2021 Pre-season testing. Bahrain 12-14 March

[dans79]

Looks Like Lewis broke his left mirror.

[senja]

I don't get complaining. They still can run. Rain or snow is much worse conditions.

[mkay]

Early days but the car doesn't look good at all. It's by far the least stable car out there, absolutely no grip on corner exit.

[Zynerji]

The sand shows the outwash front wing effect better than anything that I've seen so far...

[dren]

I read grip is low. I can't watch at the moment. How do the cars look relative to each other?

[bluechris]

i am impressed with MCLaren so far

[dans79]

The sand shows the outwash front wing effect better than anything that I've seen so far...

I wonder how badly it's sandblasting the bodywork!

[BosF1]

I read grip is low. I can't watch at the moment. How do the cars look relative to each other?

The Red Bull is quite good aerodynamically in S2 and the distinct roar of the Honda never gets old. Seems easy to ride. Macca seems to get competitive laptimes relatively easily, although a little less stable than Red Bull. Alpine is hard to read, they are a little quicker in laptime in comparison to McLaren, but needed C4 instead McLaren's C2 tyres to get that time. The Alfa Romeo is really a hand full. Alpha Tauri is stable en letting Tsunoda getting used to all the regular procedures during the afternoon. Pace seems okay. I can not tell a single thing about the Williams, because I think Nissany just isn't able to extract enough out of the car. Tomorrow will be a lot more representative for them. Haas will struggle a lot this year and I would not be surprised if they end up P10 in constructors championship.

That leaves us with Aston Martin and Mercedes who both seem to have reliability/technical issues. They are both running, but nowhere near competitive laptimes. Are they tuning it down just to get some mileage? I don't know.

EDIT: forgot about Ferrari. The car seems a bit more stable, but just as I typed that Sainz spun in a push lap LeClerc had what seemed to be a PU-issue at the end of the morning session, but they are running the whole afternoon.

[dans79]

That leaves us with Aston Martin and Mercedes who both seem to have reliability/technical issues. They are both running, but nowhere near competitive laptimes. Are they tuning it down just to get some mileage? I don't know.

To me it looks like Merc is just behind with regards to set-up, and that's not overly surprising based on how few laps they have in the bank.

[dren]

Thanks Bos!

[PlatinumZealot]

Red Bull is consitently putting down long uninterrupted stints. Balance issues from morning have been sorted. It means the car is much better to work with this year i suppose.

[JPower]

Every onboard I've seen from Stroll he's sawing at the wheel through every corner. That car doesn't look happy at the moment.

But...its testing. Very early, might be running a low downforce setup.

[haza]

Any long runs yet ?

[dans79]

Red Bull is consitently putting down long uninterrupted stints. Balance issues from morning have been sorted. It means the car is much better to work with this year i suppose.

I don't think it was hard to get set-up last year or the year before, it was just twitchy when put right on the edge. As of the time I post this, no one is close to the edge, Max is over 3 seconds off last years pole time if memory serves.

Edit: he is 3 seconds off his own Q3 time from last year!

[thestig84]

Every onboard I've seen from Stroll he's sawing at the wheel through every corner. That car doesn't look happy at the moment.

But...its testing. Very early.

Noticed that him and lewis were staying max 7th gear 270kph on all long straights but the main one. No idea why but a long way from pushing