Grand Prix thread 2021 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

The Honda teams are both Q3 teams for the season I feel, what's going to happen if The STR's are both right ahead of Verstappen in a race?
Going to be an interesting dynamic.

 

It's on now.

Would be nice to see one of Hamilton's laps Mr/Mrs Director.

 

The Alpha T are fast because they have white wheels.

 

Sainz has done a belting lap there on old tyres- this Ferrari might be much closer to the front than any of us imagined this year.

Interesting!

 

It's like a boy racers Vauxhall Nova! Gives it more vroom!

 

It's a well known fact that white wheels make a car fast.

 

Seems like Honda have done an amazing job, hope it holds together.
5 different teams in top 6!

 

0.388 deficit for Mercedes in the first race quali. A lot of time to make up.

 

Well. That gap was bigger than I anticipated. Figured it might be much closer than that.

Good mix of cars up top!

 

Gauntlet laid down.

Cracking lap from Mad Max.

Interesting thing is if you take the elite two out of it (Max and Lewis), there is only 3 tenths between McLaren and Bottas - that’s a massive reduction in margin from the head of the midfield to last years champions.

Good signs for the season!

Hope we can see Lewis and Max thrash out a knife edge battle tomorrow now

 

Blistering pole lap, almost 0.4 on Hamilton.
Bottas got it together at the end, and Ferrari looking good, starting on softs as well might trouble some at the start.

 

It could be worse for Mercedes, as they have always had a much better quali pace compared to race pace.

 

Don’t get cake on your tighty whitey jeans DC.

 

Well.. I've got a bit of hope for this season at least. Bring on the race!

 

I don't, I can see MV walking away with it easier than Hamilton has been. He's almost .4 up in a car that usually has the smallest variance between quali and race pace, and probably did it with floor damage, over a car that has the biggest variance.
I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like the race for runner-up will at least be very interesting.

 

Who knows how the season will go, the PUs need to last 8 races each at the very least, which seems a stretch. This race looks very good for Red Bull and especially Verstappen. We could arrive at a different track and find it all changed. I will be shocked if Max doesn't win tomorrow at a canter though.

 

While Merc are off the pace by quite a bit, there's still a chance they can reel that in a bit given how much they have improved the backend in a couple of weeks, and cooler events may help them a bit. It could all work out to be a good season... I'm being optimistic.

 

Merc with no party mode or DAS is just an ordinary car

 

Two weeks ago Mercedes looked to have taken a wrong turn. To be this close after testing, I think we could be in for good racing even if Max walks away with this one. Looking forward to tomorrow.

 

Or without its fancy floor.

It's interesting. While Mercedes's rivals have been trying to work out what sets their car apart from others for the last few years, I wonder if the FIA knew when they mandated cutting off bits of the floor. Did they know the change would affect Mercedes a bit more than the rest? Or was it an unintentional consequence of trying to reduce downforce across the field? I suspect the latter, but I'd be impressed if it was the former.