Vote for your 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

38 comments on “Vote for your 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

1. 

   Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
   20th March 2022, 23:59

   Carlos Sainz jr, it has to be.
   1. 

      MacLeod (@macleod)
      21st March 2022, 8:03

      I was thinking also Carlos but before Quali he was rather poor, Charles was good but Kevin just win it for me.
   2. 

      Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      21st March 2022, 8:23

      This looks like sarcasm, or it doesn’t have a justified reason. To be realistic, before Sainz’s 3rd stop, he was already 15 seconds behind Leclerc. He also qualified behind by 2 places, but not much time wise. He was never fighting with Verstappen until verstappen had his issue. He drove a rather lonely race and was clearly worse than his team mate – like Perez.
2. 

   liongalahad (@liongalahad)
   21st March 2022, 0:02

   I feel Lec will get one of the highest percentages ever
3. 

   Tommy C (@tommy-c)
   21st March 2022, 0:08

   I went with Leclerc. Outqualified his teammate. Stayed cool under pressure from Max as well as the late safety car which erased his lead. Got the job done without putting a foot wrong. A close second would be Magnussen. Parachuted in and got up to speed very quickly to show what the Haas can do this year.
4. 

   melanos
   21st March 2022, 0:12

   Maybe KMag was not the best but he was the one that surprised me the most, or the one that went the most beyond my expectations. So he gets my vote.

   Great driving by both Ferrari drivers, with the edge for Charles. Fairly good for Max but not brilliant. And well within the sportsmanship rules.

   Also surprised by some minor hints of racecraft by Valtteri. After the horrendous start, that is.
5. 

   David (@nvherman)
   21st March 2022, 0:44

   Can’t believe that more people have voted for Hamilton than have voted for Sainz.

   Frankly, that just shows a worrying amount of bias towards a driver who really wasn’t on it this weekend.

   But this weekend belongs to Leclerc, and well deserved it was.
   1. 

      EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
      21st March 2022, 1:06

      @nvherman Why. Should he votes be distributed in the order they finished?

      At the end of the day, we can only guess (albeit as ‘educated’ a guess as we can muster) at the relative performance of each car. For all we know, Stroll may have actually dragged more of the available potential from the Aston than any other driver did from their car.

      Given that Sainz only finished one place ahead of Hamilton, yet was in a potentially race winning car, wheras the Merc was never expected to perform better than it did suggests the voting balance is about right doesn’t it?

      I think the Hulk did pretty well given the minimal preparation and limited F1 drives in recent seasons. Again, hard to be sure how to rate him exactly though.
      1. 

         Niefer (@niefer)
         21st March 2022, 6:59

         @cairnsfella – Not really: whilst SAI fought hard for his podium earned on pace and merit, HAM hadn’t done anything close. Secondly, one should be subjective only after picking the objectively best. On that regard, LEC stands alone: he made a perfect weekend of what was under his control. Not even MAG, all of his mitigations considered, could stand objectively higher if talking seriously. Still, it is totally comprehensible him receiving some love, because what he did shone bright.

         Votes for HAM, RIC and TSU are nothing but a joke.
         —
         PS. Oh, and STR did not fare better in the car, no way.
         1. 

            EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
            21st March 2022, 7:24

            @niefer

            whilst SAI fought hard for his podium earned on pace and merit, HAM hadn’t done anything close.

            I read the words you are writing, but just because you are making a statement, doesn’t make it true. Unless I missed something, what conclusive evidence do we have that SAI fought harder than HAM. My point is not that HAM is more deserving, but that it is actually hard to know categorically (although there are clearly some individuals such as yourself that inherently do ‘know’, but I do not believe we are all gifted with the same sixth sense). I guess that’s why there is a poll, because if there were a definitive method of categorization, then we wouldn’t need one.

            Incidentally, I am an unapologetic HAM fan, however I voted for LEC and my reasoning was not dissimilar to your own. However, as the season progresses and we gain a little more insight into the relative performance of each car, I hope I am able to expand the shortlist.
            1. 

