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F1 racing, Saudi Arabian GP: Red Bull’s return

(Sports news – F1 news) Bahrain GP has just ended the weekend, with the results a bit surprising, and close to the predictions of experts. The racing teams immediately started preparing for this weekend’s race at Jeddah Corniche Circuit. More than 3 months after the first time in late 2021, the Saudi Arabian GP 2022 continues to return to the global Formula 1 fans.

Sunday’s race at Sakhir brought Red Bull too many issues to worry about. In their two pre-season tests, their powertrain (PU) didn’t show any concerns about reliability or power at all. Looking further, during the 2021 season they have 6 failed to finish the race (DNF), 5 times related to collisions.

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Both Mercedes and Red Bull have had a bad start to the season

And opening this season, double DNF for both duo of the Austrian team, the error related to the fuel pump system. In addition, during the third pit-stop, it is possible that some manipulation of the technical staff made the steering system on Verstappen’s RB18 very difficult to operate at high speed later, before the driver This gives up.

Not only that, their “backyard” is AlphaTauri sharing PU with them, Gasly also had to give up for the same reason. Leaving Bahrain empty-handed is not how they prepare for the goal of conquering the season in both the team and individual categories.

Eight-season champions Mercedes are facing a big challenge when starting the season much more difficult than they expected. The different design of the bodywork has not yet delivered the performance they expected. Even though the qualifying result is close to 0.7 seconds with Ferrari, it is not all, the race pace is the number that is contemplating when it is up to 1 second compared to the opponent.

Team leader Toto Wolff admits the team’s actual strength ranges from 3rd to 6th. Engine performance and a host of aerodynamic problems kept them far away from podium until the Red Bull incident did it. for the podium to suddenly belong to them.

A remarkable detail, Mercedes is one of the few racing teams that currently has the heaviest car. As you know, the car’s minimum limit is 795 kg, and the W13 is at 798 kg. 3 kg can be small when everything is perfect, with all the problems they are facing – the extra pounds of course will have a big impact on the overall performance of the car.

With only 5 days of time, perhaps too little for both Red Bull and Mercedes to turn the tide. Reliability changes with PU may (or may not) be resolved with the Austrian team. The problem of “Silver Arrows” is difficult and needs more time. But Jeddah Circuit is a street race, but it is a medium-high speed track, so the two chasing teams can use their “knowledge” to close the gap with the Red team.

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Ferrari is creating a “three horse” race, but the season has only just begun

In the opposite direction, Ferrari is considered to be the closest rival of Red Bull. But their performance from the qualifying round to the main race has literally “stained red” Sakhir. From podium to all stats in the race.

Their F1-75 seems to have everything the Bahrain GP has to offer with optimal performance with moderate fuel consumption, giving it the fastest top speed, good grip and power. at low speed turns. They may be behind Red Bull in terms of engine power, especially in the long straights ahead of turn 1 in Sakhir, but that’s not where the Austrian team can make a difference in the end result.

PU data shows that it provides very good performance in terms of traction after cornering. The competitive situations from round 17-19 in Bahrain between Verstappen and Leclerc showed that the Red Bull driver could only follow the opponent at the end of turn 1 and pass, But that was not enough, the Red car exited the corner and increased very fast, plus the accumulated energy from the ERS is enough for Leclerc to regain position shortly after.

GPS data also shows that the F1-75 exits with the highest speed in low-speed turns like 4, 8 and 10. This is attributed to Ferrari’s efficient PU design, and it is controlled. This is evidenced by data from Alfa Romeo and Haas cars – racing teams that are supplied with PU from the Red team. It all comes from the results that they have traded off when they did not focus too much resources on the previous season, placing a higher focus on the new 2022 season.

Coming to the Saudi Arabian GP at the weekend, a 3-way battle with a slight advantage for Red Bull and Ferrari, but Mercedes always approached and took advantage of every possible opportunity. Every possibility can happen in every race.

