Bahrain Grand Prix: 2 winners and 2 losers at the weekend

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Bahrain GP: 2 winners and 2 losers at the opening race of the F1 season

By George Dagless

Published Mar 21, 2022

Here are two winners and two losers from the first race of the new Formula 1 season; the Bahrain Grand Prix

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - MARCH 20: Race winner Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari and Second placed Carlos Sainz of Spain and Ferrari celebrate with their team after the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit on March 20, 2022 in Bahrain, Bahrain. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)

The Bahrain Grand Prix certainly provided plenty of drama as the new Formula 1 season, and era, kicked off in entertaining style.

Charles Leclerc underlined Ferrari's strength and progression over the winter with a lights-to-flag victory, battling with and seeing off Max Verstappen in the process, whilst the reigning world champion suffered a late retirement to help pave the way for a Ferrari one-two, as Carlos Sainz came home in second.

Lewis Hamilton also profited from Red Bull's woes, meanwhile, as he rose to third after Sergio Perez also had to retire in the final stages.

Picking two winners and two losers from the weekend will be tough, then, but we've had a go...

Winner - Ferrari-powered teams

Such was the success of Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Haas over the course of the weekend, we simply had to lump them all into one bracket.

The Scuderia have built quite the car this year, with what seems a great engine, and as they earned a one-two, Alfa Romeo earned a double points finish and Haas' superb turnaround from 2021 was capped off by Kevin Magnussen finishing P5.

All three teams, at this stage, look set for bright campaigns.

Loser - Red Bull

Red Bull had absolutely no luck whatsoever in the final stages.

The same issue, getting enough fuel to the engine, apparently struck both cars in the closing laps and a 30-point haul became a 0-point haul in the blink of an eye.

There's a long season ahead, but it's still far from the way they would have wanted to start the season.

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - MARCH 20: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 overtakes Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving (16) the Ferrari F1-75 into turn one during the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit on March 20, 2022 in Bahrain, Bahrain. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Winner - Formula 1

It sounds a bit cheesy to say: 'Formula 1 was the winner' but we were intrigued to see how the new regulations worked this weekend in terms of letting cars follow closely and it appears they did the job intended.

Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen could battle it out for several laps on end, whilst there was lots of action up and down the field, suggesting that, at this early stage, progress has been made in terms of, as Ross Brawn calls it, 'race-ability.'

Loser - McLaren

McLaren will probably be pleased to be moving on from Bahrain after the last couple of weeks.

Their testing was blighted with brake problems and Daniel Ricciardo getting covid and then they spent most of Sunday running around near the back of the field after poor qualifying on Saturday.

Both Ricciardo and Lando Norris would have been pushing as hard as possible but the performance wasn't quite there, and so the team will be eager to quickly find the issues and resolve them - we're sure they will get there.