               Niefer (@niefer)
               21st March 2022, 16:06

               @cairnsfella – suffice it to say SAI traded blows with PER the whole race and emerged ahead the Red Bulls right before the issues. HAM did a clean race, but uneventful. The only time he had to do something was dealing with someone whose car hadn’t the pace to challenge Mercedes anyway. And he got overtaken. Also he messed up initially his cold tyres (he actually seemed the most affected by tyre wear among the pointers). Now, I am not saying he did bad, I am saying nothing he did was special.

               I get your point but, if one pays close attention to what happened during the weekend and some key details (preferably without any rose-tinted glasses), then it’s not that hard. Otherwise, imagine roles reversed at OCO-ALO: I am pretty sure Nandito would have some digits on that pool, something that will happen sooner or later, believe me.

               The pool isn’t a tool to measure how good a driver fared. It is simply a gather to make the community engaged. This does not mean results are accurate. As you said, brains differ, but this does not mean one must disregard reasonableness just because this is the common trend.

               Finally, please do note there is virtually no post reasoning on why HAM or RIC should be considered DOTW: those voters are simply curating the cult.
      2. 

         MCG (@malrg)
         21st March 2022, 22:42

         “Given that Sainz only finished one place ahead of Hamilton”. We suddenly forget that one car ahead of saints and two cars ahead of Hamilton (One between Sainz and Hamilton) broke down with the race almost finished, not to mention that Merc gave Hamilton the better strategy right through Quali by having Russel tow him in every session.
   2. 

      Scalextric (@scalextric)
      21st March 2022, 1:10

      Re HAM: He did handily beat a team mate who hasn’t experienced that before. I wonder how Russell feels about that. And he lucked into a podium in the third fastest car.
      Some good points but not enough for driver of the weekend in my mind. I think the number of votes cast for Hamilton are probably amongst the lowest in recent years.
      I voted for the dominant Leclerc. Would have voted for Kmag second.
   3. 

      Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      21st March 2022, 8:24

      Sainz had the best car, and Hamilton had the 3rd best. Hamilton likely had better pace than Sainz I’d say. Sainz was nowhere near Leclerc in race pace. I don’t think it is unreasonable for hamilton to be ahead of Sainz, but neither deserve votes compared to Mugnussen and Leclerc.
   4. 

      Nomad
      21st March 2022, 20:57

      At the time of writing, Hamilton has 2% of 230 votes and Sainz has 1% of 230 votes. As the votes seem to be rounded to the nearest percent, it means that Hamilton has most likely received 2 votes and Sainz has received 1 vote out of 230. I fail to see how that shows “a worrying amount of bias”. The fact that the British drivers, who comprise either 30% or 40% of the grid depending on whether Albon is included, have only received 2% of the vote seems to suggest the opposite of what you said.
      1. 

         Nomad
         21st March 2022, 21:16

         EDIT: that should say 4 for hamilton and 2 for Sainz, but the point remains valid. If this site was as massively British biased as many people claim, you would consistently see votes for British drivers way in excess of their actual performance. And you don’t.
         1. 

            MCG (@malrg)
            21st March 2022, 22:55

            I think people are just surprised that any votes at all went to anyone other than Lec / Mag on a day that it was pretty clear cut, I am a Ric’ fan, but honestly how did he get any votes on this performance?
            There will always be the few that vote with their hearts and absolute bias, generally I would say they are not true motor sport fans, they have an agenda that is not really about the racing.
            1. 

               Nomad
               22nd March 2022, 11:33

               I’m not debating that some people have made some weird choices. I’m just pointing out that 4 votes out of 244 isn’t evidence of a “worrying amount of bias” for Lewis Hamilton.
6. 

   Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
   21st March 2022, 1:10

   Surely it’s Leclerc, did literally everything right all weekend including bigbrain defending against Max, but honorable mention to Hamilton (beat his exciting new team-mate, overcame his tyres, picked up a chance podium), Magnussen (lack of preparation, beat his team mate by a lot), and Hulkenberg (3 hrs in the car is all it takes to beat Stroll).
   1. 

      Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
      21st March 2022, 1:11

      re Hulk: 3 hrs is all it takes to outqualify Stroll, it should say. He did finish last though.
      1. 

         kpcart
         21st March 2022, 3:05

         so you are poking fun at Stroll, not knowing why he got outqualified, and admitting Stroll beat Hulk in the race. sounds like you only gave the honorouble mention to Hulk because you dont like Stroll. How about Bottas? and Zhou getting a point in his first race?
7. 

   Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
   21st March 2022, 4:11

   Voted for K-Mag
   He had no idea before the Bahrain practice that he would be driving in F1 again. He has never driven these cars and yet to put the car in top 10 on qualifying, beat a junior teammate who has more knowledge about the car and then score points on Sunday was a good achievement for the weekend.
   1. 

      Erzen (@xenn1)
      21st March 2022, 7:57

      There’s a serious lack of communication at Haas if a driver they hired for the season during the preseason testing and who also drove the car in said test had to wait until free practice to find out if he’s racing or not xD
8. 

   sumedh
   21st March 2022, 4:59

   Key contenders: Leclerc, K-Mag, Zhou.

   Leclerc was brilliant when it mattered in Q3, in race management and in going wheel to wheel with one of the best in business, Max.
   K-Mag, oh what a wonderful story it is. Back to his old team who had a lot riding on this opening race given how Haas sacrificed last year. But difficult to see how he did compared to Mick. In the race it was evident that Max suffered a bit after his 360.
   Zhou – For his first weekend, to be within 3-5 seconds of Bottas throughout the race is amazing. His qualifying was a bit poor with 1.8s behind Bottas in Q2.

   Overall, will give it to Leclerc. But Zhou definitely a star of the weekend!!
   1. 

      Tommy C (@tommy-c)
      21st March 2022, 6:50

      Hopefully Haas’ performance will catch the attention of a legitimate and uncontroversial sponsor. They deserve some stability after the Rich Energy and Uralkali fiascos. It would also be a shame to lose them from the grid due to a lack of funding if ever it came to that.
9. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   21st March 2022, 8:01

   DOTW: LEC, DOTD: MAG
10. 

    Superman
    21st March 2022, 8:18

    As much as I never rated him, Magnussen was the stand out performer of the weekend.
11. 

    someone or something
    21st March 2022, 9:12

    Has to be K-Mag. Leclerc may be the obvious choice at first glance, dominated proceedings whenever it counted, made absolutely no mistakes, and was involved in no less than 6 passes and re-passes for the lead with a certain Max Verstappen while making it look like just another day in the office. Stellar performance, no doubt.
    But contrary to him, Kevin Magnussen lacked two crucial ingredients, namely what looked to be the best racecar of the weekend (if not by a huge margin), and a trouble-free weekend. But even despite having reliability concerns that severely affected his qualifying, in a car that wasn’t much better than many others in the tightly-fought midfield (which right now seems to consist of Haas, Al(f/ph)a, and Alpine – with a smooth transition to Mercedes, but they’re probably going to move further ahead as the season progresses), he came very close to qualifying as best of the rest, managed to stay within the Mercedes’ pit stop window for the entire race, and deservedly took best of the rest honours in the race after a flawless performance.
    Therefore, in my opinion, Magnussen deserves it more.
    1. 

       slowmo (@slowmo)
       21st March 2022, 9:33

       I agree, Magnusson was fantastic and got the best out of the equipment all weekend and was a big performance step up on his teammate. I thought Leclerc was tremendous but I think Magnusson’s result meant more to his team given the context of where they’ve been on the grid for the last few years. Also worth noting how mentally tough he must be to come back and still deliver to such a high level. Hopefully the results continue and he can secure a drive for next year and beyond.

