📸 During testing, many teams run with equipment on their cars designed to measure air flow over the vehicle. These can be aero rakes, as shown above, or bright 'flow-vis' paint which has also been seen throughout the testing sessions.
This week has seen the return of on-track action for the 2024 Formula One season, starting with three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain. We’ve seen thousands of laps completed, a few Vegas-esque drain cover incidents, and plenty of trackside speculation leading up to the beginning of the season next week, so here’s everything that happened during an action-packed three days.
The first session of testing came on Wednesday morning from 10am-2pm track time, throughout which Max Verstappen topped the tables in the RB20, putting in a time of 1:32.548 ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. The surprise of the session seemed to be Yuki Tsunoda and RB - formerly AlphaTauri - who came 5th in the timesheets ahead of George Russel in a Mercedes which suffered from issues with its hybrid system resulting in quite a bit of time spent in the pits. P6 went to Valterri Bottas and Kick Sauber (previously known as Alfa Romeo), followed by Alex Albon in a Williams which has undergone many changes since last year. Williams seemed to struggle during the morning, with Albon stopping mid-lap with about half an hour left on the clock due to a fuel pump issue. The list of 10 cars taking part in the session was finished off by Esteban Ocon’s Alpine in 9th and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas at the bottom of the table, just over 3 seconds slower than Verstappen.
Wednesday afternoon brought changes to the driver behind the wheel across most of the grid, with only George Russel and Max Verstappen spending a full day in the car. Verstappen stayed ahead of the rest again, this time with a 1:31.344, a whole 1.1 second ahead of second-placed Lando Norris for McLaren. Next came Carlos Sainz for Ferrari in P3, and RB who once again put in a quick time to take P4 with Daniel Ricciardo behind the wheel. In an improvement from the morning session, Pierre Gasly went 5th fastest in the Alpine ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu, and Logan Sargeant who suffered yet more mid-session issues in the Williams. After a spin into the run-off area, Sargeant later experienced a drive shaft issue which took him back to pits, making Williams’ lap count far lower than most other teams for the day. In a video posted to Williams’ X account (formerly Twitter), team principal James Vowels described the day as “frustrating”, but said there were “some positive elements [compared to 2023]” and that both drivers felt progress was being made.
Thursday morning saw Charles Leclerc’s scarlet Ferrari on top of the time sheets throughout, setting a time of 1:31.750 on the C3 tyre compound which will be the softest available for next week’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. 5 tenths of a second behind Leclerc was Oscar Piastri, followed by Sargeant, Perez, Alonso, Hamilton, Guanyu, Gasly, Hulkenberg, and Tsunoda. The session came to an early end when a red flag was thrown with around 1 hour 30 mins to go, as Lewis Hamilton drove over a loose drain cover which was struck for a second time by Charles Leclerc, leaving debris on the track. After marshalls and circuit officials assessed the track, the session was cut short to make time for repairs and an extra hour was instead added to the afternoon slot. Heading into the afternoon, most of the drivers switched over for the second part of the testing day, and once again Ferrari set the fastest time of the lot - this time Carlos Sainz was the one on top with a 1:29.921, the fastest time of testing up to that point. Sergio Perez came in second despite issues with the brakes and power of his Red Bull, then Lewis Hamilton in P3 and Lando Norris in P4 despite a fuel system problem. Next up came Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Valterri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, and Kevin Magnussen, all fitting in around the times set in the morning session. At the end of Thursday, the drivers on track at the time took part in a red-flag test to ensure all safety procedures at the circuit were working correctly - they cycled through a virtual safety car, safety car, red flag, safety car restart and standing start before coming back into the pits to end the day.
The morning session of the final day of testing began similarly to the two sessions before - Ferrari sat at the top of the time sheets with a promising lap on C3s by Carlos Sainz, until yet another issue with the drain covers brought the action to a stop. This time it was Sergio Perez whose car caused the debris on track, and so the red flag was thrown once again while the drain was repaired. In order to make up for time lost, the lunch break hour was removed to create a continuous 8 hour session which would finish at 7pm track time like the usual afternoon slot. The day finished with Charles Leclerc setting the fastest time of the day, a 1:30.322 on the soft C5 tyres, with George Russel just behind on a 1:30.368. After Russel came Zhou Guanyu, putting in a last minute, low-fuel glory lap for Kick Sauber, followed by Verstappen, Tsunoda, Albon, Piastri, Alonso, Sainz, Perez, Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Stroll, Norris, Gasly, Magnussen, Ocon, Bottas, and Ricciardo to complete the full order for the day’s running, with Logan Sargeant not setting a time as Alex Albon spent the full day in the car.
So, what can we tell from pre-season testing about the way 2024 will play out? The short answer is, nothing. So much can change from now to the first few races of the season, and this is the never the time to completely rule anyone in or out of performing in a certain way. That being said, it seems that the Red Bull is once again the fastest car on the grid, and that the Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin may all be quick and able to compete for good results. But, when the season begins under the lights of the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday 2nd March, we will start to see what each team really has in store, and the competition of the 2024 Formula 1 season will truly begin.
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