Bahrain GP takeaways: Ferrari's back, Mercedes limits damage

Welcome back, race fans! Following each race weekend this season, theScore's editors will offer their takeaways. We get things started with what was a thrilling opener in Bahrain.

Ferrari's back, baby

It turns out preseason testing was no mirage.

Ferrari has been trying to downplay the pace of the slick F1-75 ever since it hit the track and looked so promising in Barcelona, but after Charles Leclerc's assured win in Sunday's season opener, the cat is well and truly out of the bag: The Scuderia are fighting at the front once again.

"We could not have hoped for better," a buoyant Leclerc said after the race. "The past two years have not been easy. It's great to be back on top."

It's been a while, too: Sunday's triumph in Sakhir was Ferrari's first since Singapore in 2019, ending the second-longest drought in team history.

Both Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz - who came home in second place to cap a spectacular day for the Italian team - looked comfortable and confident in their machinery under the lights in Bahrain. This all comes with the caveat that it's extremely early, of course, but Ferrari's decision to halt development on its 2021 car last season and focus its resources on the F1-75 appears to have paid off handsomely. In fact, five of the six cars with Ferrari power units - the titular pair, Kevin Magnussen's Haas, and the two Alfa Romeos - finished inside the top 10 on Sunday. Mick Schumacher, driving the other Haas, just missed out on the points, crossing the line in 11th. A portent of things to come, perhaps.

"Ferrari is back," Sainz said after the team's 1-2 finish. "The hard work has paid off." - Gianluca Nesci

Absolute disaster for Red Bull

Bahrain could not have gone worse for Red Bull and the reigning world champion.

A late safety car left Max Verstappen in striking distance to take the lead, but unlike last season's finale, a dream finish wasn't on the cards after a suspected fuel pump issue forced him to retire on Lap 54. The same problem is presumed to have caused Perez to spin out of the race on the final lap.

Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri flamed out, too, meaning three cars powered by Red Bull power trains failed to survive the grand prix. Verstappen also complained of braking and steering issues before his retirement.

Reliability is a dire concern, though all hope isn't lost for Verstappen and his side just yet. Red Bull proved it can fight with Ferrari in terms of performance throughout the weekend. But with a significant early deficit, the Raging Bulls have little margin for error moving forward.

"While gutting to not get that podium and 30 points in the bag today, we've got a good car, and that's what we need to focus on," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. "We've got to address these reliability issues and fight back next weekend." - Daniel Valente

Damage limitation for Mercedes

There's no way Lewis Hamilton expected to be on the podium when he woke up Sunday morning. Red Bull's collapse over the final laps gifted its biggest rival a 3-4 finish and 27 early points in the constructors' championship.

Mercedes will be ecstatic with the result, but it's obvious the reigning champions have enormous ground to cover. After an underwhelming qualifying session that meant Hamilton started fifth and George Russell ninth, both drivers trailed the Ferraris by almost a second per lap and only gained ground on Red Bull late in the race following the safety car.

Team principal Toto Wolff said he's grateful for the points, and it's clear this is a dream result considering how the car's looked early on. With the calendar moving to Jeddah - a track on which Hamilton claimed pole, fastest lap, and the race win last season - there's clearly much more work to be done. Mercedes will need more luck to secure back-to-back podiums, but if it's able to continue finishing races while waiting for more upgrades, it should stay in the fight.

On another note, after struggling Saturday, Russell bounced back with a career-best result and finished just two seconds back of his teammate. His 12 points in Bahrain have almost equaled his previous career tally of 19. How quickly he's taken to a new car and higher expectations has to be encouraging for the team. - Brandon Wile

'Disappointing' is an understatement for McLaren

For a team expecting to be firmly in the midfield pack, if not leading it, the first weekend couldn't have possibly gone worse than it did for McLaren. First, Daniel Ricciardo missed much of practice due to COVID-19. Then, neither Ricciardo nor Lando Norris made it into Q3, with the former failing to even make it out of Q1, being outpaced by every driver on the grid other than Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll. On race day, Ricciardo just barely outpaced Norris, but both McLarens finished well out of the points and ahead of only Latifi, Nico Hulkenberg, and the trio of DNFs.

"We … need to acknowledge that we are simply not delivering the level of performance we want," team principal Andreas Seidl said following qualifying.

The new cars were certainly going to create growing pains for some drivers, but those issues seem outsized for the teams learning to cope with the Mercedes power unit, which certainly doesn't seem up to the job of routinely claiming podiums in any of the cars. Of course, Mercedes itself performed well enough to clinch a third- and fourth-place finish, but credit is owed to Hamilton, Russell, and fortuitous late retirements from the pair of Red Bulls. Otherwise, cars featuring the M13 engine finished 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th - the entire back of the grid.

It's the first race of the year, and there's certainly time to turn things around, but starting this hamstrung wasn't in McLaren's expectations, and it's clear that Ricciardo - who struggled last year - can't be scapegoated. Can McLaren get into the midfield or will it be battling Aston Martin and Williams for spare points the entire season? - Michael Bradburn

Haas in the points!

From a bunch of wankers to rock stars - at least for one race.

In one of the most surprising twists of the season's opener, Haas secured fifth position and 10 points thanks to an excellent qualifying session and race from Magnussen, who made his F1 return just 11 days prior after a season away from the paddock.

"You cannot write a story like this," an overjoyed team principal Guenther Steiner said after the race.

Haas didn't score a single point last season, so to call this a fantastic result is an understatement for a team that's dealt with so much turmoil in recent years. To cap things off, Schumacher also impressed, finishing a career-best 11th, routinely threatening for points before eventually ceding to the wily veteran Fernando Alonso and star rookie Zhou Guanyu.

"The guys delivered a good car this year," Steiner said of his engineers.

The way Magnussen battled with Hamilton for most of the race has to be an encouraging sign for Haas' hopes of competing for points every weekend. - Bryan Mcwilliam

New cars = better racing

We were promised closer, more exciting racing in 2022 after Formula 1 implemented the most expansive set of regulation changes the sport has seen in years. So far, so good.

The new cars - designed to follow more closely and thus create tighter battles on the track - delivered in Bahrain, with an extended scrap between Leclerc and Verstappen highlighting the action. The reigning champion passed the eventual race winner three times from Laps 16-19, but the Monegasque managed to stay on the Dutchman's rear wing and grab the lead back each time.

"It was tricky - it was nice, though. It was on-the-limit, hard racing," Leclerc said. "But we would always give each other space, which was nice, and following him into Turn 2 was a bit more predictable than what I expected compared to what I had last year, so this was good."

As teams and drivers become more familiar with the capabilities of their new cars, expect to see battles just like that - at both the front of the grid and elsewhere - each race weekend. - Nesci