In the round-up: Carlos Sainz Jnr says his Ferrari’s pace compared to McLaren in yesterday’s Bahrain Grand Prix is encouraging.
What they say
Sainz finished eight seconds behind team mate Charles Leclerc and was closing on Daniel Ricciardo – the man who replaced him at McLaren this year – for seventh place as the race finished:It is encouraging because last year I remember that with that car I passed Charles very easily. So I remember how big was the difference between the McLaren and the Ferrari.
And how close I was from overtaking Ricciardo at the end, I think I had much better pace than Daniel there towards the end of the race, we were catching more than half a second a lap. There’s positive signs. There’s encouragement, there’s a big step compared to last year and now it’s a matter of keep finding the details, keep working hard back in Maranello and keep improving. We’ve done certainly a very good step, and now we want to take the next steps.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Argh.. got surprised and made contact into T5 with Dan, lost my front wing which damaged the floor and that was it. Disappointed as our pace looked strong all weekend for some good points. Lots of positives to take from this weekend, looking forward to Imola now. pic.twitter.com/YM0ImFi2rn
— PIERRE GASLY 🇫🇷 (@PierreGASLY) March 28, 2021
|@SchumacherMick: "The fireworks were kind of irritating on the last lap…" #F1 #BahrainGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) March 28, 2021
Race 2: Back to GREEN flag racing and the drivers are not shy about going three-wide in T12 🙈🙊
📲 Live Stream: https://t.co/VRCs5y6UTB#AtlantaSpeedTour l #F4US l @roadatlanta pic.twitter.com/8p2G5WExRd
— F4 U.S. Championship (@F4Championship) March 27, 2021
|@alo_oficial explains recent reports quoting him saying he is a better driver than @LewisHamilton and @Max33Verstappen.#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/T89dwUUwyI
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) March 28, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Mick Schumacher: 'That weight of the name, to me it’s light as a feather' (The Guardian)
'The moment we are in a race weekend when I have the helmet on, there are no friends,' Mick Schumacher says emphatically. There can be no doubt, then, that this is the son of Michael. His boyish good looks and gentle, considered tone conceal the same steely resolve that took his father to seven F1 world championships.
Lewis Hamilton and the battle for Formula One's place in the Gulf (Middle East Eye)
Bernie Ecclestone: "In the end, I met all the protesters and really sat with them and talked to them. I said to them at the time, ‘What you’re looking for is a revolution, really’. That’s what normally happens. And then you attack the crown and capture the country. I said that’s the only thing you can ever do."
Doing the sums: the cost of viewing Sky Sports F1 in 2021 (Motorsport Broadcasting)
In the past two seasons, Sky have enticed F1 fans with their 'F1 for £10' offer, which has been a success given that viewing figures for the F1 channel rose strongly last year. The bad news for fans hoping to utilise a similar offer this year, is that no such offer exists this time around.
Plug Power and Alpine F1 Team connect for unique collaboration (AutoMobilSport)
The Alpine F1 collaboration will be a complement to the joint venture under preparation for Renault Group and Plug Power to explore opportunities for hydrogen solutions in on-road vehicles as part of its commitment to sustainable mobility.
Waste of budget, Kent urges Formula E to be cancelled! (Gesuri - Indonesian)
"At Monas, we have cut trees, dismantled buildings and tested the asphalt only for the Formula E program, it uses public money and is very wasteful, people's money is squandered like that, please don't play around with people's money like that."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Comment of the day
The fight for Bahrain Grand Prix victory went all the way to the final lap, with Lewis Hamilton successfully undercutting his way past Max Verstappen and then holding the Red Bull driver off in a thrilling fight. Kribana thinks the race was won in the pits:
This was decided in the pit lane. Red Bull should have known that once Norris pitted, it would open up the others’ pit stop due to the undercut being almost at Singapore levels in terms of power.
Kribana
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On this day in F1
- 40 years ago today Carlos Reutemann defied Williams team order to win the Brazilian Grand Prix ahead of Alan Jones at Jacarepagua
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
29th March 2021, 2:37
Great article from Motorsport broadcasting.
I wonder if anyone has done a study to show how much revenue FOM will stand to gain or lose if they choose not to renew their TV contracts in key markets, meaning the broadcast will be exclusively on F1TV Pro.
BHJ
29th March 2021, 7:31
They just did the opposite in Germany, where there’s now no F1 TV pro access or F1 on free to air, but exclusively on sky….
bosyber (@bosyber)
29th March 2021, 7:36
Which costs at a minimum EUR 27,50/month (ie EUR 330 for the first year, if I saw correctly, and after that EUR390)
MacLeod (@macleod)
29th March 2021, 7:59
Use a F1 TV PRO for €6,99 a month and you can cast it to your TV (only from a PC) is much cheaper then other stations.
TurboBT
29th March 2021, 9:29
Does it work in Germany? As far as I know, only Sky can transmit F1 nowadays. I really want to give F1 TV a go but it doesn’t work anymore (unless I have vpn, i guess).
