2024 Bahrain Grand Prix: F1 history is made and more leftover thoughts

The 2024 F1 season has officially begun.

Saturday’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix was in many ways a continuation of the 2023 season. Max Verstappen left the field with 19 other cars fighting for second place in his rearview mirror. That position was taken by teammate Sergio Perez, who edged past Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. to lock out Red Bull’s front row spot in Bahrain for the second consecutive year.

Perhaps a major storyline will come out of Bahrain? Tensions at Red Bull’s sister team, VisaCash RB F1 Team. Hiroki Tsunoda received a team order to pass to Daniel Ricciardo in the final stages of the race. Ricciardo was running on soft tires and had a chance on the outside to get through the field and score points for his team.

Tsunoda initially objected and eventually let Ricciardo pass, but his frustration boiled over after the checkered flag flew. The team is doing their best to resolve this issue, but this will be the story to watch this season.

Here are some other key talking points after the first race of the season.

See more F1 history

When the lights went out and the 2024 F1 season began, something historic happened.

This officially means the 2024 season will begin with the same group of drivers that took the checkered flag at the end of the 2023 campaign, a first for the sport.

But that wasn’t the only history the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix made on Saturday. This race will go down as the 17th Grand Prix in F1 history in which not a single driver retired. Additionally, it was the first time in the history of the sport that every driver who started the race completed the race in the first race of the season.

Including Saturday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, these are the 17 races in F1 history without a retirement.

A heated day for Mercedes

Mercedes started the 2024 F11 season, the last season with Lewis Hamilton, with a double points finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Hamilton finished seventh, with George Russell, who started third, finishing fifth.

However, it was a bit of a disappointment for the Silver Arrows, who thought they had more potential based on the pace they showed earlier this week. In Thursday’s second practice session, Mercedes led the timesheets one-two, with Hamilton first, followed by Russell.

What were the main issues holding them back Saturday? Russell was ordered to “lift and coast” midway through the race due to power unit problems. Both drivers were dealing with the issue during the Bahrain Grand Prix, which they said held them back.

“Today was a strange day. Lewis and I both faced similar problems. The power unit was overheating from early on so we managed that the whole time. It’s a shame because we had a really good start. Russell said in his team’s post-race report. “I successfully passed Leclerc and moved up to second place, but a warning immediately appeared on the steering wheel. To deal with the overheating, I was losing a tenth of a second per lap and had to stop the rider behind me. It was very difficult to pull away. It’s a shame that we couldn’t show the true potential of this car.”

“It was a tough race today. There is definitely some disappointment within the team as we were hoping for a better night. It was big. It was frustrating because the problems we faced obviously slowed us down,” Hamilton added.

Team boss Toto Wolff described it as a “cooling issue”, but the team said it was simply “wrong”.

“I made a mistake with the cooling level today and it cost me. To address this issue, I need to do more lift and coast, and when I do that, performance suffers. [tires]. It’s a vicious cycle. We gave the drivers a car that wasn’t competitive enough today and we need to look back at what we did wrong. We are keen to study the data to ensure that we do not face similar changes in Saudi Arabia.

“But at the end of the day, we have a brand new car and we’re learning about it. We’ve seen glimpses of performance here in Bahrain, but we weren’t able to deliver it today. . We’re going to leave here and definitely take what we’ve learned and come back stronger.”

Ferrari manages the brakes and maximizes results

Perhaps the most thrilling battle early on in the Bahrain Grand Prix was between teammates, when the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. honked their horns. It was Sainz who ultimately came to the rescue of his teammate as Leclerc suffered from brake problems.

Sainz finished third, his first podium of the season and the 19th of his career. Leclerc, on the other hand, raced patiently, eventually holding on during a late stint on the hard compound to pass Russell and move into fourth.

Team principal Frédéric Vasseur praised both drivers after the race.

“We were hoping for a better result, but we had a problem with the brakes during the race with Charles, so overall today we managed to get the best possible result on track. Carlos Although we didn’t have a perfect start, we had a good race with a very smart reversal and were able to fight Perez until the final stage. We knew it was going to be tough. [tire] The Czechs would have been on softs and our aim was to put pressure on Red Bull and we did that in the final stages but it wasn’t enough.

