Mercedes
Russell nearly hit Piastri at the start, braking late and just missing collecting the McLaren. He ran second to the McLaren for much of the race. Able to pit for a second time under the Safety Car, he managed to make a set of softs last to the end despite some in-car failures that included his DRS, brake-by-wire and telemetry going down. He just about held off a late charge by Norris for a well earned podium, but was investigated post-race for a DRS infringement. The stewards opted not to give him a penalty as no sporting advantage had been gained.
Antonelli’s race was marred by some bad luck. He pulled off some bold overtakes and was running well in the top 10 after a tricky start, but he came in for his second stop just before the Safety Car. The team opted to pit him a third time when the Safety Car came out, and that dropped him out of the top 10. He came close to recovering a point, finishing just four tenths behind Bearman at the flag.
George Russell, 2nd
“That was a really challenging race. We had some problems in the last 12 laps including a brake-by-wire failure. When I was hitting the brakes, the pedal was inconsistent, and I had to do some resets for it to work properly again. For 10 laps in a row, going into every corner, I didn’t know whether it would be giving me the same feeling or not. It definitely compromised the race, but at the end of the day, bringing the car home in P2 is mega.
“The brake-by-wire failure wasn’t the only technical challenge we were dealing with either! There were all sorts of issues going on with the transponder and the signals going to the car. That meant that we had to manually override the DRS. At one point, I hit the radio button and saw that the DRS was open. I closed it immediately and lifted off the throttle, so we actually gave up time. Happily, the stewards agreed that no sporting advantage was gained. All of those issues compromised that last stint but the main thing is we leave here with another podium and more solid points scored.”
Kimi Antonelli, 11th
“That was a difficult race for me today. Being stuck in the dirty air behind several cars played a major role in stalling any progress I was able to make. I pushed hard on my out laps to try and regain track position but then I likely took a little too much out of the tyres. We tried to do something different by switching to the three-stop strategy, but the Safety Car came out shortly after and that took the opportunity away.
“We will review the whole race and see if there are things we could have done differently, but there are definitely still positives we can take away. Qualifying was another good step forwards for me and I felt more and more comfortable racing wheel-to-wheel with others today. Of course, P11 is never the result we are hoping for, but we will have a couple of days off and come back stronger in Jeddah next weekend.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“Today’s race was a challenging one to manage. You could see how quickly it was possible to go from a very good result to a bad one. For George, he did a tremendous job. He definitely saved the podium for the team. He suffered a brake-by-wire failure and was having to manage brake pedal pressure that was changing from corner to corner. To do that without losing any time was amazing. He also nurtured the Soft tyres well in that final stint, was fast when it mattered and defended in all the right places to maximise the result.
“For Kimi, today’s race was one of learning. We opted to take a risk with the strategy but in hindsight, we may have been better putting him on the Hard tyre. He also lost positions in his opening two stints which caused him to push the tyres harder than he would have liked. That is all part of the normal learning trajectory though and he will bounce back next week in Saudi Arabia. We therefore leave Bahrain with mixed feelings. With its abrasive asphalt and high track temperatures, we didn’t come into the weekend with high hopes. To be taking away a podium in P2 is therefore encouraging. There is more work to do to be in the fight for victory at each race though and we will continue to push hard.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“We were slightly disadvantaged with our tyre choice going into the race. The Medium was the best long run tyre and Ferrari and McLaren had two of them to our one. George’s race was quite straightforward until he started to have systems failing during the final stint. He was missing a lot of information from the dash, but the biggest problem was that the brake-by-wire system kept failing which made the car very inconsistent. He drove a brilliantly managed stint at the end on the Soft and got through to the finish with enough pace to hold Norris off. We were concerned coming here as McLaren has looked so quick during winter testing at this track. George therefore did a great job to bring home a podium in P2, amongst the other issues he was having to fight.
“Kimi meanwhile had a tough day. His first lap wasn’t great as he suffered a few oversteer snaps in the first few corners, was squeezed off track into turn five and lost a couple of positions. That put him in the pack where he was struggling to make progress which resulted in more overheating for the tyres. We took a risk with his strategy but sadly that didn’t work out. It is all part of the learning for Kimi. His long run pace on Friday was just as good as George’s so a better result was possible. He will be striving to deliver that next weekend.
“We have a few days now to prepare for Jeddah. It’s great to be back on the podium in Bahrain and, whilst we need to bring a bit of speed to be able to challenge for wins, it’s really exciting to have shown such strong pace on a track that is so challenging for the tyres, and we didn’t expect to be particularly competitive at.”