BasCB (@bascb)
29th March 2021, 10:45
As TurboBT mentions, @macleod, F1TV pro is not available anymore for German subscribers. I think there was a window of time to get it prolongued last year but now, you cannot get it anymore because of the new Sky deal.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
29th March 2021, 8:05
I have to say, its pretty cheap here in Australia. Foxtel (who is our version of Sky) spun off a sports platform called Kayo sports, which offers a the lowest package costing AUD 25/month (17 EUR/month). There is no 4k option. You dont need a box for this either, I believe you can download the App to your TV.
Then there is an option with the box, which cost about AUD 50/month I believe. That gives you 4K. The amount of live sports your get for either AUD 25 or 50 is pretty comprehensive. Although the EPL is not on Foxtel anymore, the list of live sports is pretty good, can’t complain.
hoges
30th March 2021, 11:03
Not supporting Murdoch.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
29th March 2021, 2:40
cotd Merc’s strategy was definitely what allowed them to fight also having 2 sets of hards proved invaluable. It is a shame that in the end the race is marred by DRS and politics.
The peking order is almost the same and the top 2 teams still have a massive lead over the midfield but as long as there is a genuine fight all is fine by me, in my view a classic race was ruined.
Sumedh
29th March 2021, 3:38
No, it’s not a massive lead. Checo couldn’t reach P4 even at the end of the race.
Previously, whenever Mercedes were required to go full beans, they would end up lapping most of the mid field.
Here we had both McLarens, Ferraris and the non-delayed Aston and Alpha Tauri all finishing on the lead lap.
The midfield is definitely closer.
SaMa (@f1g33k)
29th March 2021, 5:10
I think @peartree is right in his assessment as Bottas was still able to do a free pitstop despite a bungled second stop. The midfield is nowhere close to the top two teams in race pace.
Last year, the cars were lapped till 9th and this time it was till 11th, despite the improvement in the pace of Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Alpha Tauri. Perez is still struggling for pace as otherwise he would have finished 4th from the back if he was close to Max.
All in all, not much has changed in the pecking order apart from a bit of shuffling in the midfield. However, hope other tracks play to the characteristics of some of the midfield cars and produce some surprising results.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th March 2021, 20:54
@f1g33k Till 12th, but I agree with you on what you’ve pointed out. To be fair to Perez, he ran out of laps to catch Norris because of how much further ahead he was than Leclerc, so even if he weren’t struggling for pace, he still wouldn’t necessarily have clawed the gap entirely.
Kribana (@krichelle)
29th March 2021, 5:26
Thank you for the COTD. At that point in the race, I was also thinking Mercedes should have pitted to cover Norris because before that, Alonso had a huge undercut gain that put him I think in the battle for best of the rest behind Red Bull and Mercedes.
Dave
29th March 2021, 7:52
Didn’t know that AlphaTauri’s livery had a bit of gold. :D
Jere (@jerejj)
29th March 2021, 8:01
@Dave Merely an optical illusion in the specific image. Definitely isn’t there on TV coverage.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th March 2021, 8:03
Ferrari’s pace indeed was encouraging. At this point (things can change), I reckon Mclaren and Ferrari will battle for P3 in the WCC.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
29th March 2021, 19:59
@jerejj
I wouldn’t count out Alpha Tauri. Sure, their results weren’t great in Bahrain, but the car has a lot of potential and might be even quicker than McLaren and Ferrari (at least on tracks that reward power and aerodinamic efficiency).
Imola will be very interesting, because Alpha Tauri and Ferrari (at least Leclerc) were quite competitive there last season and quicker than McLaren.
As for whether Ferrari’s gains were encouraging, I would say yes and no. Yes, because they definitely made a step forward pretty much everywhere (power, drag, tyre wear, pit stops) and no, because Leclerc was still losing about 0.2-0.3 to Norris on race pace. Leclerc would’ve probably also finished behind Gasly, if it wasn’t for the contact between the Alpha Tauri and Ricciardo at T5 on the re-start.
The next three races will offer a more detailed picture of the exact pecking order between these three teams. I doubt any other team will join the fight for P3 in the WCC.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th March 2021, 20:50
@srga91 Me neither, although I’ve got some doubt they could challenge Mclaren and Ferrari for P3 on outright pace over the season. Time will tell. I definitely have less hope for Aston Martin and Alpine in this regard. Because of limited development chances, the urge to move 100% focus on next year as early as possible, and driver line ups.
ColdFly (@)
29th March 2021, 8:13
Does anybody know why Juju Noda withdrew from the US F4 race(s)?
anon
29th March 2021, 9:27
@coldfly there has been no explicit confirmation – the only information so far is a statement has been released stating that she was withdraw because of unspecified personal reasons, and that the team felt she “needs better circumstances that will allow her to just focus on racing, rather than needing to deal with external problems”.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th March 2021, 10:47
Interesting, I was wondering about that too.
ColdFly (@)
30th March 2021, 8:34
Thanks @anon
I’ll refrain from speculating, and just hope to see her racing soon again.
Balue (@balue)
29th March 2021, 14:15
Lol. Ecclestone was borderline intolerable, but he had a certain humor I have to give him that. Brilliant response really.
Balue (@balue)
29th March 2021, 14:17
“relief” is the word Sainz wanted to say. For sure even he had doubts if Ferrari had done much of a step.