now we see the Ferrari engines going around with wisps of oil spewing out.

[LM10]

He to back off behind Ric for his outlap then Sainz and Hulk got in the way during his flying lap, no blatant blocking just affecting downforce into those high speed sections. Ferrari should've had him out right behind Seb but there you go.

I don't really believe Ferrari did this on purpose, do you? I mean, why should they risk losing a car on front row? If Mercedes could have improved on their second runs, Kimi would have possibly dropped to P4.
If they wanted to favor Vettel, they would do it in the race after starting both cars in front row instead of purposely losing important team points to Mercedes.

What "if". You think they dont

I think they do. Just meant that if they had to choose between having both cars on front row or let one car qualify behind Mercedes, they would go with first option I assume.

Ferrari is not the only team having team orders. Also Mercedes has a number 1 driver. However, they make it look less dramatical. But using Bottas to slow down Vettel so Hamilton can catch up and afterwards letting Hamilton overtake instead of giving Bottas his "own" race in Bahrain last year showed this, for example.

[digitalrurouni]

I don't like the engine rules where the teams limit time on track and performance to save their engines.

I don't like the new rule of venting the crankcase to the atmosphere. Now we see the Ferrari engines going around with wisps of oil spewing out.

Agreed. Isn't venting the crank cases against what F1 stands for being all green and stuff?

[MtthsMlw]

RIP Bird & FW

[matt_b]

[zibby43]

Tires are everything at this circuit, and Merc couldn’t keep them alive well enough with respect to single lap pace. Team is now even admitting this,

Merc’s long run degradation looks pretty okay, however.

Just want to see a cracker of a race.

[DVB]

I just saw the run of Vettel for the pole position. Damn, that is just nuts. How can they brake so late after the long straight crossing start/finish and all the downshifting / focussing the same time? Those drivers are really made out of the finest on earth.

No wonder there aren't that many overtakes as a few years ago. It's just way more difficult.

At least hoping for a good race tomorrow! Fingers x'ssd