F1 2022 - Round 1: Bahrain

As nice as the story is, realistically the Haas wouldn't be as good as it is without Uralkali funding the development of the new car. It was always the plan to sacrifice 2021 and focus on 2022 and this was a plan the Mazepins were on board with. Obviously Magnussen is faster than Nikita, but he'd still have been at the back of the grid in last year's Haas just like he was in 2020, and probably again this year if the team had kept its drivers and continued to trundle along without a big sponsor.

They're not fast because they're free of Uralkali, they're fast because they developed a strong car. Getting out of the contract at the same time is a convenient coincidence. They will most likely be left behind in the development race over the year if they don't get a new sponsor on board, so fingers crossed that they do. I suspect they will as the sport's popularity is through the roof now compared to a couple of years ago, especially in the US.

I do wonder, seeing all the Merc customers at the bottom and the works team running that unique no-sidepod design, if Mercedes focused their engine development on adapting the power unit to this new packaging and the customer teams have been caught by surprise with something that has a higher centre of gravity and isn't packaged in the way they expect. During the Aston Martin launch they were talking about how they had the option of taking the Mercedes suspension but they chose not to because they needed to get on with developing their car and wouldn't know the Mercedes suspension design until it was too late to integrate with their aero philosophy.

I felt there was a lot less team radio, that can't be a bad thing.

I always enjoyed reading the forums and twitter after races but it's tiresome now with the whinging fans latching on to out of context snippets of team radio.

Sainz beat Leclerc last year and I feel he definitely has the edge in a midfield car with lots of wheel to wheel racing to be done and incidents to avoid. In clean air at the front though he might have more difficulty as Leclerc has fairly consistently shown himself to be a touch faster over a lap. He should certainly be closer though, there's a lot less between him and Leclerc than there is between Verstappen and Perez though this race didn't show it. I can imagine races where Sainz is running a close third and able to do something on an alternate strategy as Max and Charles push each other into pitstops and undercut attempts.

That's a confusing headline. I've read that whole article and they have direct quotes from team members saying the retirement was due to the standard fuel pump, a thorough explanation of known issues with it, concerns about it being faulty that arose over the weekend and FIA acknowledgement of issues with it. But then there's just a throwaway line "Motorsport.com understands that none of the standard supplied pumps across the two cars were the cause of the retirements" with no explanation or quote or evidence to back it up. They seem to be basing it on a quote prior to the race where Horner said they checked the pump for faults after qualifying and they were ok?

It seems at odds with other reports, e.g. Craig Scarborough who is about the most reliable source out there on technical info described the problem in great detail with Peter Windsor during their podcast. Not only did he identify the fuel pump, but he described exactly how and why it failed. Prolonged exposure to the E10 fuel caused the casing on the electronics to corrode away exposing electrics and causing a short circuit which killed the pump.

And here is the view of everybody's favourite Sky Sports pundit.

If we have a Charles vs Max championship with battles like yesterday, we are in for a treat.

Points don't tell the whole story. Charles beat Sainz convincingly not only in quali, but also in races finished ahead.

Alfa and Haas, Ferrari powered cars in points. Only Mick Schumacher (11th) didn't score points with Ferrari power.

Aston Martin, Williams, McLaren were the 6 lapped cars when the SC came out. All Merc powered cars.

Too early to say, but it's a remarkable start

Big disappointed came when Ferrari returned after the summer break in Hungary with a new floor and took a huge step backwards. I was at that race with the topsy-turvy quali. Lewis won by a country mile and could have won by 2 country miles if he wasn't pacing himself.

The new Ferrari floor was the problem and it took them 5 races to figure it out! Lewis had won the title by then. Total balls of a team.

Not sure if this was mentioned before but the fastest race lap was a good few seconds off the best quali lap. Usually the race tends towards the quali times over the race from what I recall over the previous few years. Presume its a setup difference (I'm sure it was mentioned that the ride height is different for the race itself). Or just a larger portion of fuel?

Well generally it certainly is decided by who had the best race performances. Kubica scored more points than Russel when they were team mates. Does that mean he was the better driver?

It was hardly his fault that the team didn't spot the drive shaft issue that led to his DNS. It also wasn't his fault that Stroll torpedoed him out of the Hungarian Grand Prix.