2021 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 26 - 28

[LM10]

A pretty pleasant result for me as a Ferrari fan! Leclerc, as always, did a wonderful job there. Unlucky for the mistake Sainz had in Q3 which hindered him from improving.

All in all Ferrari seems to have done quite a good step and that bodes well for the future.

Let’s hope for an exciting race!

[atanatizante]

How much this pole is due to Red Bull`s car/Max qualy pace and how much is down to Merc understanding they couldn`t beat them (at least here) on raw qualy pace, therefore they`ve focused more on race car setup?

Maybe when we will see tomorrow the top speed trap from qualy then we could make a better assumption ...

[cheeRS]

Well, a few days back you were smelling a rocket ship from Mercedes. So let's see how all that will pan out.

I can smell dominance by RBR as well and had that feeling in testing already. The atmosphere is simply a different one this time and has been since testing. They seem to be seriously sure about their package and you can sense that.

I was careful to say they are will be rocket ship after fiveraces. I knew RedBull will run things early out..

The base mercedes is still quick if they can get to handle properly. Telemetry shows Mercedes losing on the corner entry and have to comoromixe the exit a bit. But the base car, when the token parts come into play... Should be quick i have now doubt.

RedBull is dominant now and its just to limit the damage untill our upgrades come into play.

I havent put this "Octo-God" signature here without good insight.

What token part? Isn't it supposed to be on the car already?

Perhaps most curiously (and significantly) Toto Wolff said: "You haven't seen what we intend to install on the car," Wolff told Canal Plus. "Thankfully there is still room for innovation, which always makes me happy.

"Every day we are trying to do something a little different. I'm not sure if it will make a big difference in the speed of the car, but it will be good if it works."

[zibby43]

A pretty pleasant result for me as a Ferrari fan! Leclerc, as always, did a wonderful job there. Unlucky for the mistake Sainz had in Q3 which hindered him from improving.

All in all Ferrari seems to have done quite a good step and that bodes well for the future.

Let’s hope for an exciting race!

Definitely! I had nominated them as a Dark Horse after their car launch. Although I hadn't seen it turn a wheel at that point, the scope of what they re-worked on the car, from front to back, really impressed me.

[NAPI10]

not an eye catching piece, but mick has started off well. his long run pace looked much better than mazepin yesterday and today, he handled all his runs well whereas mazepin made overdriving errors.
once again, russel continues to slaughter latifi in qualifying.

without grosjean, magnussen and kvyat, can we still expect some carnage at the start or would it be a dull start? the last hope is perez.

My money is on 'Mazepin' & 'Tsunoda' to takeout at least one car tomorrow on the first lap

[zibby43]

How much this pole is due to Red Bull`s car/Max qualy pace and how much is down to Merc understanding they couldn`t beat them (at least here) on raw qualy pace, therefore they`ve focused more on race car setup?

Maybe when we will see tomorrow the top speed trap from all of them then we could make a better assumption ...

One thing is for sure, is that the Merc's always go pretty heavy on the understeer-biased setup in Bahrain for tire protection purposes. We'll see how the deg/pace is tomorrow. I honestly thought that was what needed most improvement from FP2.

[Tizz]

Any analysis on the engine power for the different manufacturors ?

[JordanMugen]

4) Merc have had similar deficits to Ferrari in Bahrain in 2018 and 2019 in qualifying. It’s one of their weakest circuits in the hybrid era

Difference being, Mercedes are only 0.05s slower on sector 1 and sector 3, which are mainly straights. This time, Mercedes lose 0.3s to Red Bull in sector 2 which is full of corners.

To the contrary, Ferraris advantage was mainly on the striaghts.

Interesting analysis from MKlaus:
Red Bull are 1.5 seconds slower compared to 2020 qualifying, whereas Mercedes are 2.0 secods slower compared to 2020 qualifying. Red Bull have, seemingly, done a better job than Mercedes at minimising lap time loss from the regulation changes (and possibly inferior track conditions).

[Partymood]

I was careful to say they are will be rocket ship after fiveraces. I knew RedBull will run things early out..

The base mercedes is still quick if they can get to handle properly. Telemetry shows Mercedes losing on the corner entry and have to comoromixe the exit a bit. But the base car, when the token parts come into play... Should be quick i have now doubt.

