ROUND 1: 🇧🇭 Bahrain
FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX 2024
Circuit stats
- First Grand Prix: 2004
- Number of laps: 57
- Circuit Length: 5.412 km
- Race Distance: 308.238 km
- Lap record: 1:31.447 Pedro de la Rosa (2005)
- 2023 winner: Max Verstappen
Track Map
You don’t need to take Daniel’s word for it, you can see the race… It wasn’t a full lap
And more importantly, it made no sense… Even if Daniel could have passed Kmag, which I doubt since he did not show any pace during quali or the race, it would mean nothing. Therefore, it was an incredibly stupid call to make which only serves to drive a wedge in the team
He had a bigger tyre advantage and thus at that point in time more pace than yuki
Not sure what advantage he supposedly had, Daniel didn’t come any closer to Kmag than Yuki… And then complained his tires magically stopped having said advantage because Yuki took half a lap to give the spot
Yuki had been on kmag’s arse for 10+ laps without passing. Daniel just closed a 9 second gap to the two. Yuki was never passing. Daniel might’ve.
It’s easy to say after the fact “bUt hE DidN’T PaSS hiM DiD hE?”, but u gotta look from the perspective from the race engineers. Who is most likely to get a pass: the guy who’s been trying and failing for 10 laps or the other guy who just closed a 9 second gap and is on a different strategy? Yuki just let his ego cloud his judgement, which is understandable in the heat of the moment but not in a dangerous “revenge” action 15 minutes later. IMO he should get at least a fine for that move after the checkered flag if not a time penalty. What he did was stupid and dangerous
To what end? A 13th instead of a 14th? There is no way Daniel could have reached Zhou anyway
Plus it never did look like Daniel could have passed Yuki without team orders… He didn’t gain a single spot in 50 laps