The first day of pre-season testing is over and all we can say is that if we’re a little bit smarter, it’s only a little bit. The results should be interpreted with a grain of salt, but as always, when the cars hit the track, we will learn something. But in general, it can be said that the first day of tests was marked by Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and the Ferrari team.
Max Verstappen was the fastest in Bahrain in the morning
The first half of the first day saw an intense start but a calm finish. Except for the first hour, not much happened on the track. However, the Aston Martin team experienced a nightmare start to the pre-season tests, when the AMR23 single-seater piloted by Felipe Drugovich stopped in its second lap.
A rather long red phase followed, when the marshals struggled with loading the car “decorated” with Pitot tubes and all sorts of sensors. After about an hour in the garage, the Brazilian returned to the track with the “electrical problem” fixed, which according to the team had caused him to stop at the start.
Problems did not seem to escape McLaren either, as Oscar Piatri took almost two hours to set the first fast time. Until then, he only went to the track for installation rounds. We wonder if this was part of the team’s plans or if the MCL60 single-seater really had some technical problems.
On the opposite side of the scale, we have the most successful mornings. Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz exchanged the fastest times, with the Dutchman the fastest at the end of the morning. However, Alex Albon also found himself in the lead for a short time, driving consistently and reliably. The British-Thai racer finally finished third and was one of the most active riders in the morning.
Fourth Kuan-yu Chou and George Russell were still in the top five. The rest of the top ten drivers looked like this:
Alonso starred in the afternoon
The afternoon program was even calmer and the only yellow flags we saw came during the circuit light signal test.
From the beginning, it looked like technical problems of some teams, which was later confirmed. Aston Martin’s problems continued when the floor was damaged during a practice pit stop. But an even bigger disaster befell McLaren when Lando Norris was stuck in the garage for around two hours. As it turned out, the British team again had problems with the brakes.
Aston Martin, this time with Fernando Alonso in the cockpit, made up for it perfectly. When the Spanish matador took the wheel, he was full of cameras. He drove some nice laps and thanks to the fastest one he was placed in second place, just behind Max Verstappen.
Red Bull is experiencing a very relaxed and problem-free start to the new season. The first day passed without minor problems and Helmut Marko also expressed great satisfaction. Verstappen drove 157 laps, which is approximately 850 kilometers. So Red Bull has not yet lost its status as the main favorite of the new season.
However, Aston Martin could get the dark horse status. There, they have a day full of conflicting emotions. In the morning, the team had a technical problem, in the afternoon it was slowed down by damage to the floor, but also Red Bull’s technical chief Adrian Newey expressed great praise for this team, when he answered the question of who, in his opinion, will be Red Bull’s biggest competitor: “Ferrari, Mercedes and maybe an Aston Martin.” This team is worth watching for the rest of the tests.
Ferrari pilots took third and fourth place. We don’t have to be afraid to say that this team, just like Mercedes, deployed mainly “sandbags” into the battle on the first day. Charles Leclerc was in the afternoon, in much better conditions, even slower than Carlos Sainz in the morning. Ferrari spent the day testing, pitot tubes, flow wiz paint and even GO Pro cameras got in on the action. We think the Scuderia has kept its trump cards hidden for now.
The same can be said for Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton in sixth and George Russell in ninth. However, there were mainly hard tire compounds in action and we did not catch proper qualifying simulations from this team. As the team representatives also said, everything came down to a proper understanding of the car and data collection. Mercedes does not want to experience what happened last year and so far it is doing well, as the car does not suffer from jumping at all.
Although McLaren driver Lando Norris is in fifth place, which looks promising, we shouldn’t be afraid to say that his team’s performance on the first day of testing was disappointing. Oscar Piastri drove practically only installation laps in the morning in the first two hours, Lando Norris stood in the garage for over an hour in the afternoon due to a problem with the brakes. Fifth place doesn’t look bad, but Aston Martin left a decidedly better impression on Thursday. McLaren drove only 92 laps, which is the least of all.
Alpine did not leave a significant mark either, but it is difficult to estimate what the team’s program was there. However, we have to say that the A523’s bouncing appeared to be the worst of all the teams. The sixteenth place of Pierre Gasly and the seventeenth of Esteban Ocon did not inspire much respect, but maybe the French are “sewing” something on us. Their lower activity on the track and recorded times were very similar to, for example, the Haas or AlphaTauri teams.
However, we will end the post on a positive note by praising the Williams team. He was one of the most active and therefore also the most reliable. Alex Albon caught the attention of the morning with fourth place on the “green” track. His time was difficult to beat even in the afternoon, and Albon finished seventh in the final calculation. A reliable and faultless performance was also given by the tenth Logan Sargeant, who collected a very valuable 75 laps.
Number of laps for each team on the first day of tests:
- Red Bull: 157 kôl,
- Mercedes: 152 laps,
- Williams: 149 laps,
- Alfa Romeo: 138 laps,
- Ferrari: 136 laps,
- AlphaTauri: 131 kôl,
- Alpine: 113 laps,
- Haas: 108 laps,
- Aston Martin: 100 laps,
- McLaren 92 laps.
Complete results of the first day of tests:
