Scuderia Ferrari came away from the opening round of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, with a sixth place courtesy of Charles Leclerc and an eighth with Carlos Sainz.
Charles got a great start, moving up to third place, while Carlos dropped back two places. They then went head to head with the McLarens. In the first stint, Charles had to give best to Lando Norris and spent most of the race in his wake, until the closing stages, when Sergio Perez, who had started from pit lane, got in between the two of them.
Carlos Sainz fought his way up the order, duelling with Daniel Ricciardo for seventh in the closing stages. Under the chequered flag, Leclerc finished ahead of Ricciardo and Carlos.
The next round, the Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia Romagna takes place at Imola on 18 April. But in the meantime work is not over for Scuderia Ferrari and its two drivers at the Bahrain International Circuit.
With 18-inch tyres set to be introduced to Formula 1 in 2022, Pirelli will test the new, larger sized rubber over 20 days and 10 sessions this year – with Ferrari having begun the programme at Jerez in February.
The Scuderia kicked off 2021 18-inch tyre testing with slick and wet tyres at Spain’s Jerez circuit on February 22-24, with every team bar Williams to test the 2022 compounds over the next few months, ahead of the switch from the current 13-inch tyre for next year.
Today at the Bahrain International Circuit, Ferrari will test the 2021 prototype 18-inch tyres for the second time this year. Carlos Sainz will drive in the morning followed by Charles Leclerc in the afternoon.
Most of the sessions will be single-car sessions, but a few will be multi-car tests, meaning that there will have been 28 days’ worth of 2022 tyre tests in 2021; 22 in the dry and six in the wet.
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