What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Bahrain Grand Prix.
RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.
Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.
What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:
Rate the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix out of 10
- 10 (10%)
- 9 (18%)
- 8 (36%)
- 7 (28%)
- 6 (5%)
- 5 (2%)
- 4 (1%)
- 3 (0%)
- 2 (0%)
- 1 (1%)
Total Voters: 303
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2022 Bahrain Grand Prix
- How “class act” Hulkenberg’s reserve outings showed his readiness for an F1 return
- Alfa Romeo working on fix for Bottas and Zhou’s “very poor” starts
- China is first country to score points on its debut since the championship began
- “I don’t hold back”: Verstappen’s full radio transcript from his luckless Bahrain GP
- Mercedes’ straight-line speed deficit due to drag levels, not power unit – Wolff
Debates and polls
- Will Alonso win a world championship title with Aston Martin?
- How long should Red Bull give Ricciardo to prove he’s not lost his touch?
- Were stewards right to penalise Alonso over his driving before Russell’s crash?
- Are Williams right to bench Sargeant so Albon can race after crash?
- Is the FIA right to make ten seconds the new standard for penalties?
Tom
20th March 2022, 16:42
10!! Get in there RedBull hahahahahaha
Ben (@x-f1-x)
20th March 2022, 16:50
Don’t worry Merc are dog 💩 too. We’re over half a minute off before SC. Got very lucky
Tom
20th March 2022, 16:58
What’s my comment got to do with Mercedes? To finish first, first you must finish my friend. You can be 2 seconds a lap quicker but if you can’t even finish a race then it’s pointless.
lexusreliability?
20th March 2022, 17:41
@x-f1-x
Merc ran the hard tyre so that gap is a bit exagerated
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
20th March 2022, 16:42
Race was a 5.
cooked:
– Sainz
– Russell
– Red Bull Power Trains (reliability)
– Mercedes HPE (dreadful performance)
– the new rules
EnginVie
20th March 2022, 16:48
Add to that the TV director. What on earth were they doing, camera work was shocking and showing replays when there are battles on track.
Hosford90
20th March 2022, 16:52
How exactly were the new rules cooked?
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
20th March 2022, 19:52
The only rules change that had any discernable effect on the quality of the racing was the change in blanket temperatures for fresh tyres.
Besides that, it was just your average Bahrain GP with plenty of overtaking opportunities to allow for the field to sort itself by relative performance, leading to a bit of a procession wherever and whenever cars were sorted in the order of their performance already.
RomTrain (@romtrain)
20th March 2022, 16:56
Also cooked:
– Max and RB messing up the undercuts, and Max positioning fail at restart.
– Mick from restart til race end
Debapriya Deb (@debapriya-deb)
20th March 2022, 18:14
Mick was left out to battle on a set of 13 lap old softs, while all around him took the SC opportunity to pit for new rubber. Also, that first lap collision caused by Ocon could have had some impact on the car’s handling. Overall I would say a decent race for him. KMag was brilliant, but experience counts I guess.
RomTrain (@romtrain)
20th March 2022, 19:26
ah, I missed his tire disadvantage. Thanks for clarification.
David BR (@david-br)
20th March 2022, 17:09
@proesterchen Russell did OK and Bottas (despite the various comments yesterday about how Mercedes were wrong to swap him for GR when he outqualified the latter) showed precisely why Russell is the better option when he dropped all the way to the back at the start.
Leftie (@leftie)
20th March 2022, 17:27
Valteri got stuck in traffic again, just as he did in the Mercedes
Leftie (@leftie)
20th March 2022, 17:28
I’m very sorry, I’ve pressed the report button by accident. My bad.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
20th March 2022, 19:48
I care just as much for George doing “OK” as I did for Valtteri doing “OK”.
Don’t ask me to get excited for a #2 driver doing “OK”.
David BR (@david-br)
20th March 2022, 23:01
@proesterchen It was his first race with Hamilton alongside, I think it was a good enough performance. I’m more hoping GR is a joint number 1 driver, not a number 2 driver. That means outqualifying and beating Lewis at least as often as Rosberg managed. But Rosberg was with the team before Hamilton arrived.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
20th March 2022, 17:37
@proesterchen best racing in 12 years and still ends up a 5.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
20th March 2022, 19:44
How was this the best racing in 12 years?
The cars were just running in the order of their speed, Charles driving away from Max driving away from Carlos driving away from Checo driving away from Lewis driving away from George and so on, and the distances weren’t even particularly close.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2022, 22:59
You probably missed the mid race battle for the lead?
kpcart
21st March 2022, 3:07
Sainz and Russel drove great, not cooked.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
21st March 2022, 21:18
If they drove great how come they could keep up with their respective teammates?
