The Friday in F1 Bahrain GP started off poorly for all due to low grip levels, but things picked up in FP2 where McLaren stamped authority.
It wasn’t a good start to Friday in F1 Bahrain GP due to low grip surface. It didn’t cause any crashes, but there was a lot of slipping and sliding, which somewhat continued under the floodlights in FP2 as well. Irrespective of the conditions, McLaren were authoritative in their run.
They looked good both in qualifying trim and also race. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took their turn to top the standings and felt good in the car. They feel that the competition maybe hiding something which is why the times looked so far apart in the top half.
But the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, don’t think they are close enough to McLaren. George Russell had the one session to get through his plans. Even though he felt good in the car, he knows that they are mostly in the fight to remain ahead of the pack behind McLaren.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli missed the first session due to inercooler issue and had to recover in FP2, which he did. He feels the long run pace seemed off on his side. It was same for Max Verstappen in terms of missing FP1. He was struggling as he notes and agrees that the gap to McLaren is big.
Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, did not have a clean run at all. The set-ups is different between the two cars and it was to extract it all. Things were messy on communications side which upset the running, as making in Q3 will be difficult as he asserts, even though the potential is there.
On Ferrari side, both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc felt the updates it brought on the floor did work, it was just that they haven’t fully extracted everything yet. They are optimistic about the situation, even though they concede that McLaren remains far ahead in the order.
Norris: “A difficult day, just re-adapting back to the reality of Bahrain, the difficulties of Bahrain, which make it tough. It will make it exciting on Sunday, because the degradation is incredible today comparing to the test. It’s kind of weird today, because everything feels dreadful but I think relatively our pace was still in a reasonable place. I think a reasonable Friday. I think it’s just conditions. It’s just the temperature, it’s hot, it’s windy… it’s more the temperature which makes such a big difference. It is what it is, it’s the same challenge for everyone.
“A big challenge is how can you look after the rear tyres in the best way possible. A lot of it is… we came into this weekend with a lot of our information from the pre-season test, but it’s basically like throw all of that in the bin and just start again, because it’s so different today. I just don’t think they turned up. Everyone just looks at the timesheets, they have no idea about the information on who turns up, who doesn’t… it’s like three-and-a-half, four-tenths around here, so that puts us back in the same position as the Mercedes.”
Verstappen: “[It] took like one lap, two laps to get into it, but still the gap was quite massive, so [I’m] not entirely happy. [I was] just struggling a lot with grip, feeling in general. The balance wasn’t too bad but just, yeah, off, and quite a bit of work to do also in the long run. We’re just too slow basically every lap, and it was honestly not a lot of fun out there in the long run. A bit of drift practice at the end there as well! It’s just how we planned the run, from FP1 with Ayumu in the car and then me in FP2, just to see how they would hold up. Yeah, it’s big [gap to McLaren]. We did a bit of a different approach to our Friday, so I think this gap is very big.”
Tsunoda: “[It was] a bit of learning, I guess. It’s a bit [of a] different set-up across the cars to kind of see [what] the performance looks like. There’s a little bit of that as well, but also the session was pretty messy overall. I [wasn’t] able to put it all together, also there was a lot of miscommunication between our side of the garage in the radio for example. I think that’s part of the learning process, because it’s [the] fifth session from when I jumped in. But yeah, it was not obviously the finest session. I hope it will be better. [It has] to be better than this. I’m sure we’re going to change a lot of things, and I mean for now it seems [like we’re] struggling, but at the same time I know a lot more will come from cleaner operations and everything.
“So I’m still feeling optimistic, but it will be hard for now to go through Q3. Potential, it’s hard to tell, but like I said it’s a different set-up between us. I know each time I’m feeling its potential, but it’s just hard to extract it, and I could have done much better with the places where the lap time comes, which would make it much smoother operations-side. Warm-up, switches and everything was pretty messy overall today. I just have to avoid it – this situation – in future, but yeah, maybe me and Woody [my race engineer] have to go out tonight and build a relationship more!”
