Daniel Ricciardo claimed he would have "100 percent" sent his car down the inside of Sebastian Vettel if he had been in Valtteri Bottas' position in Bahrain on Sunday.

After closing by over a second per lap in the final stages, the Finn had one half-chance opportunity to attack the Ferrari into Turn 1 at the start of the final lap but thought better of it under braking and had to settle for second.

Some have since criticised Bottas with former Renault driver Jolyon Palmer claiming it backed up a belief the Mercedes driver was "soft", a word never spoken about Ricciardo behind the wheel of a racing car.

"I definitely would have sent it. 100 percent," the Australian told Sky F1. "I would have gone. There's a gap, you're finishing second anyway if you overshoot you're finishing second.

"Last lap, for the win, you have to go. You have to go. Take them both out [if it goes wrong]."

As it was his race in the desert was ended midway through Lap 2 after his car shutdown, meaning we still don't know after two races the true race pace of the RB14.

"How the race would have gone, I don't know. I don't want to say I would have won," Ricciardo said. "But if that was me on the last lap you can bet everything that I was going for it."

His problem and the performance of Pierre Gasly in the Honda-powered Toro Rosso has raised further speculation that Red Bull could drop Renault for the Japanese manufacturer next season.

“It’s helping their chances of looking attractive to Red Bull,” the 28-year-old commented this week.

“They obviously invested quite a bit in the last few years, and it didn’t work with McLaren but pretty cool that now Toro Rosso is doing well with it.”

Fernando Alonso played down the significance of Pierre Gasly's fourth-place finish at the Bahrain GP as Toro Rosso-Honda got one over McLaren.

The junior Red Bull team emerged as the midfield leaders over the weekend in the desert, as Gasly secured what would be fifth on the grid for Sunday's race before taking advantage of retirements in front to score his first points in Formula 1.

It would also see the Japanese engine supplier achieve their best result since returning to the sport with McLaren in 2015, ending 48 seconds ahead of Alonso in seventh.

“It was great – but you didn’t ask about Toro Rosso in Australia," the Spaniard retorted when asked about Toro Rosso's performance by the BBC. 

“Because, I mean, if the Toro Rosso question will become a normality, I hope it becomes a normality at all 21 races – because the championship is 21 races.”

While it's true the Italian team had a difficult opening race of the season, there must be some worried and potentially red faces at McLaren at seeing the engine which they ditched for Renault so far up the road.

Stoffel Vandoorne was more respectful in his response to the same question though, adding: “[Honda] did their job well and took a big step forward. Now it’s up to us to catch them.”

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After the race in front of their Bahraini backers, the Woking-based team has confirmed a slight change in the management structure with executive director Zak Brown now named CEO with Eric Boullier remaining racing director.

“The work of the past year at a corporate level has been focused on structuring and positioning McLaren for growth,” said Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa, McLaren Group Executive Chairman.

“These latest developments are a natural consequence of that work and are designed to bring greater simplicity and clarity to the structure and leadership of the group.”

Despite two wins from the first two races, Sebastian Vettel believes Mercedes still head to the Chinese GP as the team to beat.

While acknowledging he got lucky in Australia, the German was the fastest man over the weekend in Bahrain with only a mix up on strategy really helping Valtteri Bottas have a strong chance of victory.

Heading to a different type of circuit though in Shanghai and in very different weather conditions, the four-time world champion expects that to play into the Brackley-based team's favour.

"It's obviously cooler. It's a different track, so I think, honestly, the first two races have been quite different, so it's not that straightforward to predict the third one," he said

"I think overall if you take into account all the testing we did etc., then Mercedes is still the favourite going in.

"Certainly we'll try to have a different outcome than that. I think if we do our homework, if we get the car balance right and we get everything together, then it should be a good weekend. I don't see why not."

Offering his view, main rival Lewis Hamilton is concerned the straight line speed of the Ferrari could be their biggest advantage, particularly on the 1km back straight.

"They are faster than us on the straights and as quick as us through the corners. Their engine programme has really taken a big step this season," said the Briton.

"It will be interesting to see how their reliability will be - as it will be for Renault and us. This should be a good track for us but I think it's going to be close."

Valtteri Bottas' failure to even attempt a last-gasp overtake on Sebastian Vettel during the Bahrain GP was another example of why Formula 1 drivers consider him to be "soft", according to ex-Renault driver Jolyon Palmer.

The Mercedes driver was closing in on the Ferrari driver by over a second per lap in the closing stages of Sunday's race at Sakhir as he enjoyed the additional durability of the Medium tyre compound compared to Vettel on Softs, but ultimately, his only slight chance came at the start of the final lap.

Using DRS, the Finn was closing in on the German down the main straight but decided he was too far back to make a move into Turn 1, given the margin he had over Lewis Hamilton in third, however, the former GP2 champion believes Bottas could have been more assertive.