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
21st March 2022, 21:20
*could not
GoldenGaeTea (@retroka)
20th March 2022, 16:43
9. Drs was sometime too powerful but actually there were lot of action on track and the strategies were interesting. The final laps were shocking.
Matt (@hollidog)
20th March 2022, 16:47
DRS should go. The tyre delta is more than enough to create racing in the midpack, and battles for the lead feel tarnished by highway overtakes.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
20th March 2022, 16:59
@retroka I actually didn’t feel DRS was too overpowered. The only time it seemed powerful was Max vs. Leclerc, but Red Bull had 6-7 kph on Ferrari plus I think Max was probably using more deployment down the main straight which is what made DRS look more powerful than it really was.
David BR (@david-br)
20th March 2022, 17:10
@mashiat +1
drmouse (@drmouse)
21st March 2022, 14:03
@mashiat Agreed. I didn’t see DRS being overpowered in any other battle.
Also, there is data to suggest Leclerc was specifically allowing Max past on the first straight, because he knew the RBR was struggling coming onto the second and he would be able to get back into the lead under DRS. Leclerc was significantly slower (20kph IIRC) on the main straight during his battles with Max than at any other point in the race… So that will have exaggerated how powerful the DRS appeared.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
20th March 2022, 16:43
Mazepin would have won
Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
20th March 2022, 16:44
Pretty decent race. Bahrain usually makes for good on track action and it didnt dissapoint this year either. Ferrari looking rock-solid. RB surprisingly unreliable. Haas and Alfa are decent midfield cars indeed. McLaren and AM looking very bad
Jere (@jerejj)
20th March 2022, 16:44
Decent opening race, although could’ve been slightly better.
glynh (@glynh)
20th March 2022, 16:46
8. A few dull patches but the new rules seem a success and plenty of close racing.
Dmitry (@)
20th March 2022, 16:46
Solid.
8.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
20th March 2022, 16:46
Fantastic! So good to see Ferrari back. Such a cool head from Leclerc. Never looked panicked with Max bearing down on him, always sounded calm on the radio. Max sounded frazzled all the way through. Some great wheel to wheel action to boot! Gave it an 8.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
20th March 2022, 16:49
8.
+ Ferrari winning
+ Ferrari 1-2
+ Mercedes on the back foot
– Mercedes on podium
Ben
20th March 2022, 16:59
-1 for a Mercedes on the podium… pathetic
petebaldwin (@)
20th March 2022, 17:02
Weird you picked this comment to call pathetic and not the top one on the page…..
Ben
20th March 2022, 17:26
Weird that you chose to reply to my comment and not the one at the top of the page you clearly feel so strongly about……………………
Emma
20th March 2022, 18:14
Hehehehehehe
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2022, 23:02
It’s easier to be attracted by comments you see negatively than positively, a positive comment in your opinion you can just not have anything to add.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
20th March 2022, 17:24
Yup, sorry for getting fed up seeing 1 team on the podium for 8 years in a row.
Ben
20th March 2022, 17:33
Apology accepted. Just seemed strange to remove a point from what was a great race up and down the pack. Supporting one team and being disappointed in the result is one thing, but removing a point simply because Mercedes were 5th and 6th when RedBull decided to explode just seems bizarre. I don’t think it would have made the race any better if another driver had come 3rd. It was always going to be Mercedes picking up a podium from mistakes in front.
stjs16 (@stjs16)
20th March 2022, 16:51
Just what the championship needs
Apophis (@apophisjj)
20th March 2022, 16:51
DRS should go. It’s almost ridiculous the straight line speed. The only reason that battle between Leclerc and Verstappen could go on for 2 laps like that was because the DRS was too op.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
20th March 2022, 16:53
Really enjoyed that, shame the Red Bulls spoiled the ending a little with their failures
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
20th March 2022, 16:56
Leclerc and sainz podium domination, merc off pace, horner and marko shutting up. 11/10.
David BR (@david-br)
20th March 2022, 16:56
8, decently entertaining all round, some fine racing between Leclerc and Verstappen. Really good to see Ferrari back winning well – and this time they look a really good professional operation with two classy drivers. Congratulazioni!
Scalextric (@scalextric)
20th March 2022, 16:57
8 for the race, especially the battle for the lead. +1 for the visual spectacle Uber the lights, the cars looked great.
Isn’t that the first season opener under lights?
