2021 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 26 - 28

[El Scorchio]

Just read that Masi/stewards will be less lenient when it comes to first lap incidents and late direction changes - one of the scenes that they discussed was Leclerc/Stroll in Russia last year (iirc a majority here was surprised he wasn't penalized) - so it's a welcome change

I can see a number of penalties being imposed that will affect the race result. Knowing the current mob, they'll probably decide to look at any incidents after the race and impose penalties some time after everyone has switched over to something else on the TV. You'll read about the revised result in the news on Monday morning.

They’ll come down really hard on drivers in this race and then inexplicably not penalise identical incidents at later races, or vice versa. That’s a nailed on certainty

[Schippke]

Regarding Strategy for todays race... would it be wise to assume that most of the front runners who are starting on Mediums will try and one stop; Medium/Hard?

If not, then you'd argue the cars that have started on the Softs mightn't loose out too much, should everyone need to 2-stop... Soft/Medium/Medium or Soft/Medium/Hard?

To be fair, I reckon the only cars that could make a 1-stopper work properly would be Verstappen's Red Bull and the 2 Silver Arrows.

[langedweil]

Main question for now: how's the weather?
Is there a huge sandblastfest wreaking havoc that could spoil everything (ie MediVac can't fly) ?

[NathanOlder]

the F2 race was fine an hour or so ago

[El Scorchio]

That would be a terrible anticlimax. I’m really looking forward to this race today. I really get the feeling anything could happen with so many unknowns.

[CLKGTR]

Bahrain GP – Vettel gets penalty for Q1 yellow flag incident

Well, so it CAN get worse for Vettel after qualifying

[Just_a_fan]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Exjs0dRWYAE ... name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExjyAhLXIAM ... name=large

Max has the benefit of a new set of mediums where the Merc boys have only a second set of used mediums. Mercs do have two sets of hards so might they be thinking medium-hard-hard? That would seem to be a bit odd as they haven't done any hard tyre runnig. Or are they thinking they can do it on one stop with mediums-hard with a late swap to softs if required?

[maxxer]

Perez did only lose out by 3 tenths to Max, in his first ever qualy session for RedBull. In the RB16B that he has used for 15 hours.

Nope, Stats will show he was 1.6s slower than Max in Quali. Thats how it has always been, no ifs and buts. If you want to compare like for like on the same track condition, he was outperformed by Gasly on a much slower car. RedBull no longer have the issues that plagued the car over two years, Honda is top of the field, Max had floor damage worth 1 tenth from Q1, so he has no excuses for having the fastest car. Only one race so too early but he needs to out-qualify Merc who are struggling at the start and in Redbull territory last year.

And only a blind fan will see it that way. when you look at what really happened, Perez was 3 tenths off Max with same tyres. Max was 7th, Perez 11th. The team will know this. RedBull took the gamble with both on mediums, and they missed out by a tiny amount. Perez didn't do so bad as he was pretty much as close to Max as Albon/Gasly were at their best. Perez will only get stronger.

Strange they didnt split strategy between the 2 big risk to take

[Just_a_fan]

Bahrain GP – Vettel gets penalty for Q1 yellow flag incident

Well, so it CAN get worse for Vettel after qualifying

Oh Seb! At least the only way is up/forward from there.

[Morteza]

[Just_a_fan]

Nope, Stats will show he was 1.6s slower than Max in Quali. Thats how it has always been, no ifs and buts. If you want to compare like for like on the same track condition, he was outperformed by Gasly on a much slower car. RedBull no longer have the issues that plagued the car over two years, Honda is top of the field, Max had floor damage worth 1 tenth from Q1, so he has no excuses for having the fastest car. Only one race so too early but he needs to out-qualify Merc who are struggling at the start and in Redbull territory last year.

And only a blind fan will see it that way. when you look at what really happened, Perez was 3 tenths off Max with same tyres. Max was 7th, Perez 11th. The team will know this. RedBull took the gamble with both on mediums, and they missed out by a tiny amount. Perez didn't do so bad as he was pretty much as close to Max as Albon/Gasly were at their best. Perez will only get stronger.

Strange they didnt split strategy between the 2 big risk to take

Perhaps a little bit of hubris creeping in. Maybe they thought they ought to be able to get both cars through no matter what and just lost out because they didn't react correctly.

[RedNEO]

This guy..

@jucerasoli Otmar Szafnauer, from Aston Martin, is pacing from side to side with the laptop in hand. He wants to find Liberty / FIA staff to show how low-rake cars (they and Mercedes) are suffering from the new aerodynamic rules.
#F1naBand
#F1noUOL

[SirBastianVettel]

What a yoke!

[Zynerji]

Since this race is the first real possibility of an Alpha Tauri challenging for the lead against a Red Bull, does anyone think we will see blatant intra-team orders?

If so, does anyone think Pierre would listen?

[SirBastianVettel]

I really doubt that AT can keep up with RBR in the race.