[Official] Bahrain Grand Prix 2018 - Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 2 of 21

[Adam43]

His tyres, while harder, were still 30+ laps old. He stopped only two laps after Vettel. His advantage wasn’t that great.

However, I do think he should have made more of it. Even his one move was weak. Either commit, or save yourself for a vpbetter go on the actual last chance.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by GT6

i have a feeling Bottas is not long for the mercedes camp, for the money he is being paid he should have hammered home his advantage over Seb

He was up against a 4x WDC, on his 200th GP start, plus it is very difficult to get up close with these cars and overtake, as we saw with Lewis at Melbourne.

This is the start of Bottas's second season with Merecedes. Last season he played second fiddle to Hamilton, so I think it's a bit too early to speculate.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

You know, until I read your comment, I hadn’t noticed! I should have, but was so engrossed in the race (a great thing), that I didn’t stop to wonder about the lack of interruptions. I wonder why they did this. Apologies for the mess that was the first race? Maybe they truly just don’t know what to do with respect to the timing of when to take breaks? I personally hope they continue this, but can’t imagine they will? Cross your fingers!


My wife and I thought the same. I know the mechanic was being attended to, but I would tend to think Kimi could have put it all together as to what happened (I don’t think they told him on the radio what happened other than to stop) and checked in vs straight to the garage.

While TR was helped by double RBR retirement, even if the retirements had not happened it would’ve been an epic result for TR and Gasly. It was epic either way. He still finished ahead of a slew of cars that could have been in his position.

And oh my! What about poor Williams?

Richard

Originally Posted by RWill2073

What a fun race. And ZERO commercials all race on espn2! That is amazing!

Ya know, for being so overrated, that was a brilliant drive by Vettel.

Honda finishing above McLaren... Best of the rest too. Great showing for them.

Ferrari and Vettel will not win a championship if the quality assurance issues with Ferrari continue. Multiple issues this weekend. They have got to clean that up.

Really thought Kimi should have gone over to the crew member after getting out of the car. At least check on him.

Bottas ran a good solid race. Seems like the hamilton amd verstappen incident was a 50/50 with verstappen getting all the bad results. Could have been just as disastrous for hamilton.

I guess McLaren has continued on with too much downforce because even with drs he wasn't passing cars he should have been able to.

On Kimi and the crew member, I've seen some writing where he went straight into the garage but he paused twice and appeared to looking towards the crew member with concern. I'm not sure what else he should've done as he (Francesco) was still surrounded by other team members and medical personal by the time he got back. He was probably unaware of the full extent.

The injuries are "apparently a shinbone and fibula fracture" according to Ferrari. Wish him the best and a quick recovery,

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

On Kimi and the crew member, I've seen some writing where he went straight into the garage but he paused twice and appeared to looking towards the crew member with concern. I'm not sure what else he should've done as he (Francesco) was still surrounded by other team members and medical personal by the time he got back. He was probably unaware of the full extent.

The injuries are "apparently a shinbone and fibula fracture" according to Ferrari. Wish him the best and a quick recovery,

Yes, that is what I saw as well. A word of warning, do NOT rewind to see what happened. You will immediately regret it. I wish him a speedy recovery.

[Adam43]

I’m never comfortable in trying to find fault with people in situations like this, especially when sat on a comfy sofa. Unless you are looking for it, and even then it may clear, we can’t be sure of the situation. We also can’t be sure what we would have done ourselves.

Of course, if you see someone respond positively then, yes, praise them. If not, I don’t feel we should be quick to criticise.

Sorry, that’s a bit deep isn’t it?

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Yes, that is what I saw as well. A word of warning, do NOT rewind to see what happened. You will immediately regret it. I wish him a speedy recovery.

I could see it in the live shot and turned away at replays. Will not seek out to view it again.

Originally Posted by Adam43

I’m never comfortable in trying to find fault with people in situations like this, especially when sat on a comfy sofa. Unless you are looking for it, and even then it may clear, we can’t be sure of the situation. We also can’t be sure what we would have done ourselves.

Of course, if you see someone respond positively then, yes, praise them. If not, I don’t feel we should be quick to criticise.

Sorry, that’s a bit deep isn’t it?

Very, but the depths of which I agree with.

[ibsey]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Yes, that is what I saw as well. A word of warning, do NOT rewind to see what happened. You will immediately regret it. I wish him a speedy recovery.

