Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull seemed behind Aston Martin in the first two free practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, but for now they have not revealed their true potential, as pointed out by RacingNews365’s technical expert Paolo Filisetti.
Based on the data from FP1 and FP2, we can clearly note how the Austrian and Italian sides have not reached their maximum potential in terms of performance: when it comes to Scuderia Ferrari, the Maranello team has been running with limited power, as was the a lot of fuel load on board, which we feel was higher than necessary to perform a qualifying simulation in Sakhir. This was also the case for Red Bull, who completed its simulations with higher fuel loads, as both sides attempted to cover their top performances until the qualifying session later today.
Still, an interesting aspect could be noticed for the RB19 and the SF-23 challengers in terms of ride heights. In fact, both cars used a set-up with a very low rear end with the goal of increasing the load generated by the floor’s Venturi channels. As a result of the lower ride heights, there was constant and persisting bottoming of the floor against the Sakhir asphalt, that could be clearly seen due to the production of a trail of sparks both on the unevenness of the asphalt and due to the car’s porpoising oscillations (more evident in the case of the Ferrari single-seater).
This porpoising effect also manifested itself in the fast turns, which caught out Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in a big way.
Ferrari and Red Bull pushing the limits
According to Paolo Filisetti, in the Bahrain paddock, ahead of FP2, word had spread, also based on rumours that had already emerged after the winter pre-season testing sessions, that Red Bull might have had to raise the RB19 floor, due to the fact that the bumps on the asphalt would have caused excessive wear on the plank, maybe even wearing the plank to a minimum thickness lower than the allowable amount, but also most importantly causing damage to the carbon floor and having repercussions on the mechanical elements inside.
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It seems that Red Bull’s call to run with ride heights around 5mm less than its rivals has been kept and, generally, this is also the plan for Scuderia Ferrari in view of the qualifying session. Following the initial run in the second free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the inspection of any damage to the floor of Charles Leclerc’s SF-23 challenger carried out by the Italian side’s mechanics, gave an encouraging negative result, which is good news for Ferrari.
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