Bahrain Testing - Day 3

After two days of low temperatures and light rain, the conditions in Bahrain finally improved, providing a more representative view of the weather we have come to expect from the circuit. The new issue that appeared was the wind, which picked up enough to play a part in the lap times. 

Once again, only two drivers, this time Verstappen and Albon, participated in the full 8 hours of testing, while others took part in half of the last day. Norris, Leclerc, Antonelli, Doohan, Bearman, Hadjar, Bortoleto, and surprisingly, Alonso could be seen on track in the morning. The two-time world champion wasn't supposed to be the first driver in the Aston Martin, but his teammate, Stroll, felt sick, so the team switched the schedule around, giving him more time to recover. 

Alonso was faced with an issue pretty much immediately, as his car stopped at the end of the pit lane and needed to be pushed back into the garage. Whatever wasn't working was fixed rather quickly and he drove onto the track soon after. Bearman faced a much more severe issue as, while he was completing yet another lap, a part of his Haas' bodywork was ripped away, exposing parts of its engine. The young driver quickly headed back into the pits and his team immediately got to work. Thankfully, he was able to rejoin the session. 

There were also a lot of changes, be it planned or forced, made to the cars throughout the 4 hours. To name a few, Red Bull bolted on a new front wing with a different nose, and Sauber had to make some serious changes to the car, taking off the floor and covering the underside from the view of the other teams. It wasn't great news for their rookie, Bortoleto, who lost quite a significant chunk of his already limited testing time. 

The morning session saw one interruption when, with a bit less than an hour to go, a red flag was brought out by debris on the main straight. It seemed that shards of glass were scattered on the tarmac, possibly from a broken window pane. By the time the marshalls cleared the track, around 35 minutes were left on the clock. No major improvements of lap times were made before it ticked down to zero and the session finished with Leclerc achieving the quickest time (1:30:811). On the time charts, he was followed by Antonelli and Norris. 

After an hour-long lunch break, most of the drivers changed. For the second half of the last day of testing, it was Verstappen, Albon, Piastri, Hamilton, Russell, Stroll, Gasly, Ocon, Tsunoda, and Hulkenberg that we got to watch on track. The session began with a slight delay, as after only a few minutes, a somewhat mysterious red flag waved over the track, forcing the drivers to move back into their garages. It was quickly called off, allowing the tests to go on as scheduled. 

The unpredictable wind continued to mess with the drivers, causing a few of them to catch their wheels on the gravel. This didn't stop the drivers from putting in some great laps. Gasly, for example, barely avoided going off track, only to promptly put together a lap that saw him shoot up to the very top of the charts after performing a qualifying simulation run. A lot of the other drivers used the last testing session to embark on race simulation runs, which are longer, and require a heavy fuel load. It would be hard to compare them to similar runs performed yesterday, as the significantly higher track temperature led to a higher tyre degradation and a "slower track". 

The day was quite tough on Aston Martin. As I already mentioned, they had to change their racing schedule due to Stroll not feeling up to driving the car in the morning, but that wasn't the end of their issues. The Canadian driver completed 34 laps in the afternoon session before he decided that it wasn't safe for him to continue. The team quickly began working on the car to prepare it for another change in drivers, but the incident still cost them some precious testing time. 

As the session neared its end, a few small incidents kept the drivers on their toes, with Ocon spinning and Albon going off track after a significant lockup. But, to the relief of all the teams, no truly serious incidents or crashes occurred throughout the pre-season testing. The last session of the three days concluded with Russell setting the fastest time of the day (1:29:545). Verstappen and Albon completed our final "top three". 

Now, the eyes of everyone can move from Bahrain to Melbourne where, in just two short weeks, we will get to see how the cars truly compare. Will it be McLaren who comes out on top, or will one of the other teams set themselves apart from the pack?