Hamilton: “It was fun. It was quite difficult in the morning as always. With the temperature being so high, the grip was terrible on the hard tyre for the first run. Then it’s quite a big shock from hard to soft, which was much better. We made some changes and the car felt pretty decent in FP2. [It’s just about] consistency… just trying to put the laps together, having a car that’s easy to drive and that’s consistent through the lap. At the moment it’s a bit different between low, medium and high [speed corners], as you often have.
“We’re just trying to finesse it, trying to tweak it, and make sure that we have good long-run pace, because that’s where you need to be strong here particularly. The upgrades are definitely working. A big, big thank you to everyone back home for working so hard on bringing the upgrades, because it’s never an easy thing. It’s a lot of work that goes on in the wind tunnel and a lot of work that goes on in fabricating and putting together these floors. It’s just good to see that we’re taking steps forward. We’re trying to now extract more from it and I hope we can make the right steps overnight to tomorrow.”
Antonelli: “Unfortunately I had an intercooler issue with the car so I had to stop and couldn’t drive for the rest of the session which obviously was a shame because you don’t want to be wasting any laps. I think FP2 was quite positive. Single lap it felt quite good, I made a big mistake in sector one but overall I felt pretty good in the car. Long run was quite tricky, the situation was completely different compared to what we had in testing. So I needed to adapt but overall I think, despite the issue in FP1, was still a positive day.”
The messy run aided several teams to make it inside the Top 10. And certainly Visa Cash App RB’s Isack Hadjar is hopeful that he can make it in the Top 10 in qualifying as well. Teammate Liam Lawson felt good in the car in FP2, but knows he has to work a bit more to extract the maximum.
Even though Haas pair had a Top 10 chance, both Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman did struggle as they said. The former is having more problems than the latter, especially on the bouncing side. They feel that their one-lap pace should be better than race pace heading into the business end.
The Williams duo hovered round the fag end of the Top 10 as well. Even though Carlos Sainz just had FP2, the Spaniard wasn’t feeling bad with the car. Like Alexander Albon, he did face balance problems which could be down to the weather considering it was hot all day long.
The likes of Alpine and Sauber had a so-so running. Both Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan are aiming to be as high as possible if not in Top 10, while Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto felt good in the car but lacked overall pace to be much further ahead in the pecking order.
Aston Martin, meanwhile, don’t look confident for rest of the F1 weekend. Fernando Alonso even had a steering issue which hampered his running, while Lance Stroll did not enjoy out there. The FP1 runners – Dino Beganovic, Felipe Drugovich, Luke Browning, Ayumu Iwasa, Ryo Hirakawa and Frederik Vesti – shared their views as well on their run plan.
Hadjar: “FP2 was good compared to FP1 – [in] FP1 it didn’t make any sense with how hot the track was, so it was not reliable information, I would say. FP2 made much more sense, and our one-lap pace again we were quite strong. I had a good feeling with the car. Still room for improvement, because I would say this was actually our first real session today, so a lot to look forward [to] tomorrow. It was worlds apart. This morning was really not enjoyable, now it’s back to pretty much F1 standards, I would say. It was a big difference. I’m always optimistic [about reaching Q3], because I know I’m going to put the work in tonight and tomorrow, but definitely we are still in the mix. But it’s going to be a hard fight. It’s not surprising [to see the close gaps in the top 10]. It’s what you would expect in the midfield, so I know tomorrow is going to be about details.”
Albon: “We weren’t quite as competitive today as we were when we were here for pre-season testing, and we fell back a little bit in the heat. The issues we’re seeing were expected though and some balance issues have been exposed. We only seem to have them at this track, it’s interesting. We know it’s going to be close here, but the good thing is, it’s nothing major that needs fixing; the car feels good.”
Gasly: “The conditions here in Bahrain are very different now compared to pre-season testing. In Free Practice 1 it was extremely hot and it was just low grip all session. It was quite nice to be second on the leaderboard even if it was not a representative session for various reasons. In Free Practice 2, the Hard tyre at the start felt okay but we just seemed to struggle on the Soft tyre. It’s important we understand that compound a bit better and see how we can optimise it over one lap. The midfield is extremely tight again and I remain optimistic that we can improve ahead of tomorrow. We will do our homework tonight and make sure we get it right tomorrow evening.”
