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.
Max is on mediums too.fritticaldi wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 22:38Verstappen 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.
Interesting probably a bit of both then.AT topping the speeds suggests a very strong PU from Honda!zibby43 wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 20:56Don’t know how much this contributed, but Toto revealed Merc were dealing with a PU derating issue that they hope to solve soon.Mattyw wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 20:31https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... ds_v01.pdf
Honda power!
Has merc whacked on the DF ?
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... l/5941677/
Not only does Verstappen have in his hands a car that is stable in the changes of direction and at the rear, but also one with a lot of aerodynamic load and efficiency, capable of higher speeds in almost all the stretches of the track and at the same time of bringing home partial measurements in corners that are often higher than the competition. The impression, even looking at the performance of the Alpha Tauri that we will analyze in a moment, is that under the hood of the RB16B there is a propulsion unit that has really found a lot of horsepower, allowing Newey to raise the bar of aerodynamic load. It's no coincidence that the load index of Verstappen's car (which is the ratio between top speed and average lap speed) is higher than Mercedes by about 0.2% and higher than the rest of the competition by over 1.1%. This measurement is only indicative, as it is only completely true when comparing cars with equal power, but in any case it has almost never happened in the recent past to see a Mercedes outperformed in this measurement.
Instead, the second row is just one tenth behind a struggling Bottas. The comparison with the Alpha Tauri of Gasly, fifth and the first rival in tomorrow's race, tells of a car from Faenza that has chosen a much lower set-up than all the competition. Going back to the load index, compared to Verstappen (and here we are at equal power), Gasly's car has 1.56% less aerodynamic load. And in the comparison with Leclerc, it is clear that the Frenchman is always much faster than the Monegasque, with peaks of +8 km/h in the back straight. The data, however, show that Maranello is working hard. The activity that we had glimpsed on the front seems to have brought excellent results, and it is precisely where there is a need for stability under braking that the SF21 number 16 brings out some excellent relative, such as at turn 8, turn 10 and turn 14. Then the approach to the difficult turn 11 is excellent, where a car that the driver can trust is needed. Analyzing the braking of turn 1, it is easy to see how much Leclerc can sink more into the braking and bring more speed in all the meters of the braking. Thanks to this, in spite of an Alpha Tauri with better traction due to the explosiveness of the Honda engine, Leclerc gains a good 1.5 tenths in that phase. The impression is that the improved power unit allows the Maranello team to put much more balanced set-ups on track, finally exploiting their strengths without being perpetually on the defensive.
Probably not, he's already vaccinated
Yes, I can remember that! It impressed me as well. Hope Ferrari keeps up the pace and fights for 3rd spot until the end.zibby43 wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 19:54Definitely! 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.LM10 wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 19:48A 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!
For God's sake, it is close between Merc and RBR. There is no dominance. If anything Merc has the advantage with 2 cars to split their strategy with.InsaneX_Badger wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 23:15I'm not sharing any Merc/Lewis fans optimism for the rest of the season. Even this coming from a fan of both. When they were behind they used their budget to dig deep, to develop and work on the car. They just don't have that luxury anymore. Obviously neither do Red Bull, but it must be easier when you're the lead car and have time in hand to react in time to any rival upgrades. Especially when any upgrades on this years car in terms of aero could be not allowed on 2022, which is a waste of evermore prescious hours of research and money.
We've seen mercedes have this type of gap to the team behind and it ends up being a scrap between just the drivers of the front team. If Perez can remove strategic errors like today then that will come into fruition. With how planted RB is and the undeniable skill Max has, I don't see this season turning out any other way with Max as WDC and RB WCC. I don't think Max will struggle with a championship run, he seems to know what is in store for this season and his mentality shows that he's been ready for this for a clue years now. I just hope that merc or any team can just keep RB honest. Even though it's great seeing a team on top that is not Merc. It's not solving any issues if it's just one dominant car being replaced with another.
Only thing I can see stopping Max is either reliability issues creep in which just doesn't seem to be appearing. Or Covid.
I am giving credit. To Gasly.Sieper wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 20:15Oh 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 startnumberwill he start on whites now?
Apparently Mercedes had a derating issue.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 23:29Going 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...PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑27 Mar 2021, 23:29Going 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.
