Carlos Sainz pinpoints factor that made Ferrari’s Thursday practice “difficult and challenging”. The Ferrari SF-24 didn't seem as easy to drive as during pre-season testing.

Carlos Sainz concluded Thursday’s free practice in Bahrain in P4. The SF-24 didn’t seem as easy to drive as during the tests, but the two Ferrari cars will be in the front group.

Thursday’s free practice opened at 12:30 Italian time, 14:30 local time, with the first free practice session. The weather conditions were far from what the drivers will face in qualifying and the race, which will take place in the evening. So, for the Bahrain GP free practice, the Ferrari drivers, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, implemented a specific strategy.

The Maranello team sacrificed FP1 in a way. The two red cars used two sets of Medium tires, the compound that will be discarded for the rest of the weekend. On the Sakhir circuit, this compound does not guarantee the performance of Soft or the durability of Hard.

In FP2, the only free practice session under artificial lights, the two Ferraris exclusively used Soft compound tires, first performing dry run simulations and then evaluating the race pace after loading the car with fuel.

Both drivers used two sets of Soft tires. With the first set, Carlos Sainz stopped the clock at 1:31.576. With the second set, the track was naturally more rubbered in, and everyone improved their times. Carlos then set his best lap of the day, clocking 1:30.769.

This time earned him the fourth position at the end of the day, about four tenths behind the leader Lewis Hamilton. However, the Spaniard was one of the first to mount the second set of tires, encountering slightly worse asphalt conditions than his rivals.

Judging by the on-board footage, the SF-24 didn’t seem as easy to drive as in the tests. The two red cars often experienced front wheel lock-ups during braking and found themselves struggling with a slightly unstable rear in mid-turn and on exit. However, it should be added that almost everyone faced difficulties in keeping their respective cars on track due to the strong wind that affected Thursday in Sakhir, as Carlos Sainz also stated.

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Charles Leclerc had to abort even two attempts with the second set of tires, achieving his best lap only on the third attempt, by which time the tires had already lost peak grip.

During the race pace test, the balance of the SF-24 was better. The simulation carried out by the two Ferrari drivers was very similar to those carried out by Mercedes and McLaren, with times around 1:36 in the initial phase, rising to 1:37 as the laps progressed.

The Red Bull cars were the only ones able to continue in the 1:36 range for several laps. However, the RB20, at least for now, doesn’t seem as invincible as everyone feared, although it remains the benchmark for the group.

At the end of the day, Carlos Sainz declared himself satisfied. The Spaniard completed a total of 51 laps, successfully finishing the entire work program. Sufficient data has been collected to optimize the setups for qualifying and the race. This work will prove to be of crucial importance: with five cars that seem roughly at the same level, every detail can make a difference.

Carlos Sainz
FP1: 1:33.385 (+0.516) – P11 – 26 laps
FP2: 1:30.769 (+0.395) – P4 – 25 laps

“It was a more challenging day of free practice compared to what we had during the tests because the strong wind made it more difficult to achieve consistent performance. Obviously, we don’t know the programs of our opponents, but in terms of competitiveness, I would say we are where we expected to be. Overall, our Thursday was good as we completed our program thoroughly evaluating the tires. Now it’s time to analyze all the data and prepare for qualifying. I can’t wait to get in the car tomorrow; we will all be very close.” – the Spanish driver said at the end of the second free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Source: f1ingenerale