2023 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 03 - 05

[codetower]

Watching the interviews postqualifying it seems that all Merc, Ferrari and RB found more performance going into qualifying than they expected. Charles said he did not understand. Max said he did not understand why the car didn't work except for Q2 onwards.

Seems with lack of understanding even RB who are evolving their car the most can slip up and that gives opportunity for someone like Alonso for a race weekend or three this year to win, even if they never have the outright quickest car

It’s interesting that the BIG 3 are “surprised” they found more performance in Quali. I think they know exactly what they are doing. It’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow. I think this year is going to be a lot about strategy and a little good fortune sprinkled in.

[AR3-GP]

The AmuS article about Red Bull says that they initially planed to safe two new sets of softs for the race. Sounds like they didn't expect so much competition - in the end they needed all 5 instead to take the pole (although one of them only because of the red flag)

I think the surprise was the midfield teams. Max never looked confident for them to be thinking they would breeze through qualifying but they probably imagined there would be a bigger gap to the midfield.

[Venturiation]

Were red bull found cheating yet again, as there are rumours they had to lift the rear as it was too low.
Hence why they're not as comfortable now as they think they would be.

Verstappen also complained that the car wasn’t as good as testing so they did change something
And ride height doesn’t look so low anymore

[organic]

Were red bull found cheating yet again, as there are rumours they had to lift the rear as it was too low.
Hence why they're not as comfortable now as they think they would be.

Verstappen also complained that the car wasn’t as good as testing so they did change something
And ride height doesn’t look so low anymore

They changed setup massively and he said he was bouncing all over the track on Friday. So I think the car fell out of the window massively and they couldn't run so close to the ground. Clearly the car is optimized to run very low and I expect they'll try it again at Saudi

[AR3-GP]

Saudi is a very smooth track. They should be able to run low there.

[DChemTech]

Were red bull found cheating yet again, as there are rumours they had to lift the rear as it was too low.
Hence why they're not as comfortable now as they think they would be.

Even if the height was too low during testing (why I don't know if it was, or just some people think it was), if they raised it before any official session, they were not cheating. So no need for such accusations.

Perhaps they just wanted to show that the whole ride height change was an unnecessary rule change.

[Venturiation]

Were red bull found cheating yet again, as there are rumours they had to lift the rear as it was too low.
Hence why they're not as comfortable now as they think they would be.

Even if the height was too low during testing (why I don't know if it was, or just some people think it was), if they raised it before any official session, they were not cheating. So no need for such accusations.

Perhaps they just wanted to show that the whole ride height change was an unnecessary rule change.

There was no ride height rule change

You can run the car as low as you want, the rumor is about how they are going so low

[Artur Craft]

Just watched Max´s pole, what a tidy lap. Impressive that Perez is so close. Waiting for Juzh´s onboards to see if other cars could have been closer, like Alonso could

[search]

tyres left for the race (if I didn't get anything wrong):



those 2-lap-old softs Red Bull has are from the aborted attempt at the end of Q1. Perez did S1 at speed on them, Verstappen none.

[vassilispapadop]

Well done Yuki, .750s faster than well-hyped Nyck
Awesome job from Hulk-boy today

[Cs98]

Bahrain is a power track Am should be closer at other tracks.

They seem to not be as efficient as Ferrari or RB based on the telemetry and top speed data, whilst also being good on the brakes. These are characteristics that the f1-75 had relative to the RB18, so tracks where Ferrari were good last year should favour Aston martin

Austria for instance is shaping up as a very good opportunity for them, especially if they can develop to be a bit closer to RB by then.

Bahrain being a power track really does put a premium on power, not efficiency. It's the acceleration out of corners and down short straights that matters most. And in that department the Aston is comparable to Honda and Ferrari.

As far as their efficiency goes it's still quite good compared to the rest of the grid, it should not be a big issue on faster circuits.

The braking I think is more a consequence of Alonso pushing the braking zones whilst Verstappen prioritizes the exits.

[organic]

Bahrain is a power track Am should be closer at other tracks.

They seem to not be as efficient as Ferrari or RB based on the telemetry and top speed data, whilst also being good on the brakes. These are characteristics that the f1-75 had relative to the RB18, so tracks where Ferrari were good last year should favour Aston martin

Austria for instance is shaping up as a very good opportunity for them, especially if they can develop to be a bit closer to RB by then.

As far as their efficiency goes it's still quite good compared to the rest of the grid, it should not be a big issue on faster circuits.

We're talking about where they can be closer to the fastest car, not where they'll be in the overall pecking order. Their top speed was 319 kp/h whilst having less performance than RB in the high speed corners who were hitting 323-325.

I agree that Bahrain is a power circuit relative to most, that's part of why AMR are so good at Bahrain. The straights are short enough such that it doesn't make that weakness so obvious, but the telemetry makes it plain to see

Everyone knows Max is an early braker; the key is to look at Checo who is a late braker and only a tenth off max and compare that to the AMR, and you can see part of the advantage on the brakes comes from the car

[dreamerbih]

Just watched Max´s pole, what a tidy lap. Impressive that Perez is so close. Waiting for Juzh´s onboards to see if other cars could have been closer, like Alonso could

Alo left cca. 0,2 sec in the last turn, other then that his lap was ok. I think the real difference in quali mode is 0,4 sec between him and Max

[Cs98]

They seem to not be as efficient as Ferrari or RB based on the telemetry and top speed data, whilst also being good on the brakes. These are characteristics that the f1-75 had relative to the RB18, so tracks where Ferrari were good last year should favour Aston martin

Austria for instance is shaping up as a very good opportunity for them, especially if they can develop to be a bit closer to RB by then.

As far as their efficiency goes it's still quite good compared to the rest of the grid, it should not be a big issue on faster circuits.

We're talking about where they can be closer to the fastest car, not where they'll be in the overall pecking order. Their top speed was 319 kp/h whilst having less performance than RB in the high speed corners who were hitting 323-325.

I agree that Bahrain is a power circuit relative to most, that's part of why AMR are so good at Bahrain. The straights are short enough such that it doesn't make that weakness so obvious

You also need to take into account the unusually short gear ratios on the Merc (and AM). It's a benefit on the 3 shorter straights since they can easily push eight gear whilst RB stays in 7th, but it's a negative on the long straight.

[organic]

As far as their efficiency goes it's still quite good compared to the rest of the grid, it should not be a big issue on faster circuits.

We're talking about where they can be closer to the fastest car, not where they'll be in the overall pecking order. Their top speed was 319 kp/h whilst having less performance than RB in the high speed corners who were hitting 323-325.

I agree that Bahrain is a power circuit relative to most, that's part of why AMR are so good at Bahrain. The straights are short enough such that it doesn't make that weakness so obvious

You also need to take into account the unusually short gear ratios on the Merc (and AM). It's a benefit on the 3 shorter straights since they can easily push eight gear whilst RB stays in 7th, but it's a negative on the long straight.

I don't think the gear ratios are making nearly as much difference as aero The AMR car has to be weak in some places otherwise it would be the top of the timing. Reality is that its efficiency doesn't match up to RB/Ferrari who have been in an efficiency development race for 12 months - it's not surprising