Lewis Hamilton (r) and George Russell, in Bahrain. /
preseason
Hamilton surprised with a W13 with some pontoons in its minimum expression, and there are already voices that point out that it is illegal, and Alonso hardly rolls in the afternoon due to a breakdown
Regardless of who was the fastest or the one who did the most laps on the first day of testing in Bahrain, all the headlines of the day were taken by Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton took to the track at the wheel of a W13 that left everyone open-mouthed for its risky and audacious sidepod design. He had seen it coming for days. The rumor that with this new regulation a car could be made with practically no side air intakes seemed technically possible. An idea had already been advanced in the Williams, with very narrow horizontal pontoons and taking the idea advanced by Ferrari to the maximum, but no one had dared to show a totally audacious evolution of this idea: pontoons taken to the minimum expression, with shots of air very scarce and completely down.
Immediately, rumors began to spread in the paddock that he was going to be reported immediately. Unofficially, Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted that they had serious doubts that the car was in the spirit of the rule and that they were willing to complain. As soon as that ‘off the record’ began to circulate, the team denied it… in their own way: they did not deny the claim, but that Horner had spoken. It is clear that the idea of Mercedes raises at least a lot of surprise, so it would not be surprising if the FIA received a barrage of complaints.
Apparently on the first day in Bahrain that concept still needs to be developed. The dreaded ‘porpoising’, that incessant pitching that has been the protagonist since these cars were put on the track, was constant in the W13, including some off the track. Not all technical solutions work and while the concept is ingenious, it clearly needs further testing.
Alpine, from bad to worse
While the work of the teams was to go around to evolve to a greater or lesser extent what was seen in Barcelona, there were two teams that, for different reasons, rode much less. One was Haas, the skinny dog that is all about fleas. To the crisis generated by the departure of Uralkali and Nikita Mazepin for Kevin Magnussen to return, was added the delay of the pieces in Bahrain that forced Pietro Fittipaldi to stay in the pits all morning. In the afternoon, on the other hand, they were able to shoot.
The other team that disappointed was Alpine. Already in the morning they left a small scare in the form of a mechanical failure that made Esteban Ocon lose almost an hour, but after solving it with relative ease, the Frenchman was able to complete 42 laps. He wasn’t the one who rolled the most in the morning, but he wasn’t the least either; he wasn’t the fastest, but he wasn’t the slowest either. He was left in a gray area that, on paper, looks like it will be his place this season.
Things were much worse for Fernando Alonso. The Asturian only did 24 laps in the afternoon, in several short stints, and without pushing too hard. He couldn’t: the sensors detected overheating that had already been behind the morning breakdown. In Alpine they preferred to sacrifice the afternoon, they disassembled the car practically completely and got down to work on one side of the power unit. The cooling problems were notable and they could not risk a breakage in the middle of the test. With a circumstance face, Alonso could only look resigned as his mechanics fixed the system and changed, incidentally, all the settings thinking more about the days of Friday and Saturday. He was able to go out a little over half an hour from the end and even see himself on the track against Lance Stroll, but far from competitively. He has to work a lot.
As for Carlos Sainz, Ferrari had a solvent day again. The conservative and safest bet for this campaign seems to be the Scuderia, given that the Madrid driver was second with a total of 52 laps and Charles Leclerc with 64, as well as being the fastest in the morning session. The day ended with a scare, precisely, of the one who rode the most: Sergio Pérez caused a red flag ten minutes from the end when he spun and got stuck in the gravel. A minor problem, seeing what happened in other teams.
