2021 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Thread

Some top-tier April Fools' content. 👍 👍

mellowtiger83 said:It feels like they just make up the rules whenever it suits Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes—I honestly can't see any other logical explanation.

Well, of course you don't!

Quote : from AMuS - Balance of The Car improved greatly from testing to race - The gap to Red Bull in The race halved
-The car balance saw huge improvements between testing and the actual race
-They managed to cut the gap to Red Bull Racing in the race by half compared to qualifying—though they're still trailing...
-Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team is bleeding time through turns 2, 5, 6, and 10—those high-speed corners—plus at the end of the straights too
-To actually catch Red Bull Racing, they'll need at least a month of work, and once that first upgrade hits, who knows? It might even be their last shot depending on how they stack up against Red Bull Racing after this...

It's over🙂

Lewis Hamilton: "We just don't have the fastest car right now"
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.html

Morning everyone... 👋

neonfox65 said:Good morning, 👋

It’s a tragedy, really. A driver with a track record of 100 races has dealt with an inferior car 10 times now.

mellowtiger83 said:It honestly feels like the rules are being rewritten on the fly just to suit Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team—I can't see any other logical explanation.

Look, the Race Director explicitly stated before the race that going off track at Turn 4 wouldn't be penalized—which should apply to everyone equally. So, when Hamilton uses that advantage during the race, and then the stewards suddenly issue him a warning saying he can't do it anymore or he'll face a penalty... well, it certainly creates the impression that the officials have a vendetta against him.
I'm sorry, but that’s just how it looks.
Essentially, Hamilton could have gone wide 29 or even 56 times in that corner without issue—staying perfectly within the rules and following steward instructions. Of course, using it to overtake isn't allowed—which is exactly what Max Verstappen did.

analogpilot16 said:The Race Director mentioned before the race that going wide at Turn 4 wouldn't be penalized, which implies the rule applied to everyone. Now, when Lewis Hamilton uses that exact line during the race, the stewards suddenly drop a warning on him saying he can't do it anymore or he'll face a penalty. It really does look like the officials have a vendetta against him.
I hate to say it, but that’s how it looks.
Technically, Hamilton could have gone wide 56 times instead of just once and still been following the stewards' instructions. Of course, overtaking by cutting the corner isn't allowed. That's what Max Verstappen did.

True, but the kicker is that the decision only changed once Red Bull notified Max Verstappen that he was cleared to do it too. Almost immediately after, the stewards stepped in to shut it down. 🤣
If Red Bull had stayed quiet, Lewis Hamilton would have kept doing it. But the second the other side started taking advantage, those guys in the control room jumped in. 🙏

That’s the whole joke right there...
The FIA—basically the refs—operate like this: if someone starts whining over the team radio, they start looking into penalties. If everyone stays quiet, nothing happens...
Sadly, a ton of these calls are purely political. They look at who's complaining and which team is doing the complaining.

The real issue is that the stewards are mostly just guys who lack the backbone to penalize media darlings or drivers from the ultra-wealthy teams.
They definitely don't have the guts to just shut down the whining immediately and say, "Cut the crap, that's legal," because they know the media will tear them apart for it...
In these situations, it unfortunately matters way more who said it than what was actually said...
That’s why so many decisions get pushed until after the race. You end up waiting hours or even days for Mass or Jean Todt or whoever else to make the call,
because the stewards don't have the balls to make a decision right then and there. Plus, the rules are overly complicated and can be interpreted any which way you want...

And all of this stems from these absolutely moronic phrasings like the one here about what's allowed...
It says it's fine, but it's not like it's always legal in every single scenario; it says "it's not punishable to go off track at Turn 4 unless you gain a significant advantage"
I mean, hello? What counts as significant? A thousandth, a hundredth, a tenth, or a full second per lap? 🙂
How are you supposed to measure that, and against what? How do you even define that famous line between a "significant" and an "insignificant" advantage? 🙄
It's pure stupidity when you're given instructions and rules like that. With a rule like this, you could easily penalize every accidental little slip, while simultaneously ignoring constant track limit violations...

Keep it simple: stay on the track or don't. Period.
Give them a five-second penalty and move on. All this talk about whether a "significant advantage" was gained makes zero sense...
If you actually wanted to forgive people who messed up and went wide without gaining anything, it would be incredibly easy to monitor.
Just look at the sector times. If a driver goes wide and clocks a 32:658 in that sector...
and their previous lap was a 33:657, they were slower, so no penalty. But if the lap before was a 32:659, they were faster, so boom—automatic penalty...
The dumbest part is that in this day and age, a computer could handle those calculations and hand out penalties instantly without anyone needing to ramble on about it...

To all my fellow grown-ups who, much like myself, still feel like one giant kid playing with LEGO bricks 🙂

😁

I would personally rate this race an 4.33 (very good)