Ferrari’s perfect response to “difficult” two years – Leclerc
Charles Leclerc says leading a Ferrari one-two in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix is the perfect way to respond following two years that “have been incredibly difficult”. The Monacan fended off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on multiple occasions to win Sunday’s season opener.
However, in the closing two laps, Verstappen was forced to retire with mechanical issues. For Ferrari, it marked their first win since Singapore 2019 and follows two difficult seasons where the Italian manufacturer had its worst result in three decades in 2020, before recovery but winless 2021.
Leclerc praised Ferrari’s work in preparing for the new F1 technical regulations and the shift to ground effect cars. He told Motorsport.com, “So happy, I keep repeating myself, but the last two years have been incredibly difficult for the team and we knew this was going to be a big opportunity for the team.”
The guys have done such an incredible job getting us and building this amazing car, so for now it’s starting in the best way possible: pole position victory, fastest lap, 1-2 today with Carlos. We could not hope for better, so yeah thank you to all of you guys that kept supporting us in the past two years.”
Sainz added, “Congratulations to Charles, congratulations to Ferrari. Ferrari is back, and it is properly back with a 1-2 and where the team should be the last two years but the hard work is paying off on and we are there.”
In the pivotal final restart Leclerc bolted away from Verstappen, catching out the Red Bull driver exiting the final corner, which at the time appeared to be key to his victory, having earlier fought off the Dutch driver in the opening phases of the race. That’s now more an academic theory, but the Ferrari driver still looked as if he would have been able to fend of the world champion and take the win.
Sainz says he saw Verstappen struggling with a mechanical issue at the restart and knew he could take on the Red Bull driver to complete a perfect race for Ferrari.
The Spaniard added “At the restart, I had a strong chance because I had a very clean restart behind Charles and Max. He defended well, to be fair. And then suddenly I started seeing some flashing red lights on the back of his car. And I said, ‘OK, this is my chance,’ I went for it.”
Sainz says his former teammate was unfortunate and was driving well enough for second.
Verstappen disappointed to lose “important points”
Max Verstappen says it was “very disappointing” to retire from second place late in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, warning that the lost points could be “very important” in this year’s title fight.
The Red Bull driver qualified second in Bahrain behind Charles Leclerc before the two of them battled each other hard following the first round of stops. Verstappen then slipped back before reporting a steering issue and then a fuel pump failure lead to him slowing on track and his eventual retirement with four laps to go. The third power unit related retirement for Red Bull Powertrains, after teammate Sergio Perez spun out a few laps later and Pierre Gasly retired early on.
Verstappen admitted the pace of the Red Bull in the race was “not what I hoped for compared to Friday”, and though the team could have “done a better job to be a bit more aggressive on the out-lap” after his pit stops. Verstappen was heard complaining he was told not to push too hard after pitting, missing the chance to get the undercut on Leclerc.
The Dutchman told Motorsport.com, “The big problem was what happened afterwards, which looked like there was no fuel coming to the engine and basically everything just turned off, and I rolled back into the pitlane.”
“It is not what you want, especially after having really positive test days and also a positive weekend. It looked like with the little issues that we had, to be in second place that would’ve been a very good result, eighteen points, probably, with Checo fourth. But to retire with both cars at the end of the race is very disappointing.”
The race was an underwhelming start to Verstappen’s title defence with main rivals Ferrari and Mercedes finishing in the top four positions. He says while disappointing the loss of points in what is expected to be another close championship.
Asked by Motorsport.com about his frustration over the radio directed at engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen said: “I don’t hold back, I say what I think in the car and I was not happy with what we were doing or with the balance of the car or with the strategy.”
Gasly expecting engine penalty
Pierre Gasly believes he may have taken a step towards an early engine-related grid penalty because a suspected battery failure triggered a “barbecue.” The Alpha Tauri driver stopped on track late in the race when his car stopped on track and caught fire leading to a late safety car.
Heading to this weekend’s race in Jeddah the Italian team are facing a huge rebuild and even a change of chassis. The concern of the team and most probable effects means that the team will have to discard one of the two Honda energy stores he is allocated for the season after just one race weekend, which would almost certainly guarantee a grid penalty as he won’t be able to do the remaining races without a further change. Other PU elements might also have been damaged by the fire.
Gasly had enjoyed a strong race at Sakhir and had been fighting with the likes of Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen before he stopped. Asked about the failure by Motorsport.com, he said, “I literally had zero warning, which is very strange.”
“I’m not, not too sure what happened yet, just out of Turn 1 the whole car switched off, and I parked it. Then basically a barbecue at the back of the car. We were super confident after testing, we didn’t have one single issue, and just shows this sport keeps you grounded all the time, you can never be overconfident about anything.”
He explained that the source of the fire could have been that things were not being cooled properly and there was a lot of superficial damage.
Egginton says that the team had a lot of work to do before practice in Jeddah, with the team still assessing the damage with its too early to say what the damage was.
Third and fourth remarkable for Mercedes – Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton went into Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix looking to limit the damage as Mercedes went into the race looking to finish behind Red Bull and Ferrari, but thanks to Red Bull’s dramatic engine failures saw Hamilton and teammate George Russell finish a “remarkable” third and fourth.
Mercedes had spent much of the race sat fifth and sixth, before Verstappen’s retirement Hamilton was half a second off, he then past the second Red Bull when Sergio Perez spun clinching an unlikely podium. After the race, Hamilton told Sky Sports, “For sure I definitely didn’t expect it. I woke up this morning hoping, I had a super, super hope that we’d have a chance to fight.”
