Why Sainz believes Bahrain was ‘one of Red Bull’s strongest tracks of the season’

21 comments on “Why Sainz believes Bahrain was ‘one of Red Bull’s strongest tracks of the season’”

1. 

   Axel
   3rd March 2024, 18:21

   Bottas’ pit stop was so slow it is not even included in the table with pit stop times. They needed one of his nude calendars to time that one.
   1. 

      DaveW (@dmw)
      3rd March 2024, 19:11

      Harsh but fair.
2. 

   sjc
   3rd March 2024, 18:22

   These graphs are great, thanks.

   The gap-to-leader graph is useful but suffers from the flaw that when Verstappen pits, the whole field’s lines shake about and it’s hard to track what’s happening in those few laps (E.g, did Max pull out some time on his in/outlap?). Ditto if others pit on the same lap as the leader.

   If I could be cheeky and suggest an alternative option for the gaps to leader graph, it would be to normalise all the graphs not against the leader, but against the leader’s average time per lap for either the leader (IE race time / number of laps).

   It sounds convoluted but would better show the race leader’s performance. The graph would still look like a spreading fan from left to right as it currently does, and all the lines would end in the same place on the final lap as they do in the current graph.

   Crucially, we’d get to see Max’s performance directly (rather than inferring it from the pack’s graphs): he’d dip down into the negative over each stint, then jump up when he pits. (Though I have to admit, it might need some thought around safety car periods though when the whole pack is driving very slowly, which would skew the apearance)
3. 

   Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
   3rd March 2024, 19:05

   The fact that literally no one used the medium tyres suggests that the current system is not working. There needs to be enough risk vs reward to at least hint at other strategies.
   1. 

      MichaelN
      3rd March 2024, 22:33

      The system has never really worked. The teams cut the race into bits and then just fill those with the softest tyre they think they can manage throughout that number of laps. The Soft tyre is never quick enough to offset an extra pitstop, and the Hard tyre is never durable enough to skip a pitstop. It’s all about cruising and nursing the tyres, so even here on this supposedly abrasive surface Verstappen does 20 laps on Hard and 20 laps on Soft. It’s just a pointless gimmick to keep people talking about Pirelli.
      1. 

         roadrunner (@roadrunner)
         4th March 2024, 7:42

         This. Although I sometimes do wonder if they make any difference whatsoever. The final stint of Perez and Sainz is a perfect example. They did the same amount of laps and the same lap times with one on softs and the other one in hards. I’m pretty convinced that if someone had put on medium tires they would have been just about the same too.
      2. 

         anon
         4th March 2024, 8:39

         MichaelN, the thing is, dividing the race into smaller sections and then working out what is the softest tyre they can use to cover that distance is basically what all of the teams have been doing since at least the 1980s. In reality, there have never been a lot of different options to choose from given that the overall length of a race is not that long, relatively speaking, and thus there are only so many ways that you can break the race up into those smaller sub-sections.

         It’s not just now that we’re seeing convergence in strategy – back in the refuelling era, most teams would run similar stint lengths, since the benefits on track would rarely reward any other strategy (you’d either be losing too much time in the pit lane, or lose too much time on track due to a heavier fuel load and more tyre wear over a stint). Even before that, when you didn’t have refuelling in the 1980s, you wouldn’t really see a lot of variation in strategies – although, to some extent, that was as much down to the inability, for both technical and skill reasons, to be able to simulate that many variations in strategy to begin with.

         The upshot is that it actually becomes very difficult to force a situation where there can be significant strategic variation, because there aren’t that many variables that you can easily control and there are fairly narrow windows where multiple different strategies are viable. In most cases, irrespective of the exact details of the regulations, the optimal strategies often converge to a similar pattern as a result.
         1. 

            MichaelN
            4th March 2024, 9:53

            Indeed, the main benefit of refuelling had as much to do with the difficulty of passing as its alleged strategic component. Usually the only way it came into play was when a chasing car could go one or two laps longer, and emerge back out in front after their stop.

            There is some of that with the tyres, but overtaking is pretty simple now with DRS so track position isn’t that important.
4. 

   DaveW (@dmw)
   3rd March 2024, 19:12

   Pure uncut hopium from Sainz. RBR could have won the race on one set of tires.
5. 

   Aquila_GD
   3rd March 2024, 20:32

   Red Bull’s pace at the end of the stint was amazing. Verstappen almost did not even have a drop off at all before he came in for a tyre change
   1. 

      MichaelN
      3rd March 2024, 22:35

      They’re just cruising to a target time; you don’t get a dozen near identical sector/laptimes if you’re pushing. One might think Verstappen is the most amazing driver ever, and… more power to those that do, but that stuff doesn’t happens. Pushing wears down the tyres and laptimes will rise.
6. 

   EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
   4th March 2024, 0:01

   The ‘grand prix lap chart’ would look pretty dull without the pit stops.
7. 

   Michael (@freelittlebirds)
   4th March 2024, 1:26

   Red Bulls have a lot more pace than they showed, especially the real Red Bull.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      4th March 2024, 6:16

      Maybe perez is driving the RB 19, if so other team didn’t even catch up to last year’s red bull, which if you consider the massive gap there was last year is not so far fetched.
   2. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      4th March 2024, 6:16

      teams*
8. 

   Biker56 (@biker56)
   4th March 2024, 2:11

   Looks like someone forgot about the “sandbag” on lap 39. You were supposed to make it look difficult!
   So much for the season.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      4th March 2024, 6:18

      Ahah, that’s very true, it’s a massive gap in lap time.
9. 

   An Sionnach
   4th March 2024, 3:40

   Sainz is a smart guy. He’s definitely still growing as a driver. I’d like to see him show consistently stronger race pace versus Leclerc this year as that might be his main weakness. It was good to see him not far behind Perez. While a good driver could expect to do a bit better than Perez, I’d expect them to be closer to his level of performance than that of Max in the Red Bull. It should not be discounted that Perez can be quite good at doing what he did yesterday – manage the tyres and the gap once he gets ahead. He did a reasonably good job. Hopefully he can banish the shockers from last season and get back to being Perez. Qualify… not terribly badly, take care of the tyres and let the race come to him.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      4th March 2024, 6:22

      I don’t see how he can challenge verstappen for race wins though, he’s gonna lose several positions before the race even starts, and by the time he catches up, verstappen will be gone.
      1. 

         An Sionnach
         4th March 2024, 14:37

         Yes. Martin Brundle was right when asked if Perez could do better if he qualified better. He talked about how the gap opened up between himself and Verstappen once he got into second position and said that the problem is pace. If he can maintain his current form, I don’t think any driver stands a chance against Max in the same car. They need a better car and favourable dynamics like a wing man for a team mate, while Max should have an angry barking dog for his, and perhaps several in the car with him during the race!
10. 

    F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
    4th March 2024, 6:51

    Max lap times from lap 5 to lap 16 were all between 1:37.229 and 1:36.960.
    Excluding lap 9 & 10 (1:37.229 & 1:36.960) the lap times from lap 6 to 15 were all 1:37.0XX.

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