Teams’ reaction after the Bahrain Grand Prix

The Bahrain Grand Prix noticed reigning champion Max Verstappen take his fifth profession grand slam by successful the race from pole poisiton, main each lap of the grand prix and setting the quickest lap. Here is what groups needed to say after the season opener in Manama.

Red Bull

Red Bull took a daunting begin to their season in Bahrain by having secured a one-two in dominant style. Max Verstappen appeared to battle for tempo in the early a part of the weekend, however he delivered when it actually mattered by beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pole place on Friday night.

The Dutchman then managed proceedings in the 57-lap race, exhibiting the form of dominance he demonstrated final 12 months and through pre-season testing simply over every week in the past. His team-mate Sergio Perez was unable to safe a spot on the entrance row in qualiying, however the Mexican bounced again in the race, making advantage of the dominant race tempo of his RB20.

Max Verstappen, 1st

“It was a particular one in the present day. These form of days don’t occur that always the place the automotive feels spot on, together with the stability and feeling of the automotive and every thing went rather well. The begin was good after which we additionally regarded after the automotive rather well, so it was an gratifying race for me. We managed to discover a good rhythm and tempo on this monitor and the wind energy and path helped me extract a bit extra from the automotive.

“This is one of our strongest circuits and looking to Jeddah we know that the track there is very different, with a lot of high speed corners and less degradation. I am hoping we can bring the same performance to next week: it’s going to be a challenge but I am looking forward to it. We have to thank everyone at the factory who has contributed to a great start of the year. It is always a big challenge to build a new car and follow up such an unbelievable season, but I’m excited to kick things off this season with a win.”

Sergio Perez, 2nd

“It was a extremely robust race from the Team, it’s an amazing begin to the season, you’ll be able to’t get higher than a one-two to begin a 12 months which appears to be like prefer it’ll be a extremely tight battle. I overtook Carlos at the begin and from there we had been capable of chip away at issues. There had been a couple of points that we have to iron out however it’s simply essential to maintain the momentum with us now.

“From my side it is good to now have a full race distance behind us because there will be a lot of learning to do on how we manage tyres, how we push and then we can go from there. We had a good pace, but I think it is going to be track dependent. I just want to keep improving because the season is long.”

Ferrari

Ferrari regarded robust in testing, however the Scuderia approached the opening race in Manama with warning following their struggles final 12 months. However, each Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz demonstrated nice tempo in qualifying, they usually emerged as second drive behind Red Bull on Saturday.

Had the Monegasque not been hindered by brake points, he may have been in the struggle for P2 with Sergio Perez. The Bahrain Grand Prix additionally confirmed that the Maranello-based outfit has made an amazing job in making their 2024 F1 automotive much less wind-sensitive whereas they’ve additionally ironed out their degradation points from final season.

Charles Leclerc, 4th

“It was a disappointing race from my side. There was an issue with the brakes, so I struggled to stay on track, especially in turns 9 and 10. We would have had the pace in the car to put up a good fight so I can’t wait to get back in the car in Jeddah.”

Carlos Sainz, third

“It’s a solid start to the season and very good points for the team. I felt really good in the car all race long, being able to control the pace and doing good overtakes. I tried everything to manage the tyres on the last stint to try and attack Checo (Perez) at the end of the race, but they are still faster than us. However, I think we have a very good baseline to work on and we need to keep pushing to close the gap. On to Jeddah!”

Mercedes

Mercedes had been very tough to learn throughout testing. Their W15 regarded very nervous underneath braking throughout pre-season testing, though the workforce’s drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell sounded optimisitic after the three days of working in Manama.

The race weekend then confirmed that the W15 is clearly a step ahead in each sense with Russell qualifying himself third on the grid. The one-time F1 race winner then took a powerful begin yesterday, however he and his team-mate had been hindered by energy unit overheating points in the race which compromised their possibilities for a podium end.

Lewis Hamilton, seventh

“It was a tricky race in the present day. For positive there may be some disappointment inside the workforce as we hoped that it might be a greater night. We had been shut with a number of different vehicles and the degradation was excessive. The points we confronted clearly value us some tempo in order that was irritating.

“Ultimately if I had qualified better, naturally I would have been a good couple of places further ahead as my last stint was good. Today was about discovery and we found out a lot about the car. There’s plenty of areas we can improve on and I’m sure we will as a team.”

George Russell, fifth

“It was a wierd day in the present day. Both Lewis and I confronted the same concern. The energy unit was overheating from very early on, so we had been managing that all through. It was a disgrace as we made a extremely good begin. I managed to make an excellent move on Leclerc for second however in a short time, I had warnings on my steering wheel. To handle the overheating, we had been dropping tenths-of-a-second per lap, and it was very tough to carry off anybody behind me. It’s a disgrace that we didn’t get to point out any actual potential of the automotive.

“Thankfully, it’s not an issue we need to be concerned about. We got the cooling configuration wrong. We just need to understand why, and make sure we don’t do that again. It was simply an incorrect decision; we’ve got plenty of margin to cool the power unit more. I think without the issue we would have been in the fight for P3. It’s only the first race of the season so let’s see what we can do next week.”