“We have a car that is better than we think. But we did struggle in the race. George did a great job and to get a third and fourth is pretty remarkable with the troubles that we have.”
Mercedes have dominated the sport since 2014, with eight constructors and seven drivers championships, however, the consensus in the sport following testing is that they are the third fastest team. CEO and team principal Toto Wolff says that the third and fourth last year would have been very frustrating, but says the team were punching above our weight.
Wolff added, “I think at the moment we are five and six, third on the road, and we’re trying to recover ground but it’s not going to come from one day to the other.”
Wisell dies aged eighty
Reine Wisell, one of the elite group of drivers who finished on the podium in their first Grand Prix start, has died at the age of eighty. The Swede drove Lotus, BRM and March teams before a career that started so promisingly faded away, and he slipped into the shadow of long-time rival Ronnie Peterson.
Wisell was born in 1941 before starting his career in touring cars in 1962 and then switched to Formula Three in 1966 scoring a few points going onto win the Swedish title. The previous year he had given Swedish karting star Ronnie Peterson, two and half years his junior, some racing instruction at Karlskoga.
By 1968 they were both driving F3 Tecnos, although initially Wisell was a step ahead and focusing on the international scene. While Peterson made the step into F1 the following year together they became rivals with a famous battle in a support race at Monaco.
It was Peterson who made it to F1 first, racing a private March from early in 1970. However Wisell would eventually land the bigger opportunity. He raced in F5000, scoring three late-season victories and finishing seventh in the Guards championship.
With his profile raised, following the death of Jochen Rindt at Monza, then the departure of John Miles from Team Lotus, Wisell was called by Colin Chapman to partner Emerson Fittipaldi, who himself had contested only three Grands Prix at that stage.
The Swede’s first race was at Watkins Glen, where he qualified eighth, one second off Fittipaldi. In the closing stages Pedro Rodriguez’s BRM ran out of fuel handing victory to Fittipaldi in only the Brazilian’s fourth start, while Wisell earned third on his debut.
He’d done enough to earn a full-time seat Lotus seat alongside Fittipaldi in 1971. He was an encouraging fourth in the first race in South Africa and would go on to finish sixth in France, fourth in Austria, and fifth in Italy. But overall, despite winning the F2 Pau GP, it was a disappointing season and he was replaced for 1972 by Lotus F3 star Dave Walker.
Wisell moved instead to BRM as part of an expanded multi-car Marlboro-backed line-up, but with other drivers being drafted in and out, he was dropped for several races. He returned to Lotus to replace Walker, however, there was no seat for 1973 as Peterson got the drive.
However, he would make only one more GP start, in works March at Anderstorp in 1974, before his F1 career fizzled out. Wisell never quite came to terms with the fact that Peterson had become one of the superstars of the sport. He would continue to compete in GTs and touring cars, and did a lot of racing in Chevrolet Camaros
Points on debut “best answer” to critics – Zhou
Guanyu Zhou believes scoring a point on his debut in Bahrain was “the best answer” to criticism he faced upon landing his race seat with Alfa Romeo. The Chinese driver stepped up to F1 this season after three years in F2 alongside Valtteri Bottas as part of a new lineup for the team.
Alfa Romeo acknowledged that the backing Zhou brought from Chinese sponsors as the nation’s first F1 driver was one element of its decision to sign him, but pointed to his track record that took him to third in F2 last year. But Zhou sent a message to those who may have believed he was a pay driver, reaching Q2 in qualifying and then recovering from a poor start to finish tenth.
He told Motorsport.com, “I think once I signed the contract last season, for some reason people had some different thoughts about me being in Formula 1. But in my mind, I think I have done everything I need to do to have a seat in F1.”
“This season, I wanted to get into Q2 so I can close their mouths. Today I’m just so relieved, as I went from P15 to P10, but it was more like P20 to P10. I think that is the best answer. I don’t talk too much trash, but I will just focus on my job.”
Zhou was emotional when the race finished, celebrating with his team, who had their best result curiously of Bottas’s sixth place. Both benefited from the drama which saw both Red Bull’s retire with power unit failures, allowing him to grab his first point.
He says during the race he was focused on getting his way back up the field, and Zhou believes he made the right decision.
Aston Martin uncertain if Vettel can race in Jeddah
Aston Martin is still uncertain whether Sebastian Vettel will be cleared in time to race in Saudi Arabia after missing Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix after he tested positive for coronavirus. The four-time champion was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg after being the second driver in two weeks to test positive after Daniel Ricciardo missed the test.
Speaking after the race, team principal Mike Krack said that while Vettel seemed to be improving, it remained unclear if he would return in time for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend. Krack told reporters, “He was participating in the debrief, he was sounding less rough than he was sounding a couple of days ago.
Adding “But we do not know. We will see how he goes for the next days. We hope he will be back soon.” Krack says also that Vettel would need to follow both Saudi Arabia’s and the team’s COVID-19 protocols.
Aston Martin reserve driver Hulkenberg was drafted in at short notice, flying to Bahrain on Thursday before driving the car for the first time in practice on Friday. Asked by Motorsport.com if he had any indication about racing in Jeddah, Hulkenberg said: “No, not yet. I don’t know. I’m just going anyway on standby and as a reserve, and I guess we’ll, we’ll find out on Thursday or Friday.”
