2016 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

Peter.
Haas has taught me to not listen to everything Ted Kravitz says pre season. According to him Haas were going to be languishing in the back, and Manor were going to be faster than McLaren.
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To be fair most would of tipped the same about Haas, however no one really knew how deep the Ferrari technical alliance actually was, it ended up much bigger then most expected.
 
Jimlaad43
Whoever decided to allow three compounds of tyre at a race was a genius. Rather then being stuck to maybe a maximum of three different strategies, teams can try anything. There was racing throughout the field between different teams, and it was great fun.

Just fix quali and F1 is actually looking really good this season.
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I'm still sorta on the fence with the three compound rule. Whilst on the face of it it does of course introduce more variety it doesn't create too many close battles, in the sense that most of the time the difference is so big on the tyres, plus DRS, the passes are inevitable and simple. We have seen far more of those passes whilst stuff like Hamilton vs Rosberg at Bahrain 2014 have been much fewer. A lot of the time it's almost like different races are going on, and occasionally meet on track. When it's someon

But I guess until they do something about the aero it's the best we're going to get, as Hamilton said, without that gap in tyres that 2014 battle likely wouldn't have happened.
 
Drs doesn't need to exist any more, yes there is some race tracks where passing will be nearly impossible without it, but for the others it's removing the ability of the defending driver to defend their position when someone has a tyre overlap.
 
Fun race. The shenanigans in the opening laps had me on the edge of my bar stool. :nervous:

Nice results for Grosjean and Vandoorne! That Haas had some pace, and the McLaren looked surprisingly racey at times.

P.S. Get rid of that borked qualifying experiment. It's bad, and you should feel bad.
 
I feel bad for Gutierrez, he is usually driving well until something bad happens. I will flip when both Haas score points in one race.
 
If Ferrari can get their reliability sorted out, I think there's tracks where they will be able to take the fight to Merc. I think Redbull will be a threat later in the year on the real tight and twisty tracks too.
 
If McLaren doesn't get their starts down I can only imagine how the pileup in Monaco will be :scared::scared::scared:

Edit:Not Mclaren, but Mercedes.
 
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Rosberg seems to get off the line rather well. It's Hamilton that apparently struggles to find his race start mojo.
 
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With that in mind, how long until the FIA agree to "trial" a different rule? How about 'At all times, cars must be using at least 2 tyre different compounds. Front and rear / left to right variations are allowed, but Rear to front / right to left variation is forbidden.'....
 
Robin.
But I kind of have a feeling that even though he was ahead of Vandoorne at the time it somehow would end up going south later on. Button regularly manages to convert respectable mid race mid field positions into a outside the points finishes. He always seem to loose pace near the end of a race... maybe it's a fatigue thing.
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That is because of staying out on the first set if tyres, passing the cars that pit when they should - to gain position on the track - and then running on old tyres when everyone else is now on brand new rubber. When Button then pits he not only loses the positions that he gained from people pitting from in front of him but a few who where behind him will have pitted at the right time and will now be in front of him due to the faster pace they had on newer tyres.

Perhaps Mclaren are hoping for a safety car or something, but they do have the data available to them so they know what is happening.

They had a really slow car last season and that is the only way to make any kind of progress.

This season it is too early to say. I do find it funny that you you think Vandoorne somehow did a better job though. He was lapped near the end. Button was lapped near the end in Australia as well. That therefore appears to be the pace of the car.
 
prisonermonkeys
It's still an improvement on last year.
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Yeah, the car lasts long enough for strategies to become a factor!

It is frustrating seeing them so far back all the time, and there isn't always a lot of coverage of them as a result to understand whether it might be pure pace or tyre condition setting them back. We all know about engine power, but that seemed to be working well for them in Bahrain...
 

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