Grand Prix 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Have we all calmed down after China? After the rather dull opener in Australia Shanghai did show that the 2017 cars can overtake one another and without DRS. The question is did the damp conditions flatter to deceive? I suspect we won't see even a hit of rain in Bahrain.

It's a score draw between Hamilton and Vettel now in the championship. The Merc looks to have the edge over the Ferrari in qualifying trim but the cars are closer in the race. The decision to pit Vettel under the virtual safety car left him at a disadvantage as he tried to chase Hamilton down in China but Lewis always looked like he had something in reserve.

Behind the two front runners their team mates are looking like genuine No. 2 drivers, although this may be a little harsh on Bottas only two races in to his Mercedes career. Raikkonen's complete lack of enthusiasm to try and overtake Ricciardo in China was telling although he was complaining about having problems with the "energy" supply from his car. Red Bull are the clear third team and without changeable weather conditions I suspect they won't be as close to Mercedes and Ferrari as they were in China.

Behind the top three teams there is a real battle. Williams, Force India, Toro Rosso and Haas are all close with Renault not too far behind. McLaren were even in the mix in China with Fernando "The Animal" Alonso putting the Woking car in places it probably has no right to be. We have yet to see what Vandoorne can offer.

Will Werhlein be back in the Sauber in Bahrain? Will Sauber be able to glue all the bits of car Giovinazzi left them with after China to give him a car?

I'm trying to think of anything outstanding about the circuit in Bahrain but little springs to mind. It doesn't have a silly underground pit exit like Yas Marina. It's usually run in daylight hours. The only two things which do come to mind are the piss poor human rights record of the regime which means there will be a huge security operation and the drivers will have to spray rose water rather than Champagne on the podium as it's a strict Muslim country.

Only a week to wait. The teams will be furiously packing up in Shanghai as I write this to get everything on to a plane to ship out to the Gulf. Fingers crossed for an exciting race as Hamilton and Vettel resume battle.
 
Bottas made one error whilst trying to get heat into his tyres on a damp track. Didn't Vettel do something similar which peed off Mark Webber?
 
Both Ferrari and Mercedes No 2 drivers are performing badly to their teammates and they both are occupying seats coveted by everyone else not in a Merc or a Ferrari

Yes Bottas made an amateurish error but we've yet to see him race wheel to wheel with the other cars so lets hold off until mid season or so when we can see his relative pace
 
Bottas made one error whilst trying to get heat into his tyres on a damp track. Didn't Vettel do something similar which peed off Mark Webber?
We have also seen Vettel spin off on the last lap of the Canadian Grand Prix. Bottas has had plenty of good performances negated by Williams's strategy and he has been a very consistent driver in his career until now.
 
That simply can't be true otherwise we would have seen Ferrari and Mercedes in the first four places in the last two races.

Then how do you explain the last three seasons?

Apparently you believe that Rosberg and Hamilton are the two greatest drivers of all time, as that is the only way to account for the total domination of Mercedes. It also means that Alonso and Button must be complete rubbish given how poorly they did over that time span.
 
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Then how do you explain the last three seasons?

Apparently you believe that Rosberg and Hamilton are the two greatest drivers of all time, as that is the only way to account for the total domination of Mercedes. It also means that Alonso and Button must be complete rubbish given how poorly they did over that time span.
One does have to differentiate, if a car is notably faster than those of the competition it is obviously not only down to the driver how well he performs in comparison to the others but the Mercedes inter team battle also proved that the driver makes the difference because Hamilton regularly out qualified Rosberg by 0.3 sec. sometimes even 1/2 sec..
This also holds true for the battle between Bianchi vs. Chilton (2012- 2013), Vettel vs. Webber (2010- 2013), Alonso vs. Massa (2010- 2013), Schumacher vs. Barrichello (2000- 2004), Senna vs. Hill (1994), Prost vs. Hill (1993), Mansell vs. Patrese (1992).
Whether or not a car is dominant due to technical innovations, an inter team battle provides a solid foundation to prove that the driver makes the difference.
 
Other than watching the cars on track, which is always fun, you can't really tell a lot from P1. You can maybe spot a team that is falling apart, but mostly they are out doing testing stuff. Nothing really stood out today.
 
I swear, having read the article on Ferrari's upgrades, that I found it utterly boring.

"Ferrari have upgraded their front wing by moving the left upper slot right and reversing the lower left slot right up on the reverse side of the upper lower left face of the inner........zzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

I know its not helped by my current malaise regarding all things F1 but is that really all we have left to be excited about? Slots and holes?

I bought 3 old copies of motorsport from the 70's in a junk shop for 60p today. Reading the technical reports in those magazines is such a nice refresher.
 
Jolyon Palmer - are there any supporters for him ? The gap between and Hulkenberg has been over 1 second in the last two practice sessions which is worrying for him. Oliver Rowland is waiting in the wings.
 
I was expecting improvement from Jolyon but it is worrying there is already this massive gap between him and Hulkenberg consistently
 
Why do they have FP1 and FP3 at a time when the track temperature can be as much as 25 degrees C higher than in the race? Either make it a night weekend or a daytime one like Singapore for heaven's sake.
 
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