It was supposed to be Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia but instead, we’re starting the 2021 F1 season in Sakhir, Bahrain. The Aus GP is postponed, unlike being ruled out like last year, to the November of 2021 and will have a faster circuit than what we have seen there so far after the changes which are being made around turns 9 and 10. In 2020, we started the season in Austria, in the Red Bull Ring which is of course there on the circuit and we’ll get there after the mid-season break, but right now it’s all about the dessert. Bahrain hosted the two races under the lights last year just before the final one in Abu Dhabi, but it’s back at its original spot (start of the season) and without further ado, let’s hit the track.
Qualifying
Red Bull and Max dominance across practice and qualifying but Perez misses out
As we witnessed a Max Verstappen dominance across the pre-season testing at the same venue, with the Mercs not hitting their strides and still struggling with pace and gearbox problems, the things looked somewhat similar during the free-practice 1. Some Red Bull fans and whoever’s being tired of seeing the Mercedes dominance were like, ‘please don’t give me hope. Whereas the actual Mercedes fans and those who support Lewis and Valtteri and are so used to seeing them turn it up when it’s needed, slowly started to feel a bit of pressure. But hey, it’s still just free practice, and let’s see what the qualifying has in the bag for us, was the common narrative.
Max, as he did in the testing, topped all three practice sessions and was clearly looking to have an edge over the Mercs. Lewis found some momentum going for him but couldn’t unsettle Max at the top. Valtteri struggled all weekend for the balance and grip of the car and wasn’t pleased with the car. Sergio Perez looked to have settled in nicely but looked like he still needs some time to find those additional inches to be able to really push his teammate.
The qualifying was a wild ride for many drivers, and one of those who got the heat of it was Perez, who saw his first lap in the Q2 get deleted due to the track limits, then decided to trust the mediums and went out for a second stint, but it didn’t prove to be enough as other cars using the softer compounds, put in better laps which eventually pushed Perez out of Q3 and to a disappointing 11th place. Max, on the other hand, having made it to the Q3 on his first lap on mediums, took the provisional pole by the narrowest of margins against Hamilton on second. He took the pole position with a 1.28.997 to comfortably be ahead of both the Mercs. The only advantage Mercedes had was they had two drivers in the top 3 and could come up with a team strategy against the lone Red Bull.
Vettel and double yellow flags
When it went all smooth for most of the teams fighting at the front, one team, in particular, struggled throughout the week and that was Aston Martin Racing. The car looked to be lacking on the pace and had different issues throughout the testing and couldn’t put in enough laps to collect sufficient data.
4-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who we saw getting knocked out in Q2 quite often last year in the Scuderia Ferrari, got stuck in traffic and under two yellow flag conditions on his hot lap, which resulted in him getting knocked out in the Q1 itself. Mazepin spun on turn one in the final minute of Q1 which resulted in the first yellow flag, meanwhile, the man who replaced Vettel in Ferrari, Carlos Sainz had power issues with his car and had to stop in the middle bringing out the other yellow flag which meant drivers had to cool down and those who hoped to put in one final effort in Q1, couldn’t get it done.
Vettel finished on 18th but his teammate Lance Stroll managed to reach Q3 and gave some hope for the team going forward as he ended the qualifying being 10th on the grid.
Mr. Saturday at it again
George Russel, the man who impressed everyone last year by consistently putting his Williams in the Q2 contention and when he got that opportunity with the Merc in the absence of Lewis Hamilton, showed that he’s the future indeed. He took a bit of time initially in the practice and even qualifying and his teammate Nicholas Latifi was actually ahead of him after the first lap in Q1. But as we know, this guy has never been out-qualified by his teammate in Williams and showed us just why by putting in an impressive lap that put him out of danger of elimination in Q1 and out-qualified his teammate once again, who qualified 17th that is just ahead of two Hasses and Sebastian Vettel.
Ferrari and McLaren- fight for the third?
The top 2 drivers at the end of Q2 were Carlos Sainz the smooth operator and Charles Leclerc. Though they had their softs on and others were mostly on the mediums, it was pleasing for most of the people out there to at least see Ferrari being on top of the list after so long. Their pace certainly looks improved and we all know how McLaren has shaped up this year having re-ignited their chemistry with the Mercedes engine again, these two teams look like the ones who could see a lot of each other this season. Just like the Ferrari duo, we know how competitive Lando and Daniel are and if McLaren thought they have the coveted third spot on the grid secured after the way they performed last year and this year’s improvements, well Ferrari has just entered the scene once again and is saying, ‘hang on a minute, we’re still Ferrari, we have improved from where we went wrong last year plus, we have one of your ex-drivers in Sainz, who isn’t going to be happy settling as a just another guy in top-10. So, the fight is on.’
Leclerc once again showed why he’s the beat in qualifying finishing at 4th while the McLaren duo of Ricciardo and Norris finished 6th and 7th respectively. The smooth operator who was actually ahead of Leclerc throughout the qualifying didn’t get his lap the way he would have liked and finished on 8th.
Return of the world champion and how does alpine look like?
Fernando Alonso, the two-time world champion from his time with Renault back in 2005-06, returned to F1 with Alpine and got the best out of the car, to be honest. P9 in his very first outing with the Alpine is a pretty solid qualifying result for the Spaniard. Esteban Ocon, like Vettel, got caught in the traffic and had to settle for a 16th in the end.
