98 Days/14 weeks we’ve been waiting since that controversial finish to the 2021 season. But Now F1 is back and giving us some great mixed up racing.
THE HEADLINES – FORZA FERRARI
Ferrari finish 1-2, Redbull fail to finish. A result that no one could have predicted, the hot favourites, Redbull and Max Verstappen could not slay the Prancing Horse and then couldn’t finish the race.
The night belongs to Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, the young driver took pole yesterday and led the race from the front. Charles came up against a fast charging Max Verstappen after the first round of pit stops, they battled for a couple of laps before the reigning champion’s tires fell away.
The race seemed to settle down into a decent race until lap 44, when the Redbull of Verstappen and Perez pulled into the pits for a late change to the soft red walled tires. Ferrari reacted with Sainz followed by Hamilton to counter the Redbull strategy.
The race was turned on its head when the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly had a fiery power unit failure that brought out the Safety Car, it took until lap 51 for the stricken car to be removed and the Safety Car to pull into the pits, Charles Leclerc scampered off into the first corner with no challenge from the wounded Verstappen (the Dutch driver was complaining of a steering issue), the wounded bull would succumb to their injuries causing Verstappen to pull into the pits retiring on lap 55.
Verstappen retiring effectively handed the Scuderia Ferrari a one – two finish, however there was one final twist in the story of the Bahrain GP. With only two laps to go the remaining Redbull of Sergio Perez reported a loss of power, could the Mexican keep the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton at bay? The answer came less than a lap later, when the car seemed to seize up spinning the Redbull out of the race.
Lewis Hamilton takes an unexpected third place with Mercedes debutant George Russell taking a strong fourth.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY
UGLY
Where to start, lets get the ugly news out of the way first, both McLaren and Aston Martin had a horrible race, both sets of cars were at the rear of the grid for the majority of the race, McLaren’s race was not helped by the decision to run the medium tire at the start ( the rest of the field started on the soft) Aston Martin had a similar issue to the McLaren cars, they just did not have the pace. It will be a long season for both of these teams if they cant get a handle on the issues quickly.
THE BAD
Williams were another team that were at the back of the order, however this highlights a bigger issue regarding the Power Unit supplied to the teams. With the exception of the Mercedes works team, all Mercedes runners finished at the back of the field, it doesn’t get much better for the Redbull Powertrain teams as the only cars to retire where cars powered by the rebadged Honda power unit, all retirements seemed to be linked to a failure in the rear of the cars.
THE GOOD
The new regulations, seem to have done exactly what was expected, that have mixed up the grid somewhat, also they have allowed the cars to follow closer, giving us an exciting and nervous few laps with the battle between Verstappen and Leclerc in the early stages of the race. As the regulations bed in and the drivers begin to trust and understand their cars we could see alot more racing throughout the season.
HAAS
What a pre season it has been for the American based team, with another well publicised issued regarding sponsorship and drivers, bringing in a new(ish) driver only a few days before testing and the start of the season.
Qualifying brought a great result with Kevin Magnussen taking seventh place and Mick Schumacher taking 12th place, his highest ever qualifying position in Formula 1, the race showed that this was not a fluke, with K-Mag taking an impressive 5th place capitalising on Redbull’s misfortune. Mick Schumacher also managed to take a great 11th in the other HAAS car, almost securing his first points in formula 1.
ALFA ROMEO
Valtteri Bottas, who had moved from Mercedes to Alfa Romeo, had a great race finishing 6th ahead of the Alpine of Ocon and the Alpha Tauri of Tsunoda.
The biggest performance of the weekend behind the Ferrari has to go to Guanyu Zhou, the first ever full time Chinese driver in Formula 1 to gain a point in tenth on his debut is an amazing performance. Zhou had a solid race and at times showed that he can race in Formula 1, a great start in his Formula 1 career.
If this is only the first round of 23, then we are in for a treat in 2022.