2019 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 29 - 31

[Harvester]

I see a lot of people already think Leclerc is definitely faster than vettel. I say we should wait couple of races. My bet is that the situation will be different than it was in Bahrain.

Regarding the spin. Vettel despararely wanted good exit to try to defend. I don't think that he would have chance to attack Hamilton later.

A lot of strange things happening in this race. Hamilton had excellent race pace except in second stint. That was very strange as he was ok on soft tire in the first stint. Vettel had bad stints 1 and 3. The second stint was excellent.

[drunkf1fan]

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.

That's how sport goes. Being a WDC doesn't make you a better or worse driver, great drivers can fail to win a WDC and meh drivers can win.... should I say it... 4 :p

That really is just me joking. You do need a great car to win and then you really just need to either beat your team mate on merit or luck. If you put lets say, Bottas in Hamilton's seat since 2013, then Rosberg might be a 4 time world champion right now. That's just how things go. Verstappen is a truly excellent driver, he might win a bunch of titles or none. If you move to the right teams at the right time you can set records and if you move at all the wrong times you can win nothing.

We're two races into a season, Leclerc in a great car looks extremely promising, but for all we know there will be 5 races he's being followed as closely as Vettel for lap after lap and will constantly make mistakes as well.

Red Bull are becoming a, well, almost rans. They start almost every season very poorly. They won China through a safety car and strategy call, before the pitstop they weren't anywhere close to the front. They won Monaco because it's Monaco, once again it was the last 1/3rd of so of the season that their chassis really came into it's own and they looked competitive for wins at most tracks rather than due to fluke circumstances. Same the year before that, and the year before that, etc, etc. If Red Bull can't hit the start of the season at full speed like Merc do then they are going to find it hard to stay in a title fight all season long.

I think Verstappen could well be looking to be a Bottas or vettel replacement if he can manage it.

[NathanOlder]

I see a lot of people already think Leclerc is definitely faster than vettel. I say we should wait couple of races. My bet is that the situation will be different than it was in Bahrain.

Regarding the spin. Vettel despararely wanted good exit to try to defend. I don't think that he would have chance to attack Hamilton later.

A lot of strange things happening in this race. Hamilton had excellent race pace except in second stint. That was very strange as he was ok on soft tire in the first stint. Vettel had bad stints 1 and 3. The second stint was excellent.

Bahrain has been a strong track for vettel in the past though. Being destroyed on his stronger track is not good for sebby.

[Capharol]

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.

boah guys ... come on ... don't start a p*****ing contest ...

"I get my big brother"
"then I get my father"
" then i get my father and uncle"


really? i think we are all mature here so act like one

[drunkf1fan]

I see a lot of people already think Leclerc is definitely faster than vettel. I say we should wait couple of races. My bet is that the situation will be different than it was in Bahrain.

Regarding the spin. Vettel despararely wanted good exit to try to defend. I don't think that he would have chance to attack Hamilton later.

A lot of strange things happening in this race. Hamilton had excellent race pace except in second stint. That was very strange as he was ok on soft tire in the first stint. Vettel had bad stints 1 and 3. The second stint was excellent.

Vettel's second stint was poor, he was 3.3 seconds off Leclerc at the end of the first stint and 8.6 at the end of the second stint, though some of that was because Leclerc pit first and came out with a bigger gap due to the undercut.

Vettel and Leclerc both did soft/medium/medium. Mercedes both did soft/soft/medium. Mercedes only had one set of mediums available to them for the race so they had to do two stints on the soft, the medium was a much better race tire. Vettel was slower than Leclerc until his engine went bad, he was only faster tham Hamilton when Hamilton was on the worse tire.

Merc not bringing more mediums hurt them pretty badly. If he pitted onto mediums he likely would have been a lot closer to Leclerc and no where near Vettel coming back at him in the second stint, which most likely would have meant Vettel would have finished second after the engine problems.

[mzso]

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.

I see. Thanks. Is that a newish thing? I can't say I can remember the wings sparking before.

[Hammerfist]

I see a lot of people already think Leclerc is definitely faster than vettel. I say we should wait couple of races. My bet is that the situation will be different than it was in Bahrain.

Regarding the spin. Vettel despararely wanted good exit to try to defend. I don't think that he would have chance to attack Hamilton later.

A lot of strange things happening in this race. Hamilton had excellent race pace except in second stint. That was very strange as he was ok on soft tire in the first stint. Vettel had bad stints 1 and 3. The second stint was excellent.

Vettel's second stint was poor, he was 3.3 seconds off Leclerc at the end of the first stint and 8.6 at the end of the second stint, though some of that was because Leclerc pit first and came out with a bigger gap due to the undercut.

Vettel and Leclerc both did soft/medium/medium. Mercedes both did soft/soft/medium. Mercedes only had one set of mediums available to them for the race so they had to do two stints on the soft, the medium was a much better race tire. Vettel was slower than Leclerc until his engine went bad, he was only faster tham Hamilton when Hamilton was on the worse tire.

