[aim120]

Reason Alex Albon still has a Redbull seat is because one of the two bosses of Redbull owns the majority stake, is also from Thailand and he is the reason, Alex Albon who is also a Thai, still has a seat. In the past we saw how quickly Kvyat and Gasly were demoted. Redbull has been very lenient on Alex Albon.

[akash_v12]

Poor Russell! His luck has been really really bad the entire year. Right from the missed opportunities of scoring WDC points to his chance of scoring the 1st podium. Very hastened decision by Mercedes to double-stack without even having the correct tires out.
Checo had a fantastic race yesterday and boy, do those Racing Points have some pace! From P18 at the end of the fast lap to P1 at the end of the last. As many others have already said, someone needs to get this man a seat. Ocon too did a good job of holding back Stroll.
Feel bad for Verstappen as he was the innocent party in the incident. He definitely would've made Checo's job a little harder. Daniel Ricciardo & Carlos Sainz did their respective jobs very well too with them finishing P4 & P5.

I'm honestly shocked by Bottas' performance yesterday. His been off since Imola, just lacking the pace which even Russell (A guy who did not know anything about the car before Thursday) had. Leclerc seemed too aggressive entering Turn 4 which led to the incident.

[suviswan]

Very happy for the Racing Point and Perez for their first win. I am a big fan of Perez and he proved this year. It's unfortunate that he don't have seat next year. I am hoping Red Bull will give him a seat next year. Fingers crossed.

The race is very interesting without Hamilton. He and Mercedes dominates so much, the race is always boring.

[akash_v12]

Source

This is why the spirit of this sport never lets me down.

Thank you,
Akashdeep

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by aim120

Reason Alex Albon still has a Redbull seat is because one of the two bosses of Redbull owns the majority stake, is also from Thailand and he is the reason, Alex Albon who is also a Thai, still has a seat. In the past we saw how quickly Kvyat and Gasly were demoted. Redbull has been very lenient on Alex Albon.

Albon is a UK citizen and is half Thai but runs under the Thai flag. Very similar to Naomi Osaka who is an American citizen but represents Japan

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

2. What resulted in Russel and Bottas having to make additional stops. If this was not there then Russel & Bottas would have been one and two.

Due to the pit stop mix-up, Bottas was fitted with the same old set. Later he struggled a lot to finish at P8. So, there was a reason on why they wanted to put a fresh set.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Due to the pit stop mix-up, Bottas was fitted with the same old set. Later he struggled a lot to finish at P8. So, there was a reason on why they wanted to put a fresh set.

I think he meant the second pit stop which Mercedes attempted during the VSC period. They had pitted around 15 laps before that and this pit stop wasn't really needed as shown by many other drivers. I think even Perez did only 1 stop during the race, the one in the beginning not counting as that was on Lap1 itself.

Having said that, if not for that puncture, Russel would have still won the race.

What I didn't understand is why didn't Mercedes bring back Bottas for a tyre change after the horrible mix up. They had to bring in Russel for fear of penalty and he showed the pace and potential to easily make it back to P1 on those new tyres even after losing time due to the forced pit stop error. But they allowed Bottas to continue driving on the old tyres.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I think he meant the second pit stop which Mercedes attempted during the VSC period. They had pitted around 15 laps before that and this pit stop wasn't really needed as shown by many other drivers. I think even Perez did only 1 stop during the race, the one in the beginning not counting as that was on Lap1 itself.

Didn't they pit to cover the safety car restart? Because of the mixup with the allotted tires, Bottas was still on the old set of tires as good as not having done a pitstop. Given how Bottas struggled later in the race, it was the correct call by Mercedes to pit both cars during VSC.

[prashant316]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Didn't they pit to cover the safety car restart? Because of the mixup with the allotted tires, Bottas was still on the old set of tires as good as not having done a pitstop. Given how Bottas struggled later in the race, it was the correct call by Mercedes to pit both cars during VSC.

i do agree. I had the exact thought during the race that the pitstop was necessary. Let us consider the following scenario happening behind them:
1. Mercedes had a safe gap to the cars behind for an easy pitstop - even with a double stack
2. Perez Ocon and Stroll did not pit during this SC
3. In general, Perez pitted later than the Merc boys, so his tyres were fresher
4. the drivers behind Stroll were all on a fresh set

Considering these, had the stop gone well, Mercedes would have still taken 1-2 easily. As they keep saying in the media, it was a "safety stop".

Now due to the bad stops, Mercedes cars had to run behind other cars and as we know from previous occasions, it is not the best when following other cars. So in reality, Bottas on old tyres struggled with pace because he anyway did not have any grip advantage but more importantly was losing downforce behind other cars and subsequently lost even more grip in the tyres - a knock on effect.

So in hindsight, had they stayed out, it is possible that they would have retained their lead till the end having clearer track and their speed advantage.
But i guess we will never know as Mercedes has taken a PR stance that the stop was necessary. Most likely to not have media questioning their team decision too much.

[deetjohn]

Mercedes could have avoided the pitstop. They did it because it was essentially what one will call a free stop. The car being so fast gives them these options. And if the double stacking worked as expected, which was clearly the intention, it would have worked out fine.

But both George and Bottas could continue without the stop too. Bottas struggled after the stop because his used hard lost all its temp. The crew dismounted those, kept those on the floor and then mounted those again after realizing the colossal mix-up. One should never do that with a tyre ever, especially during a race. Either those black things should be on the car going round and retaining heat or inside the blanket keeping warm. And the latter is always a new set. So, Bottas was on the worst possible set of tyres after that fumbled stop. Add in the hard compound and the SC, it was like the perfect storm and he dropped like a stone.

Anyways, hindsight is 20/20. And to know this whole charade started with George' Williams when Aitken lost his front wing is really something. One can't even make up things like this!

But that doesn't take away the fact that George completely stripped his teammate bare during the weekend in a car that didn't even fit him properly and he even wore shoes one size smaller and needed ice packs. A lot was asked of him this weekend and he delivered every single time. And that's why Lewis will be very determined to get his car back for the finale as I had mentioned earlier. He looked pale and weak in that video posted yesterday, but he will certainly get back in that car as soon as he gets that negative test result.

[rst89]

Never seen such a honest de-brief by Mercedes F1 team.
Here is the de-brief by James Allison

What went wrong in Sakhir GP for the Mercedes

The sensor issue was beautifully explained along with the radio call mess up.
Loved it.

[SSR0608]

Hi folks. Need some information regrading the 2022 Bahrain GP. We are planning for a trip in March but unclear on the F1 visa eligibility ( on arrival) for Indians. The eVisa website is slightly confusing. Any clue?

[akash_v12]

Originally Posted by SSR0608

Hi folks. Need some information regrading the 2022 Bahrain GP. We are planning for a trip in March but unclear on the F1 visa eligibility ( on arrival) for Indians. The eVisa website is slightly confusing. Any clue?

Not really sure about the situation in Bahrain and whether or not they're allowing tourists. It's best to ask in this thread. You're more likely to get a better response here