F1 Bahrain GP live updates - media day

Yuki Tsunoda feels he's adapted well to Red Bull and is happy with attempting to get on top of Max Verstappen's set-up in the car - but reckons it's incredible that the Dutchman is able to cope with it:

"Actually, we went to Max's side rather than my set-up, which I thought would be good. Surprisingly, I'm able to drive quite well so I'm happy with it so far.

"But Max's set-up helps [the rear] and I think that set-up probably in the simulator I feel definitely the trickiness. It's incredible how he's able to cope with that kind of set up."

GPDA director (and F1 driver, obviously) George Russell spoke about the departure of now-ex FIA deputy president Robert Reid - and that the situation at the governing body means it's no longer a surprise.

"Unfortunately I think every time we we hear some news from, from that side of the sport it's not really a big surprise. It's a real shame to see somebody who's very well respected within the sport and been there for so long, , as we keep saying, it's like 'what's next'. It's a shame to see and hopefully we get more stability sooner than later."

Oscar Piastri spoke about last weekend's race in Japan, and was asked what McLaren's findings were. He reckoned that, after his debrief with the team, there wasn't much it could do to get past Max Verstappen in the race - and had to ensure it nailed qualifying at similar circuits coming up.

"Qualifying ahead of Max was probably the key to that, we looked through it and I think it was pretty clear to see that you needed a very big pace advantage to overtake on Sunday.

"The best way to that is qualifying a bit better. Even in the race we were pretty limited with what we could do.

"We've spoken to a lot of the team about what we could do differently and I think it came with big element of risk with not much chance for reward."

Carlos Sainz reckons that his return to Bahrain will help him to understand Williams' FW47 a little bit more, given he was "comfortable" with the car during the February test.

"It's very useful, especially because here in testing I was very comfortable with the car; actually it's a balance on a car that I've been looking forward to targeting.

"I was not as happy in China, and I looked back at the pre-season testing set-up that we were running here and I was keen to try and put the car somewhere closer to the way we were in testing."

Fernando Alonso spoke about Aston Martin's weaknesses in Japan and had his say on the current dirty air scenario in F1. He believes that the situation isn't quite as bad as it used to be a few years ago.

"The tailwind on the first sector really hurt us more than than our competitors, so that's our conclusion. We know that the car is a little bit fragile and tail wind component and some of the corners but maybe Suzuka was a confirmation."

"2021, I would say the final year of that set of regulation was quite bad. [We are] very far away [from that].

Liam Lawson reflected on his return to the Racing Bulls team last weekend at Suzuka, and his first impressions of the VCARB 02.

"I think it's definitely a bigger window, easier to drive, but I think that doesn't necessarily mean that the Red Bull's undriveable. It just maybe takes a bit more time to get that sort of that comfort in it."

"It just responds in a slightly different way, and it feels a bit different to drive."

Gabriel Bortoleto refused to be too downbeat about his start to the season; the Brazilian has had a few difficulties in his opening three races, but he's largely matched Nico Hulkenberg for pace.

"The pace has been very positive, we know that the only real comparison we can always have is inside the team. Honestly I'm quite happy how we started, how I started, the pace was straight on from Australia there.

"Me and Nico are very close, you know the qualis through these rounds and race pace as well. We are not in the position to be fighting every weekend for points and sometimes the results they look harsher than they actually are."

Isack Hadjar spoke about his new team-mate relationship with Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls - and revealed the two have played a bit of Call of Duty together:

"We played padel, and Call of Duty together like two days ago we were shooting zombies together in the same team. I think there's worse relationships, that's for sure."

That's great, but Hadjar's a bit young for the glory days of Call of Duty 4. Never made it to 10th prestige myself...

Alex Albon revealed his thoughts on Williams' FW47 and its quirks - and reckons that despite the car's strengths, the set-up it needs to work properly isn't necessarily the most comfortable...

"To be quick with this car, it needs a certain set-up, and it's not always the most comfortable. It was clear there's a couple of corners on each track that we go to that we are relatively weak, compared to the midfield.

"I think we're producing good downforce, we're just struggling with balance in a few corners."

FP1 rookie drivers

Six different drivers will run in Bahrain's FP1 session on Friday to satisfy one of the two instances that each regular driver must give up their seat (up from one each last year).

Red Bull - Ayumu Iwasa (replaces Verstappen)
Ferrari - Dino Beganovic (replaces Leclerc)
Mercedes - Frederik Vesti (replaces Russell)
Williams - Luke Browning (replaces Sainz)
Aston Martin - Felipe Drugovich (replaces Alonso)
Haas - Ryo Hirakawa (replaces Bearman)

FIA deputy president for sport Robert Reid has announced he has resigned from the motor racing governing body with immediate effect, citing a "breakdown of governance standards".

The Sauber drivers will be speaking first in about an hour's time. The Swiss team has brought reasonably sized aero updates to the party in each of the first three races of the season - will it have more in Bahrain, or is it simply looking to optimise what it has?

We're back! Stage two of an F1 triple header follows the paddock from Japan to Bahrain, before the decidedly shorter hop to Saudi Arabia next time out. Media sessions will begin soon, so we'll bring you the best bits and the news from the paddock.