Badger wrote: ↑26 Jan 2026, 10:36
Makes sense they were going to run immediately. No time to wait around when there's weather on the horizon and data to collect. Now these teams have a head start on those who aren't ready.
Yes. I was surprised, that people think it is or would be beneficial to run late. The earlier they run, the earlier they get data back into the factory.
Same for the weather. Statistically a rainy day or two is normal for this time of the year. With running today they can skip tomorrow and Thursday. Forecast for Friday is good, Wed is a bit cold but should dry up.
Whoever is not running today will need to use Thursday with a relatively high chance of rain.
dialtone wrote: ↑25 Jan 2026, 23:29
f1isgood wrote: ↑25 Jan 2026, 14:40
Seanspeed wrote: ↑25 Jan 2026, 12:23
Looks like Red Bull just want a flat baseline for the whole test. I guess they can do more tire testing in Bahrain, but definitely less information that way since one track is just one track.
As Badger said in the RB thread C3 is the racing tire around Barcelona and likely to be more representative...
C2 or C3 are both race tires for Barcelona but tires are smaller this year so there’s not much point using the past 3-4 seasons as a model.
Anyway I doubt there’s much difference between those 2 compounds, not sure why you would show up with lots of C1s though, but really performance here isn’t important so I wouldn’t really waste too much time on it.
What is meant with "tires are smaller"?
For me the key point is the temperature: Working ranges of the tires are stacked with the hardness. We are running at a max temp around the 15°C they had in Las Vegas and barely got the C3 to work. Of course, the asphalt is different, more aggressive in Barcelona, but I would expect them to run a lot of time on the C1 without a representative grip level. If the tires are not in their working range, the gained data is worth noting, not for engine, mapping, whatever as they run so slow, that it does not give useful numbers.
I think RedBull just mitigates this by running the C3. Go on track and gain representative data. I think even a worn C3 is better on this than a cold C1. So I am surprised by the tire choices.
Current best lap times and lap counter. RBPT leading the way on total lap count so far.