You forget how dangerous F1 can be until an incident like this occurs

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by ibsey

You forget how dangerous F1 can be until an incident like this occurs

There were two similar incidents at last nights IndyCar race at Phoenix, where two mecahnics were run into by their drivers as they pitted.

[Articus]

Originally Posted by sparkione

Two points – 1) Max Verstappen still has a lot to learn about F1, and
2) The FIA still has a lot to learn about making F1 truly exciting – a battle of the giants.
What would those last few laps have been like if Lew hadn't had to take a 5-place grid penalty (for changing a gearbox?! C'mon fellas!). Bottas should have taken Vettel. Hamilton WOULD have...

I think without the Lewis penalty, might have seen a two stopper from both teams. Or 1 stopper from Bottas only. Completely different dynamic.

Have to agree, Ham would have gotten past in the same position.

However we saw some huge moves. Verstappen getting around Hamilton before the retirement was unexpected. Vettel carving around Hamilton right before Hamilton's first stop was also unexpected.

[Paarma]

Maybe it was a long time ago but it have the impression that Ferrari has had a few of these type of accidents before? Anyway, I think Kimi would have only been in the way if he would have gone there to check up on the crew member.

[S griffin]

I hope we see more races like this or better

Vettel just held on, good chase by Bottas

Yet another pitstop failure, this time someone gets injured. Time for the FIA to put something in place to stop this?

Well done Gasly, seems that Free practice pace was no fluke and both Honda engines made it. At least both McLarens were in the points (Fred is actually ahead of Kimi in the championship!)

Well done Ericsson for getting in the points, shows he has talent in there

Shame Max threw it all away early on

[steve_r]

Great stuff from Vettel and Gasly and Ericson. Damage limitation from Hamilton. So close by Bottas.

Verstappen has had two terrible races. We still dont really know how good the Red Bulls race pace is this year.

[RWill2073]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I’m never comfortable in trying to find fault with people in situations like this, especially when sat on a comfy sofa. Unless you are looking for it, and even then it may clear, we can’t be sure of the situation. We also can’t be sure what we would have done ourselves.

Of course, if you see someone respond positively then, yes, praise them. If not, I don’t feel we should be quick to criticise.

Sorry, that’s a bit deep isn’t it?

This is fair. There are many reasons for him not going over there. Maybe he's squeamish. Maybe the crew members he passed by said don't go over there. Maybe he was pausing and looking in there a couple times. Maybe when he was looking that way they directed him over to the garage. Maybe he was in a sort of shock, like "what is going on?" Or maybe he didn't know it had happened since they only told him to stop the car, not that he hit someone. It is unfair to criticize him with so little to go off of. Just that whole "optics" thing. (I hate the word "optics" btw)...

[Skam85]

It was the pitlane in the middle of the race. He had a lingering glance over at what was happening and obviously noticed he was receiving medical attention and didn't want to get in the way.

[Born Racer]

Well, where to start with this one?

Finally, the three available tyre compounds have played a significant role in making strategy interesting. That, coupled with this track's propensity for overtaking, meant that we were able to see different interpretations of the way to run this race play out and come to a climax, one which, happily enough, meant a battle for the lead right in the final throws.

It wasn't all flat-out sprint driving, what with Vettel forces to conserve tyres, but I would argue that it was more absorbing to watch than mere fuel conservation.

Vettel did a solid job to hold onto that one, I feel. It's a pity Alonso wasn't able to make more of that medium compound run. I thought McLaren we're going to achieve more with that. Vandoorne continued to quietly impress. He's keeping Alonso just about in his sights and I don't know if there are many drivers who could do more than that with Fernando as team-mate.

Verstappen again showed a chink in his armour. I believe he ruined his own race by toughing it out too much with Hamilton. We've seen this kind of use of the track by him before. It's not so much that he's ruthless, but he likes to command more space than is safe for him to do so, and his comment about how you always try to squeeze the other driver, ironically, explains to him how he ended up ruining his own race.

[F1Guy]

Hamilton was right, Verstappen was a d**khead! That move was never going to end well specially when MV wasn't clear to cut LH off like that!

Bottas proves once again why he is a second tier driver. He should have been much closer to Vettel earlier than just in the final 2 laps. You could almost guarantee Hamilton would have been - and may have even passed Vettel on the last lap if he was in Buttass' position. That race was poised for a great battle in the final 4-5 laps but Buttass just hasn't got what it takes to give Vettel a fight.

