Bahrain Grand Prix: A look back

Red Bull are still adjusting to having Yuki Tsunoda race alongside their champion Max Verstappen, this was clear throughout the weekend. Both drivers struggled and neither were extremely fast. Both had a hard time during their pit stops when the green go light malfunctioned. Verstappen’s first pit stop was to change him onto the hard tyres but he had no grip or pace on the hard tyres so when they called him into the pits once again he came out at the bottom of the grid but then the safety car happened and he fought alongside Antonelli and Gasly and finished the race in sixth. Tsunoda had slightly better pace than Verstappen and that shows with how pleased he was at the end of the race. He also had a terrible time with the malfunctions during the pit stop but he felt as though he learnt a lot and hopes to do better in qualifying as to set himself up for a better race.

Haas had a fantastic end to their Bahrain weekend. Their rookie driver Ollie Bearman had a clean race that ended with him scoring points! He had a smooth race until the safety car where he felt pressure holding of the Mercedes behind him. Both drivers struggled with the second stint of the race after the safety car with Esteban Ocon ending his race just a couple a positions ahead of his team mate.

William’s Carlos Sainz started strong in sixth but very quickly lost pace dropping down the grid. His race did not get any better when he was handed a 10 second penalty for forcing Antonelli wide with pretty aggressive defending. He shortly had to retire the car due the incident with Tsunoda that caused massive impact to his right hand sidepod. His teammate Alex Albon also finished outside the points after an unlucky stint with the safety car. Despite the bad end to the weekend both drivers learnt a lot.

Kick Sauber was another team that ran split strategies, with Nico Hulkenberg starting on the softs and Gabriel Bortoleto on the medium tyres. Hulkenberg felt as though the track really exposed the cars weaknesses. He had an overall quiet race apart from a brief battle with Lawson resulting in a small amount of contact. Hulkenberg’s car failed a post-race inspection due to plank wear being in breach of the set regulations. He was disqualified because of this. Bortoleto had a very quiet race purely because he had no pace and every time he tried to get close to the car ahead he lost any grip he did have leaving him stuck at the bottom of the grid.

In comparison to the unfortunate luck at Kick Sauber this past weekend, Pierre Gasly had a completely positive race ending with him bringing home Alpine’s first points of the season. The timing of safety car affected both drivers as they pitted for the hard tyres whilst everyone else chose softer tyres but Gasly pushed through. His teammate Jack Doohan struggled towards the end of race due to a time penalty but he has taken a lot away from this race. Aston Martin were another set of drivers that struggled with pace and it shows through the final grid of the weekend. They split the strategies but even that did not help either driver bring home points. Aston Martin know they have to rapidly improve if they want to remain in the midfield fight for points.

Both Racing Bulls drivers had a tough race yesterday. Isack Hadjar could not get away well enough at the start and he also pitted before the safety car which meant his tyres wore earlier than those racing around him. His recently rearranged teammate Liam Lawson had the speed but just could not use it as it required a late lunge which is a pretty risky move to make especially if you’re not trying to hit anyone. This of course was not Lawson’s intention but he received two timed penalties- one for a collision with Stroll and the second for a collision with Nico Hulkenberg. Both Lawson and Hadjar were disappointed by their inability to put the speed of their cars to good use as there is only so much they can do from the back of the grid.