McLaren

McLaren didn’t look notably robust throughout testing, however the Bahrain International Circuit by no means was their strongest circuit. However, the Woking-based outfit managed to carry their efficiency each in qualifying and the race, however they nonetheless appeared to lack of some tenths of a second to their direct rivals Ferrari and Mercedes.

Lando Norris, sixth

“It was a tough race, but I think we still had a good race with good pace, and it was a definite improvement on last year, so I think we can be happy as a team. I think the wind hurt us a bit today. It changed a lot from the last few days, and it felt a lot worse in some corners, but we moved forward, and it was the best we could have hoped for today. A good start to the year.”

Oscar Piastri, eighth

“So, a P8 to start the year. I personally felt like it was a good race for myself, and I think the race pace we had seemed ok. A few things to improve, but not a bad first race for us, especially when you look at where we were this time last year. I’m excited to see what the next few circuits have in store for us, and looking forward to seeing what we can do in the races to come.”

Aston Martin

Aston Martin began the 2023 F1 season in sensible style as Fernando Alonso, who then freshly joined the workforce, secured three podium finishes in the opening three races of the season. Their 2024 marketing campaign did get off in a much less encouraging method.

The Spaniard delivered a heroic efficiency in qualifying, however he was unable to maintain up with Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren on Sunday whereas his team-mate Lance Stroll was concerned in a conflict with Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 1 on Lap 1. The Bahrain Grand Prix indicated that the Silverstone-based squad wants to search out a couple of tenths if they’re to become involved in the struggle for the best-of-the-rest place.

Fernando Alonso, ninth

“I’m happy to score some points from the race today and it was probably where we expected to finish. It ended up being a bit of a quiet race for us with a gap ahead and behind us. We thought we would stay out longer on both stints and hope there was an advantage to gain from a Safety Car, but it wasn’t to be. I think we have some analysis to do on our one lap pace against our race performance. I’m feeling confident that we can improve as the season progresses and let’s see if we can be a bit stronger in Saudi Arabia next week.”

Lance Stroll, tenth

“It feels good to score a point after running last after the first lap of the race. I had a good getaway off the line, but then got tagged by Nico [Hülkenberg] and fell to the back of the pack. I knew it would be a long race from there, but I focussed on managing the tyres and made a few passes on track. The team gave me a good strategy, too. We know we’ve got some work to do as we develop the AMR24 and unlock some more pace, but it’s a long season and we’ll keep pushing.”

Kick Sauber

The workforce that makes use of a brief title earlier than its transition into Audi’s works workforce in 2026 has retained its place in the midfield battle. Zhou Guanyu was the winner of that battle which has been established between Kick Sauber, RB, Haas and Williams behind the high 5 groups. His team-mate Valtteri Bottas had a torrid race although as he misplaced over 40 seconds throughout his second pit cease that noticed his workforce battle to lock the proper entrance tyre.

Valtteri Bottas, nineteenth

“Unfortunately, in the present day simply hasn’t been my day. I had an excellent begin, however then I received caught up in the Turn One incident between Nico [Hülkenberg] and Lance [Stroll], which resulted in entrance wing harm that made me lose some floor and efficiency. On high of that, we had a difficulty with the wheelnut throughout my second pit cease, which made us lose some extra time.

“Luck wasn’t on our facet in the present day, however hopefully that’s all the dangerous luck for this season. As a optimistic to take house with us, our tempo was undoubtedly higher than that of our fundamental opponents – as seen with Zhou, who almost completed into the factors. This reveals we now have a greater race automotive than final season, and provides us confidence trying into Jeddah subsequent week.”

Zhou Guanyu, eleventh

“Today, we maximised every thing we may, and I’m comfortable we had been capable of struggle so carefully for the factors. We had a clear race with an excellent begin the place I used to be capable of make up some positions, but it surely was fairly difficult to maintain the Aston Martins behind with out compromising our tyres. Luckily, I managed to maintain Kevin [Magnussen] and the remainder of the subject behind me.

“We made progress over the weekend, and the workforce labored exhausting to search out the optimum setup. Unfortunately, in a race with no attrition, we couldn’t get factors with out something taking place to the vehicles forward of us. There continues to be lots to enhance for us, and we’ll proceed engaged on our efficiency to have the ability to compete much more strongly for factors in Jeddah and in the upcoming races.”

Haas

Haas have gone by way of important adjustments over the winter after workforce proprietor Gene Haas had deicded to oust former workforce principal Guenther Steiner and herald Ayao Komatsu as his alternative. The American outfit had a really tough season in 2023 as their automotive suffered from extreme tyre put on regardless of its encouraging one-lap efficiency.

The workforce has been keen to handle these points, they usually now seem to have made inroads at that entrance, and they’re now absolutely immersed in the tight midfield battle with RB, Kick Sauber and Williams.

Nico Hulkenberg, sixteenth

“It’s very frustrating and disappointing, and it was a very similar scenario to last year into Turn 4 at the start. On a positive note, our race pace and tire degradation looked pretty reasonable compared to the other midfield runners, and I think we’re fighting Williams, Sauber and RB, so I guess we take that as a positive. There will be more findings after today, things to improve and optimize on. Jeddah is obviously a very different circuit with completely different characteristics, so we’ll see what we get there but it feels like we have a much better foundation to work with compared to last year.”

