Ricciardo's RANT and Sainz's Ferrari blanking - Five things you may have missed at the Bahrain Grand Prix

The season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix had an air of inevitability about it, as Max Verstappen claimed his 55th career race victory.

Despite this, the off-track excitement from the winter break reared its head within the paddock for the first time, with stories and questions swirling around Christian Horner, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton.

Here at GPFans, we were keeping an eye on the best moments that might not have got the full credit they deserve.

1. Ricciardo in expletive-laden rant at RB team-mate

It is widely conceived that the battle between Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda at Visa Cash App RB will likely be one of the most interesting team-mate battles of the 2024 season, with a seat at Red Bull potentially up for grabs.

READ MORE: F1 team-mate battles: Hamilton pressure is on at Mercedes as rivals clash

Well, it got off to a fierce start, with Tsunoda being told to make way for Ricciardo, who proceeded to fail at getting past Haas' Kevin Magnussen in 12th place.

On the cool-down lap following the end of the race, Tsunoda made a lunge on Ricciardo into turn eight, presumably to prove a point.

Ricciardo was not happy with his team-mate's antics, labelling him a "f****** helmet" over his team radio.

"What the f***! I'll save it, he's a f****** helmet," he angrily proclaimed.

2. Sainz blanked by Ferrari team

In among another dominant Verstappen display to kick off the season, there was a stand-out performance from the man who is to be replaced at Ferrari in 2025, Carlos Sainz.

The Spaniard is unlikely to play the team game throughout 2024 having been displaced by the incoming Hamilton, and he produced two fantastic overtakes on team-mate Charles Leclerc to snatch third place, and the driver of the day award.

READ MORE: Horner and Red Bull saga has created paddock 'GOLDFISH bowl'

However, when he arrived in parc ferme to celebrate his brilliant result, Sainz was seemingly left on his own by his Ferrari team, revealed in a post that's been circling on X.

3. Netflix's Steiner obsession

A more comical moment from Saturday afternoon featured a man who we may not be seeing quite so much from anymore.

Guenther Steiner became a much-loved figure in F1 during his eight seasons in charge of the Haas team, and became a star of Netflix's Drive to Survive show.

Despite being sacked by Haas during the winter break, Steiner is still evidently set to feature in what will be season seven of Drive to Survive next season, with Netflix interfering with his TV duties.

The Italian was conducting an interview with Sky Sports, where they suggested that he may be happy that the Netflix cameras are no longer following him quite so much.

In classic Steiner fashion, the former Haas team principal pointed upwards, revealing a Netflix camera filming him talking to the Sky Sports crew.

4. Perez's unusual problem

In what was a pretty simple afternoon for Red Bull, they did have an issue with their communications.

Verstappen cruised to victory, with Sergio Perez behind him in second, making it back-to-back season-opening one-two's for a Red Bull team who are experiencing supreme dominance over the sport.

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Horner allegations lost Red Bull 'MONTHS' of development claims Villeneuve

However, Perez may have been in trouble had he faced more pressure from the Ferraris behind, with the Mexican revealing that he had trouble hearing race engineer Hugh Bird.

The Red Bull man asked Bird to shout so that he could hear him better.

5. F1 star in thinly-veiled RB swipe

Amid the saga with team-mate Ricciardo, Tsunoda appeared audibly frustrated with the RB team.

The 23-year-old is well known for his radio rants, and this time opted for a more sarcastic approach, rather than the expletive-laden rants we have become used to.

Tsunoda simply said: "Yeah thanks guys, I appreciate it," after being told to let Ricciardo through while he was right behind the Haas of Magnussen.

Yuki team radio always delivers pic.twitter.com/FhWC2AmuYh

— Mahir 🇹🇷🇬🇧 (@ScrewderiaF1) March 2, 2024

READ MORE: Journalist claims Horner ‘messages’ leaked from anonymous email account

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