F1 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Review
Matt Hylen- Apr 16
- 11 min read
Round 4 of the Formula One season is in the books in Bahrain. This weekend brought the HEAT, and in more ways than one! Unlike last weekend in Japan, we saw multiple overtakes and numerous battles all across the grid. Though the race winner was decided before the race began, Bahrain still was able to provide one of the most exciting races of the season thus far. He also saw lots of movement within both Championships. All 10 teams have scored points now, which has caused a change in both standings.
Now, before we review how each team did this past race weekend, here is a refresher on how the Standings work:
Formula One has two main championship competitions. The first is the Drivers' Championship, which is a competition between the drivers' individual performance. On a non-Sprint style weekend, the drivers who finish in the top 10 in each race will score points (the higher you place, the more points you get). These points are added up, and whichever driver finishes with the most points at the end of the season will win the Drivers' Championship.
The next is the Constructors' Championship, a competition between the teams. The number of points the drivers within a team get each race is combined, creating the total points for the team (E.g., Lando Norris has scored 77 points, and Oscar Piastri has scored 74 points, giving the McLaren team 151 points in the Constructors' Championship). The team whose drivers accumulate the most points combined for their team will win the Constructors' Championship.
Here is a look at the standings for both Championships:
Drivers' Championship Standings:
Lando Norris 77 points
Oscar Piastri 74 points
Max Verstappen 69 points
George Russell 63 points
Charles Leclerc 32 points
Andrea Kimi Antonellii 30 points
Lewis Hamilton 25 points
Alexander Albon 18 points
Esteban Ocon 14 points
Lance Stroll 10 points
Pierre Gasly 6 points
Nico Hulkenberg 6 points
Oliver Bearman 6 points
Yuki Tsunoda 5 points
Isak Hadjar 4 points
Carlos Sainz 1 points
Fernando Alonso 0 points
Liam Lawson 0 points
Jack Doohan 0 points
Gabriel Bortoletto 0 points
Constructors' Championship Standings:
McLaren 151 points
Mercedes 93 points
Red Bull 71 points
Ferrari 57 points
Haas 20 points
Williams 19 points
Aston Martin 10 points
Racing Bulls 7 points
Alpine 6 points
Kick Sauber 6 points
Standings were found at F1.com.
Alpine
In what was easily their best result of the season, Alpine showed significant improvement and signs of life all weekend long in Bahrain. Jack Doohan qualified 11th and finished 14th, while Pierre Gasly qualified 5th but started 4th due to a grid penalty given to Kimi Antonelli and finished 7th.
If it wasn't for the safety car, Alpine was on for a possible double-points finish. Both Pierre and Jack had a fantastic weekend, showing great pace in both qualifying and the race. The best part is that Alpine has had no reported upgrades to the car, meaning the improvement in pace came solely from the original car. The pace was always there, they just needed to find it.
What surprised me the most was that not only did Gasly find that hidden pace within the car, but Doohan did too. Jack missed out on Q3 by 17 hundredths of a second, which for him is extremely promising. Though he did lose positioning overall, Doohan finally showed that he can be the driver that Alpine is hoping he can be.
Now, the question remains on whether or not Alpine can repeat their success in Bahrain in future races. I feel it is too early to tell right now, but the team definitely seems to be moving in the right direction.
For Gasly, the fact he was able to fend off Max Verstappen for a good portion of the race was impressive. Max did gain an advantage with the safety car, which put him ahead of Gasly, but what was promising was that he did not pull away. Gasly finished only 1.6 seconds behind Verstappen, which, coming into the weekend, thought would not be possible for Alpine. Overall, a lot of positives to take away for Alpine, who can ride that momentum into the third race of a triple-header in Saudi Arabia.
Aston Martin
If you weren't totally convinced that Aston Martin was fully focusing on their 2026 car, you should be now. Fernando Alonso qualified 13th and finished 15th, while Lance Stroll qualified 19th and finished 17th.
What a horrible weekend for Aston Martin. After a surprisingly good start to the year in terms of car performance, the pace completely fell off a cliff this weekend. Stroll was one of the slowest drivers on track all weekend long, while Alonso should be considered to have outperformed the car by making it into Q2.
I think it is time for fans to accept that Aston Martin simply does not care about 2025. It's unfortunate that we will have to see a legend like Alonso drive in the bottom half of the grid all year long, so one can only hope that legend Adrian Newey (Managing Technical Partner with Aston Martin) can make a championship-level car next year.
