2021 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 26 - 28

[JordanMugen]

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.

Max is on mediums too.

Have the top teams made a mistake with strategy? Pirelli are confident the soft would be a strong race tyre to start the race. Will soft tyre runners have a huge advantage?

Friday running in Bahrain indicated that the soft tyre will be a popular choice for the race, with Isola admitting that the 0.9s difference relative to the medium was "bigger than expected".

That will impact qualifying strategy, with teams less likely to attempt to qualify and thus start on the medium.

"The expectation was in in the range of 0.5s, while the delta between hard and medium is 0.4s, so in line with the expectation," Isola said.

“That means that if the weather is cooler on Sunday, the soft can also be a choice for the race, because it quite fast compared to the medium, if the teams are able to manage degradation from the rear tyre.

“The number of pit stops and the length of the stint in Bahrain is dictated by the rear overheating and degradation. In terms of strategy it can be two-stop, using soft medium medium, or two sets of soft and one set of medium probably.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/pire ... e/5935887/

[JordanMugen]

Guys. It does not look good for the season if Mercedes does unlock the car.

Do you mean "if Mercedes does not unlock the car"? That seems to be a very pro-Mercedes viewpoint and not a pro-Red Bull view point!

RedBull is fast everywhere.

That's a good thing. It looks very good for the season to me!

If there is a disparity then it will be up to Hamilton and Bottas to drive superbly to overcome the car deficit, just as it was up to Verstappen and Albon to do this in the 2020 season. Time to see the special driver stuff from the Mercedes chaps.

[maxxer]

Fastest mini sectors
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExfVtzRWYAo ... name=large
via @Peke_Formula1

Bottas probably missed the the apex when he did that minisector

For bottas there is another schematic driving outside of the track

[Dipesh1995]

What I find quite astonishing is that today’s pole lap was the slowest since 2017. In fact, it was only 0.5 second faster than the pole lap from 2016.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/03/27/ana ... ur-months/

[El Scorchio]

What I find quite astonishing is that today’s pole lap was the slowest since 2017. In fact, it was only 0.5 second faster than the pole lap from 2016.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/03/27/ana ... ur-months/

Just shows you how much downforce they took from all the cars with the reg changes for this season.

[dans79]

What I find quite astonishing is that today’s pole lap was the slowest since 2017. In fact, it was only 0.5 second faster than the pole lap from 2016.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/03/27/ana ... ur-months/

Just shows you how much downforce they took from all the cars with the reg changes for this season.

Plus no party modes, and components need to last even longer this year.

[yelistener]

What I find quite astonishing is that today’s pole lap was the slowest since 2017. In fact, it was only 0.5 second faster than the pole lap from 2016.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/03/27/ana ... ur-months/

Looks like 2021 pace on average will drop to 2017 level.

[PlatinumZealot]

Going by the data, assuming it is of good quality, the RB car keeps rocketing higher and higher without any drop off at the end of the straight.

The Honda has a gamma ray reactor inside of it or the cars is as slippery as a mako shark.

Yeah, they don't let up near the end of the straights like Merc and Ferrari do...
I wonder what it will look like in race mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxnpu_ ... l=FORMULA1

Yuck!

The Mercedes is like a big fat snail! Hamilton taking very consertive, gentle lines, understeer very apparent. Slow steering as the car pushes head on. Verstappen though, looks confident! and is taking very brave lines. Taking full on the entry curb and and turning in sharp to apex. And the car does hook up inward and is quick on the throttle. That four tenths was unassailable even by God himself.

The sluggard Mercedes might just be better on its tyres in race pace hopefully.

[grubschumi13]

Guys. It does not look good for the season if Mercedes does unlock the car.

Do you mean "if Mercedes does not unlock the car"? That seems to be a very pro-Mercedes viewpoint and not a pro-Red Bull view point!

RedBull is fast everywhere.

That's a good thing. It looks very good for the season to me!

If there is a disparity then it will be up to Hamilton and Bottas to drive superbly to overcome the car deficit, just as it was up to Verstappen and Albon to do this in the 2020 season. Time to see the special driver stuff from the Mercedes chaps.

Indeed. Just as they said it was up to the other teams to catch up when Mercedes was dominating, the same should be said now that RBR is equal to Mercedes.

[MKlaus]

What I find quite astonishing is that today’s pole lap was the slowest since 2017. In fact, it was only 0.5 second faster than the pole lap from 2016.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/03/27/ana ... ur-months/

Just shows you how much downforce they took from all the cars with the reg changes for this season.

the tyres play a big role. teams have spent considerable effort to bring downforce back. seems like the tyres, even while working well, aren't as fast as previous generation.

[zibby43]

Guys. It does not look good for the season if Mercedes does unlock the car.

Do you mean "if Mercedes does not unlock the car"? That seems to be a very pro-Mercedes viewpoint and not a pro-Red Bull view point!

RedBull is fast everywhere.

That's a good thing. It looks very good for the season to me!

If there is a disparity then it will be up to Hamilton and Bottas to drive superbly to overcome the car deficit, just as it was up to Verstappen and Albon to do this in the 2020 season. Time to see the special driver stuff from the Mercedes chaps.

Indeed. Just as they said it was up to the other teams to catch up when Mercedes was dominating, the same should be said now that RBR is equal to Mercedes.

Except teams can’t catch up, because the rules change next year and the ‘21 cars are homologated except for a few aero surfaces.

And there’s now a budget/wind tunnel/CFD cap, and Merc has less of the latter 2 resources while RBR, Ferrari (12% more time), and every other team get handouts because they weren’t as good.

No offense, but that was perhaps the worst possible analogy you could attempt to apply there.

[holeindalip]

Guys. It does not look good for the season if Mercedes does unlock the car.

Do you mean "if Mercedes does not unlock the car"? That seems to be a very pro-Mercedes viewpoint and not a pro-Red Bull view point!

RedBull is fast everywhere.

That's a good thing. It looks very good for the season to me!

If there is a disparity then it will be up to Hamilton and Bottas to drive superbly to overcome the car deficit, just as it was up to Verstappen and Albon to do this in the 2020 season. Time to see the special driver stuff from the Mercedes chaps.

Indeed. Just as they said it was up to the other teams to catch up when Mercedes was dominating, the same should be said now that RBR is equal to Mercedes.

Sounds good in theory when there wasn’t a budget cap then, there is now so it’s almost impossible....

[JordanMugen]

Sounds good in theory when there wasn’t a budget cap then, there is now so it’s almost impossible....

Why should going fast only be about money?

[dans79]

Sounds good in theory when there wasn’t a budget cap then, there is now so it’s almost impossible....

Why should going fast only be about money?

Because this is the pinnacle of auto racing, and for all intensive purposes ritualized warfare for mega corporations. When you go to war you don't pinch pennies.

[godlameroso]

What I find quite astonishing is that today’s pole lap was the slowest since 2017. In fact, it was only 0.5 second faster than the pole lap from 2016.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/03/27/ana ... ur-months/

Looks like 2021 pace on average will drop to 2017 level.

Pirelli claims to be bringing an improved product, but if they have 2017 levels of downforce, they could just use the 2017 tires those were overly hard and never blew up.