2021 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Thread

Richard Walker38 said:Good grief, you’re actually more annoying than Tibija when he went full Vettel fanboy during those years at Ferrari.

ruggedhawk20 said:Wait, what!?

analogpilot16 said:Now we’re finally going to see what Max Verstappen’s mental game is really like when he actually has a car capable of winning a championship. We'll see if he cracks under the pressure or stays cool.

analogpilot16 said:Now we’ll see what Max Verstappen's headspace looks like when he actually has a championship-caliber car. Will he crack under the pressure, or won't he?

Drew Bennett68 said:Max will eat him alive—provided he actually has a decent car for once.

Max is the new king of Formula 1; last season made that pretty obvious, didn't it?

James Harris34 said:This was one of those races where you could argue the slower car actually won—Hamilton just used pure experience and racing IQ to absolutely dismantle Max, and honestly, you've gotta give him credit for that.

bluepuma9 said:Max Verstappen totally botched this. When he gave the spot back to Lewis Hamilton, he was way too aggressive and stayed too close through the next sequence of turns. He slid, overheated his tires, and lost his pace for a lap or two, which was all Lewis Hamilton needed. He was just too Emotional.

bluepuma9 said:Max Verstappen totally blew this one. When he moved back to give Lewis Hamilton his spot, he was way too aggressive. He stayed too close to Lewis through that next sequence of turns, which caused him to slide, and I'm pretty sure he overheated his tires. After that, he lost his pace for a lap or two, and that was all the room Lewis Hamilton needed. He was just being too Emotional.

bluepuma9 said:Max totally botched it—when he gave the spot back to Lewis Hamilton, he was way too aggressive and stayed too close through that next sequence of turns. He slid a bit, overheated those tires, and lost his pace for a lap or two—which was all Lewis Hamilton needed. He was just being Emotional.

Nicholas Walker40 said:This is the season where everything comes to a head for Lewis regarding that whole Greatest of All Time debate.
If he manages to clinch a record-breaking 8th title by racing the way he did in today's race, it would absolutely cement his status as the Greatest of All Time.

stormybadger8 said:Good morning my ass...
He messed up, but so did Red Bull...

Red Bull was so much faster they might have actually built a 5-second gap if Max had just stayed ahead. And then there's the other thing: Max let Lewis Hamilton through at the absolute dumbest spot possible...
He could have played it smart and let him past on the straight, or even right before the DRS detection zone, just to pop the DRS immediately after.
That was about as bad as a mistake gets...

stormybadger8 said:Honestly, Vettel's race was a complete disaster, but let’s be real—the strategy was pure idiocy...
They stayed on those mediums way too long until the tires were essentially dust; meanwhile, Vettel was stuck behind Perez in that first stint, only for Perez to pit and fly right past him within just a few laps.🤦

That first stint was dragged out far beyond any sense of logic, and by the time they went for the second one, he didn't even have a prayer at picking up points before that mess with Esteban Ocon happened...
He managed to close the gap on Kimi slightly, and maybe, if things had gone differently, he could have forced a pass later on, but even then, there was no way into the top 10, especially since Jukica had already vanished into the distance...

And what’s truly baffling is that they had plenty of tires left to play with; they could have done just about anything...
It seems absolutely nonsensical to me that they didn't pit roughly 15 laps before the finish.
They clearly had the window to switch to Softs or Mediums, lose perhaps only three positions (to guys like Nicholas Latifi, Giovanni Russell, or Esteban Ocon), jump ahead of George Russell, and then charge through the field on fresh rubber...
That was the realistic expectation: either defend against Esteban Ocon or perhaps struggle through a hard-fought pass on Kimi (who had much younger tires).
I have no idea what they were waiting for, but realistically, scoring points on ancient tires like that wasn't happening, even if a Safety Car had popped up...

But I honestly don't understand—did Vettel somehow bring his own lack of pace to the team and drag the Ferrari strategists down with him? 😱

Drew Bennett68 said:Max might just leave Lewis in the dust.

neonfox65 said:Before the FIA decides to come down hard on Max Verstappen

Look, I’ve been following F1 and various other motorsports for 20 years now, and I have never seen a Theft quite like this. Honestly, if my last name were Hamilton, I’d be too embarrassed to show my face.

But hey, lobbying works wonders. It was the same story back in the Schumacher days.

Anyway, I'm just glad we finally see that Red Bull Racing has a fast car and that Max Verstappen is a damn good driver.

If you ask me, the hierarchy looks like this:

Red Bull Racing > Mercedes-AMG Petronas > McLaren > Ferrari

At Imola, we’re taking back what’s ours.