STRATEGY ANALYSIS: How did safety car interruption rob Ferrari of a fight for podium places?

With the Saudi Arabain Grand Prix just around the corner, F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reflects on last Sunday's Bahrain round, delivering his strategy analysis.

Starting from the pole position, Oscar Piastri won the Bahrain Grand Prix to give McLaren its maiden victory in a what could be considered its second home race.

The Australian looked to be in control of proceedings all through the Bahrain Grand Prix, displaying a dominant pace in all conditions. After the safety car, the Melbourne-born driver built up an enormous gap from the Mercedes of George Russell to take his fourth Formula 1 win, thus equalling the total scored by Bruce McLaren, the New Zealander who founded the team in 1966.

Following his reliability issues, George Russell ended up second in his Mercedes at 15”499, finishing a whisker ahead of Lando Norris in the other McLaren, third, 0”774 behind his fellow countryman.

As for the strategies, 15 drivers went with the Soft for the first stint. The remaining five drivers, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto elected to start on the mediums.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg became the first driver to pit for a fresh set of tyres, diving into the pit lane on Lap 5 for a set of mediums.
The last drivers to complete their first stop were the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Pursuing an offset strategy, the Ferrari men pitted on Lap 17, with Ferrari completing a perfect double stack.

Having bolted on a set of hards, reigning champion Max Verstappen struggled for grip on the white-walled tyres in a way that he was forced to complete an early second stop. The Dutchman elected to switch to a set of medium as early as on Lap 26.

Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Nico Hulkenberg, Isack Hadjar and Jack Doohan also became early stoppers which meant that they were unable to capitalize on the safety car interruption which happened on Lap 32.

Interestingly, Mercedes elected to call in Antonelli during the safety car period for another set of softs despite the Italian’s previous stop on Lap 27.

The safety car came out in a bad moment not only for those who had just completed their second stop, but for the Ferrari drivers as well. Hamilton and Leclerc performed their first tyre change on Lap 17, and were marching forward at an outstanding pace, establishing themselves as the quickest drivers during those laps.

Assessing Ferrari's performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix, team boss Fred Vasseur was left to rue the safety car intervention that hindered the Scuderia's offset strategy.

"We had the potential to do better today. The Safety Car did not come at the right time for us, at least for Charles, but this is not an excuse. We were in the middle of a good second stint and our strategy would have given us the chance to decide the tyre for the end of the race between Hard and Soft after having gone for two sets of Mediums in the first part of the race with both our drivers.

"When the Safety Car came out, we had to take it but this spoilt our plans and maybe that’s where we lost the best opportunities to bring home a podium finish. However, we scored good points with both Charles and Lewis who did well to come back after a tough qualifying, producing a strong race which is very encouraging.

Eight drivers ended the race on the hards, six on the mediums and five on the softs, with the red-walled tyres having proved a relatively durable rubber despite the long final stint.

Pirelli's director of motorsport, Mario Isola commented: “A spectacular race with plenty of battles and overtaking from start to finish. All three compounds chosen for this round, which were actually the same as those last week in Suzuka, were brought into play, creating a mix of strategies that made the race even more interesting.

“The level of degradation, despite slightly cooler temperatures than yesterday and Friday, was still significant across all three compounds, meaning that a two-stop was the only real choice.

"The performance differences between the Hard, Medium and Soft were clear to see in absolute terms and were also dependent on which cars were using them at different stages, which made the race even more dynamic, especially when one considers how evenly matched the teams are at the moment."

During the 57 laps of race action i Sakhir, all three compounds came into play as can be seen from the variations in the percentage usage: 45.83% on the Medium (517 laps), 28.01% on the Hard (316) and 26.15% on the Soft (295).

Reflecting on the differences in tyre behaviour, the Italian insisted that Pirelli's aim had been to come up with tyres that are different from each other and therefore allow a variety of strategies.

"In fact, that’s one of our goals as the tyre supplier, namely to provide a reliable product that allows for a range of strategy options, after which it’s up to the teams to make the most of it.

“Now we head to Jeddah and yet another completely different type of race track, where for the first time this season we will bring a trio of compounds that are softer than those used at this race last year. Let’s see what happens.”