Bahrain Grand Prix ‘A Special One’: Max Verstasppen

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Following an historic and record-breaking Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024 on Saturday night— the Kingdom of Bahrain’s landmark 20th anniversary F1 race— The Daily Tribune looks back on the drivers’ post-event comments on the incredible action that unfolded, highlighted by the dominance of Red Bull’s threetime defending world champion Max Verstsappen. The F1 stars and their teams have little time to rest, as the world championship now heads from Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the very next round later this weekend.

Max Verstasppen, Oracle Red Bull Racing, 1st, 1:31:44.742

“It was a special one today. These kinds of days don’t happen that often where the car feels spot on, including the balance and feeling of the car and everything went really well. The start was good and then we also looked after the car really well, so it was an enjoyable race for me. We managed to find a good rhythm and pace on this track and the wind strength and direction helped me extract a bit more from the car. This is one of our strongest circuits. 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, Oracle Red Bull Racing, 2nd, +22.457 seconds (from Verstappen)

“It was a really strong race from the team, it’s a great start to the season, you can’t get better than a one-two to start a year which looks like it’ll be a really tight battle. There were a few issues that we need to iron out but it is just important to keep 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.”

Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, 3rd, +25.110s

“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.”

Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari, 4th, +39.669s

“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.”

George Russell, MercedesAMG Petronas F1 Team, 5th, +46.788s

“It was a strange day today. Both Lewis and I faced a similar issue. The power unit was overheating from very early on, so we were managing that throughout. It was a shame as we made a really good start. It’s a shame that we didn’t get to show any real potential of the car. 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. 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.”

Lewis Hamilton, MercedesAMG Petronas F1 Team, 7th, +50.324s

“It was a tough race today. For sure there is some disappointment within the team as we hoped that it would be a better evening. We were close with several other cars and the degradation was high. The issues we faced obviously cost us some pace so that was frustrating. 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.”

Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 6th, +48.458s

“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, McLaren F1 Team, 8th, +56.082s

“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.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team, 9th, +74.887s

“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, Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team, 10th, +93.216s

“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.”

Zhou Guanyu, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, 11th, +1 lap

“Today, we maximised everything we could, and I am happy we were able to fight so closely for the points. We had a clean race with a good start where I was able to make up some positions, but it was quite challenging to keep the Aston Martins behind without compromising our tyres. Luckily, I managed to keep Kevin [Magnussen] and the rest of the field behind me. We made progress over the weekend, and the team worked hard to find the optimal setup.”

Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, 19th, +1 lap

“Unfortunately, today just hasn’t been my day. I had a good start, but then I got caught up in the Turn One incident between Nico [Hulkenberg] and Lance [Stroll], which resulted in front wing damage that made me lose some ground and performance. On top of that, we had an issue with the wheelnut during my second pit stop, which made us lose some more time. Luck wasn’t on our side today, but hopefully that’s all the bad luck for this season. As a positive to take home with us, our pace was definitely better than that of our main competitors – as seen with Zhou, who nearly finished into the points. This shows we have a better race car than last season, and gives us confidence looking into Jeddah next week.”

Kevin Magnussen, MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, 12th, +1 lap

“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.”

Nico Hulkenberg, MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, 16th, +1 lap

“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.”

Daniel Ricciardo, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, 13th, +1 lap

“We were not quite good enough for points today. I struggled a lot at the beginning of the race with the used soft tyres because there was a pretty poor grip off the line. In the end, the new soft compound was a lot better. We finally extracted some pace and were catching the pack. The call for the drivers’ swap was quite expected and came with no surprise. I’ve got an idea of what we can do to be better, so I’ve some confidence in going racing next week in Jeddah.”

Yuki Tsunoda Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, 14th, +1 lap

“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. 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.”

Alexander Albon, Williams Racing, 15th, +1 lap

“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. 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, Williams Racing, 20th, +2 laps

“It was frustrating as we had the steering wheel electronics issue yesterday in Qualifying and then it returned today. The most important thing is that we need to understand the root cause of this and get it fixed going forward. There’s nothing we can’t fix, but we need to understand everything moving forward.”

Esteban Ocon, BWT Alpine F1 Team, 17th, +1 lap

“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. 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.”

Pierre Gasly, BWT Alpine F1 Team, 18th, +1 lap

“It was not our day but probably what we expected in the end. We have many areas to keep improving and I know the hard work will continue behind the scenes. We have to keep making steps forward as we are not where we want to be right now. Next week it’s a different track, a new opportunity and a fresh challenge for us to keep showing progress.”