2019 Bahrain GP: Race

[evo_spook]

Won't be a penalty to change it in China? can't you use 3 per season and after that you get penalties?

Nope, no penalty until used up his numbered parts.
3 for complete ICE, but don’t certain parts have 5 changes or was that previous years.

[T99]

1st stops we pitted Charles to react to Lewis, Charles was leading he gets 1st pit to protect his lead, 2nd pit for Lewis sadly Merc don't tell us they are going to pit so when he comes in we are already past the pitlane and can only react the next lap. Seb was not on the same tyres so Merc were always going to pit him before Seb, I guess Seb had a poor inlap for Lewis to make up so much time and it was not all down to undercut.

I think that in the second stint vettel should have pitted before Hamilton, vettel built a 5 seconds lead and Hamilton was on the soft tyre so he would have to pit sooner rather than later, if we pitted vettel before Hamilton with a 5 seconds lead he would have come out in front with a comfortable gap still and Hamilton would have to pit otherwise the gap would only increase. By reacting instead of being proactive vettel came out of the pit under 1 sec from Hamilton and was immediately under pressure within drs as well

[FerrariF60]

I think that in the second stint vettel should have pitted before Hamilton, vettel built a 5 seconds lead and Hamilton was on the soft tyre so he would have to pit sooner rather than later, if we pitted vettel before Hamilton with a 5 seconds lead he would have come out in front with a comfortable gap still and Hamilton would have to pit otherwise the gap would only increase. By reacting instead of being proactive vettel came out of the pit under 1 sec from Hamilton and was immediately under pressure within drs as well

totally agree.....and not to mention he came out with cold tires in comparison to Hamster which he already had one lap to bring them up to temp. we SHOULD have blinked first, pitted Vet for new tires and by the time Merc would react with hamilton, Seb would have been in front of him with tires already up to temp.....and maybe that fiasco would NOT have happened....

mind you Seb whos supposedly a 4 time WDC keep making rookie mistakes in wheel to wheel racing....like Rosberg said, he's too much under perssure....NOT only form Merc drivers now, but ALSO from his teammate, who i MIGHT add is doing a FINE job so far

[aroutis]

While (understandably to a point) there is a doom and gloom climate here, I prefer to take something different out of this race, which is that Charles drove an impeccable race and showed to everyone that he is not at Ferrari out of some sort of mistake.
I am of course sad because of what happened 10 laps before the end, something that stole him his first victory, but
1. this -is- Formula 1
2. he will have his chance and we 'll see him at the 1st step of the podium, and more than once for that matter.

It's up to the team to fix whatever problems the engine might have.
We do have a great package, this was proven today.

One should keep the good things and move on.

[paolo lalli]

On a Bright note the Ferrari car has really given mercedes something to think about they know they got lucky the year is long all points help and there are plenty of circuits with long straits Charles will races100% he is the new Hamilton .

[T99]

totally agree.....and not to mention he came out with cold tires in comparison to Hamster which he already had one lap to bring them up to temp. we SHOULD have blinked first, pitted Vet for new tires and by the time Merc would react with hamilton, Seb would have been in front of him with tires already up to temp.....and maybe that fiasco would NOT have happened....

mind you Seb whos supposedly a 4 time WDC keep making rookie mistakes in wheel to wheel racing....like Rosberg said, he's too much under perssure....NOT only form Merc drivers now, but ALSO from his teammate, who i MIGHT add is doing a FINE job so far

Totally agree as well, vettel should have recognised he didn’t stand a chance of holding position with cold tyres and within drs and should have just tried to stay with Hamilton and get him back especially at this track with 3 drs zones, instead he just tried to immediately pass Hamilton and got too early on the power and ruined is race. Not the best strategy from the team but he should have done a lot better.
As for the strategy I think Ferrari are too scared sometimes of making decisions and only react to what happens instead of making things happen

[chinmay]

On a Bright note the Ferrari car has really given mercedes something to think about they know they got lucky the year is long all points help and there are plenty of circuits with long straits Charles will races100% he is the new Hamilton .

Calling Charles a new Hamilton is an insult to Charles. Look how he accepted the unfortunate result, Hamilton would have already claimed that team sabotaged him and would have wrecked his room like he did after Barcelona 2016.

[jgonzalesm6]

Won't be a penalty to change it in China? can't you use 3 per season and after that you get penalties?

I stand corrected. Your right.

[nani_s23]

I sense vettel retirement at the end of next year. We got real deal in Leclerc.

[Greig]

I stand corrected. Your right.

It's still not ideal and will probably mean a penalty at some point this season.

