Category: Bahrain Grand Prix 2024

Pace and Analysis- Bahrain Grand Prix 2024

Mar 19th, 2024

This article is part of a series of articles I will be completing throughout the year, where I am going to analyze the average pace of the drivers and teams, in both qualifying and the races, to be able to gain a picture of performance levels.

I have collated the fastest laps by each driver in qualifying, to show the average gap to the fastest driver. One caveat that arises, is that the top 10 drivers, through progressing to the final qualifying session, have a better track condition that those who only took part in Q1 or Q2. Due to this, the gap will be larger for the drivers outside the top ten than if qualifying was performed in one representative session. However, since the final session represents the point at which the top drivers are truly pushing, I’ve ruled it a better grounding point for the true limit of the cars, rather than only focusing on the first qualifying session in which the best times are not recorded.

Qualifying Pace-

With no further ado, here are the gaps to pole[1]:

And for the teams:

Additionally, I have collected the data for the gaps between teammates. I did this by using their fastest lap times set in the same session, so if one driver got into Q3, whilst the other only got into Q2, then I would count their Q2 times. Additionally, the lap times have to be representative, to avoid comparing out laps completed before a driver breaks down, as this would give us a very inaccurate representation of the drivers’ pace:

Race Pace-

Next up in our data sets is the race pace of the drivers. I have calculated the average pace of the drivers, removing first laps, in-laps, out-laps and safety car laps, all not representative of a driver’s general pace. Additionally, if a driver has a spin, or another error that would greatly reduce their lap time, I have not counted these laps, as they would also not be representative of a drivers’ general pace. I have only included drivers that completed at least 75% of the race distance (which for Bahrain, happens to be all the drivers) so to not skew the season long averages against drivers that did not drive on low fuel with the best track conditions.

As different drivers have a varying number of race stints, this skews the overall pace. Generally, if a driver makes more stops, their pace will be faster on average. This will be taken into account in my final thoughts and analysis. Additionally the average pace per stint and number of stints are recorded at the bottom of this article, for those interested in viewing more precise estimates of pace relative to other drivers on the same stint.[2]

And for the teams:

Analysis-

The Ferrari [and the Mercedes, for that matter] appear to have better tyre degradation than the Red Bull, at least based on this preliminary data. Sainz’s average time throughout a stint barely dropped at all, whilst Verstappen and Perez on the same tyre dropped around a second throughout the stint. This being ubiquitous between Verstappen and Perez also lessens the possibility that this was merely due to the drivers taking it easy. The primary problem, at the moment, is that the Red Bull begins stints so much faster than the Ferrari, that the degradation at the end of the stint fails to matter. But if this proves to be a theme throughout this season, then Ferrari could start challenging for race wins.[3]
Verstappen’s relative dominance over Perez is clear within their third stints. Verstappen set the fastest lap on lap 39 and this appeared to take a lot out of his soft tyres, setting quite slow times on lap 40 and 41. Nevertheless, by lap 43 Verstappen began posting times consistently faster than Perez.
The McLaren and the Mercedes showed pretty similar pace throughout the race, positing beginning stint times within a few tenths of each other, all having similar degradation and there being little between the average pace of the four drivers. This may have been compounded by spending some of the race in each other’s dirty air, but they still appear to be the most evenly matched of the top five teams.
Haas do not look bad based on this data, Hulkenberg in particular impressing. His first stint was only slower than Verstappen, Perez, Russell and Sainz and his third stint was quicker than the McLarens’. Overall, his pace was better than both Aston Martins. Whilst tyre differential from his early stop to new hard tyres may have played a part in this, as well as placing him outside the dirty air, the Haas team still have a lot to be proud of, completely exceeding the standards they set for themselves.
Pierre Gasly’s average pace is exaggerated by his being one of two drivers to have four race stints. This led to his fourth stint on new softs being the seventh fastest of the race. Without Gasly’s four stints, it’s likely that Alpine would be the slowest team on average in both qualifying and the race. This is looking like an incredibly difficult year for Alpine, which is a shame, because they have two talented young drivers who now look like they’ll be competing with each other to not be last.

