2021 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 26 - 28

[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?

Found it - so theoretical 0.25 difference? So close in s1 and s3!
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... es_v01.pdf


Going to be a great season

[Mattyw]

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... ds_v01.pdf

Honda power!

Has merc whacked on the DF ?

[matt_b]

I'm surprised Mercedes were 3 tenths faster than Red Bull on the mediums, their huge improvement since testing will have raised a lot of eyebrows today. I still think Mercedes take both championships in the end.

[Spacepace]

Max's pole lap onboard looked just like a Mercedes onboard from last year. Red Bull have got a cracking car there.

lol, 1:27.2s v 1:28.9s

It's how it was handling, not the lap time.

All of the cars are slower because of the floor changes - that's why the floor changes were introduced.

Teams are saying the downforce levels are almost at last year's level. I would imagine it's more the new tyres and increase in weight

[PlatinumZealot]

Anyone know if OCO was affected by SAIs yellow flag in Q2? I gather he was passed the MAZ incident so was unaffected by that spin.

His sector one was matching Alonso but lost half second in S2 due to driver error.

[rifrafs2kees]

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.

You are assuming Alonzo has appetite for Verstappen-level intra-team competition; I don't think so

[zibby43]

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... ds_v01.pdf

Honda power!

Has merc whacked on the DF ?

Don’t know how much this contributed, but Toto revealed Merc were dealing with a PU derating issue that they hope to solve soon.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... l/5941677/

[SiLo]

It's just a track that Mercedes have never seemed to consistently get right. Their pace on the mediums though was pretty obvious, was like the car came alive.

[RedNEO]

The script keeps writing itself

[JordanMugen]

The script keeps writing itself

A race in a dust storm would be spicy.

The dust storm is testing provided very spectacular pictures.

Visibility concerns of a night race in a dust storm with cars with no headlights is curious. Would there be safety issues with insufficient visibility from the lighting towers, rending the entire race an impossible farce which is cancelled?
That would be a shame.

[jjn9128]

Teams are saying the downforce levels are almost at last year's level. I would imagine it's more the new tyres and increase in weight

Different time of year too - track temps/air density plus wind plays a role. New tyre construction probably the biggest reason for slower laptimes though.

[Tizz]

A race in a dust storm would be spicy.

The helicopter would not be able to fly and the race will be suspended, stopped or cancelled.
It has happened before with heavy rain.

[Shrieker]

It's just a track that Mercedes have never seemed to consistently get right. Their pace on the mediums though was pretty obvious, was like the car came alive.

Do you think it may be because the soft tires move sort of 'funny' under the car, and disrupt the aero around the difuser area ? Namely, they can't manage rear tire squirt on the softs ?

[nevill3]

I have just watched "Teds Notebook" and he has said Valtteri told him personally that he has set his car up more for the race rather than qualifying and is different to Lewis's setup.

[fritticaldi]

Verstappen is starting the race on Soft tyres. Expect him to have a rocket start and pull away. The Mercedes duo will have mediums so they will have a conservative approach.