The F1 team has had an interesting and revealing few days, and it's very difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions from the Bahrain tests.
The closing day brought renewed interest, especially regarding the weather, as this time the teams were greeted with much milder and warmer conditions. There was no shortage of other events, as Lance Stroll was absent for the first few hours due to illness, a grid window broke, and then a bus entering the track caused a bizarre red flag phase. Charles Leclerc posted the fastest time of the morning, followed in second place by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and Lando Norris managed to sneak onto the imaginary podium in third.
In the afternoon, the focus shifted to the longer stints, however, with Max Verstappen taking the lead and remaining there until the final ten minutes of the race. At that point, George Russell finally beat this lap time. Interestingly, the fastest time of the three days wasn't this one, but Carlos Sainz's result in yesterday's session. Different compounds, different tactics, and performance hiding—that's for sure—along with McLaren's development and Williams' progress. The rest is impossible to predict.
Photo: F1
