Bahrain 2023 Testing February 23 - 25

Not feeling particularly confident, tyre deg is a bit worrying, and the Red Bull looks so strong on every single aspect...i saw Charles much happyer last year in testing...i hope i'm wrong....

 

Yes, Were, till TD39 came along and we had our floor banned https://www.formu1a.uno/heres-how-the-dt39-22-changed-the-ferrari-f1-75/

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2023/02/26/leclerc-expects-2023-ferrari-f1-car-to-be-slower-in-the-corners/

Its also worth Noting, this car is different according to CL
Leclerc said the new SF-23 car was a very different one to last year's.

"It is a different car, you need to drive it a little bit differently. I've been trying a lot of different driving styles and I seemed to find my way this morning, finally."


“As I was saying before, I think the car changed a little bit of characteristics this year. I expect us to be a bit quicker in the straights, maybe struggling a bit more in the corners,” Leclerc explained.

 

I would not have expected any team to have used its highest engine mode, even more so the top 3 teams, Has Merc not just added its " phase 3 " engine upgrades?

 

Not really a fair comparison. RB19 had flow viz applied the length of the laminar flow area whereas W14 has it only applied at the leading edges. They are totally different concepts of cars, and MB has got it right a lot more than they got it wrong. As I have said before, it makes no sense for MB or Ferrari to try and copy a RB concept, as neither will out-Red Bull, Red Bull.

 

We will see.
Vasseur looked pretty confident about what they are doing in testing.
For sure our rear wing was the wrong one for this track.
Huge sandbagging ?
Better to be like this because Vigna would look like as a total ******* ..

 

I do think Ferrari is hiding more pace than Red Bull, but I'm 90% sure that RB will be ahead in race trim, quali...I wouldn't be surprised if Ferrari is fastest or indeed simply Red Bull.

 

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Seems like Zak Brown is a clown.
Shareolders won't appreciate i guess..

 

Utter truth LOL> Post of the month!! GO Ricci!

 

Yup...18 million + paying whatever they are piastri for what I'm going to assume is absolutely zero difference in points is a tough pill to swallow.

But also...James Keys' value has dropped significantly in the last couple of years. To continue to produce cars this poor with the facilities and money they have is inexcusable. I get it if an engine is bad, or a mistake was made that takes a year to rectify...but the Mclaren is just bad in so many areas and likely to have gone significantly backwards over last year...there is just no excuse. None.

Ron Dennis made his mistakes but he'd be all over this.

 

Well, McLaren no longer has top resources nor installations, mid pack is their natural place.

Having said that, their new car looks worse than that, but let's wait.

 

Lando was absolutely depressed the last day of testing..

 

ana¹ on Twitter: "Alonso: "The last day we did a race simulation, we put fuel for 57 laps. Ferrari was doing the same program as us and we were faster" https://t.co/n7pyQPWsbI" / Twitter

Alonso thinks they're faster than Ferrari.

If this is true then Ferrari has been way to kind to Binotto.

 

Ferrari didn’t a full race simulation.
Fernando is talking too much as usual..

 

Agree, Mclaren seems completely lost now.
Very surprised considering how highly rated was James Key two years ago.
This underline how good is a team like Red Bull beyond Adrian Newey genius..
The whole structure is super efficient.

 

We'll see.

Ferrari did do a full racing sim btw.

 

The red light flashing on the back of the Mclaren is his 'career' light in red warning. This could be a long and painful year. If he senses no improvement coming until 25 - why stay. I would think his management is already looking around. He has not won a single race, does not appear to be able to at Mclaren this year. Sure going to RedBull could be difficult under Max, but he might actually win a race LOL.

 

Worth talking about Alpine. The only team that goes backwards?

 

If what we saw was all Ferrari had, then they had a great game face. I did not see any "thrashing" in the pits, but they are professionals. Looked to me like they ran their program and that was it. Didn't even look like they were really pushing it. If they were, that's sad.. I definitely didn't see any 30 extra HP or anything game changing happen.

 

Mclaren is going backwards. Everyone is saying the data shows the Alpine is actually pretty good, I didn't see it myself but I guess I must trust their data.

Mclaren is despicable IMO. If they really are as bad as I think they are...it's like they're Williams 2017 to 2018 bad. At least Williams had the excuse of having no money.