2025 Bahrain GP: Post Race Analysis

Anytime we see all 3 dry tires get used in the race, it typically means an interesting one. Very enjoyable race from a strategy stand point. Early pit stops vs late pitstops, soft, medium and hard tires. It all meant we had to stay engaged to find out what would happened at the end.

McLaren unsurprisingly win the race while they had by far the best car. Piastri probably had the best weekend of his career. Outstanding job. Clearly the better McLaren driver. Is this start of his mark on being the favorite for the championship? He seems to be much more collected than Lando and for sure less pressure on his shoulders. Lando ends up with a good result in P3. He has all the pace, still appears to be faster than Oscar. He just seems to make mistakes that prevents him from maximizing his potential.

Mercedes get a fantastic result with George Russell in P2. He actually had to fight for this result and with all the issues they had, it was well deserved. Mercedes traditionally have been poor in the heat so perhaps this race shows their car has a much bigger operating window than in the last 3 seasons. Antonelli was having a strong race but the SC put him into some traffic that caused a situation to be pushed off track and he just got caught out. He deserved a lot more. Odd that we heard he got another track limits strike, but then no official message and of course no penalty.

Ferrari truly did a good job this race. No complaints with the strategy and the pitstops were great. Both drivers did excellent jobs, just the car is not fast enough. It's well off Mclaren and still a fair bit off Mercedes. The SC really burned their race though. While on fresher mediums, they were at one point the fastest cars on track. Though it does seem they couldn't make the softs last and the hards were lousy for them too, so their last stint was likely to be poor regardless. Half expected Leclerc to be further up the road over Lewis, so credit to Hamilton for having very solid race compared to his quali.

Red Bull had a very challenging race. For years they have been the team to beat in the pits, and to not only have release lights fail and impact both drivers, but then a stuck tire putting Max dead last is shocking. There is no question about Max's never quit attitude. Despite the pitstop issues, being stuck in traffic, and just flat out not having a fast car, he still races his way to the absolute best position possible. These are the races that define greatness of a champion. Yuki finally scores points in the second Red Bull. That alone is an achievement worth talking about. Plus the fact he had a solid collision with Sainz that sure gave him some damage as well, that's a good result.

Alpine. From one of the worst last week, to best of the rest this week? Gasly was absolutely tremendous. He had faster cars all around him all race long. He did a phenomenal job keeping that car deep in the points with hungry wolves nipping at his heels. Sure Max got him on the last lap, but was an all star performance that was. Doohan looked much better this race and he needed it. Already talks about his seat being in jeopardy. His finishing position does not reflect the quality of his drive today.

Haas another head scratching performance in all the right ways. Ocon was a menace all race. In battles with Hamilton and Verstappen and he held his own. Bearman starts dead last, gains 5 positions in 2 corners and gets points. What a rockstar! The midfield battles are exceptionally entertaining this season.

Williams had a car worth far more than they got. Kind of a common story with them. Albon didn't seem to be as good as we've seen in the past and just wasn't in for points at any point. Sainz however did look to be on route for points until he collided with Tsunoda. He can complain all he wants, but that collision was his fault and he sure came out the worst. A giant hole in the side pod forced them to retire the car. What a shame because this was Sainz' best weekend so far in 2025.

Sauber had another slow weekend. 13th for Hulkenberg may be a great result in the grand scheme of things, but they had no shot at points which means they are just way too slow. Bortoleto didn't look particularly good this race.

RB looked worse than expected. Both Hadjar and Lawson were well off the pace. Some harsh penalties given to Lawson for some minor bumps. He needs a good result ASAP.

Aston Martin continue to sink. Newey has so far had no impact on this years car. Both drives surely are desperate for some upgrades because it's a pile of garbage. I wonder if Alonso is reaching his breaking point where he is fed up with driving junkers that are among the slowest on the grid.

Driver of the Day: Pierre Gasly. He had no business being up there all race. Faster car up his rear wing? He didn't care. Awesome job. Honorable mentions to Bearman and Ocon.

 

They never should let fans vote.

 

I'm seriously considering just getting the F1TV app and dropping my cable tv package. I have to get TSN pack (Canada) that has 5 channels just to ensure I get all the F1 coverage. I do like it, but I find I don't watch anything else on TSN since they literally will play Curling for 6 hours straight on at least 4 of the 5 channels. Zero hockey and maybe a couple decent basketball games here and there.