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Thursday's summary in Bahrain: Who will come out on top?

Thursday's summary in Bahrain: Who will come out on top?

25-03-2021 20:58 Last update: 21:37
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GPblog.com

The season is about to begin. This weekend in Bahrain, the first race will take place and the fun started on Thursday with the press conferences. The different teams and drivers looked ahead to the race and the season. We have summarised the most important things for you.

Red Bull and Verstappen the favourite?

Since Red Bull Racing's strong performance in the winter tests, Max Verstappen has regularly been described as the favourite to win the world title. The Dutchman himself doesn't want to know anything about it. "It doesn't matter. It's all about what you show on the track, everything else is secondary", Verstappen said at the press conference.

His new teammate Sergio Perez can't wait to start with his new car. "It's the most competitive car I've driven in my career," the Mexican jubilated. He is also looking forward to the battle with Verstappen. "To put it simply, I want to beat Max and Max wants to beat me and that's only good for the team."

Are Mercedes overcoming their problems?

The other big question ahead of the opening race, is whether Mercedes have been able to resolve their problems from the winter tests. "We are working to find out what problems we did or did not have. The engineers are working around the clock to understand everything," Hamilton said of this. "At the moment we are not the fastest", the world champion tempered expectations.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas also thinks it will be exciting this year. "Red Bull seemed strong at least during testing. I think it will be closer together than in previous years."

Strong midfield

Behind Mercedes and Red Bull Racing, it's likely to be a huge battle. McLaren, Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari and AlphaTauri all seem to have a claim to lead the midfield. "How the midfield is now is actually very competitive. That's something we do need to look forward to, that we make the most of which weekend if we want to score good points," analysed Fernando Alonso.

Who will be the last?

Alfa Romeo, Williams and Haas are the teams that will have a tough time this year and will probably struggle to score any points. Haas in particular seem to have a difficult season ahead of them. "We see this as a transition year. Of course, we are already putting the focus on 2022. We have said that we see this as a step back to move forward," said Guenther Steiner who will see every point as a win.