220 Sakhir Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes

[Jericoke]

Another memorable race.  At least I was on the edge of my seat!

Heroes:
Sergio Perez becomes a very good driver once he's got nothing to lose.  Would he have done so well without a contract for 2021?  Hard to say, but he's been doing a great job of being in the right place, waiting for the right time, and it's paid off.  Great win

Esteban Ocon is a hot and cold driver who needed a little luck, and stepped up when he got it.

Lance Stroll, sure, I'm a biased Canadian.  Perhaps Stroll is a step down from Perez (or two steps, today), but he's a great racer who is putting in solid results.

George Russell... I thought that he would be overwhelmed.  I figured he'd be happy to be there, put in a solid, but safe, top 5 and be ear to ear grins.  I didn't think he'd manage to pull away and take a Hamiltonian lead and control of the race.  It is a shame that things didn't work out for him, but he showed he's got the skills to be a WDC.

Zeroes
Ferrari pit crew.  Twice letting Vettel down with slow pitstops

Mercedes pit crew.  'You say Ferrari had the worst pitstop?  Hold my lager and watch this!'
(Bonus hero to the Merc pit man who spotted the error to salvage a few points)

[lkjohnson1950]

Think Jeri covered it, but best humorous comment of 2020: Max criticizing other drivers for being too aggressive in the turn 4 accident.

[Dare]

Another first lap highlighting the best of the
best drivers in the World.

[lkjohnson1950]

 

[rmassart]

Zeroes
Ferrari pit crew.  Twice letting Vettel down with slow pitstops

Vettel must be relishing the prospect of driving for Racing Point next year, and be happy he's no longer at Ferrari... There will surely be more chances of wins at Racing Point than Ferrari next year.

[cosworth151]

Jeri pretty well covered it, but I'll add one to the Heroes list:

Romain Grosjean - This may well have been his last weekend as part of an F1 team. His moment by moment description of what was going though his mind during last week's shunt was chilling. It was a stark reminder that, in the words of Steve McQueen's Michael Delaney in LeMans, "This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you, then it can happen again."

[Alianora La Canta]

That had the hallmarks of a classic race for me.

Heroes:

Sergio Perez: Winning in a Racing Point in its current state is already impressive. Winning in a lightly-damaged Racing Point, having been in a lap 1 collision that resulted in an starting position 20 seconds behind the penultimate car still running... ...one has to ask what everyone else's excuse was.

George Russell: If I did "equal-firsts" on these lists, George would be. Didn't put a foot wrong and was respectful to the team that let him down so badly. Lewis Hamilton's successor has been located.

Esteban Ocon: Quietly mounted an excellent defence in order to solidify his P2. This has been a long time coming, and to be on that podium with his friend and former team-mate must have been amazing.

Zeroes

Mercedes: Double-stacking cars for an extra pit stop to take advantage of the Safety Car? OK, but Lewis would probably have refused. Broken pit radio so that only half the garage heard it? Not so much. Result looked like what happens when I try to pick pairs of socks without turning the light on first. I'm going to assume the puncture would have happened anyway, but if it had not been for the tyre mix-up, George would still have won the race.

Charles Leclerc: While I can see why you made that error, it was a rather large one. So large it (and Mercedes' actions) decided the race - the moment the braking point was chosen, whoever he hit was going to be out, as was he, and whoever he didn't was going to win the race.  Maybe Seb had a point after all...

Max Verstappen: Not because of anything done on track, but because he took his fury out... ...on a wall. With racing shoes. That's going to hurt in the morning  (And yes, there was a distinct shortage of zeroes this week, I concede this is proper scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel stuff). Credit where it's due, though: I was half-expecting him to kick Charles, so hot burned his justifiable anger, and Max refrained from doing so, which he might not have done a couple of years ago.

[lkjohnson1950]

I have to say I had serious doubts about the circuit, but it provided some very good racing. You could even pass without DRS (though it helped). Wouldn't mind seeing it used again.

[Dare]

What made the race exciting was Lewis wasn't there and
Charles took Max out. Russel looked good compared to Bottas
it me wonder if Lewis's car has a little more horsepower

[Willy]

Edge of your seat stuff for sure.

Turn 4 appeared to be Sergio cutting Charles off and causing the issue to me. Max avoided and hit the gravel that that was it for him.

George Russel showed he has the chops to run with the big guns and it is just the POS Williams that is holding him back.
George more then deserves to steal Bottas's seat in the Merc and now everyone knows it. He managed to keep up with and get ahead of Bottas in a car that was not properly set up for him, a smaller cockpit than he normally fits and wearing the wrong sized shoes with squished toes to fit in the footwell.  How's that for rising above adversity.
As Ali said, we have now seen Lewis's successor and future WCD.

Nice to see Sergio get his 1st win and show he can deliver but methinks it is too little, too late.

[Jericoke]

[Russell] managed to keep up with and get ahead of Bottas in a car that was not properly set up for him, a smaller cockpit than he normally fits and wearing the wrong sized shoes with squished toes to fit in the footwell. 

So here's a serious question for the Russell to Merc in 2021 train... since the 2021 car is basically the 2020 car, will Mercedes be able to make it fit George comfortably?  It might not seem like a big deal to get wedged into an F1 car for a single race, but 23 of them?  It could cause some serious long term injuries to the young man and would compromise his career AND his life outside of racing.  Something for both parties to consider.

I'm sure the 2022 car will be very spacious though.

[Andy B]

[Russell] managed to keep up with and get ahead of Bottas in a car that was not properly set up for him, a smaller cockpit than he normally fits and wearing the wrong sized shoes with squished toes to fit in the footwell. 

So here's a serious question for the Russell to Merc in 2021 train... since the 2021 car is basically the 2020 car, will Mercedes be able to make it fit George comfortably?  It might not seem like a big deal to get wedged into an F1 car for a single race, but 23 of them?  It could cause some serious long term injuries to the young man and would compromise his career AND his life outside of racing.  Something for both parties to consider.

I'm sure the 2022 car will be very spacious though.

I really don't think the 2021 car will be the 2020 car!
Take a look at this its quite different.
/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk-JKrs0rrc

[John S]

*Andy your links not working mate!

Also are you mixing up the new reg cars, now delayed til 22, for the 21 spec cars that will for most intents and purposes be very similar to this year's?

[cosworth151]

The big change was originally scheduled for 2021. It was moved back to 2022 due to the Covid pandemic.

[Andy B]

The big change was originally scheduled for 2021. It was moved back to 2022 due to the Covid pandemic.

I have just checked the date and as that is November 2019 it probably is before they decided to delay the changes. Well spotted.