As in Suzuka, Ocon is porpoising in Bahrain

Undoubtedly a notch below his teammate Oliver Bearman in Japan, Esteban Ocon appears to be once again a few tenths behind his teammate after the first free sessions in Bahrain. The French driver finished the day with the sixteenth fastest time in FP2, while the Briton achieved the ninth fastest time in his only session of the day. Bearman has indeed given his seat to Ryo Hirakawa for the afternoon session. The difficulties encountered at Suzuka by the former driver Alpine seem to be slowing down its progress in the Middle East again.

“The sessions were difficult. You can't read much into the results of FP1, but much more into FP2. This allowed us to get more data. The evening session was still difficult for us; we're encountering porpoising again, like at Suzuka. We're also missing a bit of top speed; we should be going a few km/h faster at least. We're continuing to work to try to find what we're missing before qualifying, but for now we have the same issues as in Japan.”

Across the garage, Oliver Bearman was understandably more satisfied with the behavior of his car. Equipped with an evolution of the floor, the Haas VF-25 appears to be arriving in a better window of opportunity than during pre-season testing last February. The #87 driver may be able to aim for another Q3 race, a week after the one he took part in at Suzuka.

Bearman back in the top 10

“It was a good session. I struggled a bit to find a good feeling with the car, especially because of brake issues that hampered me throughout the session. It seems that with low fuel, we are competitive, and we also did a long stint on the softs to see if they are good tires for Sunday. We will see what the data says. I think the new floor is working as expected, and we made sure to use it even earlier than planned, so I am very proud of the whole team for that. We can be aggressive with the car now, which is positive for the performance.”

In short, porpoising continues to pose a problem for Esteban Ocon, affecting his performance during free practice in Bahrain. While his teammate Oliver Bearman appears to be adapting better to the new features of the Haas VF-25, Ocon and his team will have to redouble their efforts to resolve these issues before qualifying.

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