Ferrari played a “tactical” match against Red Bull at the Bahrain GP. The Scuderia secured their first double more than two years later, while the Milton Keynes outfit suffered two painful retirements. Maranello ‘s new engine, much more powerful than last year’s power unit, and a much more streamlined aero setup were the keys.
The Prancing Horse team allowed itself the luxury of having a car with more drag on the straights with a heavier rear wing, just like Mercedes did last year, while Red Bull sought maximum aerodynamic efficiency.
To compensate for a minimum weight that is above that stipulated in the regulations, despite the three extra kilos allowed by the FIA , the RB18 risked leaving with less fuel than the 110 kilos that the full tanks hold.
The low temperatures in Sakhir must have misled the Red Bull technical staff, with Pierre Wache in the lead, to the point that the RB18 had nearly all of the cooling gills that run along the side of its chassis closed.
The search for the maximum top speed (Verstappen reached 327.9 km/h with a slipstream compared to 313.8 for Carlos Sainz, the best of Ferrari ) is a clear example that they were looking for maximum efficiency to finish the Grand Prix without fear of running out of gas.
However, the current world champion’s pace was two tenths a lap slower than Leclerc’s F1-75, also a sign that the Maranello car was able to treat the tires better thanks to the greater vertical thrust of its wings, while the Red Bull was on the limit.
In the end, shutting down the RB18 ‘s cooling was a huge mistake: Verstappen first suffered from overheating of the front brakes and then had to deal with abnormal temperatures that clogged the power unit, causing both him and Pérez to retire.
But what really happened? At first the Red Bull engineers said the fuel pump in both cars had failed, but both Magnetti Marelli (which supplies all the tank pumps) and Bosch (which supplies the pressure pump) said there were no problems with the fuel pumps. fuel systems.
Perhaps the cause has to be found in the fact that Pierre Gasly abandoned with the AlphaTauri 13 laps from the end of the race. The AT03 suffered a fire in the rear after the KO of the MGU-K, that is, the electric motor that is cooled with oil.
Paradoxically, the entry of the safety car, necessary to put out the fire and remove the Frenchman’s car, could have caused the overheating of the Honda power unit of the two Red Bulls , which could not be adequately cooled due to the fact that the outputs of hot air were closed, in addition to the three pit stops that stopped the engine much longer than expected.
It is very likely that the two Red Bulls suffered from a similar problem in the MGU-K , in addition to the fuel pumps. Before Verstappen retired , he was seen to be having trouble recharging the electrical system, while Pérez ‘s engine suddenly stalled.
It will be interesting to find out in Jeddah if they replace all three MGU-Ks: Gasly and Perez ‘s power units were almost certainly affected, while Verstappen’s was able to get away with less damage. Surely the Honda engineers will not be very happy with the use that was made of their engine in the first race that Red Bull was totally free to manage.
Cavitation issues, then, would have been a minor mishap, especially since the 10% ethanol in the gasoline means the fuel is cooler than it was last year.
