Bahrain: never ending problems
Penalties, flags, DRS and retirement.
What a race it’s been from the penalties to the flags, DRS issues and much more. Get your tea prepared because I have lots to go through today, no joke. I warned you! Let’s begin the Bahrain Grand Prix breakdown.
Congratulations to the winner, Oscar Piastri! He dominated this weekend, firstly by taking pole position and then winning the race at his 50th Grand Prix! It was a chill and easy win as he was over 15 seconds ahead of P2! However, it wasn’t as simple for the other drivers. Beginning with his teammate, Lando Norris. As all 20 drivers were awaiting for the lights to go off, Max Verstappen turned into a mini Sebastian Vettel as he became a detective, spotting out the fact that Lando was out of position. This meant that his tyres were way outside of his grid box. The race director noted this as the stewards handed Norris a 5 second time penalty, which he completed during his pit stop. Norris was near to receiving another penalty as he had received a black and white flag for exceeding track limits, on top of that another potential penalty if he hadn’t given back his position to Hamilton. This was due to the fact that Lando overtook with his wheels being off the track, past the white line. On a happier note, Lando gets to keep his P1 in the championship standings, but for how long? Do you think Piastri could be a threat to him?
Moving on to Max Verstappen himself, and oh boy did he and Red Bull have many issues today! The black and white flag that Max also received was the least of their concerns. Pit stop chaos… that’s all I have to say! Verstappen pitted on lap 10 expecting an easy, smooth tyre change. The exit lights had a different plan though as they decided to stop working, only displaying a red light and a flashing amber one. Yuki Tsunoda had the same problem a few laps later, triggering a few annoyed team messages from the both. Petition to bring back the good old fashioned lollipop people! If you thought this was the end of Max’s problems, then you are very much wrong! I’ll keep it brief because he went through a lot during this race. Beginning with tyres as when he pitted the second time round, his front right tyre was being stubborn and not wanting to cooperate, there were break issues, everything overheating and to top it off, being constantly being overtaken. Somebody give this man a break! Clearly Japan was too much of a breeze for him, so he had to suffer during Bahrain.
How did the prancing horses do this weekend? Same as usual as both drivers got into the points with Leclerc P4 and Hamilton P5. A few complaints arose from Lewis about his tyres and Charles about inconsistent brakes along with DRS issues nearing the end of the race. It seemed like the drivers and pit wall crew wanted to do two different strategies! Leclerc pushed on to do a one stop race whereas the team deemed a two stopper as the correct way to go about. Both Ferrari drivers were the last ones to pit first time around which unfortunately made them lose quite a lot of track position, however with some later overtakes and the second pit stop, it seemed like the team chose the right strategy. I’m hoping we get to see Ferrari on the podium soon!
Ex-Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz, had quite the race. Let’s begin with lap 5 and how Antonelli overtook Sainz as he late lunged himself into the first corner. Later on, Carlos was once again, overtaken this time by Max. However, Carlos wasn’t too happy with this saying over the radio that Max didn’t leave a car widths and was over the white line. This was checked by the Stewards, and no further action was taken as Verstappen had at least one wheel on the white line. Troubles didn’t end here as Carlos and Yuki had a collision! Tsunoda had hit Sainz sidepod, which caused enough damage for him to retire from the race on lap 47. I’m so devastated by this as Sainz had such a perfect opportunity to gain some valuable points for this season! On top of this, Tsunoda hadn’t received a penalty for this! What do you think about this? Should he receive one or not? Still not over, as Carlos Sainz gained a 10 second time penalty for pushing another driver off the track (Antonelli). Originally, Sainz would take this penalty into the next race however later on the FIA deemed him of completing the penalty a lap before he retired his car.
George Russell was hungry to regain the track positions he lost after the qualifying’s penalty. He zoomed down the straight at the start of the race, nearly hitting Piastri’s car through turn 1 as his tyres locked up for a moment. Car issues made an appearance as he suffered a brake-by-wire failure. This meant that his pedal was going long rather than short. On top of that, when he pressed the radio button, the DRS flap opened! He has been noted for DRS infringement however as of right now, no penalty has been given to him. George had steering wheel problems as his engineer said ‘he may lose the dash and to just keep driving’. To make light of the situation, George responded by saying “As long as the steering wheel doesn't fall off”. This was a reference to Alonso’s steering wheel issues earlier this week.
That’s it for the main events during this race however I’m going to mention a few penalties and warnings the other drivers got. Oliver Bearman received a 5 second time penalty for an unsafe pit release. Isack Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli were both shown the black and white flag. Liam Lawson got a 5 second time penalty for causing a collision and later on another 10 seconds for the same reason. Jack Doohan got a 5 second time penalty for track limits.
On a high note, Oliver Bearman gained over 10 positions this race! He started P20 and ended P10. A pretty impressive rookie move right there!
Thank you for reading today's post! I did warn you that it was going to be a long one today. Let me know if you made it to the end and if you have any suggestions or improvements for me. What else would you like to see me write about? See you next week for the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix!
UPDATE:
Just as I had come to the end of writing this post, Nico Hulkenberg has been disqualified due to excessive skid block wear on his car. Can anything else go wrong this race! His car was below the minimum 9mm thickness required.