[alfa84]

Soft aren’t working & team knew delta between soft & medium.

Hams Strategy was totally wrong, with the soft tyre. Our strategy was to build a gap and make sure to come out in front of him. If we pitted early than him thn was the risk of safety car. We didn't have to risk for nothing. For me Vettel was to blame, he had a faster car and the tyres to build a bigger gap for a comfortable outcome.

[alfa84]

By the way today we lose a race but found a great champion. Congratulations o Charles.

[Formula 1 fan]

Calling Charles a new Hamilton is an insult to Charles. Look how he accepted the unfortunate result, Hamilton would have already claimed that team sabotaged him and would have wrecked his room like he did after Barcelona 2016.

Really? Calling Leclerc a 5 time champ is an insult?
Boy, seriously what is your issue with Hamilton? Is it that hard to accept Hamilton is better then Vettel? I know you won't reply to me, but seriously your excusses for Vettel are endless.

Seb spun in the middle of the track without hitting anyone! Probably first in his entire career.

Vettel has crashed and spun many more times without hitting someone. Last year he completely missed the corner in Baku when he tried to overtake Bottas.

[The Architect]

I'm probably more devastated by that result than Australia. I knew Leclerc would come good, but was Ferrari's pace real or illusory? Hamilton on hand to pick up the spoils yet again. Vettel screwing it up yet again - he needs coaching from another driver.

[Nick Singer]

Welcome, Charles, to Ferrari! You are a great talent, another Gilles maybe..

If you win anything at Ferrari, I will be as delighted as I will be amazed.

I have followed Ferrari since the early 1980s. With one or two notable exceptions, it remains the graveyard of talent and the destroyer of dreams..

[Come]

now they got the baby violin out but earlier they were giggling while expressing the shame for leclerc and how sad it is

You such an idiot and liar Lol. You must be poison in real life - the type of loser who makes up stuff. There is not a single person on Sky who was not gutted for Leclerc.

[Formula 1 fan]

I was so thrilled for Leclerc, dove a brilliant race and a shame he just finished 3rd.
What ever Vettel was doing, it isn't working for him now. At the moment Max, Hamilton, Leclerc are better drivers and Vettel is way off.

It was good to see Ferrari so fast, the title race can be very exciting. Hope you guys will have lots to celebrate this season. For now I am just happy with Hamilton and Max finish.

[nani_s23]

You such an idiot and liar Lol. You must be poison in real life - the type of loser who makes up stuff. There is not a single person on Sky who was not gutted for Leclerc.

It’s not good to use such words. Let him share his opinion. Everyone is entitled to share their views.
Ultimately we are ferrari fans, this thing is common.

[Come]

It’s not good to use such words. Let him share his opinion. Everyone is entitled to share their views.
Ultimately we are ferrari fans, this thing is common.

I hate liars with a passion. Who cares if he is a Ferrari fan. They guy is a liar and an idiot why should I excuse the he posts?

[Nero Horse]

Another front-row lockout in quali and another disastrous race . Sadly this has become a trend now. Whenever merc locks out the front row then every time they cruise to easy 1-2 finish without any problems but when we do it then there's blunder after blunder in the race and that front-row lockout means nothing in the end. It's really sad that we just can't bring it home when we get a front-row lockout. We needed to bring this 1-2 home and get these points because right now merc is struggling with some issues but I'm sure that it won't be long until they find a fix for all their problems and then it'll be even harder to catch them, but even now with their problems they're getting 1-2s while we keep wasting opportunities.

And what has happened to Seb? He seems to be so out of sorts and in a deep hole mentally. I feel really sorry for him, cause he's a nice guy and he loves Ferrari, but those things that happened last season have destroyed him mentally. He needs to get himself a psychological counsellor or somekind of spiritual guru to help him get rid of those demons that are obviously haunting him inside his head.


Positive thing is that we now know at least that we're fast, and have the fastest car out there for sure, but unfortunately it seems that they have sacrificed reliability over speed. Need to fix that asap.

But what a brilliant and flawless performance by Charles, he was just magnificent during the whole weekend and deserved this win so much. I think it's already time for Binotto to start thinking about putting the WDC hopes on Charles, because Vettel sadly doesn't seem to be up to the task anymore. I really hope Seb can bounce back soon and get back to his best, but at the moment it seems to me that Charles is definitely more up to challenging for the WDC title than Seb.


Forza Ferrari!

[jgonzalesm6]

It's still not ideal and will probably mean a penalty at some point this season.

Yes yes, penalty looming down the road.

[Autosport] Leclerc had an engine cylinder failure.

We did not have these issues starting 2018; 2 races in and we have PU issues. Nothing has changed regarding the PU-->rinse repeat. smh.