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
20th March 2022, 17:00
Nope, last year would have been.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
20th March 2022, 16:57
7/10 for me as I struggled to really get into it for some reason.
DRS was at times way too powerful, Especially with the Max/Leclerc fight where it was helping Max to come from miles back & then allowing Charles to get the place straight back in the next zone. Just felt a bit too artificial to me much as it did when we used to see similar DRS passing/repassing down the 2 straights in Abu Dhabi.
Cars seem to be able to follow a bit closer although I don’t think it necessarily helped to make overtaking any easier as it still felt like 99% of the overtaking we got was with DRS (Or due to a big tyre delta) which is disappointing.
I was also disappoints that the tyres were still suffering a lot of deg & still seemed a bit sensitive to been pushed when running behind another car as that was one of the key improvements that F1 & Pirelli were talking about with the new tyres & something drivers were hoping would be improved.
All that said i’m not ready to claim the new regulations a big success or failure just yet as I want to see how they work on different types of circuits, Especially those that are typically not known for close racing/overtaking.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
20th March 2022, 16:59
Also as i’ve said in the past, I hate Bahrain been the opening round as it always lacks that atmosphere & excitement we get when it’s in Melbourne or when it was Interlagos in the past.
The huge, passionate, knowledgeable & excited crowds we get in those venues really help create that bit extra which helps the season start with that bit extra excitement.
hobo (@hobo)
20th March 2022, 19:17
@stefmeister – Agree entirely, even the same score I gave. Nothing I saw indicated that the rules have changed the racing other than the team order. But, as you indicate, since it’s the first race of the new regulations/designs, I’m hoping the proposed benefits develop over the season. We shall see.
Scalextric (@scalextric)
20th March 2022, 16:57
under the lights..
slowmo (@slowmo)
20th March 2022, 16:57
Delighted to see Ferrarri back at the front and I hate them lol. Leclerc and Sainz deserve a great car. I thought it was a damn fine first race and Leclerc won on absolute merit, completely outdriving Verstappen on the day. Could be a classic year if Ferrari get a good headstart before Red Bull and Mercedes get up to speed.
Nikki (@nikkit)
20th March 2022, 16:58
Fairly dull race, livened up by the two lap battle between Leclerc and Verstappen after the first stops and then the tenseness of firat whether Verstappen was going to make it and then Perez.
Other than that, the only real excitement was further down the field.
Gave it a 6.
bull mello (@bullmello)
20th March 2022, 17:00
Very good race. Good start to the new season.
Great win by Charles Leclerc.
Ben Edwards and Jolyon Palmer very good job on F1tv. Miss Martin Brundle. (Did see him on post race interviews.)
Leclerc and Verstappen demonstrate racing tactics back and forth with new aerodynamics and DRS. This is good. Usually dislike DRS. Maybe this could even out?
Maybe Mercedes could be stronger during this season.
Bad day for Gasly, Verstappen and Perez.
Not a good day for Red Bull. Must be technical issues.
Teams that suffered – Aston Martin, Williams, McLaren
Strong Mid-Race teams – Haas, Alpine, Alfa Romeo
Cris S
20th March 2022, 17:25
If you’re watching on F1TV, switch to International channel feed to hear SkyF1 commentary. (It’s the 2nd button on the control panel)
David BR (@david-br)
20th March 2022, 18:25
Thanks, I’ll check to see if that works – in Brazil the coverage was Edwards and Palmer, which like @bullmello I actually enjoyed more. Not sure I miss Brundle at all. Or Crofty.
Tornado (@tornado)
20th March 2022, 17:05
Looks like the era of Ferrari Engine domination has begun. Interesting first race. Lets see how the season progresses.
petebaldwin (@)
20th March 2022, 17:16
I wouldn’t say so. It’s nothing like the domination we saw in 2014 and there are lots of improvements to come from the top teams. It could just as easily be an era of Red Bull domination or a continuation of Mercedes domination or alternatively, perhaps no-one will dominate and we’ll have an exciting era of close racing!
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
20th March 2022, 20:00
These engines have been homologated and are supposed to be carried through to the end of the current PU regulations.
Which means that Merc could be in trouble (behind across all the cars with their PU, their customers all coming home at the end of the field) while Red Bull seems close in power and has the option to fix reliability as per the existing regs.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
20th March 2022, 17:06
I would give it a 7.
cars looked far too slow early on, just really cumbersome especially in the lower speed turns and that took away from the visual spectacle so much.
cars can run closer but i don’t think the racing has really changed that much as they are still reliant on drs with the only real racing we saw happening in the drs zones.
still too much talk about tires and it seems pirelli have missed there targets on degredation and things once again.
