2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand PrixFormula 1

[MUSC4EVER]

I have seen a video of that pitlane incident, not a great watch, they are not showing replays of it for obvious reasons

 

[Tajima]

Great battle at the end, and props to Gasly for finishing P4. Superb stuff from him. And regarding the pit accident at Kimi's stop; I've just rewatched the clip on Instagram. That leg snapped badly. Hope that mechanic can get a good recovery from that one.

Once again a lollipop guy letting the car go without realizing it wasn't ready!!
But the injuried guy was totally in the wrong place, he was standing with a leg in front of rear tyre no no no and no! Whole pit crew have a lot of training to do.

 

[niky]

Thoughts on the finish:

Esteban Ocon: 10th: Looking forward to this guy putting his stamp on Force India as their number one driver. (Eeeeventually... in the meantime, I guess I will just enjoy the rivalry)

Marcus Ericsson: 9th: To be honest, a bit confused as to how that Sauber got there. But that midfield was so closed up, anything could have happened by the end.

Stoffel Vandoorne: 8th: McLaren will be happy with this performance.

Fernando Alonso: 7th: They'll be happier with this one. But make no mistake, the team's issues in qualifying, and the fact that both Toro Rossos were in front of them at one point, will be something to consider going forward.

Nico Hulkenberg: 6th: Nico had a tough race, but he managed to bring home some good points for Renault.

Kevin Magnussen: 5th: A big "what if" for KMag. If Romain hadn't held him up before that pit stop, he might have gotten further up. Might. That Haas is looking mighty good this season.

Pierre Gasly: 4th: What a fantastic race this man drove, almost unnoticed, from start to finish. No matter that he was far back from the winners... that was as good as a win for a non-Big Three team. And for a Honda-powered Toro Rosso? That was like winning the WDC.

Lewis Hamilton: 3rd: Fantastic run... good job not getting tangled up at the start, and lucky that the clash with Max didn't rip off his front wing. Not looking very happy at the end of the race, but I imagine that drive left him VERY drained.

Valterri Bottas: 2nd: Almost, almost. A few mistakes in traffic may have cost him the win. But a good run after Australia, so kudos anyway.

Sebastian Vettel: 1st: Not a big Vettel fan, but that was a fantastic last few laps. He drove those tires to perfection. Bravo, Seb, bravo.

Biggest Losers:

Kimi Raikkonen: Not his fault, Ferrari has given him two unsafe releases this weekend. The Iceman will probably be ordering an extra bottle or two tonight.

Red Bull: Maxie only has himself to blame for that. You can chop off a car trying to overtake you on corner exits, but try doing the same to a car you're overtaking, and you'll lose a tire.

Guess what? Maxie lost a tire.

Daniel Ricciardo's electronic failure is worrying after the 'glitch' that caused Verstappen's spin in qualifying.

Williams: Last finishers means you're still last on the track.

-

Damn was that a good race. More action, even, than the coverage could follow. Hoping we get more like it. (without the broken legs, please. I could live without seeing more of that...)

Make no mistake: Mercedes is still faster... but their unusual struggles in qualifying yesterday will be something to look at. Given how close it is between the two teams now, qualifying might just decide the championship this year.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Once again a lollipop guy letting the car go without realizing it wasn't ready!!
But the injuried guy was totally in the wrong place, he was standing with a leg in front of rear tyre no no no and no! Whole pit crew have a lot of training to do.

The problem came from trying to remove the wheel - sometimes mechanics have to be where he was when things don't go to the initial plan. The system works on them trusting that the light won't go green before the release is safe.

In today's risk-averse climate I can see pit stops being regulated at a minimum of 5 seconds.

EDIT: If you look at the replay you can see that there are two other mechanics who hold the car to stabilise it - they have to be before the rear wheels. The mechanic who was hit would normally have stepped out of the way with the removed wheel. Sadly motorsport is dangerous, I hope he gets well soon.

 

[EDK]

ESPN was........... actually good this week!

No in race commercials with side by side this week, which is pretty surprising.

I mean ESPN is a pay channel, while it's not itemized in your package, the TV providers pay them a sizeable fee that gets passed on to us in the form of the base bill amount.

But their business model is still a "dual revenue stream" and the only ads they had in race were on screen graphics for Mother's polishes.

They obviously got a lot of negative feedback last week and were working to overcome that, but it would be amazing to have F1 without commercials for the rest of the season. Maybe it's something they are going to do until the OTT streaming is available.

 

[Tajima]

The problem came from trying to remove the wheel - sometimes mechanics have to be where he was when things don't go to the initial plan. The system works on them trusting that the light won't go green before the release is safe.

In today's risk-averse climate I can see pit stops being regulated at a minimum of 5 seconds.

