Driver disquiet over the new Formula One regulations marked the second pre-season test which concluded in Bahrain this week, with the former world champions Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen delivering damning verdicts on driving the new cars, while in competitive terms leading contenders Mercedes and Red Bull were entertainingly vehement in each declaring the other as favourite.
Times in testing must be taken with a liberal amount of salt, more so this year as so much time is being put into understanding the new cars and how best to drive them, without yet really pushing toward real performance limits. Nonetheless, across the three days in Bahrain it was Mercedes who finished on top with Kimi Antonelli and George Russell setting the quickest times, from the two Ferraris of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in fifth and sixth for McLaren and Verstappen in seventh for Red Bull.
The Red Bull does look formidably quick but what was of real concern for F1 was the four-time champion’s open disdain for driving it. The Dutchman dismissed the energy management that now plays a critical role as being “not fun to drive” and “Formula E on steroids”. Indeed, it was the antithesis of racing, he believed, as he once more insinuated that he could leave F1 if he ceased to enjoy the racing.
“The proportion of the car looks good, that’s not the problem. It’s just everything else that is a bit anti-racing,” he said. “Probably people will not be happy with me saying this. But I am outspoken and why am I not allowed to say what I think of my race car?”
His words carried all the more impact for echoing those of Hamilton a day earlier. “None of the fans are going to understand it, I don’t think. It’s so complex. It’s ridiculously complex,” he said. “I sat in a meeting the other day and they’re taking us through it and it’s like you need a degree to fully understand it all.”
With F1 riding a wave of popularity there will be concern their doubts manifest into a less than edifying spectacle come the first round in Melbourne on 8 March. The regulation changes this season amount to the biggest rule in F1 history with new engines – featuring an almost 50-50 split between combustion and electrical power leading to the complex energy management demands on drivers – new chassis, new tyres and the use of fully sustainable fuel.
However, there were not only dissenting voices in Bahrain. The current world champion, McLaren’s Lando Norris, declared it “a lot of fun” and had short shrift for Verstappen.
“If he wants to retire, he can retire,” he said. “I don’t expect Max is going to go out and not give a shit, he’s going to try and win. Comparing to the older cars, it doesn’t feel as pretty and beautiful to drive, but it’s still pretty good and it’s still early days.”
McLaren believe they still have work to do to best learn how to exploit the new demands of the Mercedes power unit with their car but appear to be there or thereabouts with the other expected frontrunners Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. Ferrari too can consider the three days in Bahrain very positive, with Leclerc’s race simulation run showing enormous pace, as did Hamilton’s on the final day, noted by Norris and Russell. With aero advances set for the final test, Ferrari are looking very promising indeed.
Mercedes had appeared to be early favourites after the first test in Barcelona but in Bahrain it was Red Bull, who are building their own engine for the first time, who caught the eye as they managed to recover energy so efficiently they could deploy it to serious and extended effect on the straights, where Verstappen was repeatedly demonstrating a fearsome straight-line speed.
The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, said it had set “the benchmark” at perhaps a second per lap of extra pace and Russell called it a “pretty scary” advantage. Which inevitably led to Red Bull’s technical director, Pierre Waché, playing the testing game with gusto as he insisted his team to be at best fourth fastest behind Mercedes Ferrari and McLaren. Verstappen joined the chorus in suggesting Mercedes were clearly sandbagging. “I can tell you one thing: just wait until Melbourne and see how much power they suddenly find. I already know that,” he said.
All of which is part and parcel of the gamesmanship in testing but behind it also lies some serious politicking as the row involving Mercedes having exploited a loophole to gain an advantage in the compression ratio of their engine rumbled on in the background. There will be an important F1 commission meeting next week in Bahrain, at which the governing body, the FIA, is known to understood to want to close the issue before Melbourne.
Away from the sharp end, the much-anticipated surge from Aston Martin with their first car designed by Adrian Newey has been lacklustre at best. Lance Stroll berated the engine (a failing already acknowledged by the manufacturers, Honda), balance and grip as he noted pointedly they were four seconds off the pace of the leaders. They have at least managed to put in some decent running now but the car’s current weaknesses appear to leave a mountain to climb, even given the exponential rate of development expected this season.
