The 2019 Season

[Penfold]

Merc dominant but actually about the same margin ahead of Ferrari as in qualifying last year; yep, I'm for now clinging to the hope that this enormous gap is courtesy of track characteristics rather than purely the cars.

Not too shabby for McLaren.  Sainz hurt by a slow-moving Williams (Kubica with his puncture, not just a normally slow Williams), but great to see Norris in eighth.

Strong showing from Haas, looked to be easily best of the rest today - is it too soon to be thinking of switching to one of them?  If only they had better/less error-prone drivers.

[Chrill]

Spectacular performance from Bottas today. Hamilton, in need of finding excuses, blames it on "inexplicable floor damage" rather than saying "I was only second best today, Bottas simply was better".

Vettel got his strategy wrong, Hamilton covered him. Leclerc is already confirmed as the number 2 driver for Ferrari. Kubica was way off Russell and worryingly so. Also, hit the wall twice this weekend so here's hoping he merely had an unlucky start to his second F1 career.

I'll go set up a Ratings topic and then I'll rate all of them.

[Penfold]

Kubica saying he was driving a wounded animal: https://www.racefans.net/2019/03/18/kubica-damaged-car-felt-so-bad-i-nearly-started-laughing/

[Chrill]

You know when a one-armed man says the car is shit it really is.

[Matt]

So Mercedes have said Hamilton had floor damage, but when/how did he get floor damage? I find it hard to believe that the 300 cameras would have missed Hamilton going off-track at some point. Seems like a very transparent excuse for a bad race.

[Penfold]

Maybe Bottas went at it with a hacksaw just before the race.

[Chrill]

That extremely small piece of debris can't have cost Hamilton 30 seconds over the race, or .5 per lap. That sounds absurd.

[Penfold]

Don't forget they pitted him 8 laps earlier than Bottas to cover Seb's move to fresh rubber, so let's allow for some time being lost through this sub-optimal (for Mercedes) strategy - though nowhere near 30 seconds.  As for the rest... well, I think it goes without saying that Bottas can't have out-driven Hamilton, so obviously this huge chunk of missing carbon fibre is the answer:

[Chrill]

Yes, that is indeed massive.

[Chrill]

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/b2879a/the_ferrari_power_unit/

Some dark speculation about Ferrari and their power unit. If true, they are in trouble.

[Penfold]

Cheers for the link.  Have to keep an eye out for what sort of speeds the Ferrari-engined cars manage in Bahrain.

[Penfold]

A spate of fatal accidents, or perhaps a deadly virus, has evidently swept through the Williams aero-department as the team is now recruiting for eleven positions: https://www.motorsportjobs.com/en/jobs/williams

[Chrill]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mick-schumacher-test-debut-ferrari/4358259/

Mick Schumacher to run one day for Ferrari and one day for Alfa Romeo in the first in-season tests after the Bahrain GP.

[Penfold]

That will make his legs ache.

[Chrill]

It's not a marathon, it's a light jog.