2024 Bahrain Grand Prix - Race

[PURE PASSION]

Doesnt matters how a car / updates "looks" on the eye . If its extreme or not. Its how everything works together. Look at ΑΜ and us. On the eye AM is way more extreme then ours and someone would think that they would be better then us . BUT .........

[tifosi1993]

No we need a full second to mach them, they have plenty in reserve

I think today's result looks worse than it actually is. We have to remember that Sainz was more than 12 seconds behind Max before the first pit stops, and the Red Bull had fresh C3 available in the last stint.

Yes, they had the faster car, but they also had the faster tyre strategy.

[PURE PASSION]

Lec with a "damaged" car with no confidence,did the 2nd fastest lap , better then Perez Softs . IF his car was in good shape so he could drive , i thnk he would be easily 2nd and about 10s to Ves. Thats my feeling !!!

[Tifoso Svedese]

Yawn.

That being said, Bahrain is the most extreme tyre degradation circuit, which meant they had to put a lot of wing on the cars. Thus, the car underperformed in a straight line. Not to mention, the likely P2 for Leclerc went missing after braking problems on the worst circuit on the calendar for an issue like that. The next two races should give a more accurate description on what the actual gap in race pace is.

[RossTheBoss]

Would you really like that though? What WEC has is balance of performance. Basically punishing the good cars with weight/power loss so the teams who did worse job in the factory had a chance. That more artificial than DRS covered in melon flavor.

DRS is way worse than BoP. It totally destroys the race craft and art of passing.

WEC focuses on the team aspect of racing, instead of who is willing to pay a treasure chest for a Newey. It's more about how well balanced and reliable your car is, as well how the team performs, rather than small aero and PU differences.


Biggest problem in F1 is the teams are not allowed to work on their PU's. If they were, Ferrari and Mercedes could close the gap much easier.

[gump1480]

amazing job to drive around an issue like that.

either that or these races are all tyre management and these cars aren't being pushed at all

What was the exact issue? BBW issue?

[pericoloso]

Did we get rid of the better driver for 2025?

I know I’m going to get a lot of crap for saying this but it’s just MY opinion, Leclerc is overrated. I know he can be fast over one lap but he is not, by a long shot, the complete package. I’ll leave it at that.

Ferrari has made a big mistake with their driver lineup for 2025. Hamilton??? WHY? He is not going to play wingman to Leclerc and he brings nothing to the team but ugly and questionable fashion choices….

[tifosi1993]

What was the exact issue? BBW issue?

Temperature imbalance issue. The left front brake was 90-100C hotter than the right front, so when every time brake was applied, the car was getting pulled to the right. The front left tyre was also locking up every time because of the high temperature.

[subfire91]

do we know what caused this ?

[Aviamata]

do we know what caused this ?

Before the race Charles's front brake was changed and mechanicd up again

[tifosi1993]

Before the race Charles's front brake was changed and mechanic up again

Last year they screwed up the wiring of his PU that resultant in a lost engine, a DNF and a 10 place grid penalty in the subsequent race. Hopefully today was not the repeat of last year's incompetence.

[Aviamata]

Last year they screwed up the wiring of his PU that resultant in a lost engine, a DNF and a 10 place grid penalty in the subsequent race. Hopefully today was not the repeat of last year's incompetence.

I hope it's not the same situation with Raikkonen 2007 2008 . It's always that one car that broken

[PURE PASSION]

I know I’m going to get a lot of crap for saying this but it’s just MY opinion, Leclerc is overrated. I know he can be fast over one lap but he is not, by a long shot, the complete package. I’ll leave it at that.

Ferrari has made a big mistake with their driver lineup for 2025. Hamilton??? WHY? He is not going to play wingman to Leclerc and he brings nothing to the team but ugly and questionable fashion choices….

Ι just DISAGREE !!!

[ntukza]

I know I’m going to get a lot of crap for saying this but it’s just MY opinion, Leclerc is overrated. I know he can be fast over one lap but he is not, by a long shot, the complete package. I’ll leave it at that.

Ferrari has made a big mistake with their driver lineup for 2025. Hamilton??? WHY? He is not going to play wingman to Leclerc and he brings nothing to the team but ugly and questionable fashion choices….

Leclerc has been my favourite driver since he arrived in F1. That said, I must admit I agree with this 100%.

[ntukza]

Haas have also fixed their tyre wear issue. The rear suspension is a game changer

and we were criticized for not copying RB

Do we have the same suspension as Haas?

[FerrariF60]

Do we have the same suspension as Haas?

