F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 6

Some more light reading for you with matters arising from the second test. There's been much excitement about Ferrari's swivelling rear wing, and Lewis Hamilton's launch off the line during a start simulation, but Lewis's average pace during a race sim on the day didn't set the world alight (caveat: this is testing, so he won't have been pushing).

The general trend of thinking is that Mercedes will be in the driving seat once everybody has stopped sandbagging.

And of course the competitors are well into I-told-you-so mode about the new regs and the shortcomings of running a near 50:50 ratio of internal combustion and electrical power. There are discussions surrounding the idea of limiting the amount of deployment so it lasts longer. 

And of course the other hot-button topic is that of how the race starts will work out. With the elimination of the MGU-H from the power units for this season, turbo lag is a thing again so the drivers need extra time to rev their engines before letting rip.

Ferrari, it emerged, had seen this coming before the others and established a workaround. Then when its rivals realised the potential issues and began to push for changes to the procedure, Ferrari naturally said nay. But now sense has prevailed and an amended start procedure is being trialled at the end of running every day this week.

Ocon, Leclerc, Antonelli, Hulkenberg and Gasly also out on track, Carlos Sainz has been out on an installation lap and then returned to the pits.

We have a mixture of hard Pirellis (Lindblad, Ocon, Hulkenberg) with the rest on mediums.

Lots of aero work going on; Gasly's Alpine is bedecked in pitot arrays and he's just come into the pits for a change of front wing. Antonelli also in – the Merc is being slathered in flow-viz paint.

Lindblad has a massive lock-up on the front-left as he brakes for Turn 1, and the Racing Bulls plunges into the run-off area. A substantial flat-spot on that tyre as he emerges.

Perez now out in the Cadillac with a pair of aero rakes on the back end. Just him and Lindblad on the track at the moment.

Hadjar has broken for the pits after a six-lap stint on mediums with a best time of 1m35.011s, which is the fastest so far.

Hadjar now leaving the pits again. Piastri now joining him on track as Perez returns to the pitlane in the Cadillac.

Lindblad also did six laps in his most recent stint. He got at least one push lap in – 1m36.609s – but he was on the hards, so it really looks like this is more a case of experimenting to find an optimum harvesting/deployment strategy.

Regular Autosport commenter 'Silverstone Guy' says: "Hopefully today we shall see a few showboat laps: low fuel, adjusted tyre pressures, engine turned up.

"Normally the big teams need not bother to reveal their hand, but it can excite mid-tier squads going into the final pre-race stretch."

I should coco. All this sandbagging and subterfuge is becoming rather wearing.

Well, no sooner had we said that than Charles Leclerc pops out of the pits on mediums and starts leaning on his Ferrari – enough to have an oversteer moment at Turn 11 requiring a "dab of oppo".

1m33.837s for Charles.

After 20-odd minutes of running we've now seen all the teams on track in some way, shape or form – except one. Can you guess which, readers?

DON'T PANIC, MR MAINWARING

F1 boss Stefano Domenicali – aka 'Steve Sunday' – gave a press briefing yesterday. Among the matters arising was that nobody should get themselves in a panic or or such kerfuffle over the new regs.

Did you get that? DON'T PANIC – IT'LL BE ALRIGHT ON THE NIGHT

As I wrote yesterday in a column for the next issue of Autosport, if that's the messaging then perhaps we should invite Denis Norden to the Australian GP and get him to start the race by waving his famous red clipboard...

THE POWER OF 12

Oh I nearly forgot – another matter arising from this week is that F1 will move to having 12 sprint weekends a year. Fans love them, apparently.

Do you love them? Do you? Polite answers only (if you can) in the comments...

Lots of phrases joining the F1 lexicon this season – 'super clipping', 'straightline mode' etc.

Meanwhile over on Motorsport.com, 'Gadoguz94' has activated 'Whataboutery mode'...

"I'm sorry, 'sense has prevailed'

"You seriously have the gall to call this sense when 4 out of 5 manufacturers didn't see it coming but Ferrari have and acted on it, even warned everyone.. Compression shennanigans [sic] on the other hand are fine because Merc is the one team?

"Where was the sense when Merc got the rules changed mid season multiple times before, most recently with the TD039 in 2022.?

"Can you people at Motorsport be any more obvious in your Mercedes bias?"

Calm down, sir! This is a safety issue - cars potentially travelling at vastly different speeds at that point in a race is a major no-no if it can sensibly be avoided. Note the deaths of Ronnie Peterson and Riccardo Paletti, to cite just two examples. Some issues really do transcend the politics of competitive advantage.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm taking a short break to polish the badge of my freebie E-Class...

Lindblad back out on track – just him, Antonelli, Ocon and Hulkenberg circulating at the moment. Arvid has completed the most laps of the day so far (17).

Least laps completed: Cadillac (1) unless you count Aston Martin (0).

Very few drivers essaying more than a handful of laps in any one stint so far this morning. The only long run so far is 11 laps on mediums by Antonelli (best time 1m33.916s).