Merc not bringing more mediums hurt them pretty badly. If he pitted onto mediums he likely would have been a lot closer to Leclerc and no where near Vettel coming back at him in the second stint, which most likely would have meant Vettel would have finished second after the engine problems.

Actually Bottas did soft medium medium

[Brenton]

RE Red Bull being 'also rans': Merc and Ferrari have 33% bigger budget than Red Bull don't they? I wonder if in today's F1 you can't have one person's genius ideas make a car 1s faster like when Newey's ideas could have a huge impact years ago? The aero R&D software is so advanced now and the teams are so big. It's one team of dozens of people vs another team of dozens of people designing a car, able to get as much performance as their budget allows them to work on.

Yes, Red Bull's wins should be taken in context of the fact that they design their car to be best at the most unique tracks (Monaco) because it's their best way to get at least one win in a season, while their rivals make a more well rounded car. And last year so many races were decided by a SC or VSC including at least one of RB's wins. It's well accepted now for a significant portion of F1 races to be decided by the luck of the SC/VSC, as another poster said last year. The degree of randomness is such that a 3rd fastest team that is typically ~0.5 to ~1.0s per lap slower than the fastest team (on average over the year) will likely get 1-3 wins.

Don't remember exactly what Vettel said but after he spun on the radio he mumbled something about kers deployment. Was wondering if anyone else heard that. Considering how familiar the spun looked to last year in Austin it makes me think they are using an aggressive deployment of kers, something unique

Interesting. It was a really weird spin that I just can't see an F1 car doing in the dry in the pre-v6 era. Even in an F1 car that was just too high of a speed for a driver to spin normally if at <2G (well below max) turning g-force. The electronic torque deployment probably made the difference on the spin. Not trying to excuse Vettel.

[Hammerfist]

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.

Seems that Max and charles will be battling it out for world titles after Hamilton is done. The future looks bright. They have different personalities and am sure it will be a pleasure to witness that rivalry.

[Harvester]

I see a lot of people already think Leclerc is definitely faster than vettel. I say we should wait couple of races. My bet is that the situation will be different than it was in Bahrain.

Regarding the spin. Vettel despararely wanted good exit to try to defend. I don't think that he would have chance to attack Hamilton later.

A lot of strange things happening in this race. Hamilton had excellent race pace except in second stint. That was very strange as he was ok on soft tire in the first stint. Vettel had bad stints 1 and 3. The second stint was excellent.

Vettel's second stint was poor, he was 3.3 seconds off Leclerc at the end of the first stint and 8.6 at the end of the second stint, though some of that was because Leclerc pit first and came out with a bigger gap due to the undercut.

Vettel and Leclerc both did soft/medium/medium. Mercedes both did soft/soft/medium. Mercedes only had one set of mediums available to them for the race so they had to do two stints on the soft, the medium was a much better race tire. Vettel was slower than Leclerc until his engine went bad, he was only faster tham Hamilton when Hamilton was on the worse tire.

Merc not bringing more mediums hurt them pretty badly. If he pitted onto mediums he likely would have been a lot closer to Leclerc and no where near Vettel coming back at him in the second stint, which most likely would have meant Vettel would have finished second after the engine problems.

Vettel being just 8.6 seconds off Leclerc at the end of the second stint is excellent in my opinion when we take into account Leclerc pitting first and also Vettel having to overtake Hamilton.

[Wynters]

What happened to all the drivers squabbling over fastest lap during the last few laps? Hamilton and Leclerc were nursing damage but the others? Did the SC catch people out?

[Brenton]

What happened to all the drivers squabbling over fastest lap during the last few laps? Hamilton and Leclerc were nursing damage but the others? Did the SC catch people out?

Maybe the lack of a VSC/SC put everyone in fuel saving mode by that point. Plus maybe these tires when worn lost speed more than the gain of speed from losing fuel?

[ringo]

RB15 is not a bad car. It's still well rounded and good on the brakes. Gasly hasn't had the pace in it, but he still is able to hunt down other slower cars with it. Max is making the most of it, but has also been making errors.
For me there are two inexperienced young guys in a top car, in time they will set it up properly. Also the Honda engine is suspect in my opinion. I don't think it's versatile. Redbull should have stuck with the Renault.

[subcritical71]

When watching the race live, I assumed that Vettel spun because of contact with Hamilton like last year. But rewatching the race footage and especially the onboards it appears that there was no contact at all. WTF? Such an unforced error.

He's never done that before...

Maybe this;

[Mach]

So....Ferraris strategy was to "turn down" Vettel's cars performance to protect his battery...and not Leclerc's and watch him drive spectacularly

Vettel shot himself in the foot yet once again under pressure

Hopefully Ferrari figure out their battery woes soon