Further Resources-

Qualifying Pace:

Driver	Fastest Qualifying Time
Charles Leclerc	89.165 (0%)
Max Verstappen	89.179 (+0.016%)
George Russell	89.485 (+0.359%)
Carlos Sainz	89.507 (+0.384%)
Sergio Perez	89.537 (+0.417%)
Fernando Alonso	89.542 (+0.423%)
Lando Norris	89.614 (+0.504%)
Oscar Piastri	89.683 (+0.581%)
Lewis Hamilton	89.71 (+0.611%)
Nico Hulkenberg	89.851 (+0.769%)
Lance Stroll	89.965 (+0.897%)
Yuki Tsunoda	90.129 (+1.081%)
Alexander Albon	90.221 (+1.184%)
Daniel Ricciardo	90.278 (+1.248%)
Kevin Magnussen	90.529 (+1.530%)
Valtteri Bottas	90.756 (+1.784%)
Zhou Guanyu	90.757 (+1.785%)
Logan Sargeant	90.77 (+1.800%)
Esteban Ocon	90.793 (+1.826%)
Pierre Gasly	90.948 (+2.000%)

Average Race Pace:

Driver	Pace
Max Verstappen	95.654 (0%)
Sergio Perez	96.059 (+0.423%)
Carlos Sainz	96.103 (0.469%)
Charles Leclerc	96.368 (+0.746%)
Lando Norris	96.464 (+0.845%)
George Russell	96.474 (+0.857%)
Lewis Hamilton	96.514 (+0.899%)
Oscar Piastri	96.538 (+0.923%)
Nico Hulkenberg	96.855 (+1.255%)
Fernando Alonso	96.94 (+1.344%)
Lance Stroll	97.124 (+1.537%)
Pierre Gasly	97.305 (+1.725%)
Zhou Guanyu	97.407 (+1.833%)
Daniel Ricciardo	97.429 (+1.855%)
Kevin Magnussen	97.465 (+1.893%)
Yuki Tsunoda	97.486 (+1.914%)
Alex Albon	97.535 (+1.966%)
Logan Sargeant	97.561 (+1.993%)
Valtteri Bottas	97.719 (+2.159%)
Esteban Ocon	97.811 (+2.254%)

All Stints:

Best Stints	Pace
Verstappen 3rd (19L/NS)	94.685
Alonso 3rd (15L/NH)	94.992
Perez 3rd (20L/NS)	95.037
Sainz 3rd (21L/NH)	95.052
Leclerc 3rd (22L/NH)	95.222
Hamilton 3rd (23L/NH)	95.414
Gasly 4th (12L/NS)	95.473
Hulkenberg 3rd (14L/US)	95.493
Piastri 3rd (22L/NH)	95.506
Norris 3rd (23L/NH)	95.527
Verstappen 2nd (18L/NH)	95.58
Russell 3rd (25L/NH)	95.72
Sargeant 4th (14L/NS)	95.977
Ricciardo 3rd (20L/NS)	96.149
Sainz 2nd (19L/NH)	96.279
Perez 2nd (22L/NH)	96.281
Albon 3rd (19L/NH)	96.287
Stroll 3rd (29L/NH)	96.432
Magnussen 3rd (23L/NH)	96.501
Gasly 3rd (10L/NH)	96.541
Sargeant 3rd (10L/NH)	96.675
Tsunoda 2nd (21L/NH)	96.677
Norris 2nd (18L/NH)	96.767
Zhou 3rd (27L/NH)	96.856
Leclerc 2nd (21L/NH)	96.898
Piastri 2nd (20L/NH)	96.898
Hamilton 2nd (19L/NH)	96.939
Verstappen 1st (15L/US)	96.972
Russell 2nd (18L/NH)	96.973
Hulkenberg 2nd (19L/NH)	96.997
Bottas 3rd (25L/NH)	97.037
Ocon 3rd (25L/NH)	97.087
Alonso 2nd (24L/NH)	97.299
Russell 1st (9L/US)	97.571
Perez 1st (10L/US)	97.615
Zhou 2nd (17L/NH)	97.663
Sainz 1st (12L/US)	97.665
Tsunoda 2nd (18L/NH)	97.703
Stroll 2nd (16L/NH)	97.752
Hulkenberg 1st (17L/NH)	97.816
Ricciardo 2nd (20L/NH)	97.842
Norris 1st (11L/US)	97.926
Leclerc 1st (9L/US)	97.934
Albon 2nd (19L/NH)	97.956
Bottas 2nd (16L/NH)	97.962
Magnussen 2nd (19L/NH)	97.97
Gasly 2nd (17L/NH)	98.081
Piastri 1st (10L/US)	98.086
Hamilton 1st (10L/US)	98.237
Ocon 2nd (18L/NH)	98.293
Alonso 1st (13L/US)	98.524
Stroll 1st (7L/NS)	98.558
Tsunoda 1st (12L/NS)	98.574
Albon 1st (13L/NS)	98.742
Sargeant 2nd (16L/NH)	98.823
Magnussen 1st (9L/NS)	98.861
Zhou 1st (7L/NS)	98.911
Sargeant 1st (8L/NS)	98.916
Gasly 1st (10L/NS)	98.947
Ocon 1st (8L/NS)	98.986
Ricciardo 1st (11L/US)	99.004
Bottas 1st (10L/NS)	99.038