Though we may see some surprises sprinkled throughout the year in terms of results, this is what you will likely see from Aston Martin: an anonymous race amongst the back of the grid.
Sorry Aston fans...
Ferrari
Though they have a long way to go, Ferrari showed promising improvement this weekend in Bahrain. Charles Leclerc qualified 3rd but started 2nd (due to a George Russell grid penalty) and finished 4th, while Lewis Hamilton qualified 9th and finished 5th.
The biggest takeaway for me regarding Ferrari's weekend was Lewis' qualifying pace. The car's upgrades seemed to have worked, as neither driver had many complaints all weekend long. On top of this, Leclerc qualified in the top-3. As someone who is trying to win his 8th Drivers' Championship, if your teammate is qualifying so well, you need to be up there as well.
Lewis just does not have the raw speed he used to have that allowed him to make up places in the blink of an eye. This was a major concern with him at Mercedes last year, and it has carried into this year. You can see that he still has a portion of that raw pace he used to have after making up 4 places in the race, but for Lewis, it was just a case of "what could have been"
Overall, Ferrari is moving in the right direction. Their upgrades worked very well, as the team's pace was the best we have seen all season thus far. Both drivers were very happy with the car, which is a first, and is also a positive sign going forward. Now, will they compete for a race win anytime soon? On merit, probably not, but at the trajectory they are moving at now, and with some luck on their side, it may not be too far off.
Haas
After a shaky qualifying, Haas dominated the midfield in the race, resulting in a brilliant double-points finish. Ollie Bearman qualified 20th and finished 10th, while Esteban Ocon qualified 14th after crashing out in Q2 and finished 8th.
Considering how the weekend started for Haas, they salvaged it in a shocking way. Bearman had a fantastic start to the race, making up major places on lap one. He managed the soft tires extremely well, and enough to overtake almost every car he came across. From where he started, scoring a point for the team is a result Ollie can be proud of. Not many rookies are able to recover in the way he did, but he kept his composure, got the best out of the car, and defended his position impressively.
Ocon I felt like had a very quiet race, but one of the best at the same time. At one point, Ocon was driving in 6th place, which I thought was due to him staying out longer on his first stint of tires. However, I was wrong, and instead, he had just gotten there on merit. Ocon's pace was extremely fast this weekend among the other midfield drivers, which allowed him to defend cars behind at an effective rate.
Haas' race strategy was very good as well. They executed the undercut perfectly, putting both drivers in a position to gain places and keep them as well. Though they do need to improve in qualifying, overall, great weekend from Haas.
Kick Sauber
Kick Sauber was by far and away the worst-performing car on track this weekend, but at this point, who is surprised? Gabriel Bortoletto qualified and finished in 18th, while Nico Hulkenberg qualified 16th but was disqualified after a failed post-race test on the car.
My only real thoughts about Kick Sauber, other than that their car is brutally slow, are that I genuinely hope these two drivers get a better car with Audi next year. They both deserve better; it is as simple as that. Hulkenberg is near the end of his career and still has amazing pace, while Bortoletto is one of the better prospects the sport has had in recent years. I believe Audi coming in will instantly be better, but in the meantime, all one can do is feel sorry for these two.
McLaren
It was an interesting weekend, to say the least, if you're McLaren. Lando Norris qualified 6th and finished 3rd, while Oscar Piastri started and finished the race in 1st.
First off, Lando, what happened??? After looking like he could run away with the Drivers' Championship, he produced his worst weekend of the season thus far. There was absolutely no reason to have qualified that low. I mean, he was beaten by an Alpine! From my perspective, Norris is losing confidence in the car. Why specifically that is happening is unknown; however, looking at his form the last two race weekends, something is off regarding Lando's compatibility with the car. This could just be a minor bump in the road for Norris, since the car is by far the best of the rest and Norris himself is a top driver in the sport, but things are not looking good for Lando.
One of the big reasons why Norris may be in trouble is Oscar. He looked absolutely dominant in Bahrain, as he had everything under control all race long. He just seems so much more comfortable in the car than Lando does, which will make things extremely interesting come the next few races. One thing is for certain, and that is the Drivers' Championship is still very much up for grabs. If Oscar can maintain this level of performance, it is hard to bet against him.
Mercedes
It was an up-and-down weekend for Mercedes in Bahrain. Kimi Antonelli qualified in 4th but started 5th due to a grid penalty (released from the pit wall before the resumption of qualifying was announced) and finished 11th, while George Russell qualified 2nd but started 3rd due to a grid penalty (also released from the pit wall before the resumption of qualifying was announced) and finished 2nd.
