Minute by minute updates on the second day of the 2024 F1 Bahrain pre-season test
The 2024 F1 season has arrived with pre-season testing in Bahrain.
All 10 teams have completed their launches and are trying to use as much track time as possible to prepare for the new season during the three-day pre-season test.
With Red Bull coming off a stunning 2023 season when it won all but one grand prix, can any of its rivals take the fight to the defending world champions? Signs were ominous after Max Verstappen dominated the opening day of the test.
The Bahrain pre-season test will run between 21-23 February, with each day’s track action starting at 7am GMT (10am local time).
But the time falls away over the rest of the lap and there is no improvement. Just how close to Sainz would the McLaren driver be able to get on the faster C4 compound, though.
Speaking of contests, we have another one on the lap count front. Perez is closing in on 100 tours, currently on 94 but in the pits, while Hamilton has just hit 92 but is still circulating. Pulsating stuff!
Bottas looked like the next to go for a flying lap as the Sauber driver backed off in the final sector. But instead he heads through the pits, performs a practice start and goes back on his way.
After that introduction, I had better rack my brains and try to find some tangential links between the aforementioned junior series and Bahrain. Not easy when the only driver on the grid who competed in the championship which finished in 2004 has handed over his Aston Martin to Lance Stroll. Anyway, down to business.
Bahrain at this time looks really rather atmospheric doesn't it? The natural light is fading, but not so significantly that the drivers are reliant on the floodlights just yet.
He stays 11th, but Ricciardo sets a new personal best on the C3 medium tyre that shaves three tenths off his previous effort. It's still 3.1 seconds from the outright pace though.
Perez's lid has got me thinking about confectionary-related sponsors. Of course there was Kyle Busch who had M&Ms backing in NASCAR for many years while at Joe Gibbs Racing. But after Stefan's intro, I felt obligated to pull out this shot of Cor Euser's Madgwick Reynard 88D from 1988 with a Cadburys livery. Superb.
A Madgwick Motorsport team photograph with Cor Euser (NED) in the car
It's a quirk of the timing screens that you usually only get in testing, but one we enjoy all the same. Technically, his last lap took 34m51.993s, but that was down to an extended spell in the garage before our pacesetter rejoined the fray.
Norris continues to pound around with his Gil de Ferran tribute lid, a really classy touch from the Briton. It's not the first time though that we've seen drivers adopt helmet liveries made famous by other drivers that prompt a double-take. One of my favourites was at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, when Rubens Barrichello donned a lid with the colours of his friend, IndyCar racer Tony Kanaan.
Bottas has emerged from the pits right in front of Perez, who elects not to back off and tracks the Sauber around the lap. Even if it's an inconvenience to his run plan, feedback on how the car performs in dirty air will be helpful for the engineers after all.
It doesn't take long before Perez opens DRS and blasts past Bottas into Turn 1. The Finn elects not to open his rear wing and doesn't fight it. Nothing to gain from those sorts of antics at this stage.
Running the C3 tyres, Perez is the fastest man on the track at the moment turning laps in the 1m34s bracket. Ricciardo is the next quickest, two seconds per lap slower in the mid-1m36s.
That update didn't date terribly well. Ocon has now posted a lap just over a tenth off his best today, a 1m34.477s, although it's not enough to move the Alpine driver up the order from his current 14th position.
Even at this stage of testing, the lock-ups are coming thick and fast. Sargeant snags the left-front wheel into the tricky downhill Turn 10, and momentarily appeared to consider plunging into the support pits before slowing and making a tight turn to rejoin the road.
Down at Turn 11 again, and a few minutes ago we were 'treated' to a Perez/Bottas battle. Next lap, Perez was well ahead of the neon-green Sauber. I write this as Perez flashes past in Sainz's wheeltracks, but can only offer an image of Bottas passing a slow Alpine. C'est la vie.
It's taking some time to get used to the sight of Alan Permane in a garage other than Team Enstone, and slightly more to acclimatise to him chatting with new RB team principal Laurent Mekies. The former Ferrari man is at least well used to the Faenza team however, having engineered for it in the team's Minardi and Toro Rosso guises before he joined the FIA in 2014.
Lewis Hamilton has managed more laps than anybody today, with 111 and counting thus far. The Silver Arrows is only seventh in the timesheets as things stand, but George Russell gave some telling insight earlier when he said the new W15 is giving the drivers more confidence to attack in the corners. You can read more on that here.
Sargeant has also clicked over 100 laps today, with Alex Albon getting a rest. He too faced the media earlier on and explained that while Williams has resolved many of its major shortcomings from last year, the Bahrain test has revealed fresh issues with its 2024 car. You can read about that here.
We've seen plenty of lock-ups down at Turn 8, and Hamilton is the latest to be caught out by the downhill right-hander by running all the way over the white line on the outside.
Christian Horner was among the five team representatives to face the media earlier today, but he declined to comment on allegations made against him by a female employee during his first official F1 press conference since Red Bull launched its investigation. Matt Kew was there and explains what happened.
There's another improvement at the expense of Sargeant, and this time it's Esteban Ocon who shuffles ahead of the Williams driver to occupy tenth spot. His new personal best, a 1m32.566s, was also set on the medium tyre.
As Sargeant continues to truck on, we are reminded that he revealed during the Williams livery launch that he gained five kilos over the winter after a draining 2023 debut season saw him completely rethink his training approach. The American said he felt "much more healthy and much more ready to go". He continued: "I feel like a different man, I feel like physically I am in the best shape I've ever been". All of that will be paying off today.
A bit of a heart-in-mouth moment at Turn 4 there as Bottas sent one up the inside of Stroll, who was having none of it and stuck it out around the outside. Bottas got a bit of opposite lock on, and thought better of teaching the Aston Martin driver a lesson at risk of contact. Plenty of time for that next week, chaps.
This time last year, you may recall that Stroll was in a race against time to make the first race after a cycling accident that resulted in wrist injuries. Felipe Drugovich got to take his place in testing, although didn't get the chance to race as Stroll recovered sufficiently to return to duty. The Canadian will be grateful of a much more straightforward pre-season this time around.
Meanwhile, slow-motion replays show Sainz's Ferrari porpoising down the straight and giving the driver a rough old time. Thankfully the phenomenon is rarer than it used to be, but it's unlikely to be fully eradicated under this rule set.
