2 winners and 2 losers at the Bahrain Grand Prix

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.

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