2021 Pre-season testing. Bahrain 12-14 March

[HungarianRacer]

mercedes is clearly leading the field, looking at their short stint setup work. no one else has done that sort of stints in 1m35s and 1m36s. just driving to delta and monitoring tyre deg. not a race sim, but using mercedes' history of testing, they fill it more than anyone else does. the car today has behaved well, which means there is still a lot of setup work required to get it up to speed. i won't be surprised with mercedes leading with usual gap to red bull and mclaren somewhere close to red bull.

What I can tell you with a high degree of certainty, McLaren (still) isn't all that close to Red Bull.... I'm still going with my method of comparing minimum cornering speeds on similar laps (times within 1 sec) of each team/driver within reasonably confined time frames (to see HOW each team generates their lap times in comparable conditions)... Based on this data, I can tell you that Mercedes and the Bulls are still very clearly in a class of their own.

[JPBD1990]

mercedes is clearly leading the field, looking at their short stint setup work. no one else has done that sort of stints in 1m35s and 1m36s. just driving to delta and monitoring tyre deg. not a race sim, but using mercedes' history of testing, they fill it more than anyone else does. the car today has behaved well, which means there is still a lot of setup work required to get it up to speed. i won't be surprised with mercedes leading with usual gap to red bull and mclaren somewhere close to red bull.

What I can tell you with a high degree of certainty, McLaren (still) isn't all that close to Red Bull.... I'm still going with my method of comparing minimum cornering speeds on similar laps (times within 1 sec) of each team/driver within reasonably confined time frames (to see HOW each team generate their lap times in comparable conditions)... Based on this data, I can tell you that Mercedes and the Bulls are still very clearly in a class of their own.

Can you share this data? I don’t have access to much in Australia (F1tv, sky, etc) so am relying on Twitter and this forum.

How are Ferrari with minimum corner speeds?

[ferkan]

mercedes is clearly leading the field, looking at their short stint setup work. no one else has done that sort of stints in 1m35s and 1m36s. just driving to delta and monitoring tyre deg. not a race sim, but using mercedes' history of testing, they fill it more than anyone else does. the car today has behaved well, which means there is still a lot of setup work required to get it up to speed. i won't be surprised with mercedes leading with usual gap to red bull and mclaren somewhere close to red bull.

What I can tell you with a high degree of certainty, McLaren (still) isn't all that close to Red Bull.... I'm still going with my method of comparing minimum cornering speeds on similar laps (times within 1 sec) of each team/driver within reasonably confined time frames (to see HOW each team generates their lap times in comparable conditions)... Based on this data, I can tell you that Mercedes and the Bulls are still very clearly in a class of their own.

And others?

[El Scorchio]

Charles on C2 is nearly 1s/lap faster than Bottas on C3. Fuel loads are likely similar as LEC is on his 3rd stint and BOT did a 16-lap stint.

You can't be serious with some of these comments... "No evidence of Mercedes being anywhere near Red Bull"... "LEC is nearly 1s/lap faster than BOT with the same fuel load on harder tyres..." ... If you're honestly expecting to see a Bull steamroll and a Mercedes struggling in the midfield two weeks from now, you are in for a very bitter pill, just saying (I'm not basing this on history, I simply think your "analysis" is extremely biased/off).

Never too early in the season for a bit of trolling I suppose!

[HungarianRacer]

mercedes is clearly leading the field, looking at their short stint setup work. no one else has done that sort of stints in 1m35s and 1m36s. just driving to delta and monitoring tyre deg. not a race sim, but using mercedes' history of testing, they fill it more than anyone else does. the car today has behaved well, which means there is still a lot of setup work required to get it up to speed. i won't be surprised with mercedes leading with usual gap to red bull and mclaren somewhere close to red bull.

What I can tell you with a high degree of certainty, McLaren (still) isn't all that close to Red Bull.... I'm still going with my method of comparing minimum cornering speeds on similar laps (times within 1 sec) of each team/driver within reasonably confined time frames (to see HOW each team generate their lap times in comparable conditions)... Based on this data, I can tell you that Mercedes and the Bulls are still very clearly in a class of their own.

Can you share this data? I don’t have access to much in Australia (F1tv, sky, etc) so am relying on Twitter and this forum.

How are Ferrari with minimum corner speeds?

Haven't been sitting in front of the computer taking notes that much, only have recorded data points on a few select laps, but just from the top of my head, well, based on this morning and yesterday afternoon, if I were a Ferrari fan hoping to see my favourite team arise as very clear "best of the rest", I wouldn't let my hopes escalate too much right now to be honest (typical cornering speeds @ 1:35-ish pace in T8 Merc&RB.: 76-80 km/h, Ferrari 72-77 km/h, in T11 Merc&RB.: 138-150 km/h, Ferrari: 135-145 km/h, in T13 Merc&RB.: 130-136 km/h, Ferrari: 125-132 km/h, in T14 Merc&RB.: 120-130 km/h, Ferrari: 112-122 km/h).

Could be much worse though, assumed midfield favourite Aston Martin looks horrible at the moment in my opinion.

[PlatinumZealot]

Ferrari and Alfa with a remarkable similar race sim today at the same time.
LEC:
C3 (13 laps) 1:38.119
C2 (18 laps) 1:37.297
C2 (19 laps) 1:35.979

RAI:
C3 (15 laps) 1:38.142
C2 (18 laps) 1:37.283
C2 (18 laps) 1:35.984

Data from @f1debrief

The Alfa Chassis was often on par to the Ferrari last year. Things will be interesting.

[GoranF1]

What are fastest C2 times of entire test?

[mkay]

HAM is having a torrid time on the brakes, with the rear stepping out twice in one lap.

[mzso]

Sorry if already posted; fastest sub-sectors:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwYGC5fXIAUuzds.png

Interesting visual. Haas will have a car to watch and not just because it's got the Russian flag on the wing. I know that Sam Collins has discussed them a lot when it comes to technical changes and while it's just two days of pre-season training in Bahrain, I'm intrigued to see if any improvement happens on the track. Overall, it's nice to see a mix of cars compete at all different parts of the circuit and hopefully, we see that during the season.

What more than the Russian flag then? They already said they won't even develop the car this year. The sucked even last year.

[JPower]

Hamilton vs Alonso for about a quarter of the track was fun to watch.

[Sieper]

Yuki just got caught out by the dirty air of the Alfa. He said also yesterday the wind was such a big influence, something that sets F1 apart from F2.

[dans79]

HAM is having a torrid time on the brakes, with the rear stepping out twice in one lap.

Mercedes must be doing something drastic to the car between the morning and afternoon session. The cat looked perfectly fine this morning, and then this afternoon it looks like it's all over the place.

[wunderkind]

The Mercedes is fast in all the corners and turns, very ominous given they were behind on setup work after early gearbox issues.

And sketchy rearend

Yes, but I think it’s the same for everyone with the loss of downforce at the back due to the new rules.

[LM10]

Right now Sainz is doing a much more consistent and faster race sim than Leclerc in the morning session. Don’t know if it’s up to a setup change or some other factor.

[mkay]

The Mercedes is fast in all the corners and turns, very ominous given they were behind on setup work after early gearbox issues.

And sketchy rearend

Yes, but I think it’s the same for everyone with the loss of downforce at the back due to the new rules.

No car has had as many offs and spins as Mercedes though. And that's despite Mercedes having run least number of laps (excluding its sister team Aston).

HAM just does not seem comfortable with the car at all.