This weekend saw Nascar at Texas Motor Speedway, Supercross in Houston and F1 in Bahrain.
Starting in the Middle East, Ferrari was very strong and looked to have the ultimate pace to win the Grand Prix. Specifically, Charles Leclerc was the class of the field all weekend. But, perhaps Ferrari's pace came at the cost of reliability. Leclerc's late race struggles were painful to watch because nobody was catching him. Kudos to Lewis Hamilton for making a great pass on Sebastian Vettel and causing him to make an error. Hamilton proved once again he has the pace on Vettel, even though the Ferrari was probably a bit quicker. In what is an unthinkable phrase, at this moment Vettel's position on Ferrari is at risk at season's end.
Mercedes shouldn't be too disappointed with their pace, and obviously a 1-2 result is the best possible outcome as well. But at a race where Ferrari showed they're a threat, Mercedes used strategy to keep Ferrari within their grasp. Even before Leclerc's problems, he didn't run away from Mercedes the same way the Mercedes team ran away from Ferrari in Melbourne. And the Red Bull of Verstappen was close-by, but never a real threat in any way. Verstappen has quietly run well and was very close to getting another podium if not for the late safety car. Red Bull isn't as close to the lead after two races, but things can improve.
Staying within Red Bull, things must massively improve for Pierre Gasly. After a disappointing Australian GP, Gasly was nowhere close to the pace of Verstappen. He was in the midfield battle and not near the front. This is surprising given Gasly ran in the top 5 last season at Bahrain driving a Toro Rosso.
Two teams that are happy with their results from Bahrain are McLaren with Lando Norris and Alfa Romeo with Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi has been solidly in the points the first two events, clearly outperforming teammate Antonio Giovinazzi. It's becoming apparent that Giovinazzi better start performing, or he will be out of a ride. The gap to teammate Raikkonen is quite large, and Alfa wouldn't mind finishing with consistent points every week. McLaren showed speed with Norris and Sainz, however Sainz was a bit aggressive and ended up with damage when battling for fifth. But the very fact a McLaren was battling for fifth and finished sixth shows this team is miles ahead of where they were last season. Sainz should turn things around in the upcoming races.
If some teams are happy, others are disappointed. Renault, Racing Point and Haas have to be very disappointed with what transpired in Bahrain. Renault was headed to a double points finish when both cars had trouble on the same lap on the same turn. Daniel Ricciardo was put on a different pit strategy, and despite having no pace he was going to get points. Hulkenberg came flying through the field and was headed to a top 6 finish. This bodes well for Renault, they're going to be in the points when they get to the finish. Ricciardo will get on the best pit strategy, and if anyone can get up there to challenge the Red Bulls and frontrunners, it will be this fantastic duo that is probably the best in the business.
Haas can't be satisfied with qualifying both cars in the top ten in qualifying then having zero pace in the race. Teams that went with the one-stop strategy, such as Ricciardo and Magnussen, were on the wrong strategy. Magnussen had zero pace, and one is left to wonder if this was due to the strategy or if it's a lack of race pace on the Haas. Grosjean had early troubles, and anybody who runs into trouble at this track will have difficulty catching up unless you're aided by a caution. It's very difficult to make up ground when you lose a lot of it on this type of high-wear track.
Finally, Racing Point has no pace this season thus far. Only ahead of Williams, this team is not where they want to be. The silver lining: they were not strong at the start of last season either. The hope is they're able to catch up and get their performance to be higher up the grid. They aren't far from the points as things are right now, especially on race pace. Stroll has always struggled on qualifying day, and needs to catch up. If he gets better on qualifying, his starts are the best in the business and they can get into the points more often if they're closer to the points.
On to Nascar. It was a track position race, and with this rules package it feels like a track position season, where track position is going to trump various other factors. Whoever gets out in front is going to have the advantage. If you take 2 tires and come out top 5, you may be able to hang on to that spot. This puts a premium on qualifying, which is a massive issue because of the drafting that has occurred. What should happen: Nascar should have single-car qualifying. It's the most reasonable thing to do, drafting shouldn't decide pit positions and who gets the advantage for Sunday. Denny Hamlin's team did the best job to get Denny to the front. The team deserves all the credit, and it was a decent race.
Quickly about Supercross. Cooper Webb has a stranglehold on the championship, it's his to lose. As long as he doesn't do anything dumb, nobody is catching him.
Comments