by FEDERICO ALBANO
After an entire winter and 24 hours of testing, Formula 1 finally officially returns to the track for the first free practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix, from which the first data and consequently the first impressions of the season emerge. However, we still need to be patient because the environmental and track conditions in the first session were not yet optimal and in any case the teams are still varying their programs in search of the best compromises in view of the race. However, some impressions are worthy of note.
Alonso a meteor, Red Bull imperfect, Ferrari confirms
Starting from the analysis of the flying lap we considered the laps on the medium tire and not those on the soft tire given that only the best McLarens tested the softer compound. Among those on the medium compound, the best time was achieved by Fernando Alonso, who becomes the reference of the graph, but who appears to be a “meteor”, with a performance strongly influenced by having had a new tire available several minutes after his opponents. The Ferrari seemed to behave well under braking and with some good ideas in the short pulls and at turn 6, in the middle of the snake. The one in curve 6 is a figure that goes against the trend compared to what was seen in the long runsprobably because the SF-24 has some difficulty turning in the straits, which however it manages well with new rubber. From turn 10 onwards, however, the red is really excellentand considering the morphology of the curves, long and medium fast, the impression is that there is confirmation of a Maranello single-seater with an excellent level of downforce and good aerodynamic stability, which would also be confirmed by the good impressions despite the wind strong. Verstappen's Red Bull certainly appeared very strong, but still had some imperfections to take care ofAbove all, it seems that there are some dynamic responses from the car, probably due to some mechanical imperfections, which take away Verstappen's confidence in the braking phases.
In the Long Runs Ferrari is the best with Hamilton very close
On the other hand, the red team's pace tests were excellent. As can be seen from the Carlos graphs Sainz he started his run as always with a fairly high attack time, but he progressed more and more, finishing with a time about 1 second better than the attack time. Leclerc he carried out, also in this case in analogy with what was seen in previous seasons, the opposite strategy, with a very fast attack time, and then restarting from a slower pace that allowed him to bring the temperatures back into the correct window. Leclerc's path from the second lap onwards is all downhill (with the exception of the last time recorded in traffic), thus confirming a Ferrari which for now seems to have found a good balance on the tyres. Lewis was very close to the reds Hamilton, who already appeared very focused and author of an excellent, fast and generally constant long run. Verstappen appeared in line with the times of Hamilton and the Ferraris, and this would already be news, but some imperfections were noticed on the number 1 car which in general the Red Bull mechanics and engineers will have to correct in the next sessions. The difference in potential appears to be precisely that while Ferrari and Mercedes are similar and have already found a good starting point, RedBull seems to be in line but with still some basic steps forward to be made.
In general, however, the first free practice session can only give a very partial representation of the values on the track, and we will have to wait for the next sessions to get a much more concrete idea.
#Bahrain #FP1 #data #telemetry #Ferrari #confirms
