Bahrain tests: Ferrari ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull on the three-day timesheets, Alpine far behind

The stopwatch is the only judge in Formula 1. In this little game, Motors Inside has taken stock of the best times set by each driver during the three days of winter testing in Bahrain. Red Bull, like last year, is hiding its cards a bit among the top teams because Ferrari and Mercedes are the ones leading for now.

Ferrari in front.

Carlos Sainz Jr. indeed sets the fastest time of the three days of pre-season testing. He clocks a time just two tenths off the best qualifying time of 2023. The 2023 lap times might therefore be able to be improved significantly. The Ferrari driver sets a time of 1:29.921 and is the only one below the one minute and thirty-second mark. To achieve this time, he was on C4 tires, the soft range from Pirelli. This was not the case for Red Bull, which posted its two best times on medium tires.

Charles Leclerc is located just behind his teammate with 4 tenths slower but with the same tires mounted on his Ferrari. He set this time on the third day, just like most drivers who sought performance on the 2nd and 3rd days.

The second team in this ranking is Mercedes with George Russell posting a time 0.447 seconds behind Sainz Jr. on soft tires as well. The English driver is ahead of a surprising Guanyu Zhou in the Stake Sauber on soft tires as well, by 0.7 seconds. It is worth noting the amount of fuel carried by the Chinese driver as Sauber seems to have arrived with a very traditional concept.

Red Bull still hides its game.

In 5th and 6th place, we find the two Red Bull drivers. The defending world champion team drove by hiding their game with a lot of fuel and tires not optimized for fast runs. They used the medium tires provided by Pirelli.

The team arrived with new features that these three days of testing allowed to test and compare with the expected CFD results. Including a three-part pontoon concept and air intakes above the driver, behind the cockpit.

Behind the Red Bull drivers, it is the V-CARB (AlphaTauri) of Yuki Tsunoda who is lurking in 7th place. He is on soft tires, 8 tenths behind Sainz Jr., and is followed by Alex Albon who is also on soft tires. The Williams is already 1 second behind.

McLaren, Aston Martin, and Mercedes are neck and neck.

McLaren also set their best times on soft tires and were penalized by a lack of running for Norris at the end of the morning on the last day, which would have allowed them to put on high-performance tires.

Aston Martin with Alonso and Stroll also put on medium tires to set their best time. Therefore, we can easily subtract 5 tenths to see the actual time. These teams had initially planned to run on soft tires but simply chose not to use them to achieve the best time.

Lewis Hamilton is in 10th place in this ranking but also set his best time on medium tires.

Alpine at the back of the grid

Alpine has achieved satisfactory results in terms of reliability, but the team does not seem to have found performance on the A524. The two French drivers are only in 16th and 17th place this week, and although they did not use soft tires, they are more than 2 seconds behind the Ferrari. Even with more performant tires, the French team would be at least 1.4 seconds behind the Ferrari, which does not bode well for French supporters. Nico Hülkenberg with Haas is even ahead of the two Normandy drivers.

It’s the other Haas bringing up the rear, Kevin Magnussen’s, more than 3 seconds off Sainz’s time.

The best lap times of the drivers during the three-day testing in Bahrain