What to remember from winter testing

Under the sun and 25°C of the small island of Bahrain, the tests were clearly wintery in name only. For three days, and just one week before the first Grand Prix of the year on the same Sakhir track, the ten teams had the opportunity to gain some traction. The first lesson is quite neutral, but it is important: reliability is clearly there.

In two days and seventeen hours of testing, only four red flags were waved. Thursday morning due to an electronic problem on theAston Martin driven by Felipe Drugovich. Friday afternoon, when George Russell had to immobilize his car shortly before 18 p.m., and a few hours later when it was necessary to push Guanyu-Zhou in the pit lane. The last one was agitated for Valtteri Bottas Saturday morning, due to an as yet unknown mechanical problem. 

Lewis Hamilton et Mercedes still have work to do. © Xavi Bonilla / DPPI

The absence of major problems with the single-seaters is only half a surprise. The change in technical and aerodynamic regulations introduced last year was largely digested by the teams, who have had twenty-two Grands Prix in 2022 to identify their shortcomings and resolve them.

On the sporting side, the first and undoubtedly the most reliable trend of the three days concerns the tightening of the stables. “No team seems to have failed, as was the case with Haas ou Williams these last years " we were told several times. The winter has visibly helped to bring the middle of the pack closer together, giving the smaller teams time to make up part of their gap. 

A more compact package

Reading the race simulations in particular, Williams seems to have moved closer to its main competitors, to the point of already aiming, depending on the circuits and circumstances, for passages to Q3. Among the big guns, everyone agrees that the top 3 remains unchanged for the moment. Red Bull was truly impressive, both when it came to pushing hard on a lap and at cruising speed in the race simulations.

The competition is already looking gloomy when it comes to Red Bull's times. During the last afternoon, Checo Pérez inflicted 4/10ths on Lewis Hamilton with harder… tires (C4 against C5 for the Briton). From what the data shows, the Ferrari seems to have the same advantages and disadvantages as in 2022. That is to say a certain velocity over a lap, while remaining very limited, for the moment, in the race simulations.

As for Mercedes, there were positives and negatives. First, the car no longer bounces, which is not a detail when we know that it cost the performance of the troops of Toto wolff. But at the end of Friday, a mysterious problem with downforce and balance at the front bothered the Germans, who then instantly plunged back into their anxieties of 2022. Everything went better on Saturday , but there is still a lot of work to do. 

Aston Martin remains one of the great mysteries of this start of the season. © Xavi Bonilla / DPPI

Aston Martin, for its part, remains the enigma of this start of the season. The Silverstone team was obviously eagerly awaited after having given itself the means to achieve its ambitions. Although great progress has been made, it is still difficult to really judge its extent. Some sources suggest they could already be ahead of Mercedes at this early stage of the season. All this must obviously be taken with a grain of salt, the excellent times of Fernando Alonso having been mostly signed with little gas in the tank. However, we cannot take away the Spaniard's spectacular race run in C2 at the end of the day. 

Alpine, for its part, is the team that hid the most. Not necessarily out of fierce will, but simply because its processes are different. Internally, we consider that pushing for the sake of pushing is not as useful as optimizing all driving time by trying everything possible in order to identify as many avenues for improvement. But on the long stints and the general behavior of the A523, Szafnauer and the drivers were satisfied. 

For its part, McLaren is late. But don't panic on board the orange ship. The Woking team claims not to have made a mistake in its winter research, but pleads the fact of not having been able to develop in time. We will therefore probably have to wait two or three months to see major updates arrive on the McLaren. It is rumored that this could happen in Baku. These should not disrupt the physical appearance of the MCL60 but change the way it works. See you in six days, for free practice 1 of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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