2019 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 29 - 31

[GrandAxe]

Vettels new moustache obviously upset the balance of his car in a dangerous way, frightening it into a spin.

As for Max, Leclerc has stolen the golden boy crown from him. Expect penalties for Max's behaviour from now on.

[zeph]

As for Max, Leclerc has stolen the golden boy crown from him. Expect penalties for Max's behaviour from now on.

Doubt that. Verstappen has a huuuge fanbase, and practically an entire nation behind him.

[Restomaniac]

Vettels new moustache obviously upset the balance of his car in a dangerous way, frightening it into a spin.

As for Max, Leclerc has stolen the golden boy crown from him. Expect penalties for Max's behaviour from now on.

That’s an interesting point that hadn’t occurred to me. Everyone was saying that Verstappen will be a champion at some point. Suddenly Leclerc appears with others (such as Norris also showing great skill in a lowly McLaren). It’s looking like Verstappen will probably have to move away from RedBull at some point as others certainly will take the better seats if they are available.

[Xero]

I think it's gonna be between McLaren and Haas.

I would have thought so too, but Haas were nowhere today! I think this track highlighted where the strength of mechanical grip lies through the grid. McLaren clearly have very good mechanical grip, a trait we've seen from them in the past, and it allowed them to close up to the Red Bulls, which surprisingly looks to have issues in that department. Haas too it seems. China is a different beast again, be interesting to see how they fair relative to each other. If McLaren can maintain that 4th fastest, it could be a really good season for them.

[langedweil]

Might be a strange theory, but couldnt it be that Renault remotely shut down Ricciardo's car accidentally instead of Hulkenberg when his engine blew?

That would be insane, but only God knows. And Cyril ofcourse .. a good nail in the coffin if true.

[GrandAxe]

As for Max, Leclerc has stolen the golden boy crown from him. Expect penalties for Max's behaviour from now on.

Doubt that. Verstappen has a huuuge fanbase, and practically an entire nation behind him.

That fan base is nothing compared to the Tifosi.
Just watch them go totally mental about their new wunderkind as the week unfolds.

[GrandAxe]

Vettels new moustache obviously upset the balance of his car in a dangerous way, frightening it into a spin.

As for Max, Leclerc has stolen the golden boy crown from him. Expect penalties for Max's behaviour from now on.

That’s an interesting point that hadn’t occurred to me. Everyone was saying that Verstappen will be a champion at some point. Suddenly Leclerc appears with others (such as Norris also showing great skill in a lowly McLaren). It’s looking like Verstappen will probably have to move away from RedBull at some point as others certainly will take the better seats if they are available.

Yep, suddenly Leclerc has all the star dust and Max is starting to look ordinary, particularly as F1 is now packed with so many exciting young talents.

Leclerc is a cool cucumber who's also in a team that has both solid winning potential and the most passionate fans; Max, on the other hand, is in a team that looks increasingly like its almost ready, but never quite ready.

[langedweil]

Vettels new moustache obviously upset the balance of his car in a dangerous way, frightening it into a spin.

As for Max, Leclerc has stolen the golden boy crown from him. Expect penalties for Max's behaviour from now on.

Hey, 2 races with a dog of a car, and still third in WDC with two Ferrari’s behind him.
As long as the cards keep getting shuffled, no contender is running away hugely in the overall scoring table .. which is a lot nicer.

[Stahlkocher]

Yep, suddenly Leclerc has all the star dust and Max is starting to look ordinary, particularly as F1 is now packed with so many exciting young talents.

Leclerc is a cool cucumber who's also in a team that has both solid winning potential and the most passionate fans; Max, on the other hand, is in a team that looks increasingly like its almost ready, but never quite ready.

Do not forget that Verstappen is sitting in a RB that is a lemon - at least for now. RB is not a team that readily admits to building a flawed chassis. Some of the dirt the car is may stick to Verstappen, at least in media coverage - no matter how well he drives.

That car is certainly not helping Gasleys career either...

[mzso]

How come all the front wings make such a spectacular spark shower? I thought carbon fiber reinforced plastic doesn't produce sparks.

[Restomaniac]

Yep, suddenly Leclerc has all the star dust and Max is starting to look ordinary, particularly as F1 is now packed with so many exciting young talents.

