2017 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, April 14-16

[George-Jung]

It is not luck being or becoming more important; hard work, excellent strategies and execution are becoming more important in order to win in such a competitive field.

Verstappen also did't have bad luck- it was just poor quality of some of the parts in his car that came to play.

If Luck is such a dirty word (and I am not denying anything else you said, excellent (and daring) work is being done) then how come Sebastian Vettel himself said in his post race interview "when the SC came out I thought Oh No not again". He feared he would be unlucky again.

He feared that all the hard work, bold strategy and execution would again not result in a possible/realistic win.. because of a safery car being deployed due to a crash.

And no- luck isn't a 'dirty' word, but a lot of people miss use it.

[dans79]

Well, pushing the outside car wide worked well for some years with Rosberg

It easy to bully lesser drivers!

[Wass85]

Hamilton definitely needs to work on his first corner approach because it's been shocking for the last few years.

Seriously, what are you talking about?

He didn't have a good turn 1 because he was on the inside with a car to his out side.

Would you prefer he just drive into the side of Vettel so he has a good entry and exit to turn 1?

Seriously what I said, he's been terrible at the first corner for a good few years now. Not all the time but most of the time he brakes way too early compared to the cars around him. He needs to be more assertive now the cars are evenly matched and overtaking is more difficult.

[dans79]

Seriously what I said, he's been terrible at the first corner for a good few years now. Not all the time but most of the time he brakes way too early compared to the cars around him. He needs to be more assertive now the cars are evenly matched and overtaking is more difficult.

Breaking late can lead to a Russia 2014 Rosberg type scenario. Being assertive is a double edged sword, you might gain a position, or you might get a penalty.

[SR71]

I think this race has basically proven track position is key, Bahrain is one of the easiest circuits to overtake on and none of the front runners could pass a massively slow Bottas.

The Mercedes and Ferrari are that evenly matched strategy and the start is basically everything, Hamilton definitely needs to work on his first corner approach because it's been shocking for the last few years.

Mexico '16 was a great first corner!

[Fifty]

So what was Alonso's "engine problem"? Or did he just park his car because he felt like it? Class.

http://m.crash.net/f1/feature/244742/1/ ... brief.html

Parked because he didn't like being passed. Car didn't have any power loss. He just has a car no faster than the bottom 8 cars, he is just slower.

[foxmulder_ms]

wow.!!! Did he really do that??!? That must be breach of the contract. He just wants to leave. I say let him.

[Wass85]

I think this race has basically proven track position is key, Bahrain is one of the easiest circuits to overtake on and none of the front runners could pass a massively slow Bottas.

The Mercedes and Ferrari are that evenly matched strategy and the start is basically everything, Hamilton definitely needs to work on his first corner approach because it's been shocking for the last few years.

Mexico '16 was a great first corner!

I said the vast majority of starts.

[Wass85]

Seriously what I said, he's been terrible at the first corner for a good few years now. Not all the time but most of the time he brakes way too early compared to the cars around him. He needs to be more assertive now the cars are evenly matched and overtaking is more difficult.

Breaking late can lead to a Russia 2014 Rosberg type scenario. Being assertive is a double edged sword, you might gain a position, or you might get a penalty.

Like I said, he's had the luxury of the best car by far from 2014-2016, this year he can't be so cautious IMO.

[ME4ME]

Just watched the Sky F1 report, this week with former Marrusia driver Will Stevens.
Glad he never made it to the front of the grid and got any significant TV time. His sentences are build up of two phrases: "well I mean..", "for sure...". Extremely annoying.

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... 017-review

[Hammerfist]

Hamilton definitely needs to work on his first corner approach because it's been shocking for the last few years.

Seriously, what are you talking about?

He didn't have a good turn 1 because he was on the inside with a car to his out side.

Would you prefer he just drive into the side of Vettel so he has a good entry and exit to turn 1?

Seriously what I said, he's been terrible at the first corner for a good few years now. Not all the time but most of the time he brakes way too early compared to the cars around him. He needs to be more assertive now the cars are evenly matched and overtaking is more difficult.

I have to agree with that. Hamilton has shown his weaknesses on the first lap very often the last few years.
I can even go as far as 2013, where he was on pole and let Vettel mug him after Eau Rouge just because he completely blew the corner.
Hungary 2014, he goes off the track and almost bins it starting from the pitlane.
Let's not count the many times in the last 3 years where he was having to run Rosberg off the road to maintain position.
MExico 2016, he does not even make the first corner and has to go straight on, creating quite a bit of post race controversy in the process.
Also Last year in Spain, before the crash, he braked too early on turn 1 and let Rosberg pass him on the outside, very similar to what happened last weekend.
Of course the many poor starts from 2016 are well documented.

