The Continental Circus pre-season is officially over with the coming to an end this Saturday of the Bahrain F1 test (March 10-12). The inaugural round of the 2022 World Championship is to take place on that same track in six days’ time. 

Even if the actual times recorded at these tests are never a true marker of future performance, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has wanted to assert his superiority before he starts defending his crown for real. The Dutchman managed to set the best time of the winter trials (1:31.720) in the final session, ahead of Ferrari´s Charles Leclerc (+0.695s).

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The team of the energy drink had released some significant updates to its RB18 on this final day of testing, and these have been proved to be a success. Max’s teammate Checo Pérez demonstrated this by easily leading the morning session.

The strengths of the blue racing car seem to be its great balance and noble behaviour, another matter is if it is going to be powerful enough to beat its rivals. But before we have a chance to see what happens during the championship, the squad from Milton Keynes has exhibited great consistency and suffered hardly any technical incidents. 

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Mercedes plays dumb at Bahrain F1 test

Mercedes, Red Bull’s supposed chief rivals for the crown, has introduced a revolutionary W13 in Sakhir at Bahrain F1 test. The Germans have astonished everyone with a unique and exclusive concept and a thorough update of the single-seater that we saw during the tests in  Barcelona. 

Its most radical design feature is the reduction of the lateral pontoons to the minimum expression, so their design becomes vertical and not horizontal like the conventional ones. This has allowed them to create much sharper front and rear sides for the car, increasing its aerodynamic efficiency by reducing drag. 

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Mercedes, which always likes to hide a card up its sleeve ahead of the start of the season, has let Ferrari play favourites. Going along with that role, Lewis Hamilton has declared that currently not only are they not here to win but that the Italian team, Red Bull and perhaps even McLaren, are above them.

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Optimism in Ferrari 

Ferrari has validated in Bahrain the good sensations experienced in Barcelona. In fact, the F175 has remained at the top of the times’ table for the three days of testing in the Middle Eastern country. Most importantly, their machine, which looks as if it ran on rails, has shown maximum reliability and compliance. 

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have reasons to be optimistic. It remains to be seen, however, if the power upgrade of their machine will be enough to dispute the hegemony of the two big fishes.

Whatever it might be, it seems certain that the team from Maranello has taken a very significant step forward, and they have done it using the opposite design concept to Mercedes, by using huge pontoons that resemble a bathtub. 

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Doubts in McLaren  

McLaren, on the contrary, has left the training sessions feeling a lot worse than the leading trio. Problems with the braking and cooling systems overheating have set off the alarms at the Woking team. Although this does not seem like an insurmountable problem, it has lost them some very valuable time in Bahrain. 

Added to these setbacks has been the positive COVID test results of Daniel Ricciardo, who has not been able to get behind the wheel of the MCL38 yet, with his partner Lando Norris completing all of the test sessions alone. Unfortunately, the Australian driver really needed to get the feel of his new cars after a disappointing 2021. 

Bahrain F1 test: Red Bull Racing.