Ferrari and Red Bull look at each other: 'Fight on and off the track'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Last year was a tough year for Red Bull Racing and Mercedes. Every race, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen barely managed to outrun each other, which also led to hard fights and fireworks several times. This season, Mercedes seems to have missed the battle, but Ferrari is poised to take over that role from Mercedes this year.
F1 journalist Chris Medland also sees this, sharing his prediction for the Grand Prix on Formula1.com. "Throughout last season we were used to seeing Mercedes versus Red Bull, and while the latter are still right up there, it’s Ferrari that have replaced the Silver Arrows as the main challenger."
The Italians will start from P1 and P3 on Sunday, with Red Bull on P2 and P4.
Fight between Red Bull and Ferrari in Bahrain
So although they have the better starting position for the race, Ferrari don't seem to be counting on it being an easy win for Leclerc over Sainz. Since the second week of testing, Red Bull has been talking about their speed in the race and this weekend they looked very fast in the free practice sessions.
So Medland expects that strategy is going to be very important. With the new 18-inch tyres, the teams don't yet know how long the drivers will keep grip and so the teams also don't yet know how many pit stops are needed for the winning strategy.
"This could be an epic battle both strategically and on track," Medland concludes hopefully.