Bahrain NASCAR Recap
After one of the most entertaining seasons ever in Formula 1 history, a new season started this past weekend. With all the history and drama, it will take a lot to live up to last season.
Fortunately for Formula 1 fans, a brand new car and season regulations could be just the excitement needed to live up to last season's high expectations.
The season-opening race took place in Bahrain once again. There were several regulation changes, but the biggest change for the cars and better airflow. This means cars can now follow each other closer, which creates more passing.
After two weeks of testing and three practices, it seemed two early season favorites for the championship appeared. The Ferrari’s and the Red Bull cars were superior to any other cars on the track throughout the weekend.
This was no different in qualifying as Charles Leclerc for Ferrari qualified on the pole with teammate Carlos Sainz qualifying third. For Red Bull, reigning world champion Max Verstappen qualified second, with teammate Sergio Pérez qualifying fourth.
With these two teams dominating the front, it only seemed it would carry over to the race.
To start the race, Charles Leclerc was able to hold off Max Verstappen from getting the jump on him and first place. Most positions on the race track stayed the same, but Pérez had a bad start and was passed by Sir Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes and Kevin Magnussen in the Haas.
Yes, you read that right, a Haas right behind defending constructor champion Mercedes in fifth place. Mick Schumacher for Haas was wrecked after starting in a career-best 12th place and Esteban Ocon for Alpine was given a five-second penalty as a result.
Haas in preseason testing and qualifying seem like the fourth fastest team this year after being at the back of the pack for the last two seasons. A major surprise to all teams in the field, but they spent all last year developing this car and a powerful new Ferrari motor has helped as well.
The racing field simmered down for the first 17 laps until Verstappen caught up to Leclerc after pit stops and they went back and forth passing each other with excellent battles.
Both drivers did not touch each other, but Verstappen flat-spotted a tire which allowed Leclerc, who had an impressive defense of the reigning world champion, to pull away until the next set of pit stops.
Moving into the middle stages of the race, a surprise to many in the field were the Mercedes powered cars being extremely slow and off pace compared to every other car.
Williams Racing, Aston Martin Racing, and surprisingly Mclaren racing who finished fourth last year in the constructor's standings, were all towards the back of the field with Mercedes-powered engines which have been the strongest engines since the turbo-hybrid era started.
These cars were saved from finishing the race a lap down due to a late-race caution with about 11 laps left in the race. This was when Pierre Gasly's car started to catch fire and was forced to retire. This would be the start of the downfall for Honda/Red Bull-powered cars.
With three laps to go, Verstappen’s car lost some power steering from an electrical problem while in second place on the heels of Leclerc and he was forced to retire. The reigning champion would start out the season with no points.
This moved Sainz to second and Pérez to third, but Pérez would be forced to retire as well when the same thing that happened to Verstappen would happen to his car.
This allowed Hamilton to move into third place and take a podium position. Ferrari would end up winning the day, with Leclerc in first and second-place finish for Sainz, their first 1-2 since Singapore 2019.
Red Bull is now last in the points standings after race one, even with being one of the favorites to win coming in.
Ferrari, Mercedes and Haas are the top three in the standings as of now as Magnussen gets 10 points for Haas. Those ten points give Haas more points than they have had in the last two seasons.
Formula 1 will now head to Saudi Arabia for the next race of the season on Sunday, March 27.
Dale Ostrander is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email dko5097@psu.edu.
