F1 Bahrain Test - 10-12 March 2022

Possibly most improved team vs last year as a jump in performance.

 

Agree'd - and they appear surprised that this is the situation. Id say a 'correlation' issue.

 

Disagree.

This is the most unstable I've seen a Mercedes factory car.

It makes no sense for them to knowingly send the car out with these violent understeers and oversteers, porpoising like mad. They need to get clean laps for data, and they're not getting them so far, no matter what setups they throw out there.

If this is apart of some plan to later unleash an unstable car, NASA needs to hire their design team.

 

We are seeing a lot of 'wavy' floor vibration at speed in front of the rear tires, which they are patching using a rod attached to the sidepod. I won't be shocked if we see floors with a lot more carbon reinforcement in this area as that waving has to be dynamically effecting the porpoising issue.

 

George Russell puts in a flyer to go 3rd fastest while using the C5, the softest tyre.

 

This was a planned long run sim. Interesting to see how hard he pushed..............

 

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

Right. And it's still 1.2 sec behind Chuck's flyer.

 

Bottas brings out a red flag. Transmission problem. Is the trans part of the Ferrari power unit??

 

04 Feb 2022--Alfa Romeo has reportedly developed their own gearbox and suspension for the 2022 F1 season, further reducing their dependence on Ferrari. According to a report by Motorsport Italia, the team’s decision was reportedly influenced by their differing aero philosophy compared to the Scuderia. The Swiss’s 2022 car is reportedly incompatible with the Ferrari-designed suspension due to their differing design choices.

 

Pirelli - Degradation is lower today overall for the tires across tyre types.

 

Thanks.

 

Because the track is nicely "rubbered in". Let's see if it stays that way through next weekend.

 

Max with a 1:31.9....fastest lap so far on the C5 tire.

 

This is driven by temperature. This session now is race time representative per Pirelli.

 

While Chuck is out on the hardest tyre doing 1:38s

 

Ant Davidson said that lap would be deleted with race control's new director. If this was a race qualy session. We shall see..........

 

Beyond track limits. Well, today is the day to find that sort of thing out, isn't it?

 

Max now with a 1:31.7....messed up on sector 2. Purple in S1 and S3.

 

Smiles all round = sorted RedBull.

 

How is our car doing on the hard compound compared to last year? We had a dismal record with the hard tires, Charles even losing out to Hamilton in Silverstone due to this poor performance.

 

I would'nt compare last year's car performance on the hard compound tp this year's car performance on the hard compound.

 

That would be prudent. Still, it might be possible.

 

So, testing is complete and it's on to the F1 reality show next weekend.

Who thinks Ferrari is the top dog?

Who thinks it's Red Bull?

Who thinks Mercedes is still sandbagging?

Will the porposeing situation be so bad for some teams that it will result in DNFs??

Stay tuned. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel . . . .

 

Yes, and it also depends on RB's expectations. So far he's done a pretty solid job.

Racecraft is better than Bottas, who spent 5 years in a Mercedes seat !