It takes calm and cold blood. What is the response on Ferrari after the first day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain? The best answer is unjudgeable. The reason? It’s very simple: the Scuderia has programmed a data acquisition job that didn’t take the lap times in the slightest consideration but to carefully evaluate the behavior of the SF-23 in terms of set up changes.
The Ferrari car seen in the morning with Carlos Sainz (72 laps) seemed much better than the very nervous one in the hands of Charles Leclerc during the afternoon (64 laps). How come? The technicians on the track led by Matteo Togninalli carried out comparisons which did not only concern the correlation with the simulator, but also with the wind tunnel. We should recall that, for example, the Spaniard started the Thursday session with the sensor racks mounted behind the front wheels and the Monegasque opened his driving stint with the rear ones.
Final result: Carlos finished with the third time in 1’33″253, preceding Charles by 14 thousandths, which means there was basically no difference. The gap to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull? Four tenths.
The Dutchman, the only one who didn’t share the wheel with his teammate, immediately felt at ease with the RB19 and drove the distance of about three Grands Prix without problems. And he didn’t even need to do too many aerodynamic tests, because Adrian Newey’s car immediately began to rack up the kilometres, at most with a little flo viz paint.
The message to the onlookers was clear: Red Bull is not afraid that its supremacy could be challenged and immediately showed its cards on the table, knowing full well that it will have less chance of developing during the season with the FIA penalty which limits the wind tunnel development due to the non-compliance with the budget cap limit in 2021. So, it’s up to the adversaries to step forward.
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Scuderia Ferrari, however, is in no hurry: team principal Fred Vasseur said they were going their own way, using the first of the three days of testing to find the zero point of the setup, so it shouldn’t be surprising if, despite same medium tyres, Fernando Alonso also appeared in front of the SF-23 with the promising Aston Martin AMR23.
The response for the day speaks of 136 completed laps, equal to 700 km: a distance that should have been sufficient to complete the initial exploration of the car. Ferrari fans were worried when they saw Charles Leclerc jumping like a… grasshopper. The porpoising was once again back beyond a certain point and the nightmares that had accompanied the launch of the F1-75 last year are back.
The most hasty fans on social media immediately commented: another year thrown away! There is no need to make judgments at the dawn of a new season because Ferrari has only mapped the behavior of the SF-23.
The Maranello technicians went to probe at what height from the ground the harmful bouncing begins, trying to go more and more close to the ground, only to then come back higher and end the best run of the day with Charles Leclerc in the last outing, having identified where to start the work of fine-tuning and development.
The upset faces in the Maranello box were due to the unexpected issues: in the morning the nose of the muzzle was deformed due to a mounting error. One screw was not attached properly and created a small space inside the nose. In the afternoon it was necessary to replace the rear wing due to a problem with the steering of the DRS.
Problems that can emerge when you hit the track for the first time, but it is nothing serious. Among the positive aspects there is the top speed: the RB19 doesn’t seem to have a clear advantage at the speed trap as was the case last year, because the SF-23 was able to use the low downforce configuration rear wing seen last year in Canada and not the mid-high range one load that is normally used in Sakhir, losing just 1 km/h to the Red Bull capable of reaching 326 km/h.
Even the bypass duct has given positive feedback: the idea of the Maranello aerodynamicists works, and its not an option up for discussion. So, let’s suspend judgment on SF-23 for now.
Not even Mercedes can be evaluated at this stage: George Russell always drove with 80 kg of fuel, while Lewis Hamilton never with less than half: the difference between the two drivers’ performance can be measured in the fuel load. Even in Brackley they looked into their own programme, being relieved when they found that the bouncing was controllable and not caused by a wrong project as happened with the W13. And tomorrow is another day…
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