Leclerc is a cool cucumber who's also in a team that has both solid winning potential and the most passionate fans; Max, on the other hand, is in a team that looks increasingly like its almost ready, but never quite ready.

Do not forget that Verstappen is sitting in a RB that is a lemon - at least for now. RB is not a team that readily admits to building a flawed chassis. Some of the dirt the car is may stick to Verstappen, at least in media coverage - no matter how well he drives.

That car is certainly not helping Gasleys career either...

I agree however the ‘red hot rookie’ tag has passed on and if Verstappen isn’t careful he could become a ‘nearly-man’ if RedBull can’t sort themselves out and if others are then in the better seats.

I’ve said Verstappen would be a WDC at some point but others may make that VERY difficult.

[TAG]

How come all the front wings make such a spectacular spark shower? I thought carbon fiber reinforced plastic doesn't produce sparks.

They have metal (titanium) skid plates on them for wear.

[NathanOlder]

This race was pretty entertaining! I feel for Leclerc, he didn’t put a foot wrong, only to miss out on the win like that. The safety car was an odd decision, the Renaults were not obstructing anything, but it kept Leclerc on and Verstappen off the podium, which seems fair to me.

I feel for Sainz as well, judging by Norris’ pace, he could have been up there. So far, Norris has impressed me, btw. And it looks like McLaren is a contender for 4th in the WCC.

And Alonso is still not wrong about Ferrari, lol

Was thinking the same about the safety car. Why not use the VSC ?? Thats the reason it was brought in wansnt it ? Cars broke down at the side of the track ? If the VSC had come out, the order would have been the same as Ricciardo's Renault was not recovered in time.

The safety car would have been fine for Vettel if they got the Renaults out the way in under a minute like what should have happend. With 1 racing laps after the safety car was over quickly, Leclerc may have dropped out the points. As he was about 6-7 seconds a lap off the pace. Vettel having decent tyres may have given him a shot at the podium.

[drunkf1fan]

Bottas was on medium before, and the team knew that the car was better with that compound. Lewis did the job to pass Vettel at this time. Anyway Leclerc driving was perfect all the weekend, not deserved 3rd position.

Still don´t understand why Vettel looked slow with the medium, he had been quite fast in the previous stint but he couldn´t build a gap with Lewis and finally he was able to attack him. I could understand it in the first lap but then he couldn´t open a mininum gap. Surprising.

Vettel wasn't slow on the medium, Hamilton was behind yet he passed vettel quite easily in the first stint as Leclerc did. Vettel's pace on the softs wasn't great. Then Ham went to the softs again because he only had one set of mediums available, Ferrari had two sets. The medium was a drastically better race tire and even with that tire Vettel took a while to catch up a pretty small gap and then only managed a 4 or so second gap. When both were on the same compound Hamilton was again faster than him and pretty close to Leclerc's pace though he was so far behind he started cruising as he was completely safe in 2nd and too far away to push to try to take 1st.

Vettel's pace was just poor all weekend, though it wasn't Bottas vs Hamilton levels of pace difference. Bottas didn't have a comeback in Australia, he wasn't a different driver, massively compromised strategy with a horrendous call to match vettel by pitting what 15-20 laps too early left Hamilton looking at 2nd at best. Most of the gap is explained by the tires and the rest because Ham accepted 2nd early and saved engine and cruised to the end as he should have done and only a relatively small part was down to the damage.

In a situation where Hamilton is pushing because there is something to be gained and Bottas is also pushing to stay ahead of Max you just see the lets say real pace difference. Bottas is obviously closer sometimes and Hamilton has great and less good races so it's closer but overall he's this far behind all together too often.

[NathanOlder]

As for Max, Leclerc has stolen the golden boy crown from him. Expect penalties for Max's behaviour from now on.

Doubt that. Verstappen has a huuuge fanbase, and practically an entire nation behind him.

That fan base is nothing compared to the Tifosi.
Just watch them go totally mental about their new wunderkind as the week unfolds.

Yeah, plus Leclerc has Monaco and France behind him. Italy France Monaco vs Holland/Belgium. Only 1 winner there.