It takes calm and cold blood. What is the response on Ferrari after the first day of collective testing in Bahrain? The more serious answer is nonjudgable. The reason? It’s very simple: the Scuderia has programmed a data acquisition job that didn’t take the times in the slightest consideration (woe if it had been) but to sound out the behavior of the SF-23 as the set up changes.
The redhead seen in the morning with Carlos Sainz (72 laps) seemed much better than the very nervous one in the hands of Charles Leclerc in 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.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23, with sensor rakes
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
It will not have escaped, for example, that the Spaniard started the session with the sensor racks mounted behind the front wheels and the Monegasque opened his driving shift with the rear ones.
Final result: Carlos finished with the third time in 1’33”253, preceding Charles by 14 thousandths, a zero. Detachment from Max Verstappen’s Red Bull? Four tenths.
The Dutchman, the only one who didn’t share the wheel with his teammate, started the RB19 and scored 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.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The message to the onlookers was clear: Red Bull is not afraid that its supremacy should be put into play 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 investigation for non-compliance with budget cap. So, it’s up to the adversaries to step forward.
Ferrari, however, is in no hurry: helmsman Fred Vasseur said they were going their own way, letting the first of the three days of testing serve 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 red with the promising Aston Martin AMR23.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
The day’s response speaks of 136 laps completed, equal to 700 km: a distance that should have been sufficient to complete the exploration of the car. Cavallino fans were frightened when they saw Charles Leclerc jumping like a… grasshopper. The porpoising beyond a certain speed has been revised 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 hopping begins, trying to go more and more close to the track, only to then come back higher and close the best run of the day with Leclerc in the last outing, having identified where to start the work of fine-tuning and development.
Laurent Mekies and Fred Vasseur in the Bahrain paddock
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The tight faces in the Cavallino box were due to the unexpected stops: in the morning the nose of the muzzle was deformed due to a wrong fixing, while in the afternoon it was necessary to replace the rear wing due to a problem with the steering of the DRS.
Problems of youth that can emerge when you start to get serious, but nothing serious. Among the positive aspects are the top speeds: the RB19 doesn’t seem to have a sidereal advantage at the speed trap as was the rule last year, because the redhead allowed herself to mount Canada’s unloaded rear wing and not the mid-range one. high load that is normally used in Sakhir, yielding 1 km/h to the Red Bull capable of 326 km/h.
Detail of the medium load rear wing of the Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Even the bypass duct has been promoted: the idea of the aerodynamicists of the Reparto Corse works, it’s not a useful gadget for discussion. So, let’s suspend judgment on SF-23 for now.
Not even Mercedes can be judged: George Russell always drove with 80 kg of petrol, while Lewis Hamilton never with less than half: the difference between the two drivers’ performances can be measured in the fuel load. Even in Brackley they looked into their own homes, heaving a sigh when they found that the jumps were controllable and not endemic to a wrong project as happened with the W13.
And tomorrow is another day…
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