F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 2

Lap count update:

Alpine - 94 laps (Gasly)
Haas - 90 laps (Bearman)
McLaren - 85 laps (Norris)
Racing Bulls - 84 laps (Lawson 50, Lindblad 34)
Williams - 81 laps (Albon 62, Sainz 19)
Ferrari - 80 laps (Leclerc)
Aston Martin - 75 laps (Alonso)
Audi - 70 laps (Hulkenberg 47, Bortoleto 23)
Cadillac - 61 laps (Perez 42, Bottas 19)
Red Bull - 39 laps (Hadjar)
Mercedes - 17 laps (Antonelli 3, Russell 14)

Gasly and Bottas take to the track straight away, soon joined by Lindblad and Bortoleto.

Amusingly (if your amusement bar is low), that's four different power units: Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull-Ford, and Audi.

Fil Cleeren reports Bottas' Cadillac lost part of its right-hand-side mirror, which landed on the track and nearly hit Sainz' Williams.

The reason for the interruption is debris on track.

All cars have made it back to the pits.

In other words, Mercedes is going ahead with its run plan despite Antonelli covering just three laps this morning, following a technical issue. Both drivers – the Italian youngster and team-mate Russell – are taking the wheel every day for one four-hour session each.

Let's recap today's lap count as, despite our best wishes, we can't have that in our live timing above, due to technical reasons.

Alpine - 81 laps (Gasly)
McLaren - 80 laps (Norris)
Haas - 79 laps (Bearman)
Ferrari - 72 laps (Leclerc)
Racing Bulls - 70 laps (Lawson 50, Lindblad 20)
Williams - 69 laps (Albon 62, Sainz 7)
Aston Martin - 65 laps (Alonso)
Audi - 57 laps (Hulkenberg 47, Bortoleto 10)
Cadillac - 49 laps (Perez 42, Bottas 7)
Red Bull - 27 laps (Hadjar)
Mercedes - 7 laps (Antonelli 3, Russell 4)

'Eric Osman' asks: "What is going to be the outcome of the Mercedes power unit working at a compression ratio exceeding limits that other teams are unable to get to? Are we looking at allowing Honda, Ford, Ferrari, Renault and Audi to obtain some intellectual property from Mercedes, or will the FIA request that Mercedes reduce their compression ratio before the season commences?"

Once again, we've got you on this. Essentially the other engine manufacturers are ganging up on Mercedes because they fear they've been caught out. Plus, of course, there's a senior figure at one team who was in charge of Ferrari during 'fuel flow-gate', and could therefore be forgiven for thinking Merc – and Toto Wolff – deserve a bit of payback for flagging that up...

And here's a little bit of McLaren detail for you.

Photo by: Kemal Sengul

Photo by: Kemal Sengul

CAPTION COMPETITION

Kemal has been out papping the paddock. What do you reckon is the topic of conversation here?

Photo by: Kemal Sengul

Oh dear, Lance Stroll's media session has been put back to 4pm local. Our apologies to any readers who have been holding their breath awaiting his latest insights. 

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

START ME UP

Here's another story our trackside team has been working on. With the removal of the MGU-H for this season, there is going to be more turbo lag – and for that reason, race starts are going to be more chaotic.

There's a simple reason for this – drivers will need to keep their engines at high revs for around 10 seconds to spool up the turbo. So it'll be noisy, and some of them will get it wrong (but – how hard is it to count to 10? Honestly...).

"'Leclerc on top of Ferrari'? Strange driving position" says eagle-eyed subscriber Ben.

Is it a careless typo or simply the revelation of a new aerodynamic configuration involving the driver, like the 'supertuck' in Zwift? (hat tip: Zwiftinsider)

Photo by: ZwiftInsider

'formeleinsbharg' says: "Question: are all teams running those oversized gills on the engine covers or is it just Aston? If so, cooling trouble?"

WELL!

We've got you here. Lots of teams have gills in this area but it's clear Aston Martin has had to extend them because some of the finishing in that area is a tad 'Heath Robinson'. And as it happens, Gianluca has written about it just this very day...

Cooling vents Aston Martin AMR26

Photo by: Formula 1

'mikemasters14' also says: "...and speaking of green, how green is it to run the engine to generate electrical power to store in the battery to redeploy again in the electrical motor with the associated efficiency losses at each step. Better surely just to have a larger ICE using the synthetic fuel, dump the heavy battery and generator entirely. More efficient, more green, and a much much lighter, more nimble car. Just what the drivers are calling for."

All interesting points and I am reminded of the absurd 'fuel burning' phase in qualifying in the mid-2000s, back when Bernie and Max were fiddling with the format every weekend.

In terms of burning fuel to generate energy, this has been happening (albeit to a lesser extent) all through the hybrid era – again, the amount done being dependent on track layout.

Finally, as to getting rid of battery/hybrids/etc entirely. This is a fascinating point to debate and there's a powerful argument to say that if one were to view F1 purely as a competition, why not just have a mega ICE and just not bother trying to show 'synergies' with road car tech. The counterpoint to that, though, is... who would build these engines? The road car companies wouldn't want to spend that money without a tech story to tell.

And obviously, out in the wider world there has been a lot of pulling in different directions as governments push for full electrification by whatever deadline they have pulled out of a hat, while a significant portion of the car-buying public remains hesitant about EVs.