And I know it's only the second round, but it looks like Ferrari have finally matched Mercedes on Engine output. Still need a couple of races to make a better judgement on this. The Ferrari chassis is definitely marginally better than the Mercedes. If Ferrari have indeed matched the Mercedes engine, then it should be a interesting season ahead.

[Lancsbreaker]

What, not a single "it was boring, I didn't watch it" comment?

Obviously a lot of different issues to muddy the judgement of just where each team truly is, but a fascinating race to watch, in my view.

Was disappointed with Kimi's apparent lack of concern for the injured crew member - not only at the time (he probably wasn't told what had happened and it was chaotic, but even when being interviewed at the end of the race as the fireworks were going off, he didn't seem interested....I know the "iceman" is his default mode, but I expected better.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

Hamilton was right, Verstappen was a d**khead! That move was never going to end well specially when MV wasn't clear to cut LH off like that!

Bottas proves once again why he is a second tier driver. He should have been much closer to Vettel earlier than just in the final 2 laps. You could almost guarantee Hamilton would have been - and may have even passed Vettel on the last lap if he was in Buttass' position. That race was poised for a great battle in the final 4-5 laps but Buttass just hasn't got what it takes to give Vettel a fight.

And I know it's only the second round, but it looks like Ferrari have finally matched Mercedes on Engine output. Still need a couple of races to make a better judgement on this. The Ferrari chassis is definitely marginally better than the Mercedes. If Ferrari have indeed matched the Mercedes engine, then it should be a interesting season ahead.

Bottas didn’t have the advantage of tyres over Vettel till the last few laps. So you can’t blame Bottas. He did his best

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Bottas didn’t have the advantage of tyres over Vettel till the last few laps. So you can’t blame Bottas. He did his best

Agreed. Lapped traffic also stymied his approach

Originally Posted by F1Guy

Buttass

Second tier driver outqualifies his all-conquering teammate. How embarrassing!

Also, Buttass. Are you 12?

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Bottas didn’t have the advantage of tyres over Vettel till the last few laps. So you can’t blame Bottas. He did his best

i also think he did do his best and honestly im not entirely convinced that LH would have been able to do much more if positions were reversed (he was also having trouble hitting his target lap times). not a knock on LH mind you but i suspect/guess Merc are not giving their drivers access to all the tools in the box. however time will tell they can make back those wins as these engines near the end of their cycle.

after last week i question how Merc run their race strategy....relying too much on numbers coming back from their data center and not enough jus on the pit wall to make the hard calls in real time.

all hindsight and speculation on my part of course but i feel like Merc lost that race (or failed to get close enough) in the middle part of the race by not pushing as much/turning up their engine....for both Bottas and LH.

[chillibowl]

just to add, i think they believed that Ferrari/SV would have to stop again so they chose to save engine power and by the time they realized otherwise it was too late.

all Bottas could do at that point was hope SV's tires massively fell off the cliff or that he would make an unforced error.

hoisted on their own petard again.

[Lancsbreaker]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

just to add, i think they believed that Ferrari/SV would have to stop again so they chose to save engine power and by the time they realized otherwise it was too late.

all Bottas could do at that point was hope SV's tires massively fell off the cliff or that he would make an unforced error.

hoisted on their own petard again.

You are probably reasonably on the money there...as I think Toto accepted afterwards when he said he could be clever with hindsight....

To be fair to LH, I don't think he was particularly struggling with hitting his lap times, so much as not being sure what he was being asked to do....And he was pretty consistently quicker than Bottas in the latter stages.....

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

.And he was pretty consistently quicker than Bottas in the latter stages.....

He was on much newer rubber, having used Soft compound in Q2 (ie the tyres he had to start on,) whereas others (SV and VB) started on (and had used in Q2) SuperSoft thus had to change earlier.

[RWill2073]

Originally Posted by Skam85

Agreed. Lapped traffic also stymied his approach



Second tier driver outqualifies his all-conquering teammate. How embarrassing!

Also, Buttass. Are you 12?

Considering the way his other statements have gone, I expect bottas to win the next race, now.

[Articus]

Look at Bahrain 2014 with Lewis....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8XO-PZ6VR8


If I'm at Mercedes, Id be quite dissapointed. Bottas is paid to put the final move on Vettel...Hamilton would have pulled it off without doubt.