Minute by minute updates on the opening day of the 2024 F1 Bahrain pre-season test
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The 2024 F1 season is here with the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
All 10 teams have completed their launches but the opening day of testing marks the first time each 2024 car is truly unveiled to the world.
With Red Bull coming off a dominant 2023 season when it won all but one grand prix, can any of its rivals take the fight to the defending world champions?
The Bahrain pre-season test will run between 21-23 February, with each day’s track action starting at 7am GMT (10am local time).
In terms of laps completed, Aston Martin will be pleased with a productive morning session logging 77 tours with Fernando Alonso. But on the flipside of the coin, Williams has work to do over the break to diagnose and repair its car that left Alex Albon stranded shortly before the end of the session.
The chequered flag has come out, bringing the first test session of F1 2024 to a close. Just it ended 2023, Red Bull is on top, with Haas bringing up the rear.
Rather than the general approach employed by some teams, Piastri's McLaren currently has flow-vis on the left-hand side only. There's probably a more scientific explanation to it than 'they ran out'.
There's nothing wrong with the straightline speed on the Red Bull. Verstappen proves as such by deploying DRS to outbrake Leclerc into Turn 1 - although it should be said that the Ferrari didn't have its own DRS flap engaged.
And there's also an improvement for Russell, who vaults the Mercedes into sixth on a 1m34.230s. That puts him two tenths up on Bottas, the 2017 Bahrain GP polesitter back when the Finn was in Russell's seat.
The issue doesn't appear to be one that Albon can resolve from inside the cockpit, so marshals have descended on the Williams to push it behind a barrier where it can be recovered back to the pits.
Albon is far enough off the 'racing' line that the session remains live. On-board footage appears to show him attempting a system reset. Not quite as easy with a Formula 1 car as on a laptop.
He slowed dramatically on the pit straight, the car appearing to lose drive, then cut across the inside of the first corner and has pulled off on the right of the straight on an access road. Albon remains in the car for the moment though.
As we approach the final 20 minutes of the morning session, Verstappen continues to lead the way from Leclerc, Alonso, Piastri and Tsunoda. Bottas, Albon, Ocon, Russell and Magnussen complete the order.
Now the team known last year as AlphaTauri has its latest new guise, RB. But you'd be forgiven from a distance for thinking the VCARB 01 was entered under the Toro Rosso name again given the visual similarities of its livery to the Faenza team's efforts around 2017-19.
It was in Bahrain back in 2006 when Red Bull's second team made its first appearance in F1 having taken over the former Minardi squad. Then known as Toro Rosso, it was a minor curiosity as the only team that year to run detuned V10 engines against a field of new V8s. Here Scott Speed chases down team-mate Tonio Liuzzi.
Vitantonio Liuzzi leads Scott Speed, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR01-Cosworth
The Aston Martin is presumably full of fuel, which explains why Alonso is lapping in the low 1m40s bracket on his C3 medium tyres, eight seconds off Verstappen's best, without obviously slowing down. But all of this is what testing is for - to understand how the car behaves in different conditions and pick up valuable data that future simulations can be based from.
Alonso is the only driver that has logged more than 60 laps so far. But long stints are nothing new to the Spaniard, F1's most experienced driver ever - who will notch up a record-extending 378th F1 start when the season begins. One wonders how many laps he's completed in Bahrain down the years. He is of course the only active driver who was on the grid for its inaugural race in 2004, when he finished sixth driving for Renault.
We've yet to see Lewis Hamilton in action today, but the seven-time world champion's decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025 has been the story of the year so far. That leaves a tantalising vacancy at Mercedes, but Helmut Marko is convinced that a big money offer won't convince Red Bull's star Max Verstappen to break his long-running contract with the energy drink manufacturer that has supported his career since 2015. You can read more on that here.
It only moves him up one place, but a new personal best for Russell on the C3s lifts the Mercedes driver to ninth above Magnussen. Minutes ago, the Dane had a big lock-up into Turn 8 that took him wide and for a perilous moment, close to the slow-moving Mercedes that had left plenty of space on the inside.
