What we learned from F1 2024's first proper day
Summary
TLDRThe first day of practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix revealed insights into the 2024 Formula 1 pecking order. Mercedes achieved its top winter target of curing rear instability, though bouncing remains a concern. Williams overcame severe preseason struggles including outdated processes to ready its car. Red Bull still looks strongest, with Ferrari likely second best. Mercedes and Aston Martin showed single-lap pace in FP2 while Red Bull focused on race trim. Significant progress across the grid but Alpine notably trails rivals. The evidence suggests an intriguing weekend ahead, even if Red Bull retains an advantage.
Takeaways
- π Mercedes has achieved its top winter target of curing rear instability
- π Mercedes drivers pleasantly surprised by performance, but bouncing still an issue
- π Williams narrowly avoided missing pre-season testing due to internal process issues
- π Red Bull still looks strong, Mercedes step forward from testing
- π Alpine struggling with bump reactions and inconsistent balance
- π McLaren mixed - better than 2023 car but still limitations in low speed corners
- βοΈ Mercedes' front wing design questioned but FIA say no issues
- π Lando Norris disappointed with McLaren's progress over winter
- π FB2 order mixed up due to conditions, but hints Red Bull still ahead
- π€ Track compromise between quali & race pace means FB2 not representative
Q & A
What was the main problem with the Mercedes car that they seem to have solved?
-The main problem was an unstable rear end, which George Russell says they have now "cured".
What evidence is there that Mercedes has made progress with setup since testing?
-Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were 1-2 in FP2, and the level of performance pleasantly surprised the drivers.
What ongoing issue does Mercedes still need to contend with?
-Bouncing, or 'porpoising', is still something Mercedes has to be wary of.
How far behind is Williams in terms of modernizing their processes?
-Very far. They were still managing car builds entirely in Excel spreadsheets with no automated digital system.
What was the main complication for Williams over the winter?
-They were overhauling the technology for designing/producing the chassis, resulting in a massive increase in individual parts. This, combined with outdated processes, caused issues.
How does the Alpine car compare to expectations so far?
-As predicted, it is towards the back and struggling, reacting badly to bumps and unable to find a consistent balance.
What are F1's technical bosses saying about Mercedes' controversial front wing design?
-They say it presents no issues and is legal. Only a 'gigantic loophole' would prompt the FIA to change the rules.
Where is McLaren lacking compared to its rivals?
-In low speed corners. The 2024 car has not addressed these limitations enough.
Who was fastest on single lap pace in FP2?
-Mercedes, then Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Haas, Williams, Alpine, AlphaTauri.
Who was strongest on long run pace?
-Red Bull, followed by McLaren's Piastri, the two Mercedes, Norris's McLaren, and the two Ferraris.
Outlines
π Mercedes fixes car instability, makes progress but still has bouncing issues
Mercedes has fixed the rear instability issue with its 2024 car and made progress in setup understanding since testing, allowing drivers to commit on corner entry. The car still isn't perfect and has some aggressive bottoming out and bouncing to be wary of. Mercedes denies hiding its true pace in testing.
ποΈ Red Bull looks strong, Ferrari second best; Alpine struggles stand out
Red Bull looks very strong, with Ferrari appearing second best. Mercedes doesn't look quite as comfortable. Alpine is visibly struggling, reacting poorly to bumps and inconsistent balance. Alpine has underestimated the development gains of others and has lots of work to do.
π Mercedes' front wing design sparks questions; FIA says no issues
Mercedes' innovative front wing with a highly trimmed element has sparked legality questions. Mercedes and the FIA maintain confidence in its legality. The FIA sees no need to clamp down on outwash designs before 2026 rules changes.
π McLaren slightly disappointed with progress, still has low-speed limitations
McLaren has improved from 2023 but not addressed specific low-speed corner weaknesses. Bahrain highlights these limitations although good one-lap pace suggests decent potential results. Car is not in its comfort zone.
π€ Surprise FP2 order with Mercedes fastest; data suggests Red Bull still ahead
An untypically cool FP2 yielded a surprise order with Mercedes fastest. However, data suggests Red Bull is still ahead for race pace. Teams compromise between one-lap and race pace. Red Bull took a more conservative approach.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Mercedes car performance
π‘Williams car development issues
π‘Red Bull car performance
π‘Ferrari car performance
π‘Alpine car struggles
π‘McLaren progress
π‘Mercedes front wing design
π‘Friday practice conditions
π‘2024 pecking order
π‘Bahrain circuit characteristics
Highlights
Mercedes has achieved its top winter target of curing rear instability
Mercedes is making progress in understanding how to set up their car
Mercedes still struggles with bouncing at times
Williams overcame severe issues like managing car build in Excel to get their 2024 car on track
Alpine is likely to struggle, with their car reacting poorly to bumps and lacking pace
Questions remain about the legality of Mercedes' front wing design
McLaren has not made enough progress over the winter to address car limitations
Red Bull looked strong on long runs but not as much on one lap pace
Mercedes and Ferrari may be running high downforce compromising race pace
Red Bull still seems to have an advantage, but midfield teