Race Report Round 1: Bahrain

Red Bull 1-2

Continuing on from last season, it was a 1-2 finish for the Red Bull team. There didn’t seem to be any negatives for the team with Max so far down the road that the TV broadcast hardly showed him. Will anyone be able to stop them this season?

Fernando Alonso is Back

It was a great day for the Silverstone based team with Alonso fighting his way onto to podium. No more GP2 engines for Fernando as he even said that it was a “lovely car to drive”! Will this be the team that Alonso sticks with? Also at Aston Martin, Lance Stroll had a great start to the season finishing in P6 with two broken wrists and a broken toe… fair play Lance! Hopefully the week break will give him some extra time to recover before we go to Jeddah.

Ferrari issues continue

So much for all of the reliability issues being fixed at Ferrari... The day started off bad as the team confirmed Charles’ energy store had been swapped out overnight. It then went from bad to worse as an engine failure on lap 41 caused a Leclerc DNF and lost him 3rd place. At least there were no huge strategy blunders, you’re making progress Ferrari!

Midfield Williams?

This car looked like it was going to be a pretty regular visitor to P19 and 20 but that could not be more wrong. It was a really strong start to the season for Williams with Alex securing a point in P10 and rookie Logan finishing in P12 on his debut. Other than the top four teams, the rest look pretty even so far, could this be the year Williams secure themselves a good amount of points?

Misery for McLaren

And the nightmare continues for the team in papaya... It was a DNF for Piastri on his debut as he suffered an electronic gearbox failure and was the first to retire from the race. Arguably just as bad on the other side of the garage, Lando Norris suffered a PU issue causing him to pit SIX times to recharge the system leaving him finishing in P17 (aka last place). Is Oscar going to be regretting his decision? Am I going to spend the year as a McLaren fan feeling very depressed? I hope not.

Ocon’s Penatly Drama

Another frequent visitor the the pit lane during this race was Esteban Ocon as the FIA handed him THREE time penalties. The first of these came before the lights even went out, handing him a 5s penalty for not lining up correctly in his grid slot. Having served that, the FIA decided he did not serve it correctly and was then handed 10s. To top it all off, he was given a further 5s penalty for speeding in the pit lane and Alpine later retired the car. However, there was better news from the other side of the garage as Pierre Gasly (who started P20) climbed his way up the grid and finished P9, securing his first points racing at a team not linked to Red Bull.