Hello F1 fans around the globe and welcome to the first F1 Newsbites of 2018 after my annual Australian Grand Prix trip. We dive into the latest news over the Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. Let’s get straight into it….

 

 

Raikkonen leads Ferrari 1-2 in FP2

 

Kimi Raikkonen lead a dominant Ferrari 1-2 in the evening’s Free Practice Two session at the Bahrain Grand Prix as the Scuderia left Mercedes and Red Bull in the dark.

 

The Finn set a 1:29.817 on the red-branded supersoft compounds and was 0.011 seconds quicker than Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel but more than half a second quicker than third placed Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, which laid down the gauntlet for the weekend.

 

Bottas was 0.092 seconds quicker than Silver Arrows team-mate Lewis Hamilton with both drivers struggling for grip and unable to extract the performance from the tyres under the desert lights of the Bahrain International Circuit.

 

It puts Mercedes on the back foot heading towards qualifying day especially as reigning champion Hamilton was given a five-grid placed penalty for a gearbox change.

 

The Red Bull duo filled the next positions as Max Verstappen completed the top five and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was sixth.

 

It was a much better return for Verstappen in FP2 after an electrical glitch hampered the Dutchman’s earlier running in practice one and failed to set a time while Ricciardo was fastest in that earlier session.

 

Both Red Bull RB14 racers were almost a second down on Raikkonen’s benchmark but looked very strong on race pace near the end of the 90 minute session.

 

It was almost a perfect ending of the day for Raikkonen but a botched pit-stop forced the Finn to stop his SF71H on an out-lap almost at FP2’s end.

 

The pit-stop error was his front right tyre, and was nearly the same as Haas’ problems at the season opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

 

Raikkonen will not be given a grid penalty after the stewards deemed that the Scuderia done everything they could to ensure the tyre did not come off by telling the Finn to stop. Ferrari were hit with a 5,000 euro fine.

 

Fellow Finnish compatriot Bottas however, was under investigation after appearing to block Ricciardo’s flying lap with stewards looking closely at the incident.

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was best of the rest in seventh and ahead of Pierre Gasly’s Honda-powered Toro Rosso in eighth and the two McLaren MCL33’s of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne who rounded out the top ten respectively.

 

Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix Free Practice Two Classification

 

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
	1	7	Kimi Räikkönen RAI	Ferrari	1:29.817		32
	2	5	Sebastian Vettel VET	Ferrari	1:29.828	+0.011s	37
	3	77	Valtteri Bottas BOT	Mercedes	1:30.380	+0.563s	31
	4	44	Lewis Hamilton HAM	Mercedes	1:30.472	+0.655s	32
	5	33	Max Verstappen VER	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	1:30.745	+0.928s	32
	6	3	Daniel Ricciardo RIC	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	1:30.751	+0.934s	31
	7	27	Nico Hulkenberg HUL	Renault	1:31.220	+1.403s	34
	8	10	Pierre Gasly GAS	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:31.232	+1.415s	38
	9	14	Fernando Alonso ALO	McLaren Renault	1:31.282	+1.465s	29
	10	2	Stoffel Vandoorne VAN	McLaren Renault	1:31.422	+1.605s	35
	11	8	Romain Grosjean GRO	Haas Ferrari	1:31.591	+1.774s	33
	12	55	Carlos Sainz SAI	Renault	1:31.601	+1.784s	34
	13	31	Esteban Ocon OCO	Force India Mercedes	1:31.809	+1.992s	31
	14	11	Sergio Perez PER	Force India Mercedes	1:31.868	+2.051s	34
	15	20	Kevin Magnussen MAG	Haas Ferrari	1:31.969	+2.152s	35
	16	16	Charles Leclerc LEC	Sauber Ferrari	1:32.372	+2.555s	37
	17	18	Lance Stroll STR	Williams Mercedes	1:32.382	+2.565s	30
	18	35	Sergey Sirotkin SIR	Williams Mercedes	1:32.474	+2.657s	37
	19	9	Marcus Ericsson ERI	Sauber Ferrari	1:32.733	+2.916s	32
	20	28	Brendon Hartley HAR	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:32.908	+3.091s	38

 

Hamilton hit with gearbox penalty

 

 

As mentioned in the FP2 report, reigning champion Lewis Hamilton has been copped a five grid-placed penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change heading into Sunday’s 57 lap Bahrain Grand Prix.

 

The rules state that one gearbox must last six race weekends and as the Briton finished the season opener in Melbourne, a change in gearbox will incur a penalty.

 

Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas took a similar penalty at Albert Park after crashing in qualifying and the Silver Arrows confirmed that the change was due to a hydraulic leak during the race that could not be repaired in time.

 

With sixth the highest the Briton can qualify, Hamilton who was “very lucky” to finish in Melbourne, admitted that he is set for a challenging race after seeing Ferrari plant the benchmark of by over 0.500 seconds during free practice session two.

 

“No I’m definitely not where I [need to be].” explained Hamilton. “I mean, we’ve got things to improve on. What it’s just shown is that it’s incredibly close between the three teams, like really close. I think it will be a tough weekend.”

 

When asked what the Silver Arrows was needing, Hamilton responded: “I don’t know, it’s difficult to say.

 

“I think we’re going to have to look upwards and you’ll see that the Ferraris seem to be a little bit quicker on the straights. So you could argue that it’s a little bit of power but then a little bit of downforce.” Hamilton concluded.

 

F1’s latest proposals for 2021

 

 

The big news coming out of Bahrain was the sports future, and yesterday the blueprint for Formula 1’s future in 2021 and beyond were proposed to the teams.

 

Formula 1 hopes to enter a new era, which will feature a new car and power-unit that will compete in a championship that will ensure fair revenue distribution to all teams as well as controlled costs.

 

The 90 minute meeting in Bahrain presented by F1 chairman and CEO Chase Carey and motorsport boss Ross Brawn showed an insight into F1’s vision from 2021 onwards.

 

The goal is for the sport to have much closer racing, make the drivers the main focus and the business more sustainable with controlling costs and fair distribution revenues will play a major role in that.

 

The sport would like to introduce a cost cap with the rumoured amount of $150 million proposed although a final number has not yet been agreed on.

 

F1’s revenue structure was a major talking point with the system being unfair and in favour of certain teams with currently the revenue pot being distributed between the teams depending on where they finished in the Constructors Championship.

 

Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams receive additional payments for different reasons such as past success and commitment to Formula One.

 

From 2021, the sport wants a fairer system to ensure teams have a sustainable business and to be more competitive. The plan is for teams to be given payments based on performance.

 

Ferrari and Mercedes get two payments while Toro Rosso and Honda get one each recognising the engine suppliers commitment to F1.

 

On the subject of engines, Formula 1 wants simpler, louder and powerful power-trains but is against a radical change of the current architecture. The current future plans is to keep it a turbocharged hybrid engine.

 

Some fuel limits would be lifted to allow drivers to push harder, with the fundamentals a lot more simplified for the fans to understand the engines and the batteries more standardised, which would cut costs.

 

It would entice new engines suppliers to join the sport with Aston Martin currently impressed with the proposals for 2021 and beyond as it further evaluates joining Formula One as a supplier.

 

Teams now have the time to go over the proposals with F1 officials meeting with the teams individually over the coming days and weeks before the next big meeting in May.