It is almost like he does not have a good feeling for the car in the first lap. It takes him a couple of laps to get up to speed. Even in Australia this year, look how close Vettel was to him throughout the opening lap. He was all over Lewis.

There is definitely a weakness there.

[Wass85]

Seriously, what are you talking about?

He didn't have a good turn 1 because he was on the inside with a car to his out side.

Would you prefer he just drive into the side of Vettel so he has a good entry and exit to turn 1?

Seriously what I said, he's been terrible at the first corner for a good few years now. Not all the time but most of the time he brakes way too early compared to the cars around him. He needs to be more assertive now the cars are evenly matched and overtaking is more difficult.

I have to agree with that. Hamilton has shown his weaknesses on the first lap very often the last few years.
I can even go as far as 2013, where he was on pole and let Vettel mug him after Eau Rouge just because he completely blew the corner.
Hungary 2014, he goes off the track and almost bins it starting from the pitlane.
Let's not count the many times in the last 3 years where he was having to run Rosberg off the road to maintain position.
MExico 2016, he does not even make the first corner and has to go straight on, creating quite a bit of post race controversy in the process.
Also Last year in Spain, before the crash, he braked too early on turn 1 and let Rosberg pass him on the outside, very similar to what happened last weekend.
Of course the many poor starts from 2016 are well documented.

It is almost like he does not have a good feeling for the car in the first lap. It takes him a couple of laps to get up to speed. Even in Australia this year, look how close Vettel was to him throughout the opening lap. He was all over Lewis.

There is definitely a weakness there.

Nice to see someone else that notices these things, you're right about the first lap as well. Usually a car is all over his gearbox on the first lap not the other way around. It's a strange one because for the first few years he was the one making the moves.

It happens near enough every time at the saftey car restarts as well, he definitely needs to work on this because I feel these moments will define the championship if the cars stay relatively matched.

[iotar__]

Nice to see someone else that notices these things, you're right about the first lap as well. Usually a car is all over his gearbox on the first lap not the other way around. It's a strange one because for the first few years he was the one making the moves.

It happens near enough every time at the saftey car restarts as well, he definitely needs to work on this because I feel these moments will define the championship if the cars stay relatively matched.

- Every time Hamilton makes mistakes, is not good enough or someone is better there has to be some weird theory, last time it was tyres (Aus), in '16 starts and in '15 phantom Singapore changes. After +10 years in F1 he needs laps to get the feeling?

- His "problem" was pressure and quicker competition, just like with starts in '16 and qualifying this race. Noticed how Vettel has good starts now compared to '16 crashes? Best car and front row is the magical solution , same for Hamilton problems.

- My favourite spin is Coulthard: every time Hamilton loses a start it's "initial getaway was good but..." - what a positive spin. As if they had those scripts written and learned in advance .

[Wass85]

It's not some weird theory though it's fact, go and watch every race for the last few years and you'll see what I'm talking about, I think it even went as far back as his McLaren days.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

It's not just the starts that he has struggled in recent years, but if one has observed, he also has had a weakness at the safety car restart - not when he is leading, but when he is in the middle. He is either very slow and allows the car behind to charge on him after the SC restart, OR fails to make a move on a weaker car in front. I was surprised when he made a move on Ric in Bahrain after SC restart. I wasn't expecting it.

One reason that I have observed for these problems is (of course no data, nothing to back this), he is not aggressive in preparing the tyres for either start, or for SC restart. The same behavior can be seen on his qualifying lap, where alsmost every time, he has slower S1 time or barely matching the S1 time of the second placed guy. May be it helps him later in his charge, but on the start, he has had issues.

THESE PROBLEMS ARE SPECIFIC on Pirellis and this behavior was not observed on BRIDGESTONES. Like someone pointed out, he was very aggressive on starts and SC restarts in the Bridgestone era.

He was OK in 2014 and most part of 2015 and never missed the starts and in fact, he jumped Nico on many occasions after starting from second. 2016, he was very poor on the starts (which costed him the Championship), until he seriously looked into the problems and addressed it for the last part of the season. 2017, he has had normal starts, except in Bahrain where Vettel risked going outside and nailed it.