The times that put Red Bull in a league of its own so far in Bahrain

Formula 1 has waited a long time for its new era – the one that was supposed to herald a new age of success spread throughout the field. Well, the first day of real grand prix weekend action in Bahrain in 2022 ended in the same manner as how the final day of 2021 concluded: Red Bull and Max Verstappen on top.

The world champion led the way, but only just over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. And Mercedes’ testing struggles appeared to carry over into the reality of the new season.

But beneath the headline lap times from the only practice session that ever matters on the Bahrain weekend – FP2, thanks to its evening setting being in line with Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race – the long-run picture looks very good right now for Red Bull.

Overall order

It leads the way on one-lap pace in any case – with Verstappen’s 1m31.936s good enough to top FP2 by 0.087s in front of Leclerc. The latter also had two goes at getting near the Dutchman’s best time, with Leclerc going from 0.327s adrift to his final margin with a run on the softs during the teams’ long-run territory that, as ever, closed out the second Friday practice session. This will become important later on.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Data Autosport has seen, which is corrected for DRS usage and presumed fuel loads for each team during FP2 (this caveat is as ever present as before), suggests Red Bull was gaining as much as 5km/h over its rivals in the Turns 6/7 sweeping, fast, downhill right then left at the start of the second sector. Ferrari, meanwhile, led the way through the middle sector overall in FP2, but Verstappen was tracked gaining time again in the critical medium-speed Turn 13 90-degree right that feeds onto the penultimate straight and starts sector three, which he topped.

But it is understood that Red Bull was losing time to its rivals on the straights throughout FP2, which suggests it perhaps running in a lower power mode.

“The car felt good today, testing here last week means we've all started in a good place,” reflected Verstappen. “We had quite a straightforward and smooth day so I’m pretty happy, we also tried a few things on the car in each session and they seemed to work well. You can see that Ferrari are pushing hard and are very close so that’s exciting.

“Looking ahead, we’ll have to wait and see with different teams' engine modes, no one is in quali spec yet so I think everyone still has a lot more to give.”

Mercedes came in with the day’s third best time thanks to new signing George Russell. He finished 0.593s adrift of Verstappen’s fastest one-lap effort on the softs but lost most of that – estimated at 0.35s – in the Sakhir track’s opening corners alone.

"We're still struggling to get the rear of the car much lower and trying to do that gave the drivers a fairly bumpy time of it in the second session" Andrew Shovlin

Here, team-mate Lewis Hamilton was having a tough time through FP2 as he locked up heavily both during his early running on the mediums and again when it came to try a qualifying simulation run on the softs.

But Autosport understands that Mercedes so far cannot explain the reason why it is shipping so much time to Verstappen at this point on the track. Russell’s tyres being outside the optimum working range is suspected, as firing them up to temperature then keeping them cool was problematic on the rough track surface. But Mercedes apparently can’t rule out end-of-straight porpoising contributing to the time loss through the following turns at the end of the main straight.

That factor did have an impact for Russell’s best time of FP2, as he is understood to have had to lift off the throttle at the end of the penultimate straight leading down to the final corners, such was the severity of the bouncing.

George Russell, Mercedes W13

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

It apparently only cost him a fraction, but it demonstrates how much Mercedes continues to struggle in this area, with Hamilton complaining about the same issue even after being switched to run the straighter floor edge arrangement (which Russell used throughout the day) for FP2. This was compared to the sculpted Z-shaped style edge he ran in FP1, where Mercedes was experimenting with aero-load fixes for its ongoing porpoising.

“That was a useful test and we got a clear read on which set-up and floor specification was best for the bouncing,” said Mercedes director of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin. “However, we're still struggling to get the rear of the car much lower and trying to do that gave the drivers a fairly bumpy time of it in the second session.”

There were further issues at Mercedes during FP2. Hamilton reported a front brake problem, with the right front “pulling” as he pounded around. But the reason for his 0.615s gap to Russell in the one-lap standings, where he ended up down in ninth and sandwiched by the Haas duo Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen, was down to his DRS malfunctioning.

Mercedes estimates that the problem, which meant Hamilton was left to traverse the long main straight with his rear wing shut on his fastest laps, cost him 0.5-0.6s.

Soft tyre averages

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

There are glimmers of hope for Red Bull’s rivals heading into the sessions that matter this weekend and big swings could indeed happen when every squad gets to work making overnight improvements – somewhat of a convergence on pace would be expected as a result.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images