Alonso: “I think it’s going to be a tough weekend. Before coming here, the characteristics of Bahrain was a concern for us and our package, but we will learn and see what we can do the rest of the weekend. We had an issue with the steering early in FP2, but the mechanics were able to change the parts and it was okay after that, so thank you everyone in the garage for getting it fixed quickly.”
Bearman: “It was a good session, although I’m slightly struggling to get a good feeling with the car; I had some brake issues I was dealing with for the whole session. It still looks like on low-fuel we’re pretty competitive and we tried to run long with the soft tyre, so we’ll see what the data says but I’m pretty happy with today even though I got one session in. I definitely think the new floor is working as expected, which is great, as the team pushed it forward and brought it very quickly. I’m proud of them for that and it looks like we can run the car pretty aggressively now which is great for performance, so hopefully we can keep up the good performance.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a tricky Friday. For the first time this year, we were facing really hot conditions – especially during daytime in FP1. The conditions differed quite severely from our test sessions in February. Though the run on soft tyres in particular did not meet expectations, we gathered a lot of data to help us to improve the car for the weekend. Now it is about reviewing both practice sessions in detail to make the right calls and be well prepared for the rest of the weekend.“
Beganovic: “Making my first official Formula 1 appearance in a Ferrari is a real privilege and I will remember this day in Bahrain forever. I really had an amazing time, I enjoyed every moment. We completed our plan with no issues and I hope it contributed to helping the team. I want to thank Charles, the team and the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy for this amazing opportunity. I will now focus on my Formula 2 campaign and will do my best to maximise the learnings from today.”
Vesti: “What a day it’s been. Yesterday was awesome to be back in the paddock and working with the team preparing for the day today. I was really happy to be back in the car – it felt really good to challenge myself and to push to the limit. Obviously spending so much time in the simulator, it’s just really nice to get time in the real car, learning more about the tyres and the W16 itself. As a racing driver, feeling that energy through the body is something you miss a lot when you’re in the simulator. I want to thank Mercedes for giving me the opportunity again to run in FP1 and continue my journey. My motivation is very high and I will continue to push. For now, it’s back to Brackley, back to work with the team there and correlate what I’ve learned today in the simulator. We will continue pushing towards even better results and race wins.”
Iwasa: “It was a really great experience to get to drive the RB21 in Bahrain, a big thank you to the Team for the opportunity. It was a bit tricky with the session I had, we had an aero test at the beginning of the session, so I didn’t do many laps today, but I was focused on trying to do my best and to not make many mistakes. Towards the end of the session, I was feeling more comfortable in the car and was able to provide more feedback on the radio. It has been really helpful to work with GP and the engineering team, to hear their feedback on my performance and to work with them. I had tested previously in the VCARB car, so it was great to have another opportunity to drive in an F1 car. It was overall a new and nice experience in the car and with the Team and will help prepare myself for hopefully more opportunities in the future.”
Hirakawa: “Having done the post-season test with the team last year was helpful, I already knew the team, so I’ve settled in quickly again. It was quite a different experience from last week as the track temp was very high, so it was quite a tricky session for me. To be honest, I didn’t have time to completely adapt to the car, which was a shame, but still I had a good feeling and gave my feedback to the team. The car is going in a good direction and I’ve got more sessions coming, so I can prepare better.”
Drugovich: “It was pretty tricky out there, probably the lowest grip I’ve ever driven and different to the conditions I have driven in before. It was quite challenging, but once I got a feel for it I put a lap together which was okay. I felt a bit rusty because it’s been a while since i’ve been in these cars, but it’s always a pleasure and I really enjoyed myself.”
Browning: “Coming from F2 Practice to F1 Practice was tough as it was such a big step up! Saying that, it was probably harder the other way – stepping back to F2. It’s always nicer to go from F2 to F1, to push everything up. I think we did a good job out there; I really enjoyed it. I was in an F1 car in Monza last week for our test, so it was great to be able to apply everything I learned then to this weekend. Getting more mileage in was a big help. Big thanks to Williams for the opportunity!”
Here’s how FP1 panned out in F1 Bahrain GP
Here’s how FP2 panned out in F1 Bahrain GP
Here’s details on FIA meet
