So, Vettel told Sky that they’ve got the pace, but then he adds that everything really boils down to how those tires hold up during the race (Captain Obvious).
Hmm, the Lotus looks incredible. They might actually have the best tire durability on the grid right now. Red Bull and Ferrari seem to be neck and neck... but based on today's Practice 2, the edge goes to Lotus. It looks like they could potentially pull off a two-stop strategy. It’s going to be a fast Final Race. I expect McQueen to be right in the thick of it, battling for position against both the field and Grosjean.
Sam Roberts8 said:Ferrari looks solid this year even on hard tires, so I guess Red Bull might 👋
Ferrari seems to be doing a solid job preserving their softer tires, but when it comes to the harder compounds, you can really see how much pace they're lacking. In my opinion, they’re still sitting about two tenths behind Red Bull Racing, which puts them right on par with Mercedes.
Drew Bennett68 said:It’s actually quite impressive when you look at the numbers—Ferrari has secured more wins in Bahrain than any other team, and wasn't it Felipe Massa who managed to pull off two victories there himself?
True, but back then, raw engine power was everything. Nowadays, it’s all about the aerodynamics.
I’ll be keeping an eye on the race coefficients. I might swing by the local sportsbook tomorrow to see which ones look good $17 for Saturday and Sunday.
Medium isn't necessarily a disadvantage for Ferrari, though Stefano told Gazetta that they might run into some issues with hard compounds. Honestly, I’ve always felt like Sakhir is just an awkward track for Ferrari—it never seems to suit them. 🤷
Just like everyone predicted, those soft tires are absolutely useless now. 1:36.8 1:37.2 1:38.2 1:40.0 Watching Vettel try to hunt down Lewis... you can clearly see how much the performance just falls off a cliff. Honestly, you might get maybe four, five laps out of them before you're basically stuck driving times that you'd be hitting on fresh medium tires.
Amanda Kelly said:That driver gap between No. 1 and No. 2 has been stuck in my head all afternoon. And if you ask me, it's most glaring at Ferrari (the biggest headache, at least in my book).
Once again, I think the main issue is Massa. The guy just doesn't function—well enough, anyway—when things get chaotic. And it isn't just about traffic. He lacks consistency. You can't bank on him for anything.
Overtaking wasn't even the issue today. Alonso sliced through the top 3 or 4 like they weren't even there—clearly the best and the fastest. Plenty of spots to move, two DRS zones. Everyone was passing anyone they could catch. That 40-second gap? For me, it's unbearable, and I'm putting it squarely on the driver. It's too wide. Unacceptable. And I can't view Massino grabbing 6th place as some kind of success or an "OK" result. Rosberg and Webber dropped out, and if they had finished, they probably would've been ahead of him anyway.
I get the feeling Felipe is pretty disappointed and frustrated himself. He was flying during the FP's and expected more from qualifying—he said so himself. So what happens to him during the race? I wish I knew that too.
That first pit stop really threw him off, but honestly, his lap times today were visibly slower than Fernando's. When Fernando was consistently hitting 1:41s or 1:42s, Massa was stuck in the 1:43s. Toward the end of the race, Alonso was pushing 1:39s or low 1:40s, while Massa couldn't get below 1:40 except for maybe two or three laps. Most of the time, he was just sitting on 1:41s.
stormybadger8 said:Winning comes down to an incredible start, as usual. Honestly, I’ve had this gut feeling for ages that Ferrari is using some kind of traction control system for their launches.😁
Also, we can't ignore how solid Fernando Alonso's driving was during that first stint while he was fighting his way through the field... It definitely helped that most people ended up opting for softs, allowing them to bolt off the line quickly. If they’d gone with mediums, I’m not even sure how that would have played out, though Ferrari looked incredibly strong on the straights even without DRS. Overall, Ferrari looks great, but the big question remains: how is this going to look in Bahrain or during the rest of the European work?
On another note, it’s actually pretty weird seeing such massive gaps between the No. 1 and No. 2 drivers across almost every single team... It’s honestly wild how Felipe Massa just vanishes mid-race, and don't even get me started on how invisible Rosberg and Romain Grosjean were. Plus, it's super strange that, just like last year, we're seeing these huge fluctuations in car pace on the exact same tire compound at different stages of the race.😳
And the most interesting part? That conversation Bernie Ecclestone was having on the grid. I'm dying to know what kind of tire changes they're cooking up for Barcelona.🍿
I think Fernando Alonso will be solid in Spain and Monaco; Germany and the GP Bahrain should suit him too. Bahrain is a good fit for Ferrari. The real trouble starts after Canada, especially during the Asian tour. Red Bull Racing is always tough in Asia because those tracks just suit their style perfectly. If Alonso doesn't have a car capable of winning (winning, not just podiums ) in Asia, he's going to lose the title again.
China is a unique beast; I don't think we should get carried away just because of today's win. I really don't expect this level of performance to carry over to Bahrain. To me, this victory was more about Fernando's brilliant strategy and how he managed his tires better than anyone else out there today. In terms of pure raw pace, I actually think McLaren is right up there with Ferrari—maybe even faster during a qualifying lap—but they’re absolutely shredding their tires. Lewis isn't exactly known for being a master at managing difficult rubber (or at least, he isn't on the same level as Alonso, for instance), and I think that's where he's struggling a bit. Kimi would have been right in the mix for the win if it hadn't been for that close call with Perez.
That was a masterclass from Fernando Alonso. His race management was incredibly smart... he played it safe by only making overtakes within the DRS zones, never leaving an opening for other drivers elsewhere on the track. Those five monstrous laps from Sebastian Vettel were something else... the guy is an absolute beast when he needs to string together a sequence of blistering laps.
Red Bull really took a hit today; they completely let Mark Webber down with those clumsy mistakes.
Even he’s slowly starting to realize that this whole thing just doesn't make sense. The top-tier drivers are all here, but like I’ve mentioned before, today’s drivers lack any real grit. They’d probably agree to a race requiring ten pit stops if it meant staying on track. Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton are actually saying something about it, but everyone else is being pretty quiet. At the end of the day, it’s about their paychecks. If the money keeps rolling in regularly, they’ll happily take all five stops.
Amanda Kelly said:Qualifying sessions like this aren't even worth watching anymore. Everyone just does one single lap and calls it a day. That old tension—the thrill of seeing who can shave off a hundredth of a second over two or three laps—is dead. To make matters worse, by the final round, half the grid seems more focused on not driving at all than actually competing. It feels like that hour or hour and a half would be better spent doing literally anything else, whether that's something actually fun, exciting, or just useful.
And someone needs to tell Bernie Ecclestone that we’re done tuning in for qualifying, and his viewership numbers are going to tank because of it. He’s the only one who can deal with these people over at Pirelli. This nonsense with the tires is definitely being done on purpose, dictated by someone behind the scenes.
It's rough... the drivers are complaining, but let's be honest, nobody listens to them anyway... Modern Formula 1 doesn't stay afloat because of the drivers; it stays alive thanks to sponsors like Randstad, Shell, Telmex, and Siemens.
It doesn't even have to go out for a timed lap. They can just stay parked in the garage the entire time if they want and still pick their starting tires.
Lewis Hamilton is going to have a hard time pulling off a win here... I can already see him getting that notification during lap 2: "your tires aren't going to last." I’m putting my money on Fernando Alonso...
I don't know about all this... personally, I feel like Lewis Hamilton is just incredibly slick. He manages to wrap everything up in this "impenetrable" cellophane, or maybe he just uses a sort of deceptive sincerity to pull it off.