2026 Motorsports Season

Ended up being decent race
Max challenged at end,
Maclarnes had a rough day,
Ferrari didn't do much,

Redbull looked strong, but was all George and Kimi today, again.

Mercedes dominating again. Nobody could catch Russell, although Max was hot on his heals at the end. Kimi was impressive working his way through the pack. He might have eventually put the run on Russell if it was a longer race. I suspect this win put some wind back in Russell's sails. Piastri was doing pretty darn good right up to the point where he blew it the corner. Sky sports pundits suggested he was looking in his mirror too much. He probably was, with Max hot on his tail lap after lap. Him and Norris are still ones to watch for, if there cars can be made competitive.

The short filler bit Sky Sports had about Jamie Chadwick getting to drive a Williams F1 car was pretty good. You could really see the excitement in her face when she got out of the car.
https://www.skysports.com/f1/video/...kes-history-with-maiden-f1-test-with-williams

She's the first British woman to drive a modern F1 car since 2023. She can also claim to be the first woman to win an Indy NXT race since 2010, when she claimed victory at Road America in 2024.
Jamie may be competing in a Hypercar at LeMans next year. She already run Lemans 24 hrs in an LMP2 car, but is now a reserve driver for Genesis Magma Racing Team.

Bahrain GP this weekend,

Ohtobbad said:

Bahrain GP this weekend,

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In Malaysia.
Sepang circuit. Looks like an amazing track.

FP-2

67 AGAIN said:

In Malaysia.
Sepang circuit. Looks like an amazing track.

Click to expand...

Should be interesting, they have not been here for years, half drivers have never driven track.
surface is a bit gritty, like sand paper, so bit less grip, fast tire wear,
Also heat wave temps above 33 and 80% chnace of rain,

so could be as they say a wet and wild weekend,
and when they race in the rain, all kinds of things happen
Also its on very early, Qualifying is 5 am tomorrow morning
and I think the race is 4 am maybe 5 am Sunday
so up early watch race, go about day

Bahrain Qualifying

1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) 1m35.130s
2 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.298s
3 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull Racing) +0.428s*
4 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.501s
5 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.536s
6 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.627s
7 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.632s
8 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.741s
9 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +2.080s
10 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +2.543s

11 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +0.209s to Q3
12 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.406s
13 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.713s
14 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.752s
15 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +11.607s*
16 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +17.995s*

17 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +0.087s to Q2
18 Oliver Bearman (Haas) +0.097s
19 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +0.350s
20 Alexander Albon (Williams) +0.717s
21 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +0.728s
22 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +1.050s

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Looks like the upgrades for Mercedes may not have been significant enough, at least for this [particular track. Toto said they are too slow in the straights, and downforce is not great in the corners, a double whammy. Of course qualifying is a lot different than the actual race, so perhaps some of the upgrades will surface on Sunday.
I don't understand why there is still a need to preheat the tires, if the conditions are such that a cold tire would actually perform better. Why not just leave the tire blankets off? It seems counter productive..

Interesting facts about this race. Bahrain is under contract to host F1 events until 2036. Because of the US/Iran war, Bahrain was unable to host this planned 2026 event there. Because Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet it became a target, making it unsafe to host the event. By actively funding the relocation to Malaysia out of their own pockets, the Bahraini authorities protected F1 from massive broadcast penalty fees. This also guarantees Bahrain remains a favored partner of Formula One Management, once regional stability returns.
So... they held the event in Sepang, Malaysia. Bahrain pays the estimated US$70M–$80 Million cost to put on the race, but they keep the F1 rights and hosting fee, and retains 100% of ticket sales and race proceeds. Thus the race is still called the Bahrain Grand Prix. Because of costs to host an F1 event, the Malaysian Gov't had bailed out of hosting any more F1 events after the last one in 2017. They will still be responsible for the costs for track upgrades, basic circuit repairs, track property set up, and local event organization. That's expected to cost between US$4M up to a cap of $10 million. They expect to see an economical benefit to Malaysia from the race being held there, to be between US$270 to 320 million, which is nothing to sneeze at. A bonus for Malaysian national citizens, is tickets (other than grandstand seats) are only US$50 for the entire weekend. Covered grandstand seats cost up to US$340. Foreigners will pay US$200 to $560.

Race results​

1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +2.3s
3 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +4.9s
4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +7.2s
5 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +8.5s
6 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +9.4s
7 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +12.7s
8 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +13.3s
9 Lando Norris (McLaren) +13.9s
10 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +15.9s
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +17.4s
12 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +18.0s
13 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +18.9s
14 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +22.3s
15 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +22.5s
16 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +23.3s
17 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +25.4s
18 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +28.2s
19 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +29.3s
DNF: George Russell (Mercedes), Alex Albon (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac)

Well it ended up being intersting race after all the delays,,
First rain delay, then cars would not deploy energy properly because of the rain,
so another 53 minutes, while they upgrade software changes to the teams
so it would work, never thought an F-1 race would be delayed ny a LAPTOP

then about 8 cars started on slicks, bad move, Ferrari dropped to 17th and 18 th
impressive drive by Lewis and Charles to end up 4th and 5th

Max got his first win with a great weekend, Mercs upgrades not so great,
Almost fell bad for Geroge power unit problem's with 5 laps to go,
other wise somewhat entertaining I have not decided whether it was good race or not.