Luke’s Weekend Review – Bahrain GP 2024

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Bahrain GP Recap: Verstappen Dominates as F1's New DRS Rule Shakes Up 2024 Opener

Bahrain 2024 1

Bahrain has come and go so quick and that is 1 race down out of 24. That race has went as expected really with no major surprises at all and was mainly a show of the true pace of all teams and what is expected for the rest of the season. One change that is introduced this year is that DRS will be enabled just after 1 lap of racing making it a bit harder for the driver in front to run away from the pack as fast as they were able to in previous seasons.

All 20 drivers line up on the grid for the first time this season and all opt to start on the softs with the race expected to be a 2 stop race due to the harsh surface in Bahrain. After a formation lap the drivers lined up in their grids one more time and it was lights out and away they went, Max Verstappen got a great start and immediately went over to the right to cover off Charles Leclerc, Leclerc managed to get side by side by going on the outside of Turn 1 but had to back down on Turn 2 to avoid contact. This allowed Verstappen to stay in 1st and settle in his position and start managing the race.

Further back, we see Lance Stroll spin at Turn 1 as he was hit from behind by Nico Hulkenberg putting Stroll from 10th to last while Hulkenberg picked up some front wing damage and had to pit at the end of lap 1 to change the front wing and also get fresh Hards on to try and recover his race from then onwards. Stewards looked at this incident, but they decided that no further investigation as it was a racing incident.

In the early stages of the race we see Leclerc struggling a bit as we see George Russell get past him easily after a few lockups from Leclerc, it wasn’t long before more drivers were past him as on lap 7 we see Sergio Perez get into the podium positions as he goes past Leclerc and just before that happened Carlos Sainz was reporting to Ferrari that he is faster than the guys ahead (Perez and Leclerc) preparing for a switch in the race.

Fernando Alonso was another driver who had a tough start to the race as very early on both McLarens were able to get past him and by lap 10 Lewis Hamilton was able to overtake him dropping him back 3 spots in the race which gave Alonso a bit to work for the rest of the race. On lap 10 is when I thought we were going to see a safety car come out as we see Logan Sargeant pull into the runoff of Turn 4 but after some yellow flags, Sargeant was able to get going again. After a replay it was discovered that it was only a bad lock up from the American driver and was able to get back on his way.

On Lap 11 it started heating up for Leclerc as we see him having a lovely battle with Sainz into turn 1 where Sainz came out on top and that same lap Leclerc opts to pit as his tyres were gone, Russell also pits on lap 12 and come back out on the hards. On lap 14 Perez made a great move on Russell into turn 4 as we see Russell forced to defend the inside, but Perez was more than happy to let him take the inside while he did the switcharoo on him and overtook him on the exit of turn 4. On lap 15 Sainz comes into the pits but to his surprise he ended up coming out behind his teammate Leclerc once more as the undercut seemed to have worked for Leclerc but this was not long lived as by lap 17 Sainz was able to get past his teammate by braking mega late into turn 1.

Red Bull's Strategic Mastery Secures 1-2 Finish at Bahrain GP 2024: A Look Forward

Red Bull once again seemed to have everything under control and by lap 16 both Red Bull drivers were running 1-2 while Max had a very comfortable margin up front, so much so that he waited for everyone behind him to pit before he came in for his first stop on lap 17 and still coming out in the lead with a 10 second buffer. This shows that the rest of the teams still has some work to do but I could definitely see a bit of a difference that they are on the right track.

Leclerc was still having some issues with his car as we hear him come on the radio saying that every time he brakes the car is going to the right and it wasn’t a shock to any of us as by this point of the race we have seen him lock up multiple times given that he was having brake balance issues. His teammate on the other hand was flying at this stage of the race as Sainz also managed to get past Russell to get into the podium position in 3rd. Sainz was driving like he has a point to prove and a point he has, as at the end of the season he will be parting with Ferrari to make space for Hamilton so he now has nothing to lose and wants to show everyone that he deserves a seat in F1 and I truly believe he does. I would be surprised if he doesn’t slot in somewhere with a big team.

Down at Mercedes there was some issues being reported and managed on their end too as we hear them ask George to lift and coast to manage temperatures while Hamilton was on the radio reporting that his seat is broken which is quite bizarre as I for sure thought he would have to retire the car but he was able to keep going to the end with no issue.

Down at Sauber things were going good with Zhou Guanyu driving in 10th place after he started in 17th place with 4 overtakes on the start and a few more during the race, however things for his teammate weren’t going as well as on lap 32 he probably had PTSD from Monaco 2021 pitstop when he pit for his last stop and the crew didn’t have the tyres ready and also couldn’t take one of his wheels off which ended to be a 52.4 stationary stop for Valtteri Bottas before he was allowed to get going which meant his whole race was thrown away as the only other person behind him was Logan Sargeant who was a lap down.

On the 2nd round of pits we see some other drama as Oscar Piastri comes out of the pits side by side with Hamilton in turn 1 but due to the tyres not being warm he went wide on turn 2 losing the place to Hamilton while a lap later on lap 36 we see Perez and Sainz pit but we see Perez opt for the softs while Sainz opting for the hard, from here it was a question of will the softs last till the end of the race? Max also pits for the last time on lap 37 and opts for the softs as well.

Towards the closing stages of the race, we see Leclerc catching up to Russell which meant that either Ferrari sorted the brake balance issues or Russell was struggling in the closing stages as on lap 40 Leclerc managed to close the gap to 1.3 second. By lap 46 we see Leclerc overtake Russell coming into Turn 11 as Russell locked up coming into turn 10 and went wide which opened the door for Leclerc. This put the Ferrari pair in 2-4 at the closing stages of the race pushing Russell down to 5th.

On lap 52 we hear Yuki Tsunoda’s engineer come on to tell him that they want to swap places as Daniel Ricciardo was on the softs but to everyone’s surprise including Tsunoda’s he was surprised and asking now? And by lap 53 he let him past which he ensured to let his team know as he sarcastically replied, “Yeah thanks guys, really appreciate it”. I’m sure he gave them a piece of his mind in the debrief especially because Daniel Ricciardo was unable to get past Kevin Magnussen ahead of him which is why they did the swap.

At the end we see Max Verstappen take the chequered flag followed by his teammate Sergio Perez getting maximum points for the Red Bull Team given that Max also had the fastest lap of the race, following the Red bull pair were Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll formed the top 10. Driver of the day went to Carlos Sainz for his great overtakes during the race and finishing in 3rd from 4th. Personally, I would have given that award to Guanyu after he ended up finishing in 11th starting from 17th.

Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Bahrain GP? We now head to Saudi Arabia GP next week which will also be held on a Saturday before we get back to normality and having our race on Sundays.

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