       As for the rest I thought Hamilton performed solidly all weekend but didn’t really outperform his machinery, qualified where the car should have been on pace and drove a solid race to take home the maximum points but at not point did he look like he was seriously pushing the package. Russell just drove his car home steadily for points but did have a poor qualifying albeit he recovered from it. Sainz had a solid weekend but looked a little down on his teammate all through qualifying and the race so hopefully he’ll fix that for the next race.

       Everyone else was a bit so so too, Bottas had a good qualifying but ruined that with his start. Zhou getting a point in his first race was great and it was nice to see Tsunoda finish in the points after he binned so many last year. Mick Schumacher was quite poor although I believe he was on older tyres at the end which is why he fell so far adrift.

       Williams, Aston Martin and McLaren were simply awful and I sincerely hope it’s just they’ve not unlocked the right setup for their cars or they’re in for a long hard year. The Alpine’s were about par for the course with both being somewhat anonymous, disappointing they’re looking behind Haas and Alfa Romeo at the moment.
12. 

    AMG44 (@amg44)
    21st March 2022, 10:49

    K Mag for me. Did not even spend much time in the car but still outclassed the highly rated Mick in the same car.
13. 

    Todfod (@todfod)
    21st March 2022, 11:08

    For me, three drivers did a great job this weekend –
    1) Leclerc – Was mega in qualifying and managed to put in his best effort at the right time to put it on pole. Made zero mistakes all race and even managed to keep his cool and outfox Verstappen while they were racing, and on the restart. A pure masterclass from him.
    2) Magnussen – Super qualifying and great race weekend for him. Kept it clean, made overtakes when necessary and brought the car home as best of the rest.
    3) Hamilton – Outqualified his qualifying specialist teammate by over a second. Had a great start and was battling the Red Bull of Perez despite having at least a 0.6 to 0.9s disadvantage with his machinery. Made zero errors and maximised his result when things went his way on the last lap.

    Was a close one between Leclerc and Magnussen, but went with Leclerc. His race craft against Verstappen and qualifying lap were just supreme.
14. 

    Asanator (@asanator)
    21st March 2022, 13:01

    Lerclerc. Perfect weekend really.

    Although KMag was excellent, he did lock up twice going into T1 losing a position on each occasion in the early laps. Even if it was a Redbull and a Mercedes.
15. 

    Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
    21st March 2022, 15:34

    Leclerc, of course.
    Very good weekend also for Magnussen, Hamilton and Bottas.
16. 

    x303 (@x303)
    21st March 2022, 20:00

    Voted for Magnussen but as pointed by sumedh Zhou did a good job the whole weekend.
    Obviously Leclerc was flawless but he had the best car so he was not a contender (remember the Hamilton jurisprudence: when you have the best car, you can’t be voted DOTW).
17. 

    Esploratore (@esploratore1)
    22nd March 2022, 7:31

    I went for a sorry vote for verstappen, who was in any case the author of a good weekend, red bull wasn’t superior to ferrari, it was fairly similar overall with maybe a slight advantage for ferrari, but enough to fight, which he did, leclerc is still a great driver and managed to defend, and I noticed verstappen played again for the championship, example at the start and during the battles he didn’t take excessive risks, would’ve settled for 2nd place, just unlucky or terrible reliability, given the timing of the cars, so that’s the reason, since I knew leclerc was gonna dominate the pool.

    If it hadn’t been for verstappen’s problem I’d have gone with leclerc who had the perfect weekend basically and held off verstappen all race even before the issues, but leclerc doesn’t need my vote to win, also him and magnussen gathered 90% of votes, impressive but both shined, and haas and alfa romeo brought far better cars than I expected, both magnussen and bottas made good use of that.
    1. 

       Esploratore (@esploratore1)
       22nd March 2022, 7:31

       Damn, poll*
18. 

    Moi
    22nd March 2022, 8:18

    Can’t argue with Leclerc and Magnussen, both the standout performers this race.
19. 

    Steve Rogers (@beeflin)
    23rd March 2022, 8:30

    I think Tsunoda-san deserves credit for making up 8 places, more than anyone else.

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