Kevin Magnussen, twelfth

“I’m kind of pleased – not over the moon, as we didn’t score points – but it seems like we have a car which is a bit better on the tires this year, not necessarily quicker than last year but at least better on tires, and I think we’ve shown that today. Nonetheless, it’s only one track, one bit of tarmac, and one set of conditions so we still have to show that elsewhere. It’s been a good couple of weeks of work, the team has done a really good job, and we’re in a good place – we just need to find more.”

RB

The Faenza-based F1 outfit is a part of the midfield workforce that features Williams, Haas and the Stake Sauber outfits. The workforce with a brand-new id has elected to retain the providers of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda for 2024, however the pair seemed to be in battle when the workforce requested the Japanese racer to maneuver apart to let his team-mate previous in the dying phases of the race.

Daniel Ricciardo, thirteenth

“We weren’t fairly ok for factors in the present day. I struggled lots at the starting of the race with the used gentle tyres as a result of there was a reasonably poor grip off the line. In the center stint with the exhausting tyres, we received just a little bit extra tempo, however I anyway felt that I used to be struggling. In the finish, the new gentle compound was lots higher. We lastly extracted some tempo and had been catching the pack. At that time, I received just a little caught behind different vehicles and I misplaced the grip on the tyres.

“The name for the drivers’ swap was fairly anticipated and got here with no shock. Before the race, we clearly talked with the workforce about technique plans, and it was extremely possible I used to be going to complete the race with a brand new set of sentimental tyres after beginning the race with a used set. It is what it’s, and let’s flip the web page now. I’ve received an concept of what we will do to be higher, so I’ve some confidence in going racing subsequent week in
Jeddah.”

Yuki Tsunoda, 14th

“I think I was doing quite well within the points until about halfway through the race when I felt it was slipping away from us. We weren’t fighting for points at that time, so we’ll have to review everything during our post-race analysis and learn from it for the future. It’s race one, so there’s still lots of time to understand. In general, there’s still a lot we can take away from this weekend, the mechanics did a great job with all our pitstops, and if there is anything we could do better strategy-wise, we’ll review and improve for Saudi.”

Williams

Williams was keen to construct a automotive that’s much less slippery down the straights and might excel in a much bigger number of race tracks. So far, the workforce has regarded much less aggressive than final 12 months with the FW46 having developed technical points of various nature in pre-season testing and through the Bahrain race weekend.

The opening race of the season noticed each Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant battle with an overheating energy unit which resulted in a lack of outright tempo whereas the American was additionally hindered by a steering wheel electronics concern.

Alex Albon, fifteenth

“The car itself was okay but we’re far behind. We had issues the whole race with things that if we had done more running in testing, we would’ve been able to avoid. We were overheating the entire race and were down on power, so hopefully we can take a look at the data and arrive in Jeddah in better shape. Our pace relative to the others is quite similar so that midfield battle is close and will be tough.”

Logan Sargeant, twentieth

“It was frustrating as we had the steering wheel electronics issue yesterday in Qualifying and then it returned today, so the most important thing is that we need to understand the root cause of this and get it fixed going forward. We had a really good first lap and a great opening stint and made some good gains and it felt like it was coming to me before we had the issue. We were struggling a little with PU temp which meant I couldn’t stay close to the cars ahead, so it was just a bit of a disappointing evening. There’s nothing we can’t fix, but we need to understand everything moving forward.”

Alpine

The Anglo-French outfit had a couple of robust performances final 12 months, however they elected to overtake their automotive for 2024. At the second, their new F1 challenger seems to lack of outright tempo which is partly all the way down to lack of aerodynamic efficiency whereas the automotive can be believed to be massively over the minimal weight restrict. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly had been capable of full the full distance of the Bahrain Grand Prix with a two- and a three-stop technique respectively which may provide loads of information for the engineers to work by way of over the coming days.

Esteban Ocon, seventeenth

“Today was a continuation of what we saw in Qualifying yesterday and, overall, it has not been the weekend we wanted. Most importantly we had a clean race and collected valuable data that we can take into the race in Jeddah next week. It will be interesting to see how we fare on different layouts and in different conditions. We’ll dig in and put our heads together during the short break between races and see where we can improve. We have to stay focused, stay positive and keep going in the right direction. Collectively as a team we have to keep our heads up and foot down going to Saudi Arabia.”

Pierre Gasly, 18th

“It was not our day however in all probability what we anticipated in the finish. I had an amazing launch off the line, handed a few vehicles however then I used to be caught by some Turn 1 chaos with vehicles spinning in entrance, which put me again. That was not very best however after that, we did all we may do with what we had in our arms in the present day.

“We have many areas to maintain bettering and I do know the exhausting work will proceed behind the scenes. We need to preserve making steps ahead as we’re not the place we wish to be proper now. Next week it’s a unique monitor, a brand new alternative and a contemporary problem for us to maintain exhibiting progress.”