Anyone else here watch F1 racing?

[Anders]

Watching the first practice session from the first race weekend of the season now.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Watching the first practice session from the first race weekend of the season now.

same!

[Anders]

Watching the first practice session from the first race weekend of the season now.

same!

Nice.

Still think it’s difficult to tell who will be fast and who will not. Ferrari and Red Bull look strong, Alfa Romeo looks to have most issues.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Watching the first practice session from the first race weekend of the season now.

same!

Nice.

Still think it’s difficult to tell who will be fast and who will not. Ferrari and Red Bull look strong, Alfa Romeo looks to have most issues.

Yeah I think everyone needs about 2 races for us to be able to see who is handling the cars the best this season. I follow Magnussen on Instagram and he seems pretty excited about his car. Hope he can get in a groove and have some podiums this year.

[Anders]

Watching the first practice session from the first race weekend of the season now.

same!

Nice.

Still think it’s difficult to tell who will be fast and who will not. Ferrari and Red Bull look strong, Alfa Romeo looks to have most issues.

Yeah I think everyone needs about 2 races for us to be able to see who is handling the cars the best this season. I follow Magnussen on Instagram and he seems pretty excited about his car. Hope he can get in a groove and have some podiums this year.

Very intrigued by how well Haas will do. Podiums may be pushing it, but that would be cool. Think the battle within the team will be magic though. Magnussen the sly and fast driver at the peak of his career, with a slightly surprising second chance in F1 vs Schumacher, former F3 and F2 champion, with one year’s F1 experience under his belt. Known for beating his team mates, and always improving. Should be a good battle.

[Anders]

The current F3 champion is Norwegian Dennis Hauger. His first qualifying in F2 now. He is on part of the strong Prema Team, that had the champion last season in Oscar Piastri. Hope Hauger will be the first Norwegian in F1 in the future. Our neighbours Denmark, Sweden and Finland have had several.

[Anders]

P15 ugh, but he's finished ahead of the top two today in previous championships. Just need time. Hopefully good races this weekend.

[Anders]

The main focus is on the front pack, and the points, naturally. But I’ve always been interested in the lesser teams. Who is doing the worst? Can they then manage to improve, and get into the mid tier teams?

Which 2-3 teams will do the worst this season, and mostly don’t make it out of q1 in quali?

[Anders]

Really looking forward to quali today.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Magnussen had a nice round of practice

[Anders]

Third Practice
Bahrain Grand Prix, 19 March 2022
Rank Driver Fastest Lap Laps
11 NetherlandsMax VerstappenVER 1:32.5441:32.544 1414
22 MonacoCharles LeclercLEC 1:32.6401:32.640 1515
33 MexicoSergio PerezPER 1:32.7911:32.791 2020
44 Great BritainGeorge RussellRUS 1:32.9351:32.935 1818
55 SpainCarlos Sainz JnrSAI 1:33.0531:33.053 2020
66 Great BritainLewis HamiltonHAM 1:33.1211:33.121 1414
77 DenmarkKevin MagnussenMAG 1:33.4371:33.437 1414
88 FinlandValtteri BottasBOT 1:33.7331:33.733 2020
99 ChinaGuanyu ZhouGuanyu Zhou 1:33.8801:33.880 1717
1010 CanadaLance StrollSTR 1:33.9201:33.920 1414
1111 Great BritainLando NorrisNOR 1:33.9551:33.955 1818
1212 GermanyNico HulkenbergHUL 1:33.9711:33.971 1717
1313 FrancePierre GaslyGAS 1:34.1761:34.176 1818
1414 GermanyMick SchumacherMSC 1:34.2951:34.295 1616
1515 AustraliaDaniel RicciardoRIC 1:34.3781:34.378 2020
1616 SpainFernando AlonsoALO 1:34.6281:34.628 1515
1717 ThailandAlexander AlbonALB 1:34.8681:34.868 1414
1818 FranceEsteban OconOCO 1:34.9571:34.957 1515
1919 CanadaNicholas LatifiLAT 1:35.6671:35.667 1313
2020 JapanYuki TsunodaTSU not available- 00

[Anders]

Magnussen had a nice round of practice

I can see that. Promising for Haas and Alfa Romeo, less so for Williams.

[Anders]

Quali broadcast starting here now.

Expect Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes to dominate the top six.

A positive surprise if there are less than four from Alfa Romeo, Williams and Haas in the bottom six. It is absolutely not certain that (all) these three teams will be among the lesser teams in this new era, but they have been for a few seasons now.

The other four teams should be mid tier teams with very different budgets, motors, drivers and general hype, but I’m certain at least one of these four teams will either disappoint or surprise us, who or how, I can say a little more about at the end of today’s quali.

[Anders]

Promising start for Haas in q1, especially Magnussen.

[Anders]

Ferrari with the fastest times of the entire season so far.

[Anders]

Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Stroll and Latifi out after q1, in that order.

[Anders]

Tsunoda and Ricciardo doing badly, but their teammates doing well.

Aston Martin and probably Williams (even if Albon just made it through), looked like the worst teams.

[Anders]

Getting to q3 is important for everyone, a must for the big teams, and proof of success for the rest. Now we’ll see who will make it today. Magnussen and Bottas could do it.

[Anders]

Ocon, Schumacher, Norris, Albon and Zhou out in that order.

Williams and McLaren the third and fourth teams to be fully eliminated.

Schumacher made a mistake as well, so super positive quali for Haas.

[Anders]

Top six is the big six, but Magnussen, Alonso, Gasly and Bottas through. Really positive for all four different drivers and teams.

Haas appear to be back among the mid tier teams. Really happy about that.

Now for q3, and more than anything, the battle among the top six. Mercedes look a little behond the other two teams. Which three drivers will beat their teammates.