Now I've heard lolli guy trusted green light, but it was green only because there was old wheel still attached. Bad system.

They should create one able to figure out all four wheels are actually been swapped.

I agree with you with the 5 sec. minimum idea.

 

[SagarisGTB]

Esteban Ocon: 10th: Looking forward to this guy putting his stamp on Force India as their number one driver.

And when will that occur? Certainly not so far this season: Sergio had the measure of Ocon in Australia, and Ocon finished only a few seconds ahead in Bahrain despite Sergio having faced the wrong way on lap 1 and drove the entire race with a damaged car (as claimed by Sergio).

 

[Dennisch]

They just showed the replay from the front camera of the pitstop, that leg goes bendy in 2 ways it wasn't designed for.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Now I've heard lolli guy trusted green light, but it was green only because there was old wheel still attached. Bad system.

They should create one able to figure out all four wheels are actually been swapped.

I agree with you with the 5 sec. minimum idea.

It should be a system and I honestly didn't think it was. I assumed there was a guy on the pit wall watching the pit stop with all camera angles and pressed a button when he saw everything was done which changed the light.

And when will that occur? Certainly not so far this season: Sergio had the measure of Ocon in Australia, and Ocon finished only a few seconds ahead in Bahrain despite Sergio having faced the wrong way on lap 1 and drove the entire race with a damaged car (as claimed by Sergio).

Sergio likes to claim many things when he's not doing well though. Ocon usually just gets on with it regardless/I don't hear many complaints from him in the radio

 

[ukfan758]

ESPN's coverage was outstanding this weekend. Only had the Sky commercial breaks for practice (2-3 a session), commercial free qualifying, Sky commercial breaks during the 40-minute pre-race (2 total), and a commercial-free race.

I will take this any day over NBC's coverage, even if it means not having post race. I can go here or Reddit for analysis and highlights.

 

[Tajima]

It should be a system and I honestly didn't think it was. I assumed there was a guy on the pit wall watching the pit stop with all camera angles and pressed a button when he saw everything was done which changed the light.

Maybe it's different team for team, I've heard SF have a green light sensor for the lolli guy.. but I'm not sure.

 

[Dotini]

It should be a system and I honestly didn't think it was. I assumed there was a guy on the pit wall watching the pit stop with all camera angles and pressed a button when he saw everything was done which changed the light.

No one guy can watch all four corners plus a number of cameras. There needs to be at least two sets of dedicated eyes closely watch the action at both ends of the cars, then to both enable a green light for release. then and only then should the lollipop person, if in agreement, signals the driver to go. Seeing a man mangled and broken under a tire turning with such power is not good.

 

[Tajima]

No one guy can watch all four corners plus a number of cameras. There needs to be at least two sets of dedicated eyes closely watch the action at both ends of the cars, then to both enable a green light for release. then and only then should the lollipop person, if in agreement, signals the driver to go. Seeing a man mangled and broken under a tire turning with such power is not good.

Well said, it's kind of creepy seeing broken legs like that, hopefully they rethink pitstop routine completely. 5 sec minimum will help.

 

[niky]

And when will that occur? Certainly not so far this season: Sergio had the measure of Ocon in Australia, and Ocon finished only a few seconds ahead in Bahrain despite Sergio having faced the wrong way on lap 1 and drove the entire race with a damaged car (as claimed by Sergio).

One can dream. Ocon is in only his second season. In qualifying, they're pretty close, and while Sergio might have the edge and experience during the race itself, Ocon seems like a cooler customer

 

[Spurgy 777]

No one guy can watch all four corners plus a number of cameras. There needs to be at least two sets of dedicated eyes closely watch the action at both ends of the cars, then to both enable a green light for release. then and only then should the lollipop person, if in agreement, signals the driver to go. Seeing a man mangled and broken under a tire turning with such power is not good.

Why have someone not changing the tyres watch to see when they're changed? Surely they should just give the mechanics who are putting the new set of wheels on a button to activate when they're done, as they will be the first to know if the tyres are on properly or not.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Why have someone not changing the tyres watch to see when they're changed? Surely they should just give the mechanics who are putting the new set of wheels on a button to activate when they're done, as they will be the first to know if the tyres are on properly or not.

I like that. Make it four lights and each lights up when each tire is done. Don't go until you see all four

 

[Spurgy 777]

I like that. Make it four lights and each lights up when each tire is done. Don't go until you see all four

For the sake of clarity for the driver it would be best to only have one light that only comes on when all 4 buttons have been pressed, but yeh, that's the general idea.

 

[Peter.]

The video of the pit accident is on Youtube but it's not a very good thing to watch. It happened so fast I thought the trauma was less a leg break and more getting run over. Glad it's not the latter, I guess?

