With the introduction of the new technical rules at the Gran Circo, in the first pre-season test in Barcelona, the teams did not focus their efforts on achieving maximum performance, but instead tried to discover if the data from the wind tunnel and the simulators correlated with reality.
In addition, the week was overshadowed by the problems that the vast majority of teams suffered from porpoising, which compromised the ability to find the right set-up.
However, the three-day test before the opening round in Bahrain on March 20 will be the last chance to run the cars and test the final touches until they reach their true potential.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto believes the conservative approach all teams wanted to take in Barcelona, with heavy fuel loads and a focus on set-up analysis, will not be the ideal method at Shakir.
“I think that in Spain, in the first tests, the idea was to collect data and try to understand the correlation,” he explained. “But when we are in Bahrain, we will be close to the first race of the season, and I think we will try to do race and qualifying simulations.”
The focus on understanding the cars will intensify as some teams are expected to bring updates to the first grand prix. It looks like Mercedes will unveil some radical aerodynamic modifications to its W13 , but no one has given any indication of its true level.
Alpine in particular had quite disappointing first tests seen from the outside, with a fire in one of their power units and far from the best time, but the technical director, Alan Permane , indicated that they ran with a lot of fuel, without using the DRS and with a conservative engine map, something that cost them about seven tenths per lap.
“My feeling is that we are a little closer to the front than last year,” he said. “But I know what fuel we’re on, I don’t know what the others are on, and if we’re on the same fuel we might not be as good, but I wouldn’t have thought about it.”
“I doubt that some of the fastest times from certain mid-table teams have been done on the same amount of fuel as us, so that gives me a good feeling,” Permane said.