WE give the same suspension to HAAS....so in essence yeah, they have the same suspension as US

[PURE PASSION]

RACE PACE IN BAHRAIN 2024 RACE

��Red Bull Racing: 1:35.654
��Ferrari: 1:36.103 (+0.448s)
��McLaren: 1:36.463 (+0.809s)
4 - Mercedes: 1:36.474 (+0.819s)
5 - Aston Martin: 1:36.845 (+1.190s)
6 - RB: 1:37.261 (+1.607s)
7 - Kick Sauber: 1:37.318 (+1.664s)
8 - Haas F1 Team: 1:37.377 (+1.722s)
9 - Williams: 1:37.534 (+1.880s)
10 - Alpine: 1:37.652 (+1.997s)

Maybe Ves had something more , BUT for the 1st race and with Lec's problems , i'll take it !!!!

[ntukza]

This race was a major reality check for many teams, us included. The result was decent in the end, but the issue we had was rather novice, and we are much further behind MV's Red Bull than we thought.

I'm concerned about the current attitude of CL. He was grumpy yesterday in qualifying and subtly criticised the team for sending him out on new softs in Q2 as a precaution (if he had put in a good enough lap he wouldn't have been in that situation). Today he obviously had issues that were beyond his control, but I feel that his attitude towards the team is not ideal for the start of the campaign. Consider Ocon's words to the team after qualifying, for example - that's more or less what you want to see heading into a new season.

Back to the results:

MV's gap is very disturbing, and I don't know how SP can be okay with being so far behind his teammate. I hope we make improvements and get close to MV.

Merc had issues of their own, so I'm not sure we can conclusively say we are better than them at this point.

All in all, we were okay. We seem to be better than last year. We're safely ahead of the midfield and we have a chance to do better. Let's hope we improve.

[ntukza]

WE give the same suspension to HAAS....so in essence yeah, they have the same suspension as US

[Msdiabl0]

I know I’m going to get a lot of crap for saying this but it’s just MY opinion, Leclerc is overrated. I know he can be fast over one lap but he is not, by a long shot, the complete package. I’ll leave it at that.

Ferrari has made a big mistake with their driver lineup for 2025. Hamilton??? WHY? He is not going to play wingman to Leclerc and he brings nothing to the team but ugly and questionable fashion choices….

Disagree. Leclerc was the real deal when Ferrari signed him, there's lots that needs to change within the Ferrari team for Leclerc to feel himself again, the amount of things that are uncertain with the Ferrari squad takes it's toll on drivers, with Hamilton coming in Fred hopes that he will spur the team on and inturn will help Leclerc feel settled once again. I'm sure Hamilton will help Leclerc do a bit more just like his pairing with Vettel brought out his best.

[tifosi1993]

Maybe Ves had something more , BUT for the 1st race and with Lec's problems , i'll take it !!!!

To me, the gap between Red Bull and Ferrari stayed the same as last year's Abu Dhabi race, which means both teams made a massive stride over the winter. Ferrari more so since Red Bull had a whole year to develop their current aero.

The next upcoming upgrades will be a major deciding factor.

But first they need to get some basics right. Way too many mistakes have been happening on Charles's side of the garage. Today, they changed the exit deflector of his front left brake duct before the race, and it's the front left that had all the problem.

[Kyss4k]

Disagree. Leclerc was the real deal when Ferrari signed him, there's lots that needs to change within the Ferrari team for Leclerc to feel himself again, the amount of things that are uncertain with the Ferrari squad takes it's toll on drivers, with Hamilton coming in Fred hopes that he will spur the team on and inturn will help Leclerc feel settled once again. I'm sure Hamilton will help Leclerc do a bit more just like his pairing with Vettel brought out his best.

The first change should have been a competent race engineer for Leclerc. I mean Xavi is probably the worst out of the whole F1. Even Charles is frustrated with him every single race. How is he still there I will never know.

[JPZ]

The first change should have been a competent race engineer for Leclerc. I mean Xavi is probably the worst out of the whole F1. Even Charles is frustrated with him every single race. How is he still there I will never know.

Exactly.

And then some on this forum are somehow 'concerned' that Leclerc is starting to feel frustrated after years of dealing with bad pit wall communication and team mistakes.

[The Architect]

Will wait for a couple more races before drawing conclusions on the performance and declaring next year will be our year, but that's not a promising start from the team. Sending Charles out again unnecessarily in qualy and then screwing up whatever they screwed up on his car for the race is just amateurish.

[Cavallino]

DRS is way worse than BoP. It totally destroys the race craft and art of passing.

WEC focuses on the team aspect of racing, instead of who is willing to pay a treasure chest for a Newey. It's more about how well balanced and reliable your car is, as well how the team performs, rather than small aero and PU differences.


Biggest problem in F1 is the teams are not allowed to work on their PU's. If they were, Ferrari and Mercedes could close the gap much easier.

if i was Ferrari team principal, and i was asked if F1 should have bop, i would say we already do, we banned testing for teams that can't afford it, and we freeze engines for teams that can't build engines.

[Hornet]

For me personally, going into this season, my thinking is just hoping for the best, but not really expecting we would suddenly be competing for the championship title.
So, I'm not massively disappointed to see the gap we have to Red Bull, or that we were not able to win.