Then in 2020 we had the 'outer loop' that was used for the Sakhir Grand Prix. That on the other hand was fantastic, as short laps made for intriguing strategy variations, and with fairly few corners set-ups could be directed towards straight-line speed. The topsy-turvy podium of course helped too.
Esteban Ocon, Renault F1, 2nd position, Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 1st position, Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 3rd position, and Andy Stevenson, Sporting Director, Racing Point, on the podium
They were only used once, but Bahrain has of course seen two alternative configurations of the layout used for testing and the opening round. Back in 2010 we had the longer loop where the track veered left after Turn 4, completing a tortuous set of corners before rejoining at the current Turn 5. Can't say we're missing too much.
Timo Glock, Virgin VR-01 Cosworth, retired, leads Lucas di Grassi, Virgin VR-01 Cosworth, retired.
Track limits don't count in testing, of course, but we've seen a few drivers pushing over the circuit boundaries at Turn 4. None quite as dramatically as Ocon earlier, when the Alpine driver managed to find one of the few sections of gravel around this configuration of track. Leclerc is the latest to overstep things ever so slightly.
There's been plenty of talk around Red Bull's radical new sidepods in the build up to the test, and now we've been able to get a proper look. You can read more about that here.
We would love to see how flow-vis paint gets applied to Formula 1 cars. Given the precision with which every part of the car is designed and assembled, the liberally-applied green hue on Tsunoda's RB looks as though it was done by a gaggle of toddlers armed with broomsticks.
It's certainly colourful, but how does the new Sauber livery compare against its predecessors? It certainly isn't the worst - that honour surely goes to the 2014 Sauber C33. That machine can also be regarded as one of Hinwil's biggest lemons, given it scored no points in the first season of the new turbo hybrid regulations.
That flyer from Verstappen has established him with a six-tenth cushion over Leclerc with the second best time of the session so far. It's all looking rather 2023 at the moment, isn't it?
The little yellow flashes on the Ferrari are to this commenter's eye rather appealing and bring its livery more in line with the 499P Hypercar that won Le Mans last year. Yesterday a yellow livery was revealed for the third AF Corse WEC entry that Robert Kubica will drive with Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye, and I can't help but feel that would be a popular one should it ever appear on an F1 car...
The only team yet to complete 20 laps is Mercedes, with Russell managing 19 tours so far in the W15. Tsunoda and Alonso (each on 38) have been the busiest drivers to date.
One aesthetically pleasing aspect of testing is the regularity with which we see drivers locking up as drivers find the limits and uncover weaknesses in their cars' set-ups. Leclerc has a dramatic-looking double lock into Turn 1 but stays on the road, while Albon has another little moment at Turn 10 that plunges him into the run-off on exit.
It's not entirely relevant, but the fastest time in FP1 at last year's Bahrain GP was a 1m32.758s from Sergio Perez. The 1m33.065s from Verstappen is inching towards that benchmark, and we're only a couple of hours in on day one.
Whether anybody will be able to make a similar off-season leap to what Aston Martin managed last year will be one of the year's big talking points. It's much too early to say yet, given nobody has even mustered 40 laps.
Fernando Alonso has returned to the fray using the C3 tyre on his Aston Martin. One year ago the green team was the talk of the town as it surged up the order to bang on Red Bull's door. He's currently third in the times.
Ocon now leaves the box and things get a little messy down at Turn 10 as Albon tries to go around the outside, locks up and slides into the run-off area. No harm done.
As Leclerc heads for the pits, we have just two cars currently circulating - the Sauber of Bottas and Albon's Williams. The DRS flap on the Sauber has #UNLEASHED emblazoned on it. I wonder if the Swiss team considered going with a shorter slogan to save a few pennies on stickers under the cost cap.
Morning everybody. We're sure to get plenty of 'it's only testing' comments from drivers later on, but that doesn't mean they're not pushing. Leclerc demonstrates that much by snatching his right-front brake into the tricky downhill Turn 8.