Happy to have f1tv so i don’t have to suffer with david corft anymore. so glad to be able to hear ben edwards again on the f1 live channel on f1tv.
i think the last part after the safety car doesn’t bode well for the 3 gimmick races as when they were all sprinting nothing happened other than schumacher dropping backwards on old tires.
also sure they were using crowd sweetening as it sounded like the crowd cheering was weird at times. a few shots where the crowd weren’t really reacting yet it sounded like the place was going nuts so that is something that needs to end.
Tricky (@tricky)
20th March 2022, 17:34
I thought my screen had frozen at the start, no one seemed to move!
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
20th March 2022, 17:09
Apart from having a Ferrari 1-2 which is great the race was a pretty normal Bahrain GP.
It’s the best track for close racing and overtaking on the calendar so let’s reserve judgement on the new regulations until we see some more races.
I didn’t really see that much if a difference compared to the years before and unfortunately Pirelli again failed to show up with a tyre that doesn’t completely fall apart after just 10 laps.
3 second worth of undercut is just too much.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2022, 23:05
Yes, that’s true, this is normally a good overtaking track.
PeterG
20th March 2022, 17:09
thought it was quite dull for the most part.
the only ‘racing’ was that artificial contrived fight with max and charles created by the artificial drs been way too powerful at that point. its the sort of fake passing/repassing you expect to see in nascar during those awful restrictor plate races. but i guess the low attention span, need constant action ‘fans’ will have thought it was the best racing in the history of f1 sadly.
tires are still a joke also it appears.
i was hoping this would be a clear sign the new rules were working to create close racing & genuine overtaking that would see drs finally kicked to the kerb. sadly it seems this may not be the case.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
20th March 2022, 17:11
I reiterate one more time:
Well well well… finally justice was done… it seems that Saint Fangio decided to put things in their place. After the disgusting, shameful, scandalous THEFT of the championship from Hamilton by the indecent owners of Formula 1, fans can enjoy this well-deserved victory for Ferrari. And the podium of Hamilton, the true world champion 2021.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2022, 23:11
This is not justice at all, if anything abu dhabi was justice for silverstone and the likes.
petebaldwin (@)
20th March 2022, 17:11
7 – decent start to the new regs. The race itself wasn’t great but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. The teams seem relatively close so as long as none of them suddenly unlock a load of pace and go on to dominate, we’re in for a fun season.
DRS needs to go – it created some artificial fun between Max and Leclerc but it would have been massively harsh if it allowed Max to take the lead (for more than one straight) as Leclerc had it under control otherwise. Once he was out of DRS range, he had enough pace to pull away comfortably.
melanos
20th March 2022, 19:52
Yoiu mean the theft of the 2008 championship by Hamilton via Crashgate? Cui prodest?
Uncle Ben (@uncleben)
20th March 2022, 17:14
Not a classic, but it bodes well for the rest of the season.
Pete von F1 (@pete-von-f1)
20th March 2022, 17:14
First 50 laps = 6/10
Remaining laps = 9/10
Niefer (@niefer)
20th March 2022, 17:25
I don’t know, I’d say 6/10 is okay.
Too much DRS for such ‘revolutionary’ regs, again a long-standing SC period…
Haven’t felt like a promising season yet. Let’s see.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2022, 23:13
Well, performance wise, if we have ferrari and red bull at a similar level with red bull a little bit behind in reliability, then usually they should be able to catch up during the season, and we also have mercedes that can catch up, could be a 3-way in the best case scenario.
Josh (@canadianjosh)
20th March 2022, 17:27
7. Was sort of dull at times. The end was pretty spicy.
Tricky (@tricky)
20th March 2022, 17:33
Congratulations Ferrari.
Definitely good signs that cars can follow.
Extra point for Red Bull failures – great advert for the new Red Bull Engines – three failures out of four cars.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
20th March 2022, 17:35
7/10
What was encouraging was that the cars were able to follow a bit more closer and that was what all this change in regulation about. Ferrari seems to have both pace and reliability and have a decent car as well. Good to see Haas and Alfa Romeo in the mix. But it was surprising to see Schumacher so far off in a top 10 car. Mercedes had a bit of luck while Red Bull did not. Three Red Bull powertrain cars failed on track. Six Mercedes powered cars were at the bottom end of the cars that finished the race. Alpine is difficult to read.
Ipsom
20th March 2022, 17:38
The new regulations seem to be deliver today.. better than the average races of the past era.
