Bahrain Grand Prix: Stage Preview

      This year's race in Bahrain completes the start of the season. After the first three stages, the teams returned to the place where the winter tests took place at the end of February, having accumulated enough information about the operation of the machines to assess the correctness of the chosen path and the progress achieved during this time.

      The balance of power has hardly changed during this time and is fully in line with expectations. After Bahrain, the teams will adjust the refinement program again, and they will fully focus on the 2026 car designs, when Formula 1 is facing the most ambitious changes in recent times.

      In the meantime, the situation in the individual standings has returned to the original one – Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are separated by a single point, a significant advantage over three stages held on different tracks and in different conditions, despite the seemingly best form of McLaren, could not be achieved.

      Obviously, the fight this year will be intense, and any little thing, any successful modification of the machines can seriously change everything. It will be all the more interesting to watch this.

      The Bahrain Grand Prix is the second stage of an interesting and intense series of three races in a row from Japan to Saudi Arabia. This year's first stage will be held under artificial lighting.

      

      The second Red Bull Racing car is enchanted. Sergio Perez was very successful at the beginning of last season, scoring 103 points in the first six races and second only to Max Verstappen in the individual standings. A year ago in Bahrain, Max and Sergio won the winning double.

      By the seventh stage in Emilia-Romagna, the team, at the request of Verstappen, who was not very comfortable, prepared a comprehensive update, with which his car increased, and the second one simply stopped driving.

      Compare Perez's 103 points in the six races before Emilia-Romagna and 49 points in the eighteen races after. In the last ten Grands Prix, the second Red Bull car has scored only 10 points. One point per stage, including sprints.

      Last year, this car ruined the career of the experienced Sergio Perez, this year it almost cost the career of Liam Lawson, and now it is not given to the stubborn Yuki Tsunoda.

      Whether Red Bull will be able to curb her temper before the end of the season is still unknown, but a change in regulations in 2026 will even out the situation. The question is, will Yuki last until that moment, or will this car ruin his third career?

      By drafting the new regulations, Liberty Media promised to facilitate the pursuit of rival cars and increase the number of overtaking. It would seem that in the final season, according to these rules, there should be more overtaking than ever, but in Suzuka they could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

      For the fifth time in history, the top six riders finished in the same order as they started. This happened once when the race lasted one lap (Belgium’21), three times on temporary street tracks (Monaco’18 and ’24; Singapore’18), and had never happened on a stationary Formula 1 circuit before.

      The reasons remained the same – a decrease in aerodynamic efficiency and a deterioration in grip in the air flow behind the opponent's car. According to the creators, it was for these reasons that the current regulations were supposed to minimize, but it turned out that the race in Suzuka became a boring procession.

      Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, a frequent guest of the Grand Prix, said after the finish: "This morning's Formula 1 race in Japan gave me an idea of what it's like to watch cricket."