2019 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

[GroupB]

If you think one team dominating is bad, you should have been around for the Schumacher years at Ferrari, where his teammate was routinely moved aside for him to take the victory and the championships were sewn up by late summer.

 

[Schmiggz]

The same team winning year after year is not good for any sport.

So much has been done in the last years to make it more competitive but F1 never had the guts to touch the main issue.... MONEY! Mercedes has double the budget that the whole mid field combined!
This is what has to change! Put a ceiling for christ sakes!

 

[AshenGraey]

If you think one team dominating is bad, you should have been around for the Schumacher years at Ferrari, where his teammate was routinely moved aside for him to take the victory and the championships were sewn up by late summer.

Are you saying some of his 91 record wins were just handed to him?? *shocking*

 

[BrainsBush]

watched the race wth a delay of 1,5 hours. So could not participate in this topic.
What a strange race. After about 10 laps I thought this is going to be a boring race. Then suddenly it spiced up.

What happened to Vettel?
And then at the end the unfortunate but deserved DOTD Charles. A bit of 'luck' for him the race ended under SC and kept him on the podium

Pff a lot to talk afterwards. Ferrari with Vettel under pressure and then a failing MGU for LeClerc. Ouch. Media in Italy exploding

Expected more from Max' teammate Pierre. He could again not really overtake others easily. I think his car/engine is good enough?
Renault never mind...
Haas Günter guaranteed a star role in 'Drive to survive part II episode 1&2'.

Now up to 1000th race in China.

 

[GroupB]

Are you saying some of his 91 record wins were just handed to him?? *shocking*

One article said Rubens’ entire career at Ferrari was spent “being Michael Schumacher’s stooge” which is a tiny bit funny and a whole lot sad.

 

[andrea]

Someone accidentally pressed shutdown team.

This seemed like Renault remotely shut off the wrong car after the engine blew. /s

 

[GroupB]

So much has been done in the last years to make it more competitive but F1 never had the guts to touch the main issue.... MONEY! Mercedes has double the budget that the whole mid field combined!
This is what has to change! Put a ceiling for christ sakes!

Isn’t there also one team that gets a special $100 million bonus per year just for showing up? I can’t remember who, though {scratches head}

 

[Auditore]

Was there any mention of the cause of simultaneous failures for Renault or if they were related?

Thanos snapped both cars that's my best guess.

 

[baldgye]

Well after winter testing who would have predicted Merc would get back to back 1-2’s and that Bottas would be leading the championship??

I had to watch highlights but it seemed like a cracker! Lewis had a mega move on Seb, twice and the second time Seb just decided to drop it and throw away his race.
Gutted for Leclerc but at least he got his podium.

I’m shocked at how quickly Leclerc has gotten on the pace to Vettel and how quickly Vettel’s race mistakes have cropped up this season.

I think the title could be Lewis Vs Leclerc rather than vs Vettel unless he really changes something

 

[axletramp]

I know Seb is going through it currently, but there's no denying he's not learnt much from the last two seasons about calming down and dealing with pressure. Especially when that pressure has been increased by a talented young team mate who's been faster in both the opening two races.

Ferrari must be fuming at a second Merc 1-2 with the advantage they appeared to show during testing. The last thing you need is your "lead" driver spinning out on his own like an F3 rookie. He should be using his experience to bag solid points and letting the new guy find his feet. Feels like the other way around at the moment.

Having said that, the Ferrari is quick and this is only the second race, so hopefully this one could got down to the wire. It's just not clear which Ferrari will be in the main challenger.

 

[daan]

I heard that Renault shut down both cars to preserve Leclerc's podium.

 

[Betty blue]

It's funny to see people talking like they understand everything and have an inside knowledge of the teams....

My prediction is that these cars are so sensitive to set ups, and we have seen big gaps between the same cars in these two rounds. Leclerc was nowhere in the first race until the issue with Seb, and Sebastian was nowhere in Bahrain. The same thing for Merc. Gasly is still nowhere. The Renault as well, Ric is slow compared to his teammate. It could be either tyre issues or set up, but it seems to me like a little changes make a huge difference for these cars.

