In the second free practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix it began to guess (and just to guess) something more about characteristics of the cars. RedBull seems to be confirmed as at the moment the team to beat. The RB18 doesn’t seem to soar in a particular feature but overall be the most complete package at the momentwith top-level performance on straights, slow corners and in fast corners (especially) of the Sakhir route. Behind the Milton Keynes team there seems to be, very close, the Ferrari. The F1-75 proved to be very competitive in the traction and phases in slow curves. Leclerc and Sainz seem to be still suffering the high lateral loads and for this they leave a few cents in the changes of direction at high speed and in fast cornering in support. Let’s see the comparison of the data between Leclerc’s fastest lap and Verstappen’s to get a clearer idea.
It can be seen from the data as in extension the Ferrari acceleration curve is particularly full between 200 and 270 km / h, while it then tends to decrease compared to the RedBull one. The latter often touches top speed slightly higher than the red one in the long straights, as opposed to what happens in the shorter ones, where it is Ferrari that finds the best ideas, confirming what appears to be a better starting point below 300 km / h. Taking into account that no one has seriously pushed with the Power Unit schemes, the considerations we are going to make now are more than anything else first impressions seeing precisely today’s data, but they will have to be confirmed (or denied) when finally it will get serious in qualifying. Looking at the trend of the acceleration curves, a bit across the track and taking what happens as a model from the exit of turn 10 to the braking point of turn 11 (the back straight of the track) can be seen as the speed curves and therefore the relative accelerations of Ferrari and RedBull cross each other more than once.
In minimum range the dominance seems to be of RedBullwith Ferrari that though takes a nice lead in the medium range, the one mentioned above between 200 and 270. Above 300 km / h RedBull is back in the lead in terms of top speed. The general impression for now is therefore one RB18 very aerodynamically efficientwhich encounters less resistance to progress in the very high range, but by one Very powerful Ferrariwith a particularly effective delivery curve, so much so that even on the straight Leclerc earns about 60 thousandths on Verstappen. The impression is therefore that some choices made on the aerodynamics of the car were also possible thanks to the awareness of an important cavalry found under the hood. If this is true, however, we will find out only after having seen the pushed mappings, so far not used by anyone at all.
In general, for the moment, the situations where performance diverges most of Ferrari and RedBull seem dependent on the type of curve. Ferrari is particularly effective in slow curves or in general in short onesthat is, where a strong input with the steering and the car is loaded sideways for a few fractions of a second without “leaning” on the eternal side for long periods. It can be seen in the complex of Turns 1-2, Turn 10 and especially Turn 14. Red Bull, on the other hand, seems to be prefer long curves and so to speak “round”, in addition to changes of direction at high speed, such as curve 4, curve 6 and curves 11 and 13. In fact, the RB18 seems to have great stability of the aerodynamic packageaided in all probability by one greater stiffness than the suspension package which limits roll and therefore allows aerodynamic efficiency to be maintained even when the flows are not centered on the car.
The difficulties Mercedes, fighting for the third force – If the doubt about the real Mercedes difficulties has always been present, the behind the front on the aerodynamic package tried in the first free practice is to be seen as one confirmation about the complicated moment of the Brackley team. Looking at the data you realize how the car has large potential marginsnot suffering in a particular way any conditions, indeed distinguishing itself for the traction cues, among the best seen on the track.
The big problems for the W13 seem to come first at high speedswith a phenomenon of porpoising particularly evident, so much so that we see Russell in his fast lap even lift your foot conspicuously before turn 14. The countermeasures carried out on the track are not proving to be sufficiently efficient, but the most obvious limit for the car seems to be when braking. In all phases of violent braking, the silver arrow leaves important meters on the asphalt that quickly translate into heavy tenths. Whether this is connected directly to the porpoising which prevents its drivers from braking at best, it is difficult to establish, but the impression is of a car package that is so unstable at late speeds as to force its drivers to be more cautious when braking, which, with cars like these , equivalent to burn any other performance advantage. Just see the detached from corner 1where from our data, Russell leaves over 3 tenths in Verstappen, an enormity. This is clearly a big problem for the eight-time world champion team, who will have to work hard to fix it and which appears to involve both the aero and mechanical packages. It remains to say that, as mentioned, in all the other phases of the tour the car expresses first-rate potentialso if the technicians led by James Allison find a square, the W13 seems to be able to reach the positions that matter.
In the long runfinally, it amazes the step of Max Verstappen which gives a constant and very fast pace despite the soft rubber. Ferrari difficult to understand with Leclerc doing only 4 laps, 2 very slow and 2 very fast. Mercedes looks like very far from the leader on the step, with the problems that seem worsen with increasing weight of the car. Sainz finally it would seem to settle on little better rhythms than Mercedes for which it would not seem exceptional but the chapter tire management it is still to be discovered and for that we will have to wait for the race.
In general, however, behind the top teams for now they amaze Haas, Alfa Romeo (powered by Ferrari) and the Alpine Of Alonsobut the situation appears Evolving and all that remains is to wait for the first starting grid to begin to understand this season’s hierarchy.
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