Key: 1L= One Lap, 2L= Two Laps, NS= New Softs, US= Used Softs, NH= New Hards

Number of Stints:

Number of Stints	Drivers
3	Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Hamilton, Piastri, Alonso, Stroll, Zhou, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Tsunoda, Albon, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Bottas
4	Gasly, Sargeant

[1] Or, more accurately, the fastest time in qualifying, which in this case, was not pole, as Leclerc set a faster time than Verstappen’s pole time in Qualifying 2.

[2] I only count a stint if a driver has completed five or more laps, to avoid short stints for fastest lap attempts skewing the data on the table.

[3] I discounted the third stints when coming to this conclusion, as the Red Bull and Ferrari were on different tyres.

Bahrain Grand Prix 2024- Five Star Drivers

Mar 6th, 2024
This is part of a series of articles I will write during the year, to highlight some of the best performances of the weekend. I originally considered ranking all of the drivers, but wanted to keep this series positive, so am only focusing on the best performances F1 had to offer. Thus, in no particular order, five standouts from the weekend.
1. Max Verstappen-
What more can be said about Verstappen? On a weekend where I had some hope of a Ferrari challenge, Max went and achieved a grand slam. He drove a car not dominant in qualifying to pole position, then drove away from the field, setting a fastest lap 1.4 seconds faster than anyone else. Verstappen deserves an endless amount of respect for his performances and I expect he’ll feature a lot in this series throughout this year. Perez also performed well, using the natural pace of that Red Bull to finish second, but Max was still 22 seconds ahead of him. Utter domination.

2. Carlos Sainz-

Sainz maximized his opportunities on Saturday. While his teammate suffered from brake issues and the Mercedes’ had cooling problems, Sainz still needed to overtake several cars to secure his place on the podium. He duly delivered a daring drive, with his moves on his teammate being particularly tenacious. If Carlos wants to get himself the best possible drive for 2025, he certainly started the season on the right foot.

3. Charles Leclerc-

Consistent brake issues meant Charles was lacking in pace compared to Carlos. We were robbed of seeing Charles at his best. But a 90% performance from Charles is still a gold star performance. Despite visibly awful issues, with a car that could barely turn right without locking up, Charles only finished 14 seconds behind his teammate and was comfortably ahead of the Mercedes powered cars. He even set the second fastest lap of the race. Most drivers who had the issues Charles faced this weekend would not have maximized their performance like this. The fact that Charles did provides me with hope that, when he has a fully working car underneath him, Charles can take the fight to the Red Bulls.

4. George Russell-

With so much talk and headlines involving Mercedes focusing on Lewis Hamilton, it becomes hard to remember that they have two top drivers. George Russell duly reminded me on Saturday, delivering when his teammate struggled. Russell qualified ahead of a Red Bull and a Ferrari, in a car that is yet to show it has the outright pace to do so. He then looked on for a podium for the first third of the race. Whilst he faded slightly, with his race pace being hindered by a cooling issue he showed a fighting spirit and extracted the maximum potential from the car he was given. The battle between him and Lewis will be fascinating this season and I’m personally interested to see how many of Mercedes’ eggs start falling in George’s basket.

