F1 | Leclerc and Sainz: “No surprises, the top teams are fighting”

The first day on track of the season for Ferrari ended with a fourth and a ninth place which, according to the drivers, confirms what was suspected before, that the group behind the Red Bulls is rather compact.

Sainz closed just under four tenths of a second, while Charles Leclerc's deficit was larger, as he ended his Thursday afternoon seven tenths from the top. However, the Monegasque's case is much more complex than the timesheets might suggest, because he did not achieve his best time on fresh tyres.

In fact, during the second run on new tyres, Leclerc made several oversteer errors in turn eleven and locked up in turn four, which led him to abort his lap on two different occasions. On a track as difficult as that of Bahrain, which is very aggressive on the tyres, it is clear that not having a particularly fresh tire may have taken away something in terms of performance.

After the tests, the sensations that emerged were those of a car that was much easier to drive than in the past, even if some critical elements were not missing, such as a certain suffering in slow corners from the point of view of understeer. However, upon arriving in Sakhir for the race weekend, the teams immediately noticed differences in terms of track conditions compared to last week: the wind increased in intensity and the temperatures also changed.

Leclerc was not surprised that behind the Red Bull, which demonstrated a very consistent and rapid pace, the group was particularly compact. Leclerc started his simulation on the low 37, moving to the 36 and a half for a couple of laps, at least before returning to the low 37 pace again, with a pace similar to that of other top teams. The difference is that Verstappen was the only one to consistently lap under 37, which, net of the unknown of the fuel load and the maps used, currently crowns him as a reference in view of the race.

“I would have been surprised if that hadn't been the case. I expected to be there with the others and the only question mark is Red Bull, or how far ahead will they be compared to the others. But I would be surprised if we weren't fighting with the others,” Leclerc said at the end of the day.

“The sensations were good, also in this case there were no big surprises, at least on our part, so it's a positive thing, no bad surprises, but no good surprises either, just as we expected the car to be. We therefore carried out our programme. In FP2 I made a small mistake in my fastest lap. But apart from that, now it's all to decide for tomorrow, trying to concentrate on taking a step forward. Mercedes seems strong, which is a bit a surprise, but we don't know what fuel they're running on. So I think we'll have all the answers tomorrow.”

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“Our pace felt quite good. The feeling was quite good, I felt quite good in the car again and it's a much better start than last year, where we got to the first race and it was very difficult to know exactly what it was. the right window to optimize our car. That's not the case today, we know we are in the right window to give our best with this car. Now everything depends on tomorrow, to try to anticipate tomorrow's conditions and get the best out of this weekend”, added the Monegasque.

Teammate Carlos Sainz was also on the same wavelength, underlining not only how the track conditions have changed since the tests, an aspect well known to the teams, but also that he expected a particularly compact grid, which will lead to a very interesting weekend: “It went well, but it was more complicated to drive the car than in the tests because the wind was quite strong compared to the other days here in Bahrain. But we saw many very competitive teams, with the grid seeming very close today, so it should be a very interesting weekend.”