[farid-baku]

Another repaet 2018 Ferrari give points to MB for free but its 1 part of sesason .My opinion everything start when Lec and Vet fight each other if you now that you have issuse last race and do such thing at the end must be happend what happen.Ferrari must be more clever they cant fight with each other in this situation.Result of race hartbraking for me if Vet dont do that mistake we will be 1 and 4

[Cavallino]

I don't know if I believe we're faster than we were at this time last year.

The gaps in qualifying in the first 2 races are awfully similar.

Yet this is a complete opposite of last season's starts.

We better hope our speed is real, and we can turn around tracks where we didn't do so well last year such as Spain.

We have to be like a second faster in FP3 to have a chance at pole, because if this weekend was any indication, Mercedes have a .5 tenth in their Q3 party mode.

We also need to work on race pace.

[FerrariF60]

Yes yes, penalty looming down the road.

[Autosport] Leclerc had an engine cylinder failure.

We did not have these issues starting 2018; 2 races in and we have PU issues. Nothing has changed regarding the PU-->rinse repeat. smh.

oh,oh.....hope it't NOT the long awaited "steel 3D printed" pistons that ferrari were talking about using for a while now.....or was it just rumors floating around???
either way, like you said, we did NOT have these kind of issues in 2018.....if indeed is true

[jgonzalesm6]

oh,oh.....hope it't NOT the long awaited "steel 3D printed" pistons that ferrari were talking about using for a while now.....or was it just rumors floating around???
either way, like you said, we did NOT have these kind of issues in 2018.....if indeed is true

Spark plug again???? Let's hope there's no damage to the block, crank, cams etc. etc. Maybe we can re-use it again but the software more than likely "defaulted" into "safe mode" hence robbing Leclerc of power.

[Cavallino]

Yes yes, penalty looming down the road.

[Autosport] Leclerc had an engine cylinder failure.

We did not have these issues starting 2018; 2 races in and we have PU issues. Nothing has changed regarding the PU-->rinse repeat. smh.

could reuse it again in Monaco and Singapore. Still would have won on one of those tracks!

[Tony]

The car is fast, but not reliable.... the Ferrari drivers are fast, but Vettel is not reliable.... the Ferrari pitwall is also not as strong as Mercedes' but that's a challenge, they are just very good tactically... Ferrari are already approximately 40 points back and have engine gremlins... it's not a good start to the season....

[da_one]

Didn't we hire a mental coach for each of our drivers this season? I guess Seb was right said he didn't need one. He doesn't need a psychologist, but he definitely needs a psychiatrist!

All jokes aside, we have now learned that our cars are extremely fast when in full engine mode and Charles is more than a Kimi replacement, so those are two pluses.

I just hope we rectify our engine reliability problems ASAP and we should also fix our suspension because every time we go off track or get a flat spot, the car becomes undriveable.

[512 TR]

While (understandably to a point) there is a doom and gloom climate here, I prefer to take something different out of this race, which is that Charles drove an impeccable race and showed to everyone that he is not at Ferrari out of some sort of mistake.
I am of course sad because of what happened 10 laps before the end, something that stole him his first victory, but
1. this -is- Formula 1
2. he will have his chance and we 'll see him at the 1st step of the podium, and more than once for that matter.

It's up to the team to fix whatever problems the engine might have.
We do have a great package, this was proven today.

One should keep the good things and move on.

The one thing I take with me is that I feel the SF90 will be much more competitive at circuits like Barcelona, Paul Ricard, Silverstone, Sochi and Suzuka (the smooth high-speed ones) compared to the last few years. There's something about this package and concept that will give Merc a fight at those circuits this year. Much of last year's strenghts are still there, like that great traction out of slow corners. So the stop-and-go circuits will also be good as long as the surface is smooth like in Bahrain. Ferrari also have had all winter to adapt to the thinner thread tyres (aka the special tyres) unlike last year. BUT, if the reliability is going to be as lousy as the last few years then it won't matter anyway. Because you can't win any titles with this kind of reliability. This has been a problem now for years. There is clearly something not working during the process from Maranello to the circuits. Seb also needs to take a long look in the mirror and ask himself what he's doing and where he's at, mentally.

[chinmay]

Sebastian Vettel - Car was extremely difficult to drive

I realised after more or less half a lap after the start that it will be very difficult.

The car was extremely difficult to drive for me.

I think Charles struggled less, he had no difficulty to follow and pass me, so yeah, quite tricky.

The second stint I think it could calm down a little bit with the medium tyres, but overall, not the pace that we should've had today, I believe.