In pre-season testing session at the Bahrain International Circuit, Ferrari confirmed that the team has made a big step forward compared to last season on a flying lap, while in the race simulations the SF21 suffered with tire management like the SF90.
Forty-eight hours after the end of the tests, we continue to discuss Ferrari’s performance and numbers from the Bahrain test. In fact, if times, especially in long runs, seemed to trigger an alarm bell, Mattia Binotto, Laurent Mekies and Charles Leclerc showed great tranquility.
The power unit justifies the optimism of Ferrari. In fact, Mattia Binotto’s words on the new engine were reflected in the speeds of Alfa and Haas, who confirmed to Ferrari that accessing Q3 or overtaking in the race will not be as difficult as in 2020.
The negative aspect was the race simulations, not only far from those of Red Bull and Mercedes but also slower than the Alpha Tauri, with the SF21 which gave the feeling in particular with Charles Leclerc of high tyre degradation. Problem that Ferrari has already had with the SF90, and for this very reason it went with the SF1000 in search of more downforce without success.
Improvements were seen Sunday afternoon with Carlos Sainz: another positive note of the Ferrari tests was that with the medium and soft, Carlos had a simulation on the levels of Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll. A step forward that may depend on the time it takes for the Ferrari technicians to find the ideal set-up of the car, but also on the confirmation of the Spaniard’s ability to show a good pace.
So in conclusion what to expect for the Bahrain Grand Prix? The minimum goal for qualifying given Charles Leclerc’s second time in the morning and Carlos Sainz’s third on Sunday afternoon is the third row. More unknowns on the race where to better than sixth place as Charles Leclerc said Saturday would mean that Ferrari did not show the true potential of the SF21 last weekend.
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