Also, there are strong opinions regarding EVs/Net Zero, etc, which fall along political lines – but I would put conversations such as this under the 'not at the dinner table' category...

'mikemasters14' says: "I find it somewhat greenwash-ery when I hear about the power split for the new formula being 50%/50%, when in fact over an average lap, the contribution from the ICE will be massively more than the electrical component. Do you know what that split will be, roughly in real terms?"

Not yet – and it will vary according to track configuration in any case.

'horfhorf' asks: "Have the drivers commented on how easy it is to follow another car?"

Not really – Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman had a few comments after the Barcelona shakedown but there hasn't been much opportunity for cars to run together. Although all the teams are now present for this first test, they only have one car each and typically only three or four are running on track at any given time, rather spaced out.

Here's what Nico Hulkenberg had to say when asked about this just now:

"I think it's too early to say that because you're just running around yourself in Bahrain in the heat. I think I would just want to say that after a few races to see how raceable these cars are, how it works then. I know you guys are keen and want some answers and infos, but I think it would not be fair to say that right now."

As you can see from this image, he's spent at least part of today doing aero evaluations with flo-viz.

Nico Hulkenberg, Audi F1 Team

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images

And as Aston Martin's AMR26 becomes a hot topic in the comments, apropos whether the team is sandbagging or not – a bit early to be making definitive judgements on car pace TBH – here are a few detail images of the car from our Motorsport.com Turkey colleague, Kemal Sengul.

Photo by: Kemal Sengul

Photo by: Kemal Sengul

Photo by: Kemal Sengul

Speaking of cats, among the reasons for the slight hiatus in posting just now was that elevensies had to be extended owing to the house felines' demands for a game of 'Tremors'.

This is an entertainment in which we re-enact the seminal Kevin Bacon B-movie via a rug with a feather-on-stick toy moving around underneath it.

Plot twist: in this telling of the story, the 'graboids' are the hunted rather than the hunters, and get it totally handed to them.

'DriftDareAceX#8d67e07f', another of our readers to have apparently permitted a cat to wander across their keyboard while signing up, asks: "When do you think the 2026 cars will be able to match the lap times of last year? Currently they are like 5 seconds off"

Well, are they are aren't they? It's early days in this test and most teams haven't put their performance hats on yet – they're running through aero validations and, judging by all the lock-ups at Turn 10, there's an education process going on in terms of how braking points migrate while harvesting.

On top of that, nobody who thinks they might have a clever advantage is going to show it just yet.

Our Italian Motorsport.com colleague Gianluca D'Alessandro wrote a story yesterday explaining why Pirelli says laptimes should be in the same ballpark as last year – according to simulation data submitted by the teams.

AUDI THEY DO THAT

Audi's drivers have been talking to the media during the break. There has been a lot of speculation about how the role of the driver will change this season, given that they will have a lot more energy management to do – although some of this will be taken care of by software.

So one question is whether a conventionally 'fast' driver will still be quick, given that they will no longer be tackling each corner at the limit of grip.

Gabriel Bortoleto has tackled that one.

"If you're a fast racing driver, you are fast in any car you drive in the world," he said. "I think, to be honest, everyone that is in Formula 1 has proven probably to be worth to be here and we should all adapt, hopefully, to this new regulation.

"It feels a little bit like the junior series, I would say. You know, obviously, the grip level is a bit higher, but it comes back a little bit to the basics of that. The car that has less grip, you are sliding more through the corner, that you can play with more, it's just a bit different.

"Last year, the cars were literally planted in the floor. You would go through a high speed and the moment you have a snap, you would probably just spin, or end it up in a bad way. And this year, it feels that you can play a little bit more with it."

Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

And of course, it would be remiss to cruise into (track) lunchtime without a report!

Your humble scribe is going to take the shortest of short breaks to make coffee and give the cats their elevensies, since they are both chuntering to announce that the hour in question has now passed without treats passing their lips.

In the interim, Autosport subscribers may wish to chow down on Ronald's excellent column, published this morning, explaining why both 'sides' have a case in F1's engine row.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images

We've also heard that the problem on Hadjar's car was a hydraulic leak on the chassis side – so, in the words of Lonis (feat. Daphne Willis), Red Bull is Good To Go this afternoon.

That single lap for Hadjar was an installation lap on used softs – he exited the pits a matter of seconds before the cut-off time.

So as the track personnel dash off for comestibles, let's update you on how many laps have been accomplished this morning:-

1. Norris – McLaren – 64 laps
=2. Leclerc – Ferrari – 62 laps
=2. Albon – Williams – 62 laps
4. Gasly – Alpine – 61 laps
=5. Bearman – Haas – 55 laps
=5. Alonso – Ason Martin – 55 laps
7. Lawson – Racing Bulls – 50 laps
8. Hulkenberg – Audi – 47 laps
9. Perez – Cadillac – 42 laps
10. Antonelli – Mercedes – 3 laps
11. Hadjar – Red Bull – 1 lap

Our understanding is that there was going to be a race resumption test – timing system showed first a VSC, then full Safety Car period – but then race control decided against it for whatever reason.

Race control communication screen at the track says "Resumption test aborted".

With just a few minutes left on the clock until the break, that looks like all the running for the morning done.