Round 1: Bahrain race review

Phew. F1 is back with a bang. And luckily for us fans, it seems we have a genuine two team fight for the title.

I was wrong. All those years of Mercedes arriving into the first round and unleashing their full qualifying potential have left me somewhat cynical it seems. Max was 4 tenths ahead of Lewis for pole and provided the 7 team world champion with a stern test through the race, albeit racing apart for most of it. It was a game of cat and mouse, of strategy, that ultimately led to a showdown on track for the last handful of laps. And we were not left disappointed as the 2 drivers went at it hammer and tongs to win the season opener. Max hunting down Lewis when Lewis was on tyres that were 11 laps older, so he had to defend with all his racing acumen, and then some! Max ultimately overtook Lewis off the track at turn 4 and had to hand back the lead immediately, through fear of race control punishment (the turn 4 off track rules seemed confusing during the race and at the end to be honest!). 

It was a grandstand finish from two drivers at the very top. Let us hope Red Bull are competitive at all tracks this year, and don't drop away on other tracks like they did at times last year. Game on!

This. This is what I wanted all along. Racing, fighting for the win!

Elsewhere there was plenty to see. Norris made a blinding start and was soon in 4th. Perez's Red Bull turned itself off on the parade lap and he had to start from the pitlane - he finished an excellent 5th!

Fernando Alonso didn't drive like someone who has been away from F1 for 2 years. He made an excellent start, taking Sainz immediately and tracking the McLarens until falling away a bit. He also had a doozy of a battle a bit later with Vettel and Sainz. A shame he had to retire really, as no doubt he would have got some good points for Alpine.

Both McLaren's looked pretty nippy early on and Ricciardo finished a solid 7th in a car he is no doubt still getting used to. Ferrari looked solid enough too, finishing 6th and 8th. A good start compared to the utterly disaster strewn year of 2020! Read the full race report from BBC here now.

Of course, plenty of people will look at the benefits of the new aero regulations for some teams versus others. Ehm. Still. They are all in the same boat and have to adapt to the rules as best they can. But this is an interesting little graphic about how much time each team has lost in Bahrain 2021 qualifying versus the same race last year.  

There was proper racing throughout the field, throughout the race. Brilliant.

Also, I can't be the only one who mistaken the Aston Martin's for the Mercedes on around 3 different occasions?! Under the lights the paint jobs look rather similar! 

Round 2 - let's go! :-)

Round 1: Bahrain qualifying report and views

It was great watching the C4 F1 gang again, like welcoming back old friends you haven't seen for a few months :-). DC is celebrating his 50th birthday (loving Mark commentating on DC getting a face full of cake), and Mark Webber's folks are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Fantastic. And they had a beautiful piece from DC about Murray Walker.

Qualifying for round 1 threw up some interesting results. LeClerc in 4th, Gasly in 5th, Vettel out in Q1, Perez 11th. And Russell once again getting (what is quite likely) the slowest car into Q2. Fantastic. You can read the full report here from the BBC. Sainz was half a second behind LeClerc, which might sting a bit, but then again the whole car would have been built last year around LeClerc so let's give Carlos some time to get fully up to speed.

The McLaren's were both in the top 10, along with the returning Fernando Alonso in a fairly strong 9th.

But let us talk about Max in the 33 Red Bull (my sometime blogging colleague will be living in a very happy household given the Max superfan status of his wife). Wow, what a lap, nearly 4 tenths up on Lewis! I mean, I really don't want to get carried away. But, it looks like Red Bull are genuinely quicker than Mercedes, at least at the first track here. I wasn't really listening to all the talk before qualifying of Red Bull being quicker, as we've seen in previous years Mercedes arrive at qualifying and blow everyone away. I thought that would likely happen here. But, we may indeed have a genuine fight at the front. Proper racing at the very front! Let's see. I am excited.

Now to the real important stuff. How are my fantasy F1 teams looking based on qualifying? Hehe.

Ok, my team 1 drivers are Alonso, Gasly and Kimi. Not looking too bad.

Perez, Russell and Ocon in team 2. Eh.

Vettel, Stroll and Schumacher in the last team. Go Stroll!

I'll be back early in the week for a full post-race analysis :-).

Murray Walker - Thank you for a lifetime of F1 moments and memories

Murray Walker has sadly passed away at the age of 97.

As my esteemed former blogging colleague commented, it's a hugely sad day, but I think we can all agree he lived the fullest of lives.

He was the soundtrack to my F1 youth and life, much like many more millions the world over. He taught me about F1 as much as anyone else. His commentary had me on the edge of my seat more often than not. His voice of drama, despair, elation and pure emotion was just simply beautiful.

My earliest memory of Murray involved getting up at an ungodly hour in 1986 to watch Red 5 Nigel Mansell go for the world title, only to see his hopes ruined by naff tyres. And Murray yelling "And look at that!" - which surely would have woken me up had I nodded off :-). Take a look and listen here...

Everyone loved Murray, and rightly so. From everything I've read from those that had met him and knew him, he was one of the loveliest people in F1.

Another Murray and Mansell moment, where Murray asks Nigel about the bump on his head, then promptly pokes said bump, is absolutely classic. I just watched it again and burst out laughing. Watch it here.

I'm crushed that he has gone. But he gave so many F1 fans (and beyond) massive moments and memories that we will treasure forever.

And my fave quote of his? There are so many, but it is one my esteemed colleague and I use to this very day "IF is F1 spelled backwards!"

The BBC article about Murray here has beautiful tributes from Damon Hill, Jackie Stewart, Martin Brundle and more.

Thanks for the memories Murray :-).