Ferrari are being very McLaren 2012 esque with their pit stops in terms of strategy and execution. Kimi has been extremely unlucky so far. This race didn't seem to have as much overtaking as I expected, probably due to the new engine rule killing the late race action, but the unpredictable strategy calls made it a hell of a watch.

 

[BrainsBush]

This will also be discussed --> part of Halo got lose and was launched. Luckily no driver behind Hartley at that moment




And the Ferrari pit incident was heavy. Is this good or bad news for Francesco?:

Apparently a shinbone and fibula fracture, our thoughts are with Francesco, stay strong #BahrainGP

 

[DK]

Ericsson has scored points, I guess we better say goodbye to Leclerc at Abu Dhabi.

 

[Spurgy 777]

Ericsson has scored points, I guess we better say goodbye to Leclerc at Abu Dhabi.

What? Leclerc's not going anywhere so not sure what you mean.

 

[PocketZeven]

Lots of drama and action in the first 2 races...Sadly not in a racing sense.. Hopefully next race we will see some real racing between the top 3 teams. Max just had bad luck.. Just a few inches to the right and he would have been clear. These risks make racing worthwhile. To quote the great Senna:

"And you should know that by being a racing driver, you are under risks all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver."

This spirit is why people are comparing Verstappen to Senna and hopefully will eventually see him hopefully become F1 champion someday.

 

[Lizard]

Why have someone not changing the tyres watch to see when they're changed? Surely they should just give the mechanics who are putting the new set of wheels on a button to activate when they're done, as they will be the first to know if the tyres are on properly or not.

That's the job of the lolipop man. Just instead of carrying a sign he carries a button that links to the light system now.

 

[Spurgy 777]

That's the job of the lolipop man. Just instead of carrying a sign he carries a button that links to the light system now.

I know, my point is that it shouldn't be as clearly the risk of something going wrong is way too high.

 

[Tajima]

This spirit is why people are comparing Verstappen to Senna

Funny internet people.

 

[PeterJB]

I like how anyone who's fast but crashes a lot = Senna. Hell, Max just needs to start cheating and trying to kill his opponents and the resemblance will be uncanny...

 

[Peter.]

Lots of drama and action in the first 2 races...Sadly not in a racing sense.. Hopefully next race we will see some real racing between the top 3 teams. Max just had bad luck.. Just a few inches to the right and he would have been clear. These risks make racing worthwhile. To quote the great Senna:

"And you should know that by being a racing driver, you are under risks all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver."

This spirit is why people are comparing Verstappen to Senna and hopefully will eventually see him hopefully become F1 champion someday.

If only you knew the context of that Senna quote. He said that after deliberately taking out Prost in 1990 to save face. Not exactly words of wisdom by any stretch.

That said, based on the replays, Max had ample opportunity to avoid collision. Hamilton was even ahead a little bit coming into the corner, but left some room on the outside, yet somehow Verstappen managed to get close enough trying to squeeze, that contact became possible despite attempts by his adversary to avoid that.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

We all know he is very fast but since you mentioned last season, at the end of the day it's about what you do WHOLE season. Ricciardo 200 points, Verstappen 168.

Shall we list how many more mechanical failures Verstappen had? If you want to look at raw stats without context, which is poor data analysis, then be my guest, makes the debate quite easy for me.

If he wants to be WC one day he should start considering getting in front of his teammate, for once. If this require some boring 5th places instead of some desperate overtake attempts/dive bombing so be it.

I doubt he doesn't try, in fact he's been quite a bit more successful than you give him credit at. We're at the second race of the season and for some reason the level of tone would make it seem like the sixteenth. Perhaps reserve this for later in the season.

First race was quite bad, yesterday I acknowlodged he had a software problem, so let's see what he can do today, hopefully staying out of troubles.

Even if he didn't (which he didn't) how does that still equate to your original statement. Which is the context of my questioning you to begin with.

Once again a lollipop guyletting the car go without realizing it wasn't ready!!
But the injuried guy was totally in the wrong place, he was standing with a leg in front of rear tyre no no no and no! Whole pit crew have a lot of training to do.

There is no lollipop guy any more...

 

[UnkaD]

After today's race, I really wish ESPN had post-race coverage with interviews of other drivers. Heck, they didn't even show driver and team points. I hadn't realized a Sauber finished in points until I checked this thread.

Guess I'll have to see what I can find online, which I shouldn't have to if I watched the race. That's my opinion anyway.

 

[Tajima]

There is no lollipop guy any more...

That guy raising the car? How do you call it?

Oh and Hamilton after the race said Max is "such a d.. head" his words.