It looks like the cars can overtake without the drs but the drivers are just using them cause it’s more efficient. I hope they experiment with shorter deployment lengths
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
20th March 2022, 18:49
Tremendous race for a variety of reasons. For one, Merc’s downfall to distant third is refreshing and was much needed for my interest in the sport (it’s okay if this doesn’t apply to you, your own experience is valid too so calm down). For another, the entire field was close together for the duration of the race and that made for plenty of action to keep the entire race interesting. I loved seeing the cars able to follow more closely and attempt overtakes, it made for a fun race. The pitstop strategies were another interesting factor.
Finally, Ben Edwards and Jolyon Palmer absolutely killed it at commentary. I like Brundle, but Crofty just yelling for a full race at me was grating and I’m glad to have the calmer voice of Edwards to commentate the race for me, Palmer’s qualities as a pundit have been evident over his entire run on F1TV but he’s easily as good in the boot as behind a desk after the race.
All in all it was an 8/10 for me. Major kudos to Brawn & company for a succesful debut of the new Formula. Hopefully there’s plenty more races like this one to come over this season.
grapmg (@)
20th March 2022, 19:17
9/10 for me. Happy to see two teams close to each other and to see the new cars can race so close together. Also happy to see Ferrari up there with a deserved 1-2. Great fight for the lead and also further down the field. Maybe the race itself was not more than 8/10 but I was worried that a single team would dominate the start of the season (so +1 point for Ferrari). I hope that Mercedes can be up there soon so we can see more great battles between the top drivers. As a Max fan a bit frustrated to see RB struggling with the reliability but the pace looks good and as a F1 fan it looks like this is going to be an exiting season.
RomTrain (@romtrain)
20th March 2022, 19:23
Zhou 1st race 1st point. Great drive, great result!
Wayne
20th March 2022, 19:32
Race was average 5 maybe a weak 6 accept for the battle between leclerc amd verstappen. Nothing really exciting. Oh and also the redbulls failing to finish hahahaha. To finish first first u got to finish…
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
20th March 2022, 19:34
Nice race. Hopefully Red Bull pay the price this year. Also seems like HAAS may have not been so bad of a car last year. Shocking how bad Schumacher and Mazepin were if a mediocre journeyman like Mag can do what he did.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
20th March 2022, 20:09
Mick did get run into and turned around by Esteban, though.
That probably didn’t help his race.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
20th March 2022, 20:09
The video directors need improvement. They are always cutting away from the action to show random useless shots.
The race was boring for long stretches.
Kerry Maxwell (@kerrymaxwell)
20th March 2022, 20:12
I overrrated at 9 because I was thrilled see a Ferrari 1-2, KMag in the points, and Max whinging about he could have taken the lead if only the team hadn’t told him to go slow. Sorry to see Checo DNF, as he’s the only redeeming trait of RB.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2022, 22:54
Think an 8 is deserved, was an eventful race and the battle between leclerc and verstappen was great (said it before they’re as strong as each other given the same car), I don’t want to go too high because verstappen deserved 2nd place and even if perez wasn’t as impressive, he also did a good job holding off hamilton despite having a technical issue the last lap, until the car gave in; leclerc certainly deserved to win, issue or not, but apart from that, both red bull drivers deserved more this race.
These cars seem to have made things better when it comes to following though, which is a positive, the race pace seemed varying depending on the part of the race between ferrari and red bull, and mercedes didn’t seem strong even at this, though hamilton tried what he could whenever he got the chance, even considering the hard tyres, which mercedes was very strong on last year, didn’t work that well either.
Really disappointed by mclaren, I think the most disappointing team overall.
Scotty (@rockonscotty)
21st March 2022, 2:57
Solid 7 for me. I was really upset when I was watching replays of Leclerc V Verstappen round one when Leclerc V Verstappen round two was unfolding. I’m going to chalk that up to the fact that in the past, you never got more than one lap of overtaking. Hopefully F1 World feed learns quickly. A great start to hopefully a great season!
discotheque (@discotheque)
21st March 2022, 7:18
Second race in a row where an incident led to the safety car which at last lead to a bit of excitement!
ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
21st March 2022, 11:22
Solid 7 from me! Had its lulls but overall, very pleased with these new cars. Seemed really odd watching them follow eachother for sustained periods, and also being able to repass.
Special mention to Pirelli as well – feels like both F1 and Pirelli got it pretty bang on this year, but let’s see!
Nimba (@nimba)
22nd March 2022, 3:26
The cars have got eorse. The racing is dead . Its hard to watch F1 now. The sound is pathetic .