2023 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 03 - 05

[Juzh]

Verstappen started final lap with 6 seconds to spare, then aborted just after crossing start finish line, doesn't say anything on the radio, nor does he gets told a thing, not even where cars are around him. strange

Found out now that there was technical issue in qualifying meaning the team radio was not being broadcast yesterday with the onboards

I guess that's why there wasn't any post qualifying team radio from pole sitter on world feed. Unprofessional on FOMs part. I don't remember a year when there werent some sort of teething issues in first few races.

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here's also the official tyre list now:

[CharlieHind]

Hi all, been lurking around F1 technical since around 2012... finally made an account to start posting!

On the RBR ride height, Ted Kravitz is reporting that they were worried about plank wear after testing hence the slight ride height change and presumably that's the reason for them being slightly less dominant. For me that says the red bull might not be as bulletproof as we all think, especially when we get to the really bumpy tracks like Baku, or anywhere which might require slightly higher ride heights (Austria comes to mind with the curbs there...)

Anyway, in terms of Bahrain and the race, I'm a bit confused about all this tyre chat. Everyone seems to be inferring that Leclerc saved those new softs for the first stint... Have the rules changed regarding using the set of tyres you set the fastest time on in Q2? I know that's not the case for sprint races but otherwise I don't see how the fresh set would help the first stint. More likely surely is that Lec is going to do soft-hard-soft since the new hard tyres are apparently a very good race tyre?

Either way I'm looking forward to the race, even if it's just in the hope that something more interesting than Ver gapping the field by 30 seconds happens. These 2 stop/1 stop marginal races always tend to be quite interesting but as has been pointed out, surely the 1 stop here has been proven to be a losing strat.

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here's also the official tyre list now:

https://i.imgur.com/7CmPPUC.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SZYCitW.jpg

Thank you kindly

Interesting pirelli reckon S-M-S is possible. Might see someone try it but I'd expect it to be slower based on the c2's performance

[Juzh]

After looking at a bunch of telemetry traces it seems no engine manufacturer managed to jump significantly ahead, if anything they're even more level now than last year. Ferrari is maybe a very slight outlier, however that's probably largely down to their wing choice and bears no resemblance to the supposed 30 bhp jump rumoured by italian media. Thoughts?

[chrisc90]

After looking at a bunch of telemetry traces it seems no engine manufacturer managed to jump significantly ahead, if anything they're even more level now than last year. Ferrari is maybe a very slight outlier, however that's probably largely down to their wing choice and bears no resemblance to the supposed 30 bhp jump rumoured by italian media. Thoughts?

I asked similar in the Ferrari Team thread.

Didn't exactly appear obvious that there was a 30bhp increase at all.

[organic]

After looking at a bunch of telemetry traces it seems no engine manufacturer managed to jump significantly ahead, if anything they're even more level now than last year. Ferrari is maybe a very slight outlier, however that's probably largely down to their wing choice and bears no resemblance to the supposed 30 bhp jump rumoured by italian media. Thoughts?

I thought the same from telemetry. If anything seems like Renault might be equal or slightly ahead of Mercedes this year in 1 lap which suggests the 4 engines are even closer than last year

I also don't see any traction advantage that the Ferrari engine seemed to offer last season early on

But in the race we will see if there are any large deployment differences.

[Vanja #66]

They started 2022 with X, in Barca they went for X+15 and after Baku they went X-15ish(=Y) HP, so they wanted to be back at X+15 which is Y+30 basically. This is the only 30 HP that make sense, which would bring them to Barca level, so no higher than highest point in 2022. And it definitely doesn't look like they have more than 10-15 HP available than Bahrain 2022.

[chrisc90]

here's also the official tyre list now:

Interesting they have no medium tyre (new) in the Ferrari camp. If I remember rightly, both Ferrari's ran the medium first run in Q2 before they went back out on a new soft, so I presume that medium has a few laps under it.

I think we will see the top 10 all start on the soft with lower midfield teams potentially going longer on a medium.

Whether Ferrari will choose to go S-H-S given they have slightly worse deg (apparently) so might need a harder tyre to get to race distance.

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yes indeed, Ferrari only did two laps on those Mediums at the beginning of Q1. Teams mentioned that the M isn't much faster that the H, though, and at the same time still not much more durable than the S. So I guess it won't really be a widely used race tyre.

[Bisonas]

Ferrari didn't use the C2 much in testing also. They where much better with the C1.
Every time they put the C2 on, especially in day 3 of testing , the stints where really weird showing some abnormal lap times declination.
I don't know why but the Ferrari car doesn't seem to like the C2 very much. (in this circuit at least and with the setup they are running)

[chrisc90]

Well my prediction.

*RB ahead and in a league of their own, Max will be ahead of Checo.
*Going to put Charles or Alonso in 3rd, favouring Charles for P3 however, but if the AMR has better deg than expected due to Alonso bringing the tyre in harder initially in his race runs, then it might surprise the Ferrari's/Charles.
*Alonso to have early battles with Sainz but I think Alonso will come true once the Ferrari tyre begins to drop off more than the AMR.
*Expecting Merc to have slightly better deg than their race run sims due to bolting on a higher DF rear wing.
*Stroll I think will finish behind the 2 mercs - mainly due to the struggles with the injuries he's carrying, potentially struggling to finish the race.

Going to put the RBR about .3 ahead of anyone else in the race pace, then fairly equal between Alo and the Ferrari's, Merc im going to say anything between .750-1second off the RBR in terms of race pace

Could be majorly wrong with that, and could all change by the sprint down to Turn 1.

[chrisc90]

New ES for Charles




Slightly worrying start.

[Bisonas]

Since we are making Predictions, i would say,

In a normal race, without issues or lucky SC or VSC for the top 7 cars.
I would put VER PER ALO on the podium.
If AMRs Tire Deg is that good as i imagine it to be and ALO makes a good start clearing SAI at the start, i can see him in the podium along with the red bulls.

I have said from days ago, that ALO after the first 2-3 laps, may opt to save tires following from distance who ever is in front of him and extend the first 2 stints in order to attack with fresher rubber in the final stint and the final 12-15 laps.

AMRs strong breaking performance will set him up in turn 1 and then good mechanical grip and traction along with DRS will make Alonso hard to resist on turn 4 with slightly fresher rubber. I think turn 4 will be the corner that he will do most of his passes in the race if he is in a position to attack the Ferraris or who ever is in front of him.

So i would say VER PER ALO, OR VER ALO PER depending on ALO start.
And then LEC HAM RUS SAI.

That's my predictions.
I know ferrari fans may object and thats understandable, i just think they will have the worst tire deg among the top 4 teams.
I may be wrong but we are just guessing here, from what we have seen the last 10 days.
If a ferrari manage to seriously challenge the red bulls i will admit i was wrong.

[Wouter]

Only +/- 100 minutes and it is for the first time this saison: "And away we go!"