2021 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Thread

I honestly don't see any issue with what Lewis Hamilton did. It was a brilliant bit of dancing right on the edge of an undefined rule. You take advantage while you can, and once they catch on to what you're doing, then you play dumb.

If the briefing had clearly told them "no," they wouldn't have done it. From what I gathered by listening to the statements afterward, nobody explicitly told them it wasn't allowed.

We've seen this kind of loophole exploitation before. I remember one year—I think it was in China—when Sebastian Vettel overtook two cars right in the pit lane entry section, only to later act all innocent and claim he checked the rulebook and saw nothing forbidding it.🤣

Like I wrote yesterday, Hamilton planned this entire thing out perfectly. He went for the aggressive move during the first half of the race, knowing that once they realized his tactic, he could just back off and eliminate his opponent's advantage later. And that’s exactly how it played out. He essentially forced him off the track by positioning the car just right, leaving him with no choice but to go wide. Total masterclass.

neonfox65 said:If Max hadn't gone wide, they would've just collided.

He’d have ended up like Alexander Albon did last year in Austria.

Look, if you're holding the racing line, you've got the right of way. Unless the guy trying to dive down the inside makes a clear, decisive move, you don't owe him an inch.
Max basically paid the price for letting his emotions get the better of him and playing it too young.
Plus, Mercedes looked seriously fast on race pace. You can see it with Valtteri Bottas—he isn't exactly known for being a beast at that stage, but if it weren't for that tire issue and the extra pit stop, he probably would've been within 4 or 5 seconds of Max by the end of the race.

neonfox65 said:If Max Verstappen hadn't gone wide, they would've collided.

He would've ended up like Alexander Albon did last year in Austria.

We really need to see the replay.
Maybe he shouldn't have gone wide in the first place.

But regardless, these are two different situations and you can't compare them. Yuki Tsunoda kept Esteban Ocon off the track through the entire corner.

Alright, am I just losing my mind here? I could have sworn Max Verstappen and a few of the other drivers were also running wide at that exact same spot... I can still see the image perfectly in my head, but I really don't have the energy or the time to go back and rewatch the whole race just to prove myself right...

Larry Rivera83 said:Alright, am I just losing my mind here? I could swear Max and a few other drivers were also going off track at that exact same spot! I can see the image perfectly in my head, but I really don't have the energy or the time to sit here and replay the whole race just to prove it..

Max got a message over the team radio that the Mercedes drivers were cutting the corner there, so he figured he might as well do the same. After that, the commentators were joking about how they’d report everyone, only for the team radio to play a few laps later where they tell Hamilton he’s going to get the black & white flag if he keeps it up.

Larry Rivera83 said:Alright, am I losing my mind here? I could swear Max and a few other drivers were also cutting the corners at that exact same spot. I’ve still got the image burned into my brain, and honestly, I don't have the energy or the time to sit through the whole race replay all over again just to prove a point...

They did, because it was decided during the pre-race meeting that no one was getting penalized.

Horner frustrated by 'annoying' track limits

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner was unhappy with the way the 2021 Miami Grand Prix was decided, with Max Verstappen forced to hand over the lead after going off track to pass Lewis Hamilton.

Horner argued that Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton should also have been sanctioned for repeatedly not keeping within track limits at turn 4 earlier in the race. "With these track limit things, they’re always going to be contentious—but we do need to just have a consistent situation..."

“It was frustrating. We could see as soon as Mercedes started to push, they just used that part of the track," he told the media after the end of the race. “We questioned race control, ‘If that’s the case, can we do it?’"

"They did it lap after lap," he complained. "When you’re in a nip and tuck battle, there’s a two-tenth advantage using that part of the circuit."

Hamilton was eventually told by the Mercedes pit wall that race control had expressed their disapproval and not to continue doing it.