5. Zhou Guanyu-

Zhou may have not finished in the points, but he took a car that did not look very fast and utilized a strategic offset, undercutting the bottom half of the field and then managing his tyres throughout the stints, to finish ahead of a number of faster cars and kick Sauber’s season off with a solid, if unremarkable, result. If Zhou wants to make a case to remain in F1 in a year where his contract is up, this is the perfect start.

Shoutout- Zane Maloney-

An acknowledgement has to Zane Maloney for his performance in F2 this weekend. He decided to become the Verstappen of F2, winning both the sprint and feature races easily. The overtakes he made in the sprint race were stunning, especially on Fittipaldi, which may be my moment of the weekend. In a weekend where other drivers expected for challenge for the title faltered, Maloney shone. There’s a long season to go, but the boy from Barbados just firmly put himself in title contention.
Bahrain Grand Prix Review

Mar 2nd, 2024

There was a lot of excitement regarding a Ferrari fightback through testing and practice. When Verstappen still clinched pole, there was disappointment, but I told myself that this Ferrari looks good and appears to have sorted their tyre wear problems. So of course, the race begins with Leclerc locking up at seemingly every corner. These lock ups were not a result of poor tyre wear, rather an issue with Leclerc’s brakes. Several drivers had issues throughout this race, with both Mercedes suffering from battery issues and Hamilton reporting that his seat was broken. Between these issues and the inevitable squabbling between drivers that resulted, Verstappen was allowed to drive off into the distance, a sight we’ve become used to seeing.

Albeit the first third of the race was quite entertaining. All the cars were relatively close and there was always a battle to cut to. Perez passing Leclerc and Seargeant passing Ricciardo were memorable, but the best battle came from the two Ferraris. Sainz clearly does not care whose feathers he ruffles, making an aggressive overtake on Leclerc on lap 11, before shutting the door on his teammate. Sainz then had to do the same on lap 17, after the first round of stops, before passing George Russell three laps later to bag himself a podium. As for Sainz’s replacement, he finished two places behind his teammate and spent more TV time going off the track than driving on it.

The race became more sparse of action shortly after the first stops. Gaps started to emerge between the drivers and the cars slotted into their natural positions. A personal highlight was watching Bottas’ 52-second pit stop, only for the TV directors to decide that as there was nothing else going on, we might as well spend a minute watching it again. Oscar Piastri attempting to defend from Lewis Hamilton on freezing tyres also entertained, though the difference in grip made that particular pass inevitable from the word go.

Thus, it fell on Visa Cash App to provide us with some drama. The car could have received a point with Tsunoda today, but the team allowed for Yuki to get undercut by multiple cars, likely as the team members were too busy checking their Visa Cash Apps. With so much focus on the current cost of living crisis, one would forget to do their job, a bit like when I found smashed up eggs under the fruit cases when working at Sainsburys. Though, even more controversially than me having to remove eggshells that were literally welded to the shelf, would be RB’s use of team orders. As Tsunoda was attempting to set up a move on Kevin Magnussen, they ordered a driver swap with Ricciardo. Yuki was not happy with this, arguing with the team until relinquishing the position a couple of laps later. I understand Yuki’s frustrations. In a year where a Red Bull seat is possibly on the line for him, he needs to beat Ricciardo consistently. After being in the hunt for points, to have the team mess up his strategy and use unnecessary team orders, I would be angry as well. What was less acceptable was when Yuki decided to divebomb Ricciardo after the race had finished. Moments of road rage are not good examples to set, especially when that road rage is directed against someone you are soon going to be spending hours in meetings with.

As the junior RB team provided some entertainment, the senior RB team sucked out a lot of it. Whilst I haven’t given up hope of there being some battles for the win this season, Red Bull getting yet another 1-2 has not filled me with unbridled optimism. As this may be one of the better chances for Ferrari to win in the early portion of the season, we may have to get used to learning the Dutch National Anthem. Again.
Bahrain 2023 Predictions

Feb 28th, 2024

Pole Position: Charles Leclerc

1st: Max Verstappen

2nd: Charles Leclerc

3rd: Lewis Hamilton

Bonus Prediction: Both VCARBs in Q3

Category: Bahrain Grand Prix 2024

Pace and Analysis- Bahrain Grand Prix 2024

Bahrain Grand Prix 2024- Five Star Drivers

Bahrain Grand Prix Review

Bahrain 2023 Predictions