Starting with Antonelli, he was a victim of poor race strategy by the team. After a career-best performance in qualifying, Antonelli did not have a great take-off at the lights. He fell a few places; however, he was able to pull off a gutsy move on Max Verstappen, fighting with Max and Pierre Gasly for positioning. This is where the poor strategy comes in. Mercedes were too late to pit Kimi, resulting in 4 cars undercutting him. He was stuck in that traffic until the safety car came out on lap 33, where he then pitted again. This time, instead of putting him on hard tires (which were always showing to be horrendous in the race for multiple drivers), Mercedes put Kimi on another pair of soft tires. Though the soft tires were great around this track, the problem was that Mercedes were asking Kimi to use them for 24 laps, which was extremely audacious. Unfortunately, this resulted in Kimi not scoring points on a weekend when Mercedes' pace looked very good.
On a positive note, George Russell was incredible. Despite nearly everything going wrong for him in the race, he managed to persevere and secure 2nd place by a narrow margin. From his steering wheel dashboard shutting down and malfunctioning to being asked to drive over 20 laps on worn soft tires with a Ferrari and McLaren close behind, Russell remained unfazed. Heading into this season, it was evident that Russell always had the talent and raw speed, with his main challenge being consistency. However, this year, that issue seems to have been significantly addressed, and we're finally beginning to see the kind of driver George can become.
Racing Bulls
After flying in Japan, this was not a good weekend for Racing Bulls whatsoever. Liam Lawson qualified 17th and finished 16th, while Isak Hadjar qualified 12th and finished 13th.
Unfortunately, and a little surprisingly, points were never in the cards for RB this weekend. After looking like one of the fastest midfield cars in Japan, it was weird to see how far the fall-off was just a week later. Now, Japan and Bahrain are very different tracks, however, both Hadjar and Lawson struggled mightily all weekend long.
The biggest takeaway for RB this weekend is that Lawson looks very bad. This could be because of a variety of factors, such as Lawson not feeling comfortable with the car just yet, or his confidence still being regained. On the contrary, receiving two penalties (one 5-second and one 10-second penalty) for causing two separate collisions is unacceptable no matter the situation. He needs to turn things around, and fast, if he wants any chance of proving that he is still the driver we know he can be.
Red Bull
Things could not have gone much worse for Red Bull this weekend, but a safety car helped them salvage what would've been an absolutely disastrous weekend. Yuki Tsunoda qualified 10th and finished 9th, while Max Verstappen qualified 7th and finished 6th.
It is hard to know where to start, considering the only reason Red Bull had a chance to score points was because of the safety car. Both Max and Yuki were getting challenged by midfield cars all race long, and to put salt in the wound, Red Bull's pit crew had one of the worst days I have seen from them in a long time. At one point in the race, just before the safety car, Max was driving in dead last, with the possibility of not gaining many more places.
However, the safety car came to the rescue. Since both Red Bulls made their pit stop a few laps before, they were able to stay out while everyone else pitted for new tires. This bumped up Max and Yuki into the points, where they ultimately finished.
Overall, the drivers were far from the problem. Yuki made it into Q3, making it the first time Max's teammate has done it since last year, while Max passed Pierre Gasly on the final corner of the race to claim 6th place. Taking this into consideration, and taking into account the fact that for a while during the race it looked like Verstappen could actually finish outside the points, makes it all the more clear that the team needs to figure out what is wrong. Panic needs to set in, because if it doesn't, Red Bull will have a lot more Bahrain-kind of results than Japan-kind of results.
Williams
Williams' result in Bahrain was not the one they were hoping for coming into it. Carlos Sainz qualified 8th and did not finish the race due to a puncture in his sidepod, while Alex Albon qualified 15th and finished 12th.
No points will definitely hurt for Williams, however, the fact Sainz made Q3 is definitely a relief. Sainz has not gotten off to a good start this season, but making it into Q3 with a car that probably did not deserve to be there this weekend is impressive. For Albon, he unfortunately went out at the wrong time in qualifying, causing him to set a poor lap time in Q2. He made the best of the situation he put himself in, with 12th being a solid result.
I do believe this will not be a trend for Williams, but rather them running on a track that did not quite suit their car. There was a lot of potential there, but I think luck was just not on their side this weekend. A bounce back is in the cards with a high-speed track next weekend in Saudi Arabia.
Stay tuned for more F1 content, and be sure to check out fansonlysportz.com for more sports media content posted daily.
Until next time!
-Matt Hylen
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