Bahrain testing 2025: lessons from the road

[FittingMechanics]

I'm super amused how everyone is going out of their way to explain how "Red Bull changed every surface" but yet the changes are so minimal it is almost impossible to tell them by eye.

I have to say, really confident of Red Bull to do that but to me it seems unlikely they reached the ultimate "aero" that doesn't need any changes. To me this sounds more like they are trying to reduce number of changes in order to improve their correlation/understanding and that they will bring bigger changes when they are ready.

[dren]

Most of the cars have converged on the Red Bull design, so they probably really didn't need to do much. They did make packaging changes.

[Farnborough]

I'm super amused how everyone is going out of their way to explain how "Red Bull changed every surface" but yet the changes are so minimal it is almost impossible to tell them by eye.

I have to say, really confident of Red Bull to do that but to me it seems unlikely they reached the ultimate "aero" that doesn't need any changes. To me this sounds more like they are trying to reduce number of changes in order to improve their correlation/understanding and that they will bring bigger changes when they are ready.

I see it broadly the same way. Once they acknowledged that they were travelling in a wrong direction during last season mid year performance, it almost put them back six months in conceptual thinking, if that makes sense.

Abandoned their in season upgrade package, then to move onto later season progression. They now APPEAR out of step in conventional season application. A little like McL kind of wrong footed themselves, to then be running out of phase with other teams in development terms.

RB certainly seems calmer, ultimately more predictable, but yet to get quantified pace appreciation within whole field performance.

[101FlyingDutchman]

Just goes to show the in season development curve of the cars + a decent off season. Williams nearly 1sec quicker than their BAH test 2024

[TeamKoolGreen]

I'm super amused how everyone is going out of their way to explain how "Red Bull changed every surface" but yet the changes are so minimal it is almost impossible to tell them by eye.

I have to say, really confident of Red Bull to do that but to me it seems unlikely they reached the ultimate "aero" that doesn't need any changes. To me this sounds more like they are trying to reduce number of changes in order to improve their correlation/understanding and that they will bring bigger changes when they are ready.

It doesn't seem unlikely to me that the upward ceiling of these regs has been hit. This big upgrade being rumoured at Red Bull probably won't be big at all.

Reining Moto GP champs just scrapped their 2025 bike and engine and will run 2024 equipment for the same reason

[Hoffman900]

My main takeaway from day 1 is that I still really hate listening to Sam Collins pretending to know how a racecar works.

The reliability waffle on the literal first day of testing was bizarre.

Yeah, Sam is excrutiating to listen to.

It’s like every bad reddit / tweet analysis except you have to listen to it out loud.

[organic]

Nice stint by bearman for Haas. Maybe simulating 2nd stint Bahrain

[SparkyAMG]

I'm super amused how everyone is going out of their way to explain how "Red Bull changed every surface" but yet the changes are so minimal it is almost impossible to tell them by eye.

I have to say, really confident of Red Bull to do that but to me it seems unlikely they reached the ultimate "aero" that doesn't need any changes. To me this sounds more like they are trying to reduce number of changes in order to improve their correlation/understanding and that they will bring bigger changes when they are ready.

I agree.

To my untrained eye, the internal packaging changes look like they're paving the way for aero changes that we're not seeing yet because of the reasons you've identified.

[bananapeel23]

The Ferrari was looking really nervous when Leclerc was trying a C4 push lap. It looked incredibly stiff.

[Seanspeed]

The Ferrari was looking really nervous when Leclerc was trying a C4 push lap. It looked incredibly stiff.

It did look nervous, but it's also a recently dried track and he had traffic for like the whole last 2/3's of the track. And he had looked a bit frustrated before the run even started, shaking his head down into the last corner before starting the lap. lol

Definitely having trouble getting clean space and proper warm up for a fast lap when everybody else is trundling around 5-6+ seconds slower.

[Sergej]

Norris is doing a MEGA stint on C3.

[Seanspeed]

Norris is doing a MEGA stint on C3.

On full fuel? What's the context?

[FittingMechanics]

Norris is doing a MEGA stint on C3.

On full fuel? What's the context?

20 lap stint on C3 - 1:35.5ish average.
Stopped and straight out on C2.

[MrGapes]

Norris Race Sim
C3 Stint 1
1. 2.30.072 OUTLAP
2. 1.36.037
3. 1.35.758
4. 1.35.694
5. 1.35.585
6. 1.35.684
7. 1.35.729
8. 1.36.372
9. 1.36.363
10. 1.35.452
11. 1.35.171
12. 1.35.125
13. 1.34.930
14. 1.35.099
15. 1.35.535
16. 1.35.344
17. 1.35.379
18. 1.35.171
19. 1.35.141
20. 1.35.372
21. 1.37.736 INLAP

[Sergej]

Leclerc is on a very good stint too, although not as impressive as Norris (assuming they are both on first stint of a race sim), plus he needed a much slower introduction at the beginning. Now Norris is on what could be the second stint, he's lapping about 1s faster than second stint of last year race.