RedBull is dominant now and its just to limit the damage untill our upgrades come into play.

I havent put this "Octo-God" signature here without good insight.

What token part? Isn't it supposed to be on the car already?

Not that anyone can visibly tell so far. Chassis, Nose, gearbox, seem to be identical to last year's. So something is coming.

aren't they supposed to have it on the car by the start of the season?

[atanatizante]

Congrats to Max, although the big news for me is Ferrari's pace. Charles only a tenth behind Bottas and 3 tenths behind Lewis. This is some major comeback from the horrific pace of last year. Lets hope it continues, although i dont see them challenging Merc and Redbull. They will fight it out with McLaren for the odd podium here and there.

Ferrari/Charles set up the car more towards qualy and Merc more towards race, don`t you think?

It’s funny because I can remember you telling this qualy/race set up thing several times in the past well.

Why on earth should Ferrari purely set up for qualifying, if that’s what you mean? All teams know that the race is where it counts. I don’t think Mercedes are the only clever ones.

You also shouldn’t expect RedBull having a (significantly) higher tyre deg than Mercedes, if any.

Last year, soon Red Bull/Max discovered that it worth working solely on race pace, knowing they haven`t the raw pace to outperform Merc cars in qualy ... that`s what I heard of ... maybe they changed a little bit their approach towards the end of the season, bearing in mind that Merc was stopping to upgrade the car after the 9th race and their progress they usually tend to do after the second part of the season ...

[siskue2005]

What token part? Isn't it supposed to be on the car already?

Not that anyone can visibly tell so far. Chassis, Nose, gearbox, seem to be identical to last year's. So something is coming.

aren't they supposed to have it on the car by the start of the season?

Nope, token spend is for this year
They can spend it whenever in the season
So if they have not at all spend it they have until last race to do it

[Sieper]

Was it ? was 3 tenths off Max on same tyres. Not bad surely ?

Story of AT being faster than 2nd RB driver continues.

It’s becoming more than a coincidence

Oh please. You really are incapable of giving credit where credit is due. Perez wasn’t even that far behind Max in Q2. It was too much though. They should have played it save in the first race and just go out on reds. Now he has used 2 sets of yellows and is still on P11. Which is his startnumber will he start on whites now?

[zibby43]

4) Merc have had similar deficits to Ferrari in Bahrain in 2018 and 2019 in qualifying. It’s one of their weakest circuits in the hybrid era

Difference being, Mercedes are only 0.05s slower on sector 1 and sector 3, which are mainly straights. This time, Mercedes lose 0.3s to Red Bull in sector 2 which is full of corners.

To the contrary, Ferraris advantage was mainly on the striaghts.

We remember those years very differently.

Ferrari would've stomped a mud hole in Merc in 2019, too, if LEC didn't have issues + VET's spin.



One thing I do agree with, the regulation changes have really negatively affected Mercedes and Aston Martin; the 2 low-rake cars.

Mercedes was doubly handcuffed by the fact that the token system prevented them from making enough meaningful changes to offset the fact that the floor cuts would dramatically conflict with their aero philosophy.

Kudos for RB and Honda for making all the improvements that they did. They definitely deserve credit for persevering with their philosophy, as it paid off.

[Mattyw]

4) Merc have had similar deficits to Ferrari in Bahrain in 2018 and 2019 in qualifying. It’s one of their weakest circuits in the hybrid era

Difference being, Mercedes are only 0.05s slower on sector 1 and sector 3, which are mainly straights. This time, Mercedes lose 0.3s to Red Bull in sector 2 which is full of corners.

To the contrary, Ferraris advantage was mainly on the striaghts.

Interesting analysis from MKlaus:
Red Bull are 1.5 seconds slower compared to 2020 qualifying, whereas Mercedes are 2.0 secods slower compared to 2020 qualifying. Red Bull have, seemingly, done a better job than Mercedes at minimising lap time loss from the regulation changes (and possibly inferior track conditions).

I’m yet to see all the sector times but Ham’s 0.3 loss in sector 2 was the majority to Max and it showed as an orange sector - so taking his previous (green) sector what theoretically could his lap time have been?

[JordanMugen]

Oh please. You really are incapable of giving credit where credit is due. Perez wasn’t even that far behind Max in Q2.

At the end of the day, Red Bull could have signed Alonso, but they signed Perez instead. I dunno.