Most of the post-testing analyses pointed out that Scuderia Ferrari was in trouble based on the data gathered from the Bahrain International Circuit as the SF-23 car was running with a high fuel load on board. This despite the fact that tire wear is contained and the balance seemed most of the times good at least for Charles Leclerc. On Red Bull, as happened in the winter pre-season tests, only great compliments from this point of view. A big step was achieved with extreme simplicity, while Aston Martin confirmed to be a positive surprise with a truly unleashed Fernando Alonso.
During the first competitive Friday of the season, various teams concentrated a lot of work on the Soft, the fastest tyre available, in order to fully understand its functioning and degradation. Obviously, as far as tire degradation is concerned, the data we receive from the track show lower consumption than in the tests carried out last week.
As we had underlined, the race pace simulations with clearly higher temperatures given the different times, had shown higher wear than normal. A context that revealed some issues for the historic Ferrari team.
Looking at the rhythm, we notice that Verstappen once again places himself in front of everyone. For Sunday, if this scenario is confirmed, he will be unreachable. The RB19 inherits excellent compound management from the previous car, a fundamental element for that allowed the Austrian side to win both titles in an easy manner.
Ferrari, at the moment, is placed 5 tenths behind Red Bull, even if obviously the fuel loads remain an unknown factor that needs to be discovered. The difficulty in entering and the oversteer in exiting do not help handling over long distances. Sergio Perez is the only Red Bull car that can be challenged, while Mercedes is quite behind.
Apparently the W14 also lacks in terms of tire management. Two-times world champion Fernando Alonso made a very positive note and, evaluating the data from Friday, could be right behind Max Verstappen if he were to start from the front row.
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Gp Bahrain 2023/High fuel analysis: Ferrari manages the degradation
The graph below shows the trend of the sessions during FP2. Overall, despite the fact that the mercury column has facilitated tire management compared to last weekend, degradation remains moderately high considering the few laps completed. On the other hand, we are still in Bahrain and the rear, in general, is highly stressed.
We note that Fernando Alonso manages to produce an even better time than Max Verstappen. However, as the sessions go by, the Aston Martin seems to suffer a more marked degradation than the RB19. Observing the slope of the green line relating to Fernando, it is easy to see that his wear on the Soft tire is greater when compared to that of Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz, even though both of these drivers set slower times.
The only driver to have the so-called “positive degradation” is Charles Leclerc. We can explain this trend by saying that in the first laps his tires weren’t yet up to temperature. Looking at the dashboard on the steering wheel of his Ferrari SF-23, in fact, it was noticed how his compounds were slightly below the optimal operating window during a good part of the simulation.
It goes without saying that one of the most important keys to Sunday’s strategy will be tire degradation. In fact, it will be essential to have pace in all conditions, as Sakhir is a track that offers several overtaking points as long as you have good top speed.
Precisely for this simple reason, the technicians of various teams try to use a low downforce rear wing while maintaining the right compromise between top speed and tire wear. An F1 car with more downforce slides less and, consequently, does not overheat the tyres. The position on the track won’t be fundamental, but being able to calibrate the power of the undercuts will be a very important aspect during the race.
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