Bahrain GP: 29 is an important number.

The biggest talking point of the Bahrain GP was the number 29. This is how many times Lewis Hamilton exceeded track limits in Turn 4. 0 is the number of penalties applied to him. What was his advantage by exceeding those limits? Some pundits have put it at up to 0.2 seconds per lap, which in Formula 1 timing is MASSIVE and over 29 laps, this would be about a 5.8 second advantage gained. However arguments have been made that the goal post was moved by the FIA Stewards, which was refuted by race director Michael Masi in this statement after the race “It was clearly explained in the driver briefing and was also stated in the minutes for this event that we would not monitor violations if it was just about lap times. But it was always clear and it is also in the regulations that there should be no lasting advantage.”

The deciding factor in not handing Hamilton a penalty was that he didn’t gain an advantage by overtaking, which Max Verstappen did. Was Max running wide simply a response to Hamiltons’ well documented inability to allow overtaking by “accidently” crashing into the other car? In the 2020 and 2019 season two examples of this were the Alexander Albon incidents at Brazil in 2019 which cost Albon his first podium and again in 2020 at Austria denying Albon a win at the Red Bull home grand prix. Both incidents Hamilton claimed there was nothing he could do, despite on board footage showing there was plenty of room left by Albon for Hamilton to turn, but in both cases Hamilton’s steering wheel mysteriously didn’t turn.

Bottas needs to channel Rosberg – Just not on social media

Valterri Bottas again was forced to play defensive lineback to Hamilton and clearly wasn’t happy after the race. The strategy given to him was clearly to ensure a podium finish while not being permitted to challenge the top two. Footage after the race shows Bottas questioning Toto Wolff however the team boss is seen making a clear gesture that he doesn’t want to talk about it and walks off.

Perhaps it is time for Bottas to ring Rosberg and see how he can get under the Brit’s skin which Rosberg clearly did quite well leading up to his 2016 championship. We just hope he doesn’t take any advice from Rosberg about social media usage as quite honestly, all we need to say to that is NO.

Bottas has previously been called a wingman by Wolff and expressed displeasure at this in the Netflix documentary “Drive to Survive”.

From ladish behaviour to spinning out on Lap 3, Mazepin is impressive!

Said no-one ever. Back in 2016 Nikita Mazepin was competing in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship for the Hitech Grand Prix. After being blocked in a session by Callum Ilott, Mazepin got into an altercation which saw him hitting Ilott in the face. He ended up with a ban from the first race of the Hungaroring meeting.

This sanction was right up there in terms of how not to punish drivers to set an example for the next generation of racers which would later be joined by Max Verstappen shoving Esteban Ocon repeated times after the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix. Those shoves saw Max get “punished” with a trip to Circuit Moulay El Hassan for the Formula E Marrakesh race to spend the day with racing officials.

He finished 18th in the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, 2019-20 3rd in the F3 Asian Championship and 2020 5th in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and received penalties for deliberately causing a crash. With a history of numbnuttery why would he have been given a drive? I would take a guess that the sponsorship of “URALKALI” has something to do with it.

Oh. I forgot to mention his snapchat videos. Silly kid. Interestingly none of his behaviour, apart from the snapchat stuff, ended up making the press when he was announced.

With Illot in the Scuderia Ferrari team as the official test and reserve driver, could we see some of his Formula 3 antics return?

Full Results from the 2021 Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

1
44
Lewis Hamilton
MERCEDES
56
######

2
33
Max Verstappen
RED BULL RACING HONDA
56
+0.745s

3
77
Valtteri Bottas
MERCEDES
56
+37.383s

4
4
Lando Norris
MCLAREN MERCEDES
56
+46.466s

5
11
Sergio Perez
RED BULL RACING HONDA
56
+52.047s

6
16
Charles Leclerc
FERRARI
56
+59.090s

7
3
Daniel Ricciardo
MCLAREN MERCEDES
56
+66.004s

8
55
Carlos Sainz
FERRARI
56
+67.100s

9
22
Yuki Tsunoda
ALPHATAURI HONDA
56
+85.692s

10
18
Lance Stroll
ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES
56
+86.713s

11
7
Kimi Räikkönen
ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI
56
+88.864s

12
99
Antonio Giovinazzi
ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI
55
+1 lap

13
31
Esteban Ocon
ALPINE RENAULT
55
+1 lap

14
63
George Russell
WILLIAMS MERCEDES
55
+1 lap

15
5
Sebastian Vettel
ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES
55
+1 lap

16
47
Mick Schumacher
HAAS FERRARI
55
+1 lap

17
10
Pierre Gasly
ALPHATAURI HONDA
52
DNF

18
6
Nicholas Latifi
WILLIAMS MERCEDES
51
DNF

NC
14
Fernando Alonso
ALPINE RENAULT
32
DNF

NC
9
Nikita Mazepin
HAAS FERRARI
0
DNF

Note – Bottas scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race. Vettel received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.

The Formula 1 circus arrives in Italy for Round 2 at the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell’emilia Romagna 2021 held at the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari.

You can watch it on F1TV (if you aren’t in Australia) or on your favourite streaming service!