Bahrain Grand Prix: The Editor’s Top / Flop

The TOP 3

1. Hamilton / Verstappen, Mercedes / Red Bull… A duel that promises!

Perhaps the long-awaited showdown at the top is finally here! If Ferrari failed twice in 2017 and 2018, Red Bull seems, at least for the moment, able to challenge the untouchable Mercedes on the beginning of this season.

Already on Saturday, Max Verstappen demonstrated all his talent by relegating Hamilton, who finished 2nd, to over 3 tenths.

On Sunday, the Dutchman got off to a good start, maintaining his advantage over Hamilton after each restart. However, Mercedes unleashed its master strategists and pulled off a magnificent undercut during the first pit stop.

Trapped, Red Bull shifted its strategy to allow Max to have fresher and softer tires at the end of the Grand Prix. Then came the time for the battle of the Maestros.

Verstappen, 3 laps from the end, overtakes Hamilton at turn 4 but outside the track limits. “Mad Max” was therefore forced to give back his position and Lewis resisted his comeback on the last lap to go and get his 96th career victory.

A masterful duel, refreshing for F1!

2. The fantastic comeback of Sergio Pérez

Certainly, the Mexican loves this Bahraini circuit! Starting 11th after a strategic error in qualifying, Pérez suffered an engine cutout on the formation lap.

While we thought Checo‘s race was over, the Mexican managed to restart and return to the pits to start the race.

The following is a replay of his victory last year on the Outer-track. Pérez overtook his opponents one by one, with incisive overtaking maneuvers, stopping once more than everyone else to clinch an unexpected 5th place.

For his first race with Red Bull, the former Racing Point driver did not disappoint, on the contrary, and quickly made everyone forget about Albon’s lackluster performance in this kind of situation last year.

The right choice of the Austrian brand!

3. McLaren, Ferrari and the others… A midfield denser than ever.

If the front of the race has kept us very busy, the battle in the peloton was no less beautiful for it!

Overtaking in all directions and bold strategies: the battle for the best of the others has never been so tight in a long time.

In this little game, McLaren retains a slight advantage, notably with a magnificent race from Lando Norris, finishing in a brilliant 4th place. For his first race with his new team, Daniel Ricciardo finished in a decent 7th place.

Ferrari showed its return to form compared to last year. On a power-oriented track, Charles Leclerc finished 6th and Carlos Sainz in 8th place after a few incidents with Lance Stroll.

Also noteworthy are Tsunoda’s first points with AlphaTauri, the first Japanese driver since 2012 to score in F1, as well as the first points for the Aston Martin team brought in by Stroll.

This fight will surely surprise us every weekend and will be played on details regarding the outcome of the Championship in December.

The detailed Top / Flop can be found in the debrief of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The FLOP 3

Vettel and Aston Martin: a Grand Prix to forget

While many thought that the team change would certainly do him a world of good after tough years at Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel endured a real ordeal during his first Grand Prix for Aston Martin.

Eliminated in Q1, finishing behind Nicholas Latifi’s Williams and just ahead of the two Haas cars, the German driver was also penalized for not respecting the double yellow flag during the same qualifying session.

In the race, if the four-time World Champion got off to an excellent start by gaining 8 positions, his one-stop strategy was doomed from the start when you consider that everyone made two stops, with Pérez even making 3.

Finally, Vettel’s biggest feat during this Grand Prix was his collision, fortunately without consequences, with Esteban Ocon.

For Aston Martin, former Racing Point (winner of a Grand Prix at the end of the season), scoring just one point through a transparent Stroll seems very meager, especially knowing their strong connection with Mercedes.

Disappointing.

Alpine in search of race pace

We could also have expected better from the French brand, the new name of Renault in F1.

If Fernando Alonso’s start of the race was excellent, even reaching 6th place at one point, the degradation of the tires was too high for Alpine, which was still the first to come into the pits.

If the undercut worked for a while for the Spaniard, he then plummeted in the rankings, until he dropped out of the points and eventually retired due to mechanical issues.

If the positive point is that the double world champion has not lost any of his brilliance, solutions will quickly need to be found to extract performance from a car that is capable of challenging McLaren, Ferrari and AlphaTauri.

For Esteban Ocon, the French was absent throughout the race, after being caught out in Q1 during the qualifications.

Could do better.

3. Mazepin / Haas, really at the level of Formula 1?

If it may seem difficult to criticize a rookie for his first Grand Prix, especially at the wheel of the worst car on the grid, it is mainly the accumulation of mistakes (always the same ones!) that is being penalized on Mazepin’s side.

The Russian even made headlines again in FP2 by swearing about his car’s behavior, elements that are not very useful for engineers to improve his car.

Throughout the weekend, Mazepin was a step behind Schumacher, not without fault but more dedicated. He will have to quickly correct his aim to show that he truly has the level that can be expected from an F1 driver.

However, in its defense, its Haas team is increasingly seen as amateur for the category, left behind from the first Grand Prix and already announcing no development for the current year.

Grosjean and Magnussen, regularly pointed out in recent seasons by their former team, must be happy not to live through another season of suffering in a team in dire straits.