 

[baldgye]

I know Seb is going through it currently, but there's no denying he's not learnt much from the last two seasons about calming down and dealing with pressure. Especially when that pressure has been increased by a talented young team mate who's been faster in both the opening two races.

Ferrari must be fuming at a second Merc 1-2 with the advantage they appeared to show during testing. The last thing you need is your "lead" driver spinning out on his own like an F3 rookie. He should be using his experience to bag solid points and letting the new guy find his feet. Feels like the other way around at the moment.

Having said that, the Ferrari is quick and this is only the second race, so hopefully this one could got down to the wire. It's just not clear which Ferrari will be in the main challenger.

To be fair, the Ferrari's looked like the Merc's did from a year or two ago. At the start they just drove off into the distance... I watched Channel 4's highlights so I wasn't really sure how Vettel's tyre degradation was such that it allowed Lewis to pass, but Leclerc had Lewis and Vettel covered and for the second in as many races had Vettel beat in the race.

 

[baldgye]

Leclerc was nowhere in the first race until the issue with Seb...

I mean, that’s not really true.
Both Vettel and Leclerc where nowhere in Australia, but Leclerc’s strategy worked out better and he was in a good position. For his first race for Ferrari in only his second season he was looking good. And if he hadn’t made an error in Q3 would have been right on him there too.

 

[MatskiMonk]

If you think one team dominating is bad, you should have been around for the Schumacher years at Ferrari, where his teammate was routinely moved aside for him to take the victory and the championships were sewn up by late summer.

Even so, Mercedes have won 74.5% of the GP's since the start of their era in 2014. Red Bull enjoyed 4 years of winning 53.5% of races, and even Schumacher's '00-'04 run only saw Ferrari winning 68.3% of races. Mercedes is currently the most dominant team in decades, moreso than either Red Bull or Ferrari were - if dominance is bad for a sport (and I believe it is), then this is currently the worst era since.... ummm, my spreadsheet only goes back 27 years.. That's not to say he races can't still be entertaining, but to me, it's still a long way from the likes of 2008 or 2012, where Hamilton and Vettel were driving cars that won the lowest percentage of races (33.3% for Hamilton in 2008, and 35.0% for Vettel in 2012)... not that I'll be watching any F1 until 2025 anyway

 

[yas]

To be fair, the Ferrari's looked like the Merc's did from a year or two ago. At the start they just drove off into the distance... I watched Channel 4's highlights so I wasn't really sure how Vettel's tyre degradation was such that it allowed Lewis to pass, but Leclerc had Lewis and Vettel covered and for the second in as many races had Vettel beat in the race.

TBF it wasn't to degradation. Ham got his second stint strategy bad, so had to go in early. The thing is - this track really seems to work for undercuts - pitting in, then going out allows for serious speed. Ferrari decided to protect Leclerc so they pit him first. This meant Vettel lost his advantage and when he came out was within Hamilton's reach.

 

[GroupB]

I don’t think it’s accurate to say that Mercedes has dominated every year of the turbo-hybrid era either. Ferrari threw away last season and so far that seems to be their plan this year as well.

 

[PeterJB]

Oh dear, Vettel does like to make it difficult for his long-term fans!

As always the experts are out en masse (not necessarily in this thread) talking about Vettel only won his four titles because he had the fastest car and apparently seem to think that Lewis has been driving a Minardi for the past six seasons. Even last year with the spins Vettel still pulled off the moves when he had to. This time seven years ago it was Lewis that was invisible and had completely lost his mojo, he's just winning the mind games at the moment, and also has a team that actually puts some thought into their race strategies.

 

[baldgye]

TBF it wasn't to degradation. Ham got his second stint strategy bad, so had to go in early. The thing is - this track really seems to work for undercuts - pitting in, then going out allows for serious speed. Ferrari decided to protect Leclerc so they pit him first. This meant Vettel lost his advantage and when he came out was within Hamilton's reach.