Tsunoda driving rockets and Gasly just keeps getting better
Man, what a lap by Pierre Gasly. He just continued what he did in 2020 and this year looks even better for the revived Frenchman. P5 in qualifying amongst all the big boys and the quality that he showed throughout, doesn’t even surprise anybody now, because we know how good he can be. And that Honda-powered Alpha Tauri is just a beast this year, and it’s so interesting to see what they’ll achieve this year.
Yuki Tsunoda, the 2020 rookie of the year from Formula 2 on the other hand looked fast from the word go as well. The Japanese wunderkind has well and truly arrived on the F1 scene and his raw pace combined with that Honda power is going to be a treat to watch going forward.
Don’t underestimate the alfas. Gio keeps putting impressive performances and Kimi is just being Kimi
Antonio Giovinazzi, he’s another driver who’s improved immensely since 2020. He out-qualified Kimi 9-8 last year and once again showed us glimpses of what he can do with the much-improved Alfa Romeo car this year. Though a few big boys got stuck in the traffic and yellow flags in Q1, P12 is a stellar result for the Italian in the qualifying.
Kimi, what can we say about the ice-cool Finn who finished 14th in the qualifying. He just keeps doing what he knows the best.
What went off for the Haas?
Haas has not spent a lot of money for developing the car for 2021 as their boss Gunther Steiner mentioned before and is doing everything they can to build a competitive machine for the 2022 season. So, this is pretty much last year’s car which all of us know had a lot of issues and wasn’t fast to an F1 driver’s reckoning.
Plus, they have got themselves a pair of rookies in Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, who will take time to adjust with the new car and it’ll be interesting to see how they progress as the season goes. Mick as we have seen in the junior series leading into the F1, takes times to settle in his first season and usually is at his best in the second season.
The Race
The race started on a wrong note, as Sergio Perez lost power in his Red Bull on the formation lap, which meant we had a double formation lap, which meant we lost one lap from the normal 57 lap race and Sergio Perez started his race from the pitlane.
On the very first lap, after the lights went out, Mazepin spun on lap one which meant a full safety car had to come out and we lost a fair bit of time to re-settle again until his car was taken out by the stewards.
Before that though, we had a fair bit of fight at the start between the leading pack, with Lewis trying to edge past Max, then Valtteri had an okay start which allowed Charles to come at both the Mercs, Daniel, and Lando also got themselves into the thick of things and all of was abrupted by the spin which halted everyone’s momentum.
But after the resumption, it was fairly Lewis against Max for the glory and the advantage of having a couple of cars in the top 3 meant Mercedes always had an option of an undercut on Max, given they use their pit strategies right and the drivers don’t succumb to any silly errors.
Last but not the least, Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton at it again, strategies, VB, and the overall winning mentality!
Mercedes pitted Lewis early and put on a new set of hard tires, while the Red Bull took some time off the existing mediums to give another set of mediums to Max later on. Making it a one-stop race was out of the question for all the teams, and that another break proved to be the game-changer for Lewis besides his incredible defensive driving skills in the final few laps. Mercedes again pitted Lewis well before Max and gave him a fresh set of hard tires once again and the way he pushed the W12 during that period really gave him a fine cushion at least for a while. But Max, coming off on a new set of hard himself, clearly had the pace to get past Hamilton, which he even did on lap 53, but immediately had to give the position back to the 7-time champion, as his RB16b was completely out of the white line on turn 4. That proved to be the costly error for the Dutchman as his tires started to fade away a little towards the end and so did his chances of grabbing the victory in the opening race of the season.
Valtteri Bottas completed the remaining spot on the podium whereas Lando Norris grabbed a sensational fourth in what was a stellar drive from the young Brit. Sergio Perez recovered from a pitlane start to finish fifth to give some hope to the Red Bull family for the future. Leclerc, Ricciardo, and Sainz were all in points after finishing at 6th, 7th and 8th respectively whereas Yuki, the Japanese man took home his first-ever f1 points by going past Fernando Alonso on the final lap who had issues with his car due to a plastic bag which slowed his charge and chances of finishing in the points. Lance Stroll, finished P10, the same grid position which he started on, to bring home a solidarity point for the team from Silverstone.
The Alfa Romeos finished on P11 and P12 respectively where Kimi managed to get past his teammate in the end. They came very close to getting into points, but overall they should be satisfied with the result and they seem well-poised going ahead in the season. Ocon finished P13 followed closely by George ‘Mr. PowerPoint Russel’ and Sebastian Vettel couldn’t go any further after being stuck at P15. Mick Schumacher who spun during the initial stages much like his teammate Nikita Mazepin, recovered to at least finish his first-ever Formula 1 race and left Bahrain with a P16 to his name.
For Pierre Gasly, the race didn’t go his way much. After the initial contact with Ricciardo, he kept going backward and had to retire eventually. He had a chance to challenge for the podium given he started at P5 but knowing him, he’ll come back stronger in Imola, come mid-April. Nicholas Latifi, Nikita Mazepin, and Fernando Alonso were the other drivers to have a DNF and will hope for a solid outing in Italy.
Overall, the race promised a lot for everyone and it looks like in the longest of times, we may finally have a title fight on our hands. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton took the first race home, and it’ll be very exciting to see who comes out on top in the coming races. If Perez comes to the party and Bottas gets the issues fixed, we’re in for an amazing ride going ahead.