Grand Prix 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

F1 is back!

After the excitement and controversy of 2021, the 2022 season gets underway at the Bahrain International Circuit this weekend. We have a "traditional" practice and qualifying, so no sprint race, with both qualifying and the race at 3.00 pm UK time. A late evening start in Bahrain which will run on in to the night.

What has testing (and the not testing session) told us? Personally, I have no idea which cars are fast or slow. I expect we will see the usual suspects at the front come qualie and the race, but this new formula has thrown up some very interesting aero developments, with each team pursuing quite different routes to try and make their car the fastest.

There are some new drivers, some team changes, and, totally unexpectedly, the return of Kevin Magnusson at Haas.

Will 2022 be another Hamilton/Verstappen battle for the Championship, or will we see George Russell, and the drivers at Ferrari and McLaren getting involved? I have my doubts that any of the other teams will be pushing for race wins, but I do anticipate the mid-field will be closer and more competitive. Don't be surprised if one team drops in a major change at some point in the season and leapfrogs up the grid as they get to grips with the new design rules.

It promises to be an exciting season. Hopefully the changes the FIA have made to the stewarding and race control personnel will help overcome some of the rather unpleasant "lobbying" we saw from many of the team in 2021. We certainly don't need any more moments of interpretation of the rule book from the officials at any of the races, either at the beginning or end of the season.

FP1 starts at midday on 18th, enjoy.
 
Isn’t this reverting to behaviour from the past.

There never used to be a guarantee that giving back an advantage would cancel any penalty, therefore it wasn’t originally an action in the steward’s discretion.

In principle this gets my vote. teams/drivers should give back the place because it is right, the way in which they gained it should still be reviewed. Driving should be clean, skill based and governed. If you can take a place through intimidation and only have to give it back if forced then the rule makers have defined the direction of behaviour before anyone goes out on track and delivers it.
 
The fastest lap times are interesting.

LeClerc almost a second faster than the next fastest.

Hamilton almost 1.7 seconds slower.

That's a big gap.

 
Donald Duck Lol GIF
 
I think it's a hydraulic problem, the three Honda/Red Bull cars all seemed to suffer from hydraulic related reasons which shut down the engine, the first shut down and appeared to have a hydraulic fire, Max had gradual hydraulic related problems that resulted in lack of power, and Perez rather a sudden axle lock up and the engine shutting down, I suspect Horner knew the problem was fatal but wasn't going to announce it to the world, I suspect he knew from the Alpha Turi problem
 
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