Laurent Mekies confirms different setup for Racing Bulls in Bahrain

To these beautiful 6^e and 7^e places of the French, it is also relevant to add the 8^e Liam Lawson's position during the first session of the day on Friday. In line with the good first weekends achieved by the team of Faenza Since the start of the season, the first times observed on this Sakhir circuit can allow the drivers to dream of a new top 10, a week after the first points scored in Formula 1 by Isack Hadjar.

Interviewed at the start of the session during Free Practice 3 by Julien Fébreau for Canal +, Laurent Mekies indicated that the choices in terms of settings had been made after FP2, which was held in weather conditions closer to those of the race, due in particular to the withdrawal of the sun. Regarding the work carried out between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, the Frenchman confirmed some changes.

"It's a fairly standard process of analyzing the sessions, recording data, and making setup changes. A setup change with the added bonus of not being able to use FP3 to readjust. Like yesterday morning, the track conditions are so hot that we reckon what we decided last night will take it to qualifying. We're trying to find a compromise between balancing the car on the qualifying simulation and the race simulation. Both cars have made adjustments to get a little more potential."

Less downforce for Racing Bulls

Inclined to shift its aerodynamic approach, the Italian team seems confident in the choices made this Friday. Although qualifying is predicted to be particularly close, particularly in the peloton by Laurent Mekies, the race appears to be a privileged one.

"Since the beginning of the year, this is the circuit that invites you to focus on the race the most, because the degradation is greater on this track and because it's a little easier to overtake here."

Banking on a potentially more lively race than at Suzuka, the driver confirmed a set-up adapted accordingly, with less aerodynamic load than the rest of the grid. 2nd and 4th in terms of top speed on Friday, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson were the two fastest in the exercise this Saturday (320 km/h), and should maintain this advantage in a straight line for the rest of the weekend. "We stayed with this level of aerodynamic load that we think suits us said the team director, even if we realize with the analyses that other teams are riding with a little more load. For the moment we have chosen to keep this level a little lighter than the rest of the field.

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