F1 2023 - Round 1: Bahrain

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319757#Comment_120319757

Alonso was on the radio saying he was avoiding the curbs etc and reducing his time, so he wasn't flat out. That is not to say RB weren't cruising, they were, but I doubt they are that far ahead at this point.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120321409#Comment_120321409

I watched on channel 4. First time in ages I've watched their full coverage, and didn't know the result in advance. Thought their coverage was poor, commentators tripping over each other and obviously you lose the flow with highlights versus full race. I know there's a tendency here to slate sky and big up channel 4,

Really. The only thing I found wrong with the C4 coverage is dull the talking neatly 40mins of it at the beginning. I have got into them about this but doubtfully anything will change.

I wait long enough to see the highlights don't need build up on highlights.

Otherwise I thought it was very good and once the race got going through enjoyed it.

I thought the Lance Alonso incident at the beginning was blown out of proportion do. He barely touched Alonsos car and no harm was done to Alonso so leave at that.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120321731#Comment_120321731

Alonso was cruising once he was in third. And when he wasn't in third he spent the entire race caught up in racing, in dirty air, locking up and damaging tyres etc. There was a whole lot more pace there if he'd got a clean start without being hit by Stroll on lap 1.

Obviously Leclerc, had he finished, was running RB much closer too. Sainz damaged his tyres racing Alonso too as he mentioned on the radio. Also mentioned on team radio was that George Russell had pace in hand but got stuck behind his struggling teammate, burning through his tyres while the team hung him out to dry, then being left out longer on pit stops which pushed him further back and left him needing to overtake Bottas and in a fight with Stroll, who himself was not at 100% due to injury.

All those cars would have been a lot closer to Red Bull had they had the advantage of clean air and incident free races out front, qualifying was extremely close, we haven't seen how any cars perform at different tracks or in different conditions, so I find all the proclamations that the season is over to be wildly premature.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120321855#Comment_120321855

RB aren't fooling anyone with that pace they have, and the pace they have in the bag as well.

We will need a few races to get a proper idea of what the gap is, Bahrain can be a bit of an outlier in layout along with the face it was where all the teams tested at.

RB will have the lead no matter what, it just might be a case of how big it is.

Longing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120321731#Comment_120321731

Yes true. I just posted something i read this morning. I thought it was interesting. Well I think there are miles ahead and lap times show it in the race. what is more telling is how easy Verstrappen just cruised away at the start of the race by lap three he was three seconds ahead soon after that went into cruise mode and lapped half second quicker and remember Leclerc was on a brand new set of softs tyres.

Also Sergio Perez was told by his team that he needn't worry too much about Charles Leclerc in front of him. Red Bull new that the pace of the Ferrari on fresh tyre's was nothing to worry about.

Longing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120321921#Comment_120321921

Sorry typing on phone is slow wouldn't have posted above after reading your last post.

Killinator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120321855#Comment_120321855

You really are determined to paint Red Bull as plucky underdogs who may just pull out all the stops and come out in top. Not like they were driver and constructor champions last season or anything.

Nobody else is buying it.

Qualifying pace is not an indication of race pace as proven in Bahrain and constantly elsewhere (setting aside the fact that RB were also fastest in qualy too anyway)

And fair play for getting the now standard dig in at Hamilton and Mercedes!

Jordan 199

I was hoping for more from Alpine last weekend. Ocon getting into Q3 but had a race to forget. Gasly out in Q1, started at the back of the grid and ended up ninth, so he did well.

If Alpine want to finish 4th in the Constructors Championship, they can't have any bad weekends.

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120331511#Comment_120331511

Can't see it happening with how strong AM seem to be now. Likely RB and then Ferrari, Mercedes and AM (who knows what order though!)

geotrig

So stroll was fairly banged up!

https://twitter.com/lance_stroll/status/1633171354676613125?t=bjPZqMQMmvtqCrf96cRJSA&s=19

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120331811#Comment_120331811

I would say it will be Red Bull then Aston Martin unless there pace drops as the season goes on then Ferrari then Mercedes then Alpine unless Williams or Haas do well enough this year to get into the top 5.

I can still see Haas in the top 6 do.

Burkie1203

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120331881#Comment_120331881

If Merc change their concept they will challenge red bull.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120334236#Comment_120334236

It will not happen for at least two years. Mercedes are now two years beyond the rest and they really shoukd have changed there concept for this year but they did not. They can not just throw money at it like they did before to get out of the mess they are in now so it will more than likely be next year before they change there car.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120334269#Comment_120334269

Couldn't agree more... The only thing that will help Mercedes out is that if they stink things up all year they'll have plenty of ATR time to work on next year's car