Lewis Hamilton has won the Bahrain Grand Prix after a very close battle with Max Verstappen in the closing stages of the race. Verstappen finished furiously in second after having to give up first place for exceeding track limits. Bottas completed the podium for Mercedes.
FP3 is going to be more of a indication of where things are heading, but Qually is really what's going to show things.
Guys like Mick, Nikita and Yuki are going to be cursed upon for inevitably hampering Qualification laps of more experienced drivers due to their inexperience.
Some guys need to get back up to steam after the hiatus too, no matter that they've been having some preseason testing and some FP.
They're all wanting to punch in many laps so it's going to be a bit chaotic and unpredictable for teams to put out their drivers in the perfect window for a lap, which will further influence the 'true position' of certain drivers and teams.
this all could result in contact, causing red flags, causing cars and drivers to be taken out and not getting the intended and realistic results.
meanwhile gremlins can still pop up, qually IS going to be the first real pressure pot on the cars and drivers.
All teams however will know, that it's sunday when the finish flag is waved where the points will be handed out and thus, where money is made.
So they'll all be eyeing actually making that finish line. Guys like Russell - and Latifi too for that matter - know henceworth that they could actually be in for a point.
Simply put, there are realistically - normally - two opportunities where teams can get some 'juice' that they're normally not getting access to:
the start of the season, and the end of the season when tensions get high.
the start of the season due to fact that there could be gremlins that pop up, causing DNF's. Free positions.
then, there's also the fact everybody wants to know where they are exactly positioned, and want to make a statement, also because they're hyped up, so people are going to fight.
and that's a chance for things to go wrong - hence, free positions.
I think more than any moment, Max is going to pull up a fight to Hamilton, so that could easily go wrong.
Alonso and Ocon have something to prove - could go wrong.
Sainz and Leclerc have something to prove - could go wrong.
Definately Nikita has something 'to prove' against Mick so EASILY could go wrong, apart from their rookie status.
Yuki is fast, hungry but also very much a rookie - which could go wrong.
Yes they're all professional drivers. Still, compared to for example in the middle of the season, these are things that definately are in the realm of impacting the season opener.
9 positions that are very potentially going to end up in tragedy and DNFs. Which means that if there ever is a chance for Williams for example to snatch points, it's this.
9 cars gone - that's a potential point for either russell or latifi and all they have to do is keep the car in one piece.
I think both Perez and Bottas will very much look into these scenarios as - if the RB and Merc are more or less competitive to eachother - a dogfight between Max and Lewis is very much on the table. And as such, THE opportunity for either of them to see both end up in tears and them showing how it's done in the end.
I think the 'general' pecking order for 2021 is not too hard to imagine, but the first few GP's will very potentially show a different outcome purely due to the circumstances.
And then there's always the lingering risk that early morning a driver finds out he has COVID and can't participate.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
"The data, though, makes for even better reading when you take all of a driver’s mini-sectors and combine them to make their ideal lap (see graph below, which compares actual laptimes to the theoretical best lap for each driver i.e. what their fastest lap time would look like if they set their best times in each mini sector on the same lap). In this metric, Hamilton left a staggering 0.648s on the table, which would have been enough to put him top of the pile, even if everyone else completed their ideal lap, too."
Seems like the Merc has raw pace, but still struggling to find balance throughout the lap.
"The data, though, makes for even better reading when you take all of a driver’s mini-sectors and combine them to make their ideal lap (see graph below, which compares actual laptimes to the theoretical best lap for each driver i.e. what their fastest lap time would look like if they set their best times in each mini sector on the same lap). In this metric, Hamilton left a staggering 0.648s on the table, which would have been enough to put him top of the pile, even if everyone else completed their ideal lap, too."
"The data, though, makes for even better reading when you take all of a driver’s mini-sectors and combine them to make their ideal lap
This kind of analysis is pointless, because the lines from one sector affect the other, so going fast in one sector may slow you in another, and going fast at the start may kill your tyres for the final sectors because of overheating.
They haven't 'left' half a second on the table - they've been trying different lines and different strategies with how much they take out of the tyre over the lap to find the best option.
yeah, that perfect mini sector thing would put Gasly 2 tenths ahead of Verstappen. I wouldn't read too much into it.
Mercedes surely didn't nail the lap on softs (both cars only improved in the middle sector, compared to their laps on Medium), but as Phillip pointed out, there may be various reasons to be quicker at different times of the day. Purple mini sectors are even set during long runs, occasionally (using a slipstream, for example)
Though for drivers in new team, even more for Alonso.
I imagine that for them as for the team ranking Barcelona will be the answer
We need a representative sample of different circuits to get a feel. It’s not going to mean Haas is a front runner at a different circuit, but for teams that qualify within a few tenths of each other, we could see things move around a little.
We also need to see how development plays out this season. 23 rounds is a lonnnggg season and no doubt there will be different strategies in where to allocate resources for next year.
Also, who wants to bet the drivers and other team members have gotten a vaccine but aren’t advertising it due to the PR storm that could create?
Last edited by Hoffman900 on 27 Mar 2021, 00:30, edited 2 times in total.
If I remember correctly, Vettel went quite wide on the last corner and lost a chunk of time. If this is only taking into account the fastest lap of the two drivers his mistake might be making Aston Martin look worse than they actually are in S3.
Favorite Team: Scuderia Ferrari
Favorite Driver: Nico Hülkenberg
If I remember correctly, Vettel went quite wide on the last corner and lost a chunk of time. If this is only taking into account the fastest lap of the two drivers his mistake might be making Aston Martin look worse than they actually are in S3.
Isn’t it a bit weird that Ferrari are so fast in S1? Even Leclerc’s lap had a good S1, just not as good as Sainz.
Perhaps they’re just overdriving too early in the lap or the car is using the grip too soon, but there doesn’t seem to be (as far as I can understand) a particular characteristic of S1 that’s dramatically different then the other sectors.