"He either would have emerged from Turn 1 with the lead and the win, or he would have gone in too deep and ended up having Vettel slide back underneath him and ultimately finished second," Palmer told the BBC.

"At least that way he would know he had given it a go.

"The only way such a move would end in tears is if he was half-hearted and stuck just a nose down the inside. That's where collisions so often happen."

In direct contrast, Palmer compared Bottas' tentativeness to Daniel Ricciardo, a driver who has become known for his daredevil moves in recent years.

"He commits so heavily to his moves that they either come off, or he overshoots the corner too much and loses the place again. There's so rarely a half-hearted attempt from him," he added.

"I feel Bottas has the reverse effect in F1 at the moment. Yes, he's had a few scrapes, most notably with countryman Kimi Raikkonen, but he's seen as something of a soft touch in wheel-to-wheel fighting.

"Drivers are throwing moves down the inside of him that they wouldn't try on Hamilton."

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The 28-year-old defended his decision not to go all in, however, insisting he was giving it "everything".

“When you’re closing up on the car ahead and you get to the braking zones you lose quite a bit of front downforce because you’re running in turbulence, that mainly affects the front end and it’s a bit easy to lock up the front wheels," Bottas continued.

“It’s early days, but anyway it was a lot better than two weeks ago and today, the race pace we had, was actually slightly better than what we expected coming into the race, so that was positive.”

FIA race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed the governing body is to launch an investigation after the spate of pit-stop incidents so far in 2018.

In Australia, both Haas cars were released with one wheel unattached while both drivers ran in the top six, costing them a huge haul of points and then, on Sunday in Bahrain, Kimi Raikkonen left his box after one wheel had failed to come off his Ferrari, breaking the leg of a mechanic in the process.

With teams constantly developing new systems and designs to achieve faster pit-stops, Whiting is now going to dig deeper on the matter with the Briton also aware that the two teams impacted share the same equipment.

"It’s looking like less and less like a coincidence but the two incidences in Melbourne were quite clearly wheelgun operator error," he explained on Thursday. "They cross threaded the nuts and thought it was tight, came off and then realised a little too late it wasn’t.

"[With the incident in Bahrain], the guy hadn’t even taken the wheel off, which is slightly perplexing."

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After being criticised for his reaction to what happened last Sunday, Kimi Raikkonen has now commented on Ferrari's pit-stop procedures and his words are far from endorsing.

“I think a lot of things are questionable,” said the Finn. “We are always trying to gain on everything, but unfortunately it was far from ideal, and the end result was one of our guys got hurt, but my only job is to follow the lights and go when it’s green.

“There are probably a lot of things that could’ve been done differently, but this is what happened, and we paid the price for it.

“I don’t think it’s anything to do with luck; it’s purely things that we have to improve on. It’s disappointing obviously to have that early in the season such a bad result."

Red Bull bosses are looking to move on from what Christian Horner described as a "brutally frustrating" double retirement at the Bahrain GP, the team's first since Korea in 2010.

Their two drivers, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, saw their races end almost simultaneously as the Dutchman suffered lasting gearbox damage after light contact with Lewis Hamilton as he tried to pass the Mercedes at the start of Lap 2.

Moments later, Ricciardo was forced to pull over to the side of the track after his RB14 shut down with an electrical problem, resulting in the Australian taking the second of his permitted batteries for the entire year this weekend in China.

"A brutally frustrating race for us because we had again another very competitive race car," Horner claimed.

"Daniel commented that even in the two laps that he was able to do, he was able to close pretty comfortably on Kimi.

"And Max the feeling he was getting from the car, the fact that he was on the same tire he used to line up and pass Lewis, showed that the potential was really there."

On the Verstappen/ Hamilton incident, the Red Bull F1 chief didn't apportion blame and even defended the Mercedes driver calling his man a "d***head" in the cool down room before the podium, claiming it was adrenaline-fuelled.

"It was hard racing between two very competitive drivers. It is just unfortunate that there was some contact," he stated.

"It robbed the fans ultimately of a great race because I think, I genuinely do believe that the last couple of races we have had a car capable of beating the Ferrari.

"We don’t have the points to show for it. Thankfully the next race is only one week away."

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• Ricciardo left devastated after early Bahrain GP exit
• Hamilton & Verstappen hit out at each other over Bahrain clash

Motorsport advisor Helmut Marko focused his disappointment on Renault though, for costing Ricciardo a chance to challenge the Ferraris and Valtteri Bottas in front.

“The problem of Ricciardo is it is not the first time it’s happened,” the Red Bull advisor told Autosport. “What can you do when a technical issue just stops you completely?

“First we have to sort out our qualifying, but we need a fast and reliable engine,” the Austrian added.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were seen shaking hands as they greeted fans on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Chinese GP in Shanghai.