Ah ok, though to be fair before Lewis’s pit he was closing in on Vettel, but maybe the highlights made it look more dramatic than it was?

But I think Ferrari boxed Leclerc first because he was the leading Ferrari, more than anything else

 

[Betty blue]

I mean, that’s not really true.
Both Vettel and Leclerc where nowhere in Australia, but Leclerc’s strategy worked out better and he was in a good position. For his first race for Ferrari in only his second season he was looking good. And if he hadn’t made an error in Q3 would have been right on him there too.

Yeah the Ferrari were off in Australia, but it's has nothing to do with strategy. Seb was around 10sec ahead when pitted, but after 4-5 laps of pitting his pace dropped heavily by almost 3sec a lap, and no one knows why!

It does not matter if it is the first race for Leclerc or not, he had a season of experience and lots of mileage in testing. He should be well femilar with the car.

 

[axletramp]

Post race Leclerc mention he would have been in trouble with fuel towards the end of the race had he continued at that pace. Does that suggest they were running his engine in an aggressive mode to stay away from Hamilton? If so, that could go some way to explaining the failure or, at the very least, not helped.

 

[baldgye]

Post race Leclerc mention he would have been in trouble with fuel towards the end of the race had he continued at that pace. Does that suggest they were running his engine in an aggressive mode to stay away from Hamilton? If so, that could go some way to explaining the failure or, at the very least, not helped.

Rather than fuel mode, could be that he was just pushing hard. Not lifting and coasting as he probably would need to do (as all the teams/drivers do) would affect his fuel. I imagine if he had no issues the gap of ~8 seconds would have come down a couple maybe, assuming Lewis was managing his fuel.

He probably would have been fine but it’s probably unnerving having a 5x WC behind you with similar pace

 

[Sureboss]

Post race Leclerc mention he would have been in trouble with fuel towards the end of the race had he continued at that pace. Does that suggest they were running his engine in an aggressive mode to stay away from Hamilton? If so, that could go some way to explaining the failure or, at the very least, not helped.

I understood that was meant because he had no battery power for those last ~10 laps, which will increase fuel consumption.

 

[BrainsBush]

I heard that Renault shut down both cars to preserve Leclerc's podium.

haha Also my first (wrong) thoughts. "everything to prevent RBR a podium place"
Now after reading Abitebouls response: ouch Renault has still a serious reliability engine issue. Easy to 'judge' afterwards. Risky but good move from RedBull to choose Honda (until proven otherwise)

Like Max said afterwards: Glad that my friend Charles could hold the podium and we didnot deserve a podium today.

 

[axletramp]

I understood that was meant because he had no battery power for those last ~10 laps, which will increase fuel consumption.

Ah OK, that makes sense. When Brundle grabbed him after the race it just sounded like he was saying the car was struggling with fuel so might not have won anyway - in a kind of gracious/humble sort of way. I took that as an overall issue (due to pushing) rather than one caused by the engine problem.

 

[Wiz]

Ferrari said it was not an MGU-H problem - https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-leclerc-engine-problem-bahrain/4362698/

 

[Schmiggz]

Isn’t there also one team that gets a special $100 million bonus per year just for showing up? I can’t remember who, though {scratches head}

No idea what you're talking about...
And... it's so sad to see Williams dragging their butts on the track...

 

[Jimlaad43]

I'm waiting for Vettel to cause Kvyat to hit Albon in China, followed by Vettel punting Kvyat into the wall in Baku, leading to Vettel and Giovinazzi swapping seats from Spain onwards.

 

[axletramp]

Ferrari said it was not an MGU-H problem - https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-leclerc-engine-problem-bahrain/4362698/

Let's hope it turns out to be an ignition problem and not a dead unit. That would really make Leclerc's day.

 

[Turbotwin01]

It bothers me to no end why the broadcasters always say "well its max verstappen, you gotta know he's gonna make a move no matter what." I dont see why its everyone elses job to keep out of his way.

That being said I dont think it was his fault for what happened to sainz.