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Disappointment named McLaren

Beyond 3 names can not complete the race. Take a look at the bottom of the Bahrain GP rankings, and it’s surprising to see 6 drivers from 3 racing teams using Mercedes-powered engines. With Aston Martin (12th and 17th), Williams (13th, 16th), especially McLaren with 14th and 15th.

Williams is off to a bad start to the season like last season not to say. Aston Martin lost the main steering wheel Vettel due to Covid positive, so it is difficult to turn the situation, even though they have the best position in this group.

But the most surprising name is McLaren. Just a few months ago, they were still competing with Ferrari both individually and as a team, just behind the two leading teams, Mercedes and Red Bull. Entering the 2022 season, this British racing team is expected to return to the road to compete for the championship. Then the opening stage in Bahrain is likened to lifting a curtain to reveal the bleak prospects for the team in the early part of the season. Or look at how Norris struggled and reached the 2nd qualifying round (Q2), and before that Ricciardo was in the top 5 lowest performing drivers in Q1.

One of the main reasons this team didn’t get the results they wanted was the slow cornering speed. Next, the brake system overheated, although its design was considered by the engineers to be very optimal, in a way, it did not really operate as expected! The engineering team is working on aerodynamic solutions to solve the problem of brake overheating. They hope to be able to work things out before the practice session in Jeddah over the weekend.

The problem may not be solved in a few days, so if you expect McLaren to appear with a new “look”, you should put your faith in the Australian race in early April or … beyond. A remarkable detail, Mercedes has not been able to improve their own PU performance, when will it be the turn of “customers” like McLaren. Having so much to deal with in a few days is almost impossible. So let’s put the door on this team to a place outside the top 10 for the weekend.

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Haas and Alfa Romeo – surprising ‘makeover’…

This weekend’s battle, at the top except for the “Three Kingdoms”, besides McLaren, which is almost eliminated on the sidelines, who will appear in the top 10! Looking back from Bahrain to see the guys at the bottom of the 2021 standings, Haas and Alfa Romeo, continue to be a challenge in this race.

Alfa with the excellence of Bottas, although he departed not well, he still finished 6th, plus Zhou got the first score in his career. One more advantage of using an engine provided by Ferrari, all made a satisfactory opening for them.

Haas also used PU Ferrari, a whole season ago was empty, this season’s staff was only closed near the opening day through the return of Kevin Magnussen. Then they achieved the first result in Q3 after more than 2 years. The success was even greater than expected, the driver eventually finished 5th and took 10 points – ending last season’s thirst for points, moreover, it is more than the number of points that the racing team has in both 2020 and 2021 plus.

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… will face off against heavyweights: AlphaTauri and Alpine

But both of the above racing teams will not be able to smoothly score points. Because of the challenge ahead, the first will be a competitive AlphaTauri. Remember, before giving up, Gasly is the leading driver outside the group of 3 strongest teams. Tsunoda became the only driver to score points for both “Red Bull” teams, so the psychological pressure on the Japanese driver will certainly be relieved. Another advantage, if Red Bull Powertrains solves the fuel pump problem – it will be a premise for the racing team to assert its position.

The second challenge comes from Alpine. Although there is probably a long way to go until they can compete with the top 3 racing teams. But McLaren’s lag makes the opportunity to compete for 4th place on the team leaderboard expands with many different names. That means having a ticket in the top 10 first riders to finish each stage will be a battle of many racers participating.

So if Bottas/Alfa Romeo and Magnussen/Haas want to be in the top 10, they’ll have to face Alpine duo Alonso and Ocon, plus AlphaTauri’s Gasly. It will make the competition in the middle more unpredictable than ever.

From last season’s duel between Mercedes and Red Bull. At least Ferrari has turned this season’s competition into the “Three Kingdoms of War”. This weekend’s Jeddah Circuit will be more fierce between them.

The Italian “war horse” is highly rated, but fans expect “Red Bull” to improve the reliability of the PU. “Silver Arrows” may seem a bit underwhelming, but don’t underestimate the status of a champion when pride is hurt! There’s so much to look forward to at this weekend’s Saudi Arabian GP, ​​which kicks off with the first test run at 9pm on Friday, March 25, 2022.

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