Who’s hot and who’s not after F1 testing
SAKHIR, Bahrain — New regulations, new cars and possibly a new competitive order in Formula One. Don’t expect the tables to turn completely at the start of F1’s new era, but it’s clear at least one of the top teams is struggling while a number of the smaller outfits have made significant strides.
Below is a rough ranking of the teams based on the data available from the Bahrain test. Testing times are notoriously unreliable for predicting genuine performance ahead of a season, but digging into some of the longer runs and factoring in expected progress it is possible to pick out the top teams from the chasing pack.
The season begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 20, live on ESPN (10.55AM Eastern Time).
It’s way too early to be crowning champions, but it’s safe to say Max Verstappen will get a shot at defending his title this year.
The Red Bull looked solid throughout the two tests and stepped things up on the final day when it brought an update to the RB18 to top the timesheets by 0.521s at the chequered flag. The update was not as extreme as the one rivals Mercedes brought to its car on Thursday, but it was a lot less troublesome. The fact it was planned for the final day of testing underlined Red Bull’s confidence in its development plan; making use of every last minute of time back at the factory before bringing the final product to the track.
As impressive as Verstappen’s time was, it comes with the usual caveats around fuel load and engine settings skewing performance (although Red Bull are not known for chasing glory runs in testing). The world champion confirmed his fastest lap was a long way from a “qualifying spec” run, but he was clearly pushing the Red Bull and opened up a 0.695s gap to the pre-existing fastest lap set by Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari. Verstappen’s lap was on softer tyres than Lecerc (C5 versus C4), but Pirelli believes there was little to choose between the two softest compounds as any extra performance from the C5 was levelled…
Source : espn
