2021 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 26 - 28

[El Scorchio]

The obvious answer is Mercedes were playing up their problems in testing and take pole and the win. Bottas wins and comes up with a new statement for his critics that becomes the meme of the season when Hamilton wins the next three in a row.

The fun answer is Mercedes actually struggle and Red Bull takes pole and a 1,3 with Hamilton splitting them.

The chaos answer is that the Red Bull that takes pole and the win is Perez.

A Perez win would be great for the sport, actually. I'm assuming of course Red Bull would allow him to win, if Verstappen is in second.

[GalacticHitchHiker]

Red Bull would be mad to issue a team order in the first race of the season. I don't think even Ferrari would do something like that.

[Just_a_fan]

A team could issue team orders at the first race where they have publicly stated in advance that the team is favouring one driver over the other for the season. It would annoy a lot of people but it would, at least, be honest and open.

[SirBastianVettel]

According to this Reddit post it could get a bit gusty this weekend during the GP.

[godlameroso]

According to this Reddit post it could get a bit gusty this weekend during the GP.

The wind looks like it'll be mild on Friday and early Saturday, then it will change direction and ramp up, qualifying looks to be spared but race day may be like testing, sandstorm and all.

[siskue2005]

Red Bull would be mad to issue a team order in the first race of the season. I don't think even Ferrari would do something like that.

Check 2019 Australian GP!

[wogx]

That metallic green is lovely! (photo by C. Gutowski)

[MKlaus]

Minimum tyre pressures BahrainGP (same preseason)
Front - 21 psi (-1,5 to 2020)
Rear - 19 psi (-2 to 2020)
Compounds C2,C3,C4 (same as 2020, new structure)

[Ringleheim]

God I hate this track! Good to have F1 back though!

[Herr_Koos]

The obvious answer is Mercedes were playing up their problems in testing and take pole and the win. Bottas wins and comes up with a new statement for his critics that becomes the meme of the season when Hamilton wins the next three in a row.

The fun answer is Mercedes actually struggle and Red Bull takes pole and a 1,3 with Hamilton splitting them.

The chaos answer is that the Red Bull that takes pole and the win is Perez.

A Perez win would be great for the sport, actually. I'm assuming of course Red Bull would allow him to win, if Verstappen is in second.

If it were me, I would absolutely let Checo beat Max. It a) gives Checo immense confidence, and b) will galvanize Max into going even faster. If you bet everything on Verstappen so early that you're immediately issuing team orders almost from the first race, it will break down Perez just like it did the other team mates. Red Bull need Perez to give Verstappen a hard time; the harder the better.

[Sevach]

Just watching the pole lap, and I noticed that Hamilton didn't use 8th on the straight before the final corner. He ran up against the limiter and stayed there for some time. Would I be right in thinking that it was a strategy to allow the battery to be charged by the ICE rather than taking 8th for a short period and having a km/h or two extra top speed? The extra battery juice then being used in the exit on to the start straight to give maximum acceleration. The sector was purple so I assume it wasn't a mistake.

I don't have an answer why he does that(he also lets the car run on the limiter in the second straight), just find it funny that everyone was pointing out at him sticking to 7 as evidence of sandbagging in the testing thread and what do you know... he does the same thing when he goes for real.

[Juzh]

Just watching the pole lap, and I noticed that Hamilton didn't use 8th on the straight before the final corner. He ran up against the limiter and stayed there for some time. Would I be right in thinking that it was a strategy to allow the battery to be charged by the ICE rather than taking 8th for a short period and having a km/h or two extra top speed? The extra battery juice then being used in the exit on to the start straight to give maximum acceleration. The sector was purple so I assume it wasn't a mistake.

I don't have an answer why he does that(he also lets the car run on the limiter in the second straight), just find it funny that everyone was pointing out at him sticking to 7 as evidence of sandbagging in the testing thread and what do you know... he does the same thing when he goes for real.

Reason is simple. Mercedes set their car as an absolute brick in terms of drag for bahrain last year. As as result of this and due to ers deployment strategy the car simply doesn't have the power to require 8th gear. He's not even close to hitting any kind of rev limiter in 7th gear. 12.200 rpm on second straight, 12.000 rpm on back straight. Rev limiters are usually set somewhere in 13.000-13.500 rpm range.

[MtthsMlw]

Reminder: the Friday sessions are only one hour long and start at unusual times.
FP1: 11:30UTC
FP2: 15:00UTC

[El Scorchio]

Reminder: the Friday sessions are only one hour long and start at unusual times.
FP1: 11:30UTC
FP2: 15:00UTC

Thanks! That’s handy.

What was their reason for cutting the length of the practice sessions again? ‘Cost saving’?

[Just_a_fan]

Just watching the pole lap, and I noticed that Hamilton didn't use 8th on the straight before the final corner. He ran up against the limiter and stayed there for some time. Would I be right in thinking that it was a strategy to allow the battery to be charged by the ICE rather than taking 8th for a short period and having a km/h or two extra top speed? The extra battery juice then being used in the exit on to the start straight to give maximum acceleration. The sector was purple so I assume it wasn't a mistake.

I don't have an answer why he does that(he also lets the car run on the limiter in the second straight), just find it funny that everyone was pointing out at him sticking to 7 as evidence of sandbagging in the testing thread and what do you know... he does the same thing when he goes for real.

Reason is simple. Mercedes set their car as an absolute brick in terms of drag for bahrain last year. As as result of this and due to ers deployment strategy the car simply doesn't have the power to require 8th gear. He's not even close to hitting any kind of rev limiter in 7th gear. 12.200 rpm on second straight, 12.000 rpm on back straight. Rev limiters are usually set somewhere in 13.000-13.500 rpm range.

So they reserve the ERS deployment for the long start finish straight and thus can take 8th on that one, but the other two are effectively not long enough/don't pay back as much to be worth compromising the start finish straight deployment? We sometimes forget that even with these cars, compromises have to be made to maximise the overall result.