“Charles struggled with his brakes throughout the race, which led to a flat tire on his first stint and forced him to pit earlier than planned. We will investigate why the brakes did not reach the correct temperature. is needed.”

Vasseur believes the team has really closed the gap on Red Bull, especially when compared to last season.

“This weekend, our flying lap performance was as expected, but it was not a battle with Red Bull, so we took a clear step forward in terms of race pace. That said, we made a significant difference compared to last year. I think today’s race is a good baseline because we were able to shorten it,” Vasseur added. “We will continue to develop and I am sure that we will be able to fight them more often.”

Not the start Williams wanted

When things settled down after three weeks of pre-season testing, Williams found themselves at the bottom of the table.

In other words, it is the table that “ran the most laps.”

Haas led the way with 441 laps during the three-day test, while Williams was at the back, completing 299 laps during pre-season testing. They were the only team not to break the 300 mark.

Now, after Alexander Albon and Logan Sargent both suffered mechanical problems at the Bahrain Grand Prix, leaving Albon 15th and Sargent 20th, the team realized they were “far behind”. I think we could have won if we had spent more time testing. difference.

Albon dealt with overheating issues, leading to struggles with power similar to what we saw at Mercedes. “The car itself was fine, but we were far behind. We had problems throughout the race that could have been avoided if we had done more testing. We were overheating and losing power throughout the race. So I hope we can look at the data and arrive in Jeddah in better condition,” Albon said in his team’s post-race report. The battle in the midfield will be close and tough as they are very similar. ”

Photo credit: Kym Illman/Getty Images

In Sargent’s case, the second-year driver dealt with electrical issues with his steering wheel for the second day in a row. The problem caused him to flat spot his tires at turn 4 on lap 10, sending him off the track. He was able to return to combat, but it cost him a lot of time and he was unable to recover.

He also suffered from overheating issues.

“It was frustrating because we had a problem with the steering wheel electronics in qualifying yesterday and it came back today. The most important thing is that we understand the root cause of this and we need to fix it going forward.” Very Good I had a great first lap and a great opening stint and made some good gains and felt like it came to me before any problems happened,” said Sargent. “We were having a bit of a hard time, but [power unit] The temperature was so high that I couldn’t get close to the car in front of me, so it was a bit of a disappointing night. There’s nothing we can’t fix, but we need to understand everything that’s going to happen.

McLaren finally starts the season strong

The 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix was a “disappointing and painful” experience for the team. according to To then team principal Andreas Seidl. Lando Norris finished 15th, one place behind his old teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who finished 14th.

“It was not at all what we wanted. It was a very tough race. We are far from where we want to be, but we will work on every area as much as possible and do what we do to get the most out of every race.” There is something left to do.”I helped Norris back then.. “We gave our all today, but it’s not enough at the moment. We look at all the data from today’s race and see how we can improve for Saudi Arabia and where we need to improve throughout the season. We’ll think about it. We’ll do our best to make the most of our position next week.”

A year ago, things weren’t so good. Oscar Piastri retired with electrical problems, ending his first F1 race after just 13 laps. Norris at least managed to finish the race, but six different pit stops were required to deal with an air pressure leak.

But Saturday was a different story. Norris earned a spot starting seventh and finishing sixth, while Piastri finished the day in his starting position, eighth.

After coming up empty-handed in each of the previous two seasons, scoring 12 points in Bahrain felt like a big win for the team, which they believed on social media.

“It’s good to start the season with a strong performance here in Bahrain,” said Team Principal Andrea Stella. McLaren post-race report.

“I would like to commend the team at McLaren for their work. They have reinforced the progress we made last year and delivered a reliable and performing car, the MCL38, which we plan to introduce as soon as possible. It will be a good basis for further improvement of the technology,” Stella added. “Oscar and Lando drove very well and consistently tonight. They didn’t make any mistakes in the tricky conditions, especially on the hard surfaces. [tires]And our team was able to get off to a good start heading into 2024. ”

Next is Saudi Arabia

There will be no rest for the weary this week.

The grid will immediately head to Jeddah for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Like the Bahrain Grand Prix, this race will be held on Saturday night local time to coincide with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Last year was the ‘Sergio show’ as Perez not only took pole position in Jeddah, but also led him to his first win of the season.