[Official] Rate the Grand Prix: Bahrain Grand Prix 2022

[Born Racer]

What score do you give it?

[Red]

I still believe that all those regulation changes every second year are only meant to produce havoc and the spectacle is artificial, but this race was rather entertaining. Especially Leclerc/Verstappen scrap around laps 17-20. I gave it a 8.

[ascarracinguk]

Solid 8.

Much MUCH closer racing. Some great overtakes by Charles amongst others

[bjohnsonsmith]

Apart from Red Bull's double trouble right at the end, it wasn't the most scintillating race but a steady start to the 2022 season nevertheless. 7

[Tourer]

Not a great race - the RB DNFs spiced it up after the SC near the end. Good to see that the new cars do allow more racing by the look of it. 7 overall

[steve_r]

I thought it was great. The mix up of the griad. The LeClerc Verstappen battle was very entertaining. Them some late drama. 8.

[Aysedasi]

I thought it was a terrific race (although I only saw highlights). Some good overtaking and battling and hopefully the DRS that I detest won't be allowing simple overtakes as much this season. Definitely very entertaining. 8 from me.

[TrapezeArtist]

8. The action at the front was breathtaking and further back it was pretty impressive and entertaining too. It would have been a 9 but too many laps were wasted behind the s****y c*r (it's a swear word so I bleeped it out ).

[seanyb505]

6. Other than the 3 laps of max and Charles, it was difficult to get worked up throughout much of the race. The longer a green flag run went, the worse the gaps became.

And usually when Mercedes double dnfs, it brings some interesting results. Red bull double dnf brought Mercedes to the podium.

Cars appear to be able to follow closer, let's hope some teams can figure out how to close in on their rivals for some actual decent races.

[Teretonga]

I gave it an eight although a seven may have been more deserving.
The new regulations have rearranged the pecking order and it is a change that should please most people although they will all have a lot of work to do.

Obviously people at Red Bull have some deep analysis to think about, Mercedes and McLaren have a lot of work to do to get back to where they were, along with Aston Martin who have really slithered a long way from where they were in 2020.

But as prelude to a new season and a 'new spec' its going to be a little more less predictable. How long that continues is yet to be determined.

But I predicted multiple wins for Ferrari this season and a couple of top fives for Haas so one of them already.
Nice.

[Neil22]

Gave it a nine, hopefully the rest of the season is as good.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

6. Other than the 3 laps of max and Charles, it was difficult to get worked up throughout much of the race. The longer a green flag run went, the worse the gaps became.

And usually when Mercedes double dnfs, it brings some interesting results. Red bull double dnf brought Mercedes to the podium.

Cars appear to be able to follow closer, let's hope some teams can figure out how to close in on their rivals for some actual decent races.

I gave it a seven, but almost gave it a six, but I agree very much with the post above.

If the cars are relatively equal, it looks like there is the potential for fantastic battles. But if you look at the entire field, there is still a good bit of race pace differences which results in them being spread out and not in position to try to really pass that much. While there were a few mid-field battles, in general, (as mentioned above), the longer the green flag was out, the larger the gaps between then cars became. But honestly, that is exactly as I expected. It is the first race for a new tech spec. I would have been shocked if everyone was bunched up tightly.

Other than the initial Max and Charles battle, most of the remaining on track drama was driven by retirements. Those retirements either caused unexpected results and/or bunched up the field due to safety car. All of which is mostly artificial drama.

Richard

[Aysedasi]

Not as artificial a drama though as 30 DRS overtakes every race......

[morninggents]

I gave it a 6. It was probably only a 5 but the 3 laps of Max and Charles swapping places just managed to notch it up 1.
Good to see Ferrari and their engines up at the pointy end. I was happy to see Mercedes struggling after 7 or 8 years of domination.
I wonder if they will pull the plug at the end of the year.

[AndreasDavour]

Well, as it was getting towards the end I looked at where the cars where on track, and thought that nothing much had really happened after the start. I was not very impressed by the first race of the new season. Not that I thought it would be a great change. It never is.


As always, reliability made it a bit more interesting, and there were some battles that was interesting, notably Leclerc and Verstappen. I do hope it will get more interesting as the year gets along, though. A 6 from me.

[Kempi]

As long as cars qualify in order of performance, they will finish in order of performance. Considering this, it is absolutely normal that it appears as that nothing much happens.

We will need to wait whether the salary cap actually closens up performance after this year. This year is effectively a not-capped year because they could still spend a lot of money last year.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by Red

I still believe that all those regulation changes every second year are only meant to produce havoc and the spectacle is artificia

Nah, this time it is a fundamental change to make sure they can race closely like F2 cars and, amazingly, it seemed like it worked and they can race closely just like F2. On the opening lap, the lower midfield was running three cars wide at times! With these aero rules in place, there is no reason why the F2-like racing shouldn't continue.

I give the race a solid 7/10, as unfortunately, what the regulators can't eliminate is field spread and there was still a little bit of field spread.

[S griffin]

I gave it an 8. Great start to the season, nice to see different teams at the front. The new rules have given closer battling, who needs DRS? Leclerc finally has a car again to match his talent and RBR had a bit of karma too. Great stuff!

[GT6]

7 from me

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

Nah, this time it is a fundamental change to make sure they can race closely like F2 cars and, amazingly, it seemed like it worked and they can race closely just like F2. On the opening lap, the lower midfield was running three cars wide at times! With these aero rules in place, there is no reason why the F2-like racing shouldn't continue.

A fundamental change? Yes.
But is at as much as it could be or as good as it could be? No.
There are much more effective regulations that would produce close racing but they will not be implemented.