One positive is that we dont seem to suffer tyre degradation issues like we did last season, so there's plenty of improvement we've achieved for this year's car.
Ultimately, I think these are the small steps we need to take towards fighting for the world title again someday.

If we look at how F1 have been over the decade, it's hard to imagine any team can quickly close the gap and fight for the championship through mid-season development.
Hopefully I am wrong, but if we can finish this season even closer to RB, I'd consider it a good year. My hope is we can comfortably finish as the best of the rest.

[Hornet]

This race was a major reality check for many teams, us included. The result was decent in the end, but the issue we had was rather novice, and we are much further behind MV's Red Bull than we thought.

I'm concerned about the current attitude of CL. He was grumpy yesterday in qualifying and subtly criticised the team for sending him out on new softs in Q2 as a precaution (if he had put in a good enough lap he wouldn't have been in that situation). Today he obviously had issues that were beyond his control, but I feel that his attitude towards the team is not ideal for the start of the campaign. Consider Ocon's words to the team after qualifying, for example - that's more or less what you want to see heading into a new season.

Back to the results:

MV's gap is very disturbing, and I don't know how SP can be okay with being so far behind his teammate. I hope we make improvements and get close to MV.

Merc had issues of their own, so I'm not sure we can conclusively say we are better than them at this point.

All in all, we were okay. We seem to be better than last year. We're safely ahead of the midfield and we have a chance to do better. Let's hope we improve.

I think both RB have something in reserve, judging by how they are able to respond to Carlos pitting during 2nd stop.
They both had to go on the soft tyres which many thought will not be able to last, but they had no concern to quickly switching to them after Carlos pit.
Even Max who didnt need to respond went on to the soft tyres too.

The tyre dropoff Carlos was expecting did not came. I think either the RB are even more efficient on the tyres, or they were not pushing to the maximum

[TTRSMAD]

Ferrari needs to get better at slow speed corners. Most of the time lost to Red Bull were at these types of corners. Sector 2 is where we lost the most time.

Sainz times on the soft was almost the same as Max right before the 1st pit stop. The Bulls had a faster strategy with s-h-s.

Lots of encouraging things to take from this race. The season is far from over and it wasn't for the fighting behind Max in the beginning of the race with Leclerc's problem, Max would of not finished the race 25s ahead of Sainz.

Next race should be a closer race especially because of the track layout, tarmac and a 1 stop race.

[subfire91]

For me personally, going into this season, my thinking is just hoping for the best, but not really expecting we would suddenly be competing for the championship title.
So, I'm not massively disappointed to see the gap we have to Red Bull, or that we were not able to win.

One positive is that we dont seem to suffer tyre degradation issues like we did last season, so there's plenty of improvement we've achieved for this year's car.
Ultimately, I think these are the small steps we need to take towards fighting for the world title again someday.

If we look at how F1 have been over the decade, it's hard to imagine any team can quickly close the gap and fight for the championship through mid-season development.
Hopefully I am wrong, but if we can finish this season even closer to RB, I'd consider it a good year. My hope is we can comfortably finish as the best of the rest.

Exactly!

Im taking away many positives from this race:

1) We seem to have solved our basic issues ie tyre deg.
2) As Fred pointed people should not forget that this time last year we were 48 seconds behind and 8-9 tenths per lap of race pace. We cut that down in half meaning we achieved twice the progress they made.
3) Its just our race pace that needs improving and if in-season development goes well, 4 tenths we need right now is not prohibiting, we will be up there.

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2+ seconds improvement is massive during a calendar year. To be fair the team did not do many things wrong regarding the car since the ground effect has been introduced. The only thing is that they should get a bit stronger is politically. If TD39 was not introduced we wouldn't have been playing the catchup game now.

I think both RB have something in reserve, judging by how they are able to respond to Carlos pitting during 2nd stop.
They both had to go on the soft tyres which many thought will not be able to last, but they had no concern to quickly switching to them after Carlos pit.
Even Max who didnt need to respond went on to the soft tyres too.

The tyre dropoff Carlos was expecting did not came. I think either the RB are even more efficient on the tyres, or they were not pushing to the maximum

The tyre drop off did come but it was during the last 3-4 laps. Not enough time to capitalize on it.

[tifosi1993]

Ferrari needs to get better at slow speed corners. Most of the time lost to Red Bull were at these types of corners. Sector 2 is where we lost the most time.

Sainz times on the soft was almost the same as Max right before the 1st pit stop. The Bulls had a faster strategy with s-h-s.

Lots of encouraging things to take from this race. The season is far from over and it wasn't for the fighting behind Max in the beginning of the race with Leclerc's problem, Max would of not finished the race 25s ahead of Sainz.

Next race should be a closer race especially because of the track layout, tarmac and a 1 stop race.

Agreed. I also think high speed tracks like Saudi/Japan will suit this car more than Bahrain.

The upcoming upgrades will improve our speed at slow speed corners.