ANALYSIS: Telemetry reveals where McLaren gain over their rivals in Bahrain
McLaren had a quiet Friday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, having set benchmark times in both one-hour practice sessions to dominate to opening day in Sakhir. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo is eager to find out where McLaren find big gains over their direct rivals.
After the Japanese Grand Prix, teams headed to Sakhir for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Manama circuit boasts several layouts, with two different ones used for the races in 2010 and 2020, but the current one is 5.412 kilometres in length and features 15 corners, 9 to the right and 6 to the left.
The track is very different to what team experienced in Japan a week ago. Instead of long-radius corners, the Bahrain International Circuit features a series of 90-degree slow corners, long braking and accelerations zones. This track characteristics means that the Sakhir track is one of the toughest on the calendar when it comes to tyres, especially in the braking areas and when traction is required.
The aggregate used for the asphalt at the Bahrain International Circuit is still very abrasive, despite it being quite old now. The surface provides good grip for the tyres, although sand blown onto the track can be a nuisance. Wear is not usually a limiting factor, neither is graining, but thermal degradation, especially across the rear axle, has a significant impact on tyre performance. Managing that is the key to getting a good result. Overtaking is possible, especially under heavy braking at turns 1, 4 and 11.
The opening day of the Sakhir weekend saw McLaren top the time sheet , with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri setting the benchmark in both practice sessions.
The Briton was the quickest in FP1 with a time of 1’33”204 while the second hour of practice saw his team-mate post a 1’30”505 to head a one-two for the papaya team.
Having ended up the second practice eight tenths of a second behind the pace-setting McLarens, reigning champion Max Verstappen conceded that the gap to McLaren "is big. We did a bit of a different approach to our Friday, so I think this gap is very big.”
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc offered a similar opinion, suggesting that while Ferrari's upgrade work, the Woking-based outfit are way ahead of the field currently.
“We’re just not fast enough. When we look at the McLaren, they are just on another planet for now. It’s annoying, but it’s the way it is. It actually motivates me to try and close that gap as soon as possible, but they are incredibly fast.
“It’s been a tricky session, because it’s so much warmer than the [pre-season] test, and obviously you go into a session expecting the grip that you had at the test and it’s completely different. We’ve got to readjust the car and there will be a lot of work during the night to try and turn the situation around tomorrow.
“With Mercedes it seems that we are pretty much there. With Red Bull it’s a bit more difficult; I think Max [Verstappen] had one less tyre compared to us in FP2, so I think he’s probably a bit in front.
However, Norris understandably pointed to McLaren's main rivals - Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari -, claiming that they did not show their hands over the first two sessions – tipping them to step forward as Qualifying approaches.
“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.”
Looking at the data, provided by F1DataAnalysis, it is clear to find out where McLaren gain the most over the best of the rest, the Mercedes of George Russell.
The Mercedes man was 0.150s quicker than Pastri in the opening sector of the Bahrain International Circuit which is the result of a different choice in terms of aerodynamic configuration from the Brackley and the Woking-based outfit. Mercedes elected to run a less loaded rear wing which helped them achieve a top speed that was 7kph higher than their last year's best.
The last sector which is dominated by the long back straight saw Piastri set the quickest time. However, the Australian was only 40 thousands of a second quicker than Russell which is again the result of Mercedes' less loaded rear wing.
However, the second sector is where McLaren are clearly way above their rivals. Piastri and Norris were the only ones to dip below the 39.0s mark in Sector two - 38.894s and 98.903s respectively. The next best was - interestingly - Ferrari's seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton. Russell set a sector time of 39.6s which was almost seven tenths slower than McLaren's best times.
The telemetry shows that McLaren gain a lot in the two downforce-sensitive areas. In the complex of Turns 5, 6 and 7, Piastri gain over two tenths of a second over Russell while the Australian achieves an even bigger gain in Turns 9 and 10, showing McLaren's superiority in aerodynamic downforce.
