2021 Pre-season testing. Bahrain 12-14 March

[Juzh]

fastest sectors day 1

[Schuttelberg]

Looks like Toto is going to make 2021 his biggest heist yet.

[RedNEO]

[RedNEO]

[Ringleheim]

Glad to see Ferrari picking up where they left off, over a second off the pace.

We'll know more tomorrow.

[PlatinumZealot]

Not a good way to start for Mercedes who have traditionally been faultless with reliability.

Mercedes was all over the place for the entire first week of 2019 winter testing, and really didn't show much until the very last day of testing.

It's still early, though undeniable that Red Bull picked up where they left off. Mercedes perhaps should have shook the car down ahead of testing... perhaps they would have spotted that gearbox failure.

Sky thinking that higher rake is the way to go this year...

Good point.

I did not raise notice but i have made a very interesting and important observation on the rakes of cars like RB16, MCL35M and Mercedes W12 among others. The static rakes are not as disparate as they were last year. Mercedes seems to be running a higher static rake at least. There is no very low rake car this year. Seems higher rake is indeed more freindly with the narrower floor.

[godlameroso]

fastest sectors day 1
https://i.imgur.com/PAbLGt1.jpg

The fastest Magnussen could do in the race was a 35.2, can we conclude due to the lack of development that the Ferrari engine is worth roughly .4 per lap over last season?

[cheeRS]

fastest sectors day 1
https://i.imgur.com/PAbLGt1.jpg

The fastest Magnussen could do in the race was a 35.2, can we conclude due to the lack of development that the Ferrari engine is worth roughly .4 per lap over last season?

Only if you forget that the tires are much different this year, along with the conditions. Even if the Haas wasn't developed, they still had a downforce reduction too. So, the new Ferrari engine could be worth a lot more or a lot less.

[Marble]

fastest sectors day 1
https://i.imgur.com/PAbLGt1.jpg

Yeah thanks ! The actual sectors of the best times at the end of the day are here as well :


Source :
https://blog.autoplus.fr/moncet/2021/03 ... naux-2021/

If anyone recorded the LT lap by lap, I'd love to see that

[etusch]

[lio007]

Ted's Notebook:

[foxmulder_ms]

The worst ever start for Merc in last 8 years??

First crack on the armor of the mighty!!

I don't like the recent developments in Merc. Hamilton signing for only one year just before the season starts, toto is contemplating leaving and now a broken car for the testing?

[TwanV]

Something seems off, those laps by Hamilton at the end of the session, he just couldn't get a clean lap in. And the rake on the merc is also very strange to see.

[e30ernest]

Something seems off, those laps by Hamilton at the end of the session, he just couldn't get a clean lap in. And the rake on the merc is also very strange to see.

Yeah I also found Hamilton's driving weird. He was leaving tire marks drifting the car around.

[zibby43]

The worst ever start for Merc in last 8 years??

First crack on the armor of the mighty!!

I don't like the recent developments in Merc. Hamilton signing for only one year just before the season starts, toto is contemplating leaving and now a broken car for the testing?

Hamilton had to sign a 1-year deal because they ran out of time to negotiate. Toto signed an extension, so he’s not contemplating anything. And one component of the car broke on the best possible day for any breakage to occur during a season: day 1 of testing.

But that’s how dominant Mercedes has been. If they have a bad 8 hours in a 365-day year, it’s shocking.

Let’s see where they are Sunday. Mercedes aside, Red Bull looked good relative to the midfield teams, but a sorted-out Merc is still the benchmark.

I was rooting for Ferrari to have a big bounce-back year, but the car looked hard to drive. Then again, so did the Merc, but they’re never on anything less than 140 lbs of fuel in the car.

As to the sliding of the Merc - when the lap times are seconds off the pace and the car is sliding, it’s the telltale sign of the tires not being in the window. That’s worth multiple seconds, as Istanbul demonstrated last year so clearly.