Formula 1 2024 Season: Bahrain Grand Prix

Hi, dear reader. I haven’t written to this blog, Supercar Updates, in quite a while. To mark my return, I’d like to discuss the most recent Grand Prix - the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix. 

I thought it was quite poor. I watched Max Verstappen win by about an hour, with his teammate so shockingly slow you’d think he was, well, me. I don’t mean to mock Sergio Perez, either. He is human, as we all are, and he aims to do the best job he can in the sport. It just so happens that his best is nowhere near Max Verstappen's best, and what could be a somewhat interesting competition between two drivers in the best car instead ends up being a complete drubbing, provided by Verstappen and absorbed by Perez.

Sainz did well. Third place was the most he was ever going to get, and he got it. Leclerc had some awful brake issues this weekend, and was well off the pace of his teammate. Even so, I shan’t discount the job Sainz did. He clearly has something to prove, a phrase which bothers me to no end yet. I will use it in spite of my pre-ordained hatred. I don’t get that, do you? When the moronic Sky team (not Crofty and Brundle, I love them) insinuate or flat out say a driver has something to prove. Who on God’s green earth doesn’t? Hell, even I have something to prove by writing this article! It’s such an odd thing to say. I can see the argument being that Alonso, Hamilton and Verstappen have already proven themselves via statistics or performances. But that doesn’t mean they suddenly wish to stop proving to the world that they are still the best. An argument which becomes evermore necessary with age. 

McLaren coming up next. They were ok. Norris was slightly catching Russell by the end, and Piastri wasn’t miles off his teammate. Indeed, a Reddit post contained some statistics stating the average race pace of Piastri was 0.05s behind Norris. Still wasn’t enough to land him a place right behind, as Hamilton snuck past him on warmer tyres. I’ll lump Mercedes here because I can’t stand them. They’re such an arrogant team, and so spoilt. You’d think they’d been competing for wins the past 2 and a bit years, but no they’ve been fairly mediocre aside from a nice P2 in the constructors last year. They’re not really close to winning a championship, so it’d be nice if they could swallow their pride and take a result such as 3rd, 4th or even 5th as a small victory for the team. Besides that, they did ok. Russell was slightly better than Hamilton this weekend, after bizarre, repeated comments about the team setting up for race pace (which was bang average, mind you) as though they had to answer for their disgusting P3 qualifying position (again, not bad for these guys).

I’m only going to talk about Aston Martin next because I don’t care quite so much about the other teams or drivers. Aston Martin, my dear Aston Martin. What happened? Is this an inverse of last year? A decent qualifying from my favourite driver (stating that now so the bias doesn’t wind you up) landed him 0.35 seconds off of first place, which is staggeringly good considering they were 0.7-0.6 away from 1st place last year. So you’d think blimey, Aston always have great race pace, and Alonso is a racer above all. That’s not to say he’s a poor qualifier, he’s a bloody good one - it’s just that his race pace is that much better. So imagine my shock when they had negative race pace. They just dropped behind the Merc and McLarens, and vanished from our television screen. Aside from the odd guest appearance, they were in literal no mans land. Faster than the grid-filler teams and Red Bull B team, but slower than the actually relevant teams. In other words, as an Alonso fan, this season is going to be a bore. 

What annoys me even more is the fucking morons at Sky who predicted this will be rewarded. Their predictions made no logical sense, mind you. Why should it be so that Aston Martin start strong and drop off. They have hired some of the best engineers and invested in new facilities. What ground marks the foundation for your predictions? Horse manure? And that one woman, Laura something, who’s predictions made 0 logical sense at all. Christ, I hate the genuine lack of education on that team. 

I also realised I haven’t mentioned the finishing positions. Verstappen 1st, Perez 2nd, Sainz 3rd, Leclerc 4th, Russell 5th, Norris 6th, Hamilton 7th, Piastri 8th, Alonso 9th, Stroll 10th. The rest of the grid sucks and won’t be mentioned. Except Tsunoda, I like him. Not enough to list his finishing position though.