RACE DEBRIEF
Clearly aggrieved with his team-mate, Yuki Tsunoda came barrelling down the inside of Dan Ricciardo at the Turn 8 hairpin – after the chequered flag. He locked up, ran wide, then rotated his RB and blasted past the Australian once more on the exit. “What the fuck, he’s a fucking helmet,” exclaimed the usually cool Ricciardo.
Tsunoda’s grievance emerged after he was given a team order to relinquish his position to Ricciardo in the latter stages, while running in 13th on the hard Pirellis just behind Kevin Magnussen’s Haas. While Tsunoda was on the same soft-hard-hard strategy as the majority of the grid, Ricciardo had a set of softs available for the final stint and, having swapped to them, caught his team-mate quickly.
Thus came the request every driver dreads to hear: “We’ll do the swap this lap…” Tsunoda responded with fury and dragged his heels about moving over, so the swap didn’t take place until just five laps remained. Ricciardo gave it his all to overtake K-mag but couldn’t manage it and stayed 13th, with a frustrated Tsunoda one place behind.
“We talked about it before the race and starting on the [used] soft meant I was going to finish the race on a new soft and have an attacking last stint,” explained Ricciardo. “I know when you’re in the race you are a little bit more emotional but this call came as no surprise.
“We weren’t in a points position so there was really nothing to lose, but I think the call was already one lap too late and then he has reacted too late.”
New team CEO Peter Bayer admitted the team had missed an opportunity when the delayed Lance Stroll pitted from one position ahead of Tsunoda at the end of lap 27. When Yuki pitted seven laps later he emerged four places behind Stroll, who finished 10th.
“It would have avoided first of all, the fight with Magnussen, and it would have avoided the mess between the drivers,” Bayer said.
4
Where are Alpine’s stars?
Late on Saturday, as the teams were packing ahead of the short hop to Jeddah a week later, a rumour spread around the paddock. It was suggested Alpine’s technical director Matt Harman and head of aero Dirk de Beer had resigned. Less than 48 hours later the team reversed its initial “no comment” and confirmed this was the case.
Esteban Ocon finished a lap down in 17th, one place ahead of team-mate Pierre Gasly. The disappointing result, owing to a combination of lack of downforce, underpowered engine and overweight chassis, has left Alpine with a steep development gradient to conquer.
Ocon outqualified Gasly when Pierre failed to prepare his tyres for his Q1 push lap. Having made the better start from the back of the grid, Gasly got baulked by the crush at Turn 1 at the start as Nico Hülkenberg tapped Lance Stroll into a spin. Ocon – perhaps as a result of all that training with alien
spaceships (see p32) did a better job of threading through. Pace-wise neither car offered much and only finished ahead of cars seriously delayed.
“We’re aware of the limitations, everyone wants to find solutions,” said Gasly. “I see the mentality is the right one inside the team, but you don’t find solutions overnight on these cars, you need more than that and that’s why we will have to be patient.
“I think about the 1500 people [in the team] that’s behind me and no-one’s enjoying it. No-one’s doing racing to be P18 and P17.”
Twelve months ago Mclaren was effectively last in Bahrain but was a regular podium finisher by midseason. Alpine has acted quickly to try and repeat that feat. Whether it can is another matter.
5
A trouble free race – for most
The Bahrain GP was surprisingly free of incident and on-track drama, not the thrilling spectacle we’ve often enjoyed in the past (particularly since the swap to the night-race format). The nature of the track – and the relative ease of overtaking – allowed the teams to finish largely in their natural order of pace; those who qualified out-of-position didn’t have much of a fight ahead of them.
While mechanical reliability was mostly sound across the grid and few drivers made serious errors, three individuals were still unfortunate at Turn 1 which scuppered their opening race of the season. Off the line, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll got off to a much better start than Nico Hülkenberg, who had qualified his Haas ahead. As the field compressed into Turn 1, the Hülk was a little late on the brakes and nudged Stroll into a spin. Valtteri Bottas, behind, had to check up suddenly and deranged a wing tip on his luminous green Stake
Hülkenberg pitted for a new front wing at the end of the first lap, while Bottas suffered a crossthreaded wheelnut on his front-left during his second stop. He was stationary for 52 seconds while another wheel was sought. Stroll recovered to take the final points position in tenth, while Bottas finished second from last.
The only other brief yellow flag during the 57-lap encounter came when Williams’ Logan Sargeant speared into the run-off at Turn 4 on lap 10. An electronic glitch on his steering wheel had reset the brake balance all the way to the front axle.