The world champion later revealed it was he that approached the Red Bull driver when they crossed paths and make the gesture as a sign of "respect" and to ensure there were no hard feelings left from their incident in Bahrain last Sunday.

After Verstappen was forced to retire after the pair made light contact at the start of Lap 2, some harsh words have been said with Hamilton caught calling the Dutchman a "d***head" in the cool down after the race and later suggesting his immaturity was costing Red Bull.

"It is quite simple and easy to blame the younger driver," the 20-year-old said when asked about the incident in the press conference.

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"That's the only way I can see it but these things happen and there is no reason to change anything, I was just trying to overtake a car.

"I think it was a fair chance and I went for it and for example last year in Mexico, it could have gone wrong there as well.

"It's racing. It's very simple and I really don't understand why everyone is so on top of this topic. These things happen in racing."

At the time, Verstappen said he "might" talk to Hamilton should he come into contact with the Mercedes driver and it was on the grid later when that moment occurred.

"Being that I’m the older driver I felt that it was important that I went to him," said the 33-year-old.

"I just shook his hand and I was like, ‘Look I’m sorry about the last race.’ Regardless if it is his fault or my fault, it’s in the past. Hopefully, that sign of respect shows a lot and helps you turn the page and move forwards."

Fernando Alonso has called on McLaren to make the next "step forward" after he and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne recovered from poor qualifying positions to finish in the points in Bahrain.

The Spaniard was his usual attacking self off the start, moving ahead of Lewis Hamilton on an opening lap which saw him move up from 13th on the grid to eighth, a position he would then maintain to the finish.

Once again it highlighted the British team's pace on a Sunday, as he sat behind Nico Hulkenberg for the entire race but the double world champion admits the lack of single lap performance is currently too detrimental.

"We need to raise our game because it's not enough at the moment," he told Sky Sports. "Definitely we need to improve and make a step forward. So far on Sundays, we are delivering the result but we need to be a step ahead.

"The qualifying was too poor and the starting positions were compromised because of that. We need to find more pace."

His second points result in a row actually jumps Alonso ahead of Daniel Ricciardo into fourth in the drivers' championship with 15 points while Vandoorne's total of seven means McLaren is only eight shy of their complete 2017 total.

"Fifth in Australia, seventh here, 10 points there, six here. We would have taken 16 points before starting the championship in Barcelona, so I'm very happy about that," the 36-year-old added.

The only embarrassment for McLaren was Alonso ended the race some 48 seconds behind the Honda-powered Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly in fourth.

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has named some interesting candidates as possible replacements for Lewis Hamilton.

The Austrian made the comments while talking about the current world champion's long-term future with the German manufacturer which currently, only extends until the end of this season with a new contract yet to be signed.

Though that deal is considered a matter of 'when' not 'if', the chances of it being his last with Mercedes are pretty high, Wolff admits.

“When you have a relationship, you always have to give everything. If you start something with another person, your marriage will collapse," he was quoted by PlanetF1.

“In F1 anything is possible. Tell me a driver who has not dreamed of being a world champion with Ferrari. I have a lot of respect for them and the only thing I can say is that Hamilton is part of the Mercedes family, although I do not exclude that possibility after 2020.”

The day the 33-year-old does leave the Brackley-based outfit will leave a very big hole to fill given his influence in recent years, but Wolff doesn't see it as a hole that is unfillable.

“Esteban [Ocon] is my little treasure,” he said. “I’ve known him for a long time and every year he has to respond to high expectations and he does it. It is impressive how he has grown.”

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Though the Frenchman is the obvious choice as the highest profile Mercedes junior, the 21-year-old is far from the only option.

“Carlos [Sainz] is a very special boy, very intelligent, with the right values, with the right family and he is very fast driver," Toto stated.

“If he performs well against Nico [Hulkenberg at Renault,] it will be on the radar of all the teams.

“I have always gotten along with Carlos and his father, we have always maintained a very good private relationship," he added. “We talked about the possibility of being in Mercedes, but he was a Red Bull driver and there was no option.”

Daniel Ricciardo cut a very despondent figure after retiring on just the second lap of Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Australian was tagging on to the leading trio in fourth before his Red Bull simply shut down on the exit of Turn 8, leading him to pull over to the side of the track.

It would come in a terrible minute for the team as Max Verstappen was also forced out after light contact with Lewis Hamilton in an attempted overtake at the start of the lap but it was Ricciardo left most disappointed upon his return to the paddock.

“We lost power, an electrical [problem],” he explained. “It was as if I had switched the car off, I had nothing."

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On a weekend when speculation over his future is heightening with rumours Ferrari is now a likely destination for 2019, the 28-year-old admits it will take some time to forget this latest disappointment.

“Being out so early in a race, it is the worst feeling," Ricciardo said. “You spend all day waiting for those two hours and after two minutes it is over.

“This sport can rip your heart out. It is brutal sometimes.”