HAAS DEBATE

Slightly bizarre scenes as our timing system indicates Ocon has gone out on intermediates. Just as we're about to start hitting screens, switching off and then switching on again etc, the trackside TV footage cuts to the Haas circulating on the green-walled tyres.

Ah, just the front wing dropping on the back straight (twixt Turns 10 and 11). Looks like a system test for poor weather, when only the front wing will be defeated when active aero is deployed.

THE DARK LORD OF NORDEN

WhatsApp message from a former colleague: "Amusing and typically abstruse and recherche as your reference to Denis Norden was, a swift Google (an operation many of your no-doubt long-suffering readers will have had to perform) reveals he died in 2018 and is therefore no longer available."

Eh, keep your hair on...

Ocon enjoying himself destroying those inters now, lighting up the rear axle and laying down a phat line of spent rubber.

Leclerc is now 10 laps into a race simulation for Ferrari. Last time around was in the 1m39s bracket – so, like Hamilton yesterday, not triggering attention via laptimes.

'PetersonFan' says: "Could we see a return to 70s/80s style races where reliability comes into play ? And some cars are lapped multiple times ? Does the 107% rule still exist ?"

Well this could end up being a thing, especially in the early races. Remember 1981-83, when it felt like there was a turbo car blowing up more or less every lap? In this case it will more likely be some sort of electronic snafu within the hybrid system; the Honda PU, for instance, seems to have been eating its Energy Stores during testing.

It would be interesting – probably not desirable from a spectacle point of view – if cars were finishing multiple laps down. To pluck just one random example from history, in Belgium in 1965 only two cars finished on the lead lap. Third-placed Bruce McLaren was a lap down, Lorenzo Bandini in ninth was two laps down... The leaders? The peerless Jim Clark of course, 40-odd seconds ahead of Jackie Stewart.

And, yes, the 107% rule still exists. It was brought back when that clutch of new teams joined the grid at the turn of the last decade, and some of them were embarrassingly slow. But I can't think of a recent example of someone actually being barred from starting – usually they're granted an exemption owing to extenuating circumstances. It's been a long time since anyone was regularly that slow.

Lindblad also on a race sim, 13 laps into a stint on hards – 1m41.154s last time round.

And he calls it a day after 14 laps.

In Leclerc race sim news, he did 12 laps on those mediums and then swapped to hards. He's now nine laps into that stint, 1m38.581s last time.

'cjewell' asks: "Any update on the - apparently - continued woes at Aston Martin?"

Yes, Honda Racing's X-formerly-known-as-Twitter account has announced that "Our last run with Fernando Alonso yesterday showed a battery-related issue" – ie when his car conked out.

They say that owing to "a shortage of power unit parts", they have "adapted today's run plan to be very limited and consist only of short stints."

Aston Martin watchers will also be devastated to learn that the team has cancelled its press conference with Pedro de la Rosa today. We were yearning to share the insights from that with you.

Leclerc has binned off those hards after 15 laps and is back out on a new set of mediums. 1m37.827s last time around; the F1 TV feed has cut to him in anticipation of fireworks but our live sector times are all yellow, so the director may be disappointed.

Lindblad, meanwhile, is out for another stint on hards after completing 14 laps on the previous set.

Ocon back out, on proper tyres this time (scrubbed mediums). He did a launch test at the pit exit, but it didn't look like he was giving it the full beans.

Piastri now 13 laps into a stint on mediums – total of 19 so far today. His last lap was 1m40.362s.

And Ocon pits immediately after one lap. Clearly another systems check. He's done 26 laps overall today.

In-car footage shows the engine was running as Antonelli coasted to a halt, but it sounded more like a 1970s two-stroke motorcycle with an illegal exhaust.

'hopkinsonfrank' asks: "You said they were going to do a start at the end of the afternoon session. Will they do one at the end of the morning session too? The ones from yesterday were hilarious and reminiscent of the junior pedal car races at the Goodwood Revival, when some children are really keen and race off to impress mummy and daddy while some at the back just went through the motions because they couldn't be arsed."

Very droll. And yes, there will be a practice start at the end of the morning session as well. The FIA confirmed this yesterday via a rather more useful WA message than the one I reported earlier.

Dear readers, please be upstanding and give a small round of applause as Cadillac reaches double figures in terms of lap count. Perez has just clocked up his 13th of the day. Lucky for some!

Hadjar back out on track on a new set of mediums. It may not be for long, though, as a panning shot on F1 TV reveals flow-viz paint on the underside of the monocoque – around the driver's left thigh area.

Hulkenberg also returning to action in the Audi, bringing the team's total laps past 42 for the day. The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything?

But I digress. I continue to be fascinated by the Audi's sidepod treatment. Certainly one way to manage the wake turbulence from the front wheels, and narrowing those sidepods has created a huge space in that area.

Another returnee to the circuit. It is he – Leclerc! On scrubbed mediums. Ferrari still leading the lap count, 52 now.