"The race director asked them to respect the limits, otherwise they’d get a black and white flag," Horner confirmed. In the end there was no sanction for Hamilton—but when Verstappen went off at the same spot in order to take the lead with three laps remaining, race control was instantly in touch to order him to hand the position back straight away.

"Obviously Max ran wide on the pass there," Horner acknowledged. "It had been made clear before the race that if someone got an advantage by going out there, they’d have to give it back."

“We had an instruction from the race director to give the place back immediately. Max was very sporting and did that,” Horner said. That ultimately ended up costing Verstappen's victory, with too little time to regroup and repeat his pass on Lewis Hamilton before the chequered flag.

"It was frustrating and Lewis Hamilton had just enough to retain his position to the end of the race," Horner said, adding that Verstappen's suggestion they should simply ignore the instruction in favor of incurring a five-second post-race penalty hadn't been an option.

"There’s no guarantee that we could have got the five seconds [over Hamilton] if that had been the penalty, so he did the right thing.”

But Horner still felt it was unfair that Verstappen should be penalized for a one-off move, while Hamilton had been allowed to repeatedly run wide when defending from the Red Bull earlier in the race.
https://f1i.com/news/400974-horner-u...ck-limits.html

🙏

Raymond Anderson4 said:It feels to me like Max's tires were completely shot, maybe even more so than Lewis's... Lewis was running older rubber, sure, but he was managing his tires quite well, whereas Max really burned through his fresher set just trying to close the gap on Lewis.
I can't help but wonder if that single moment at turn 4 was really his only real opening... because once that window closed, he just didn't have the grip left to make another move. He had one shot, and it seems like Lewis played him perfectly, almost baiting him into going wide... I kind of get why Max went a bit wide, though, since they were so tight together and he probably wanted to avoid any contact. Lewis Hamilton's FW and Max Verstappen's front tire were incredibly close coming out of that corner, and while Lewis Hamilton's line looked like a true racing line, Max might have just been playing it safe, afraid that cutting back onto the racing line would result in him clashing with Lewis...

Are you absolutely certain he didn't have another chance? Like, if he’d just been a bit more patient—or maybe just more experienced—and waited until both of them had cleared that trailing Alfa Romeo before making his move... that Alfa seemed to pop up right when Max decided to strike, almost like it was timed specifically to mess with him. In my eyes, despite how much experience Max Verstappen has now, it really came down to that bit of youthful impatience... that's just how it looked to me...

darkmarlin16 said:What car number are you driving if that's how many points you get under the new rules?🤣

Yeah, I guess that's about it.🤣

mellowtiger83 said:My neutral take is that Lewis didn't gain any kind of advantage here. What "cutting corners" are you even talking about? Max got penalized because at the exact moment they were fighting for position, he was off at all four corners, and since the next sequence is just a mild left followed by a mild right, the left actually works in his favor.

It’s not just Hamilton "cutting corners" here; plenty of other drivers have been doing it lap after lap.

As far as I know, the pre-race briefing stated this wouldn't be sanctioned, so Red Bull basically shot themselves in the foot.

By the way, I would've preferred a Max Verstappen win too, but it wasn't primarily due to bad strategy.

Let’s be real: the FIA completely blew this one.
Whatever happened with Max is irrelevant—if it's against the rules, it's against the rules.
That’s exactly why Red Bull told him to give the position back, which was a totally logical move...

But this stuff with Hamilton is a joke. If it's legal, then it's legal for the whole race.
If it isn't, then it shouldn't be allowed in lap 7 or lap 38. You can't just decide it's fine for 30 laps and then suddenly claim it's a violation.😵

Raymond Anderson4 said:Red Bull basically tripped over their own feet.

First off, they didn't capitalize on turn 4.
Second, if they hadn't stayed quiet, there wouldn't have been a mid-race decision, and Max Verstappen's overtake would've stood.

Third, the strategy was a mess. Max Verstappen spent 15 or 16 laps just chasing down the Mercedes. That chase is exactly what cost him the win; by the time he actually went for Lewis Hamilton, his tires were shot. Zero traction left. Red Bull was killing it in high-speed corners where aero dominates, but they were falling apart in the slow and medium speed turns because the rubber just wasn't there anymore.
Max isn't just fighting Lewis Hamilton; he's fighting Mercedes and their entire massive operation. They're a brutal team—they watch everything, study everything, and always have an answer.

You're comparing apples to oranges here...
Someone spinning out of a corner on their own is one thing—fine, maybe they grab a penalty after a few misses...
But it’s a completely different story if you use that exact same move to overtake someone else...

neonfox65 said:If Max hadn't gone wide, they would've collided

He'd have ended up like Alexander Albon did last year in Austria--just another casualty of the chaos.

Yeah, he could've pulled an "Albon." Maybe that's what Lewis Hamilton was banking on—hoping Max Verstappen would try to squeeze him at the apex, leaving room for a front tire collision to send him spinning.
Max went wide, which was the right call, but he misjudged it and caught the curb just enough to kick him off the track. If he’d found even a tiny bit more speed, they’d be neck-and-neck going into the next sequence of turns—where, if you look at how Alpine vs. Red Bull Racing plays out, the car on the left usually holds the advantage.

By the way, Helmut Marko mentioned that Max Verstappen had to dial back the engine power because of that differential issue, so he wasn't running full tilt during the battle. You could tell Lewis Hamilton was slightly quicker on the straights before Max Verstappen hit the DRS, which is likely why.

I was glued to the live timing the whole time, and Lewis seemed to be pulling away just a bit on the straights. It wasn't until Max Verstappen got into that DRS zone after flying off following the lockup that things shifted. Even then, he didn't seem to close the gap nearly as aggressively as usual, mostly because once a car loses momentum like that, it's hard to recover when you're trying to hunt someone down in DRS.

And after everything that just went down, looking at Lewis Hamilton's body language once the race wrapped up... you can just tell this was probably his toughest outing since 2016... things are about to get really interesting...

Larry Rivera83 said:And after everything, Lewis Hamilton's body language once the race wrapped up suggests this was probably his toughest battle since 2016. Things are about to get really interesting.

Look, I don't totally love him because of how he kept running wide, but my respect for him shot through the roof after that race.

I honestly can't remember the last time I saw an F1 driver literally beaming and grinning from ear to ear just because they got to go wheel-to-wheel with someone on track. That is what a real athlete and a true racer looks like.

wiredseal7 said:So, Helmut Marko is saying Max Verstappen had to dial back the engine power because of that differential issue—which basically means he wasn't running at full tilt during the battle. You could definitely see Lewis Hamilton being a bit quicker on the straights right before Max Verstappen pulled into the DRS zone... probably due to that power gap.

👍

We're taking back what's ours after Imole

wiredseal7 said:Yeah, it could have easily ended up being an "Alexander Albon" moment. Maybe Lewis Hamilton was hoping Max Verstappen would try to squeeze him off the apex, allowing him to clip the front wheel and force a spin.
Max went wide because he overcooked it, which is what happens when you push too hard; he just caught the curb and slid right off the track. If he’d accelerated even a tiny bit sooner, they likely would have been side-by-side in the next sequence of turns—and looking at how Alpine vs. Red Bull Racing played out, the car on the left usually holds the advantage there.

On another note, Helmut Marko mentioned that Max Verstappen had to dial back the engine power due to that differential issue, meaning he didn't have full power during the battle. You could tell Lewis Hamilton looked a little quicker on the straights just before Max Verstappen engaged DRS, which probably explains it.

I don't buy what Helmut Marko is selling. Helmut always seems to have an excuse ready whenever a golden opportunity slips through their fingers.

Lewis Hamilton basically just outsmarted Max Verstappen, and honestly, that’s all there is to it.

🙏

https://www.sportvideos.tv/video-lew...it-got-banned/

Check out this footage showing all 29 wide exits at turn 4