Formula 1 preseason has lowered the curtain on Bahrain this Saturday with many doubts about what awaits us next week in the inaugural race of the 2022 World Cup, the Bahrain Grand Prix. If at this time it is always difficult to establish a hierarchy, it is much more so this season, in which the championship introduces the technological revolution. bigger of the last decades in order to enhance the show and the advances.
Among the few certainties left by the six days of rehearsals (three in Barcelona and three in Sakhir) highlights the step forward of Ferrari, the solidity of Red Bull and its champion Max Verstappen and the ability to innovate at the end of Mercedes.
Sainz’s solvency
Sainz finished Friday as the fastest, though Kevin Magnussen he overtook him later in the overtime that Haas had on track. This Saturday the Madrilenian has once again starred in one morning session solvent, focused on long batches and most laps with the middle compound (C3), to complete another 68 laps at a good pace and with great reliability.
In the afternoon his companion Charles Leclerc has taken over and set the fastest provisional time (1.32.415), although the Monegasque has resorted to soft compound (C4) to exceed by two tenths the record that Max Verstappen he had achieved it almost effortlessly and with the means.
Impact
Red Bull has released a double upgrade in its RB18, with a new pontoon design and a new floor. Unlike the extreme change introduced by Mercedes in these tests, leaving the W13 virtually without pontoons when applying a cooling system arising from aerospace technology, the new Red Bull pontoons are an evolution of those used in Barcelona two weeks ago .
Sergio Perez It didn’t take long for it to prove its worth best in the morning (1.33.105). And in the afternoon round the champion Verstappen he wanted to make a final impact and mounted the C5 ultratou to close the preseason as the fastest of the three days (1.31.720).
The Asturian, without errors
Leclerc and Fernando Alonso have been placed behind the Red Bull driver who, after chaining multiple problems with the new Alpine A522, has been able to squeeze as much as possible on the last day of the test and was 9 tenths of the best, with no notable errors after being beaten 122 laps behind the wheel.
George Russell Alonso failed to win in the last attempt with the Mercedes and the team of Brackley the sensations are not the best. Lewis Hamilton was pessimistic at a press conference and warned that the W13’s ‘youth’ problems would not be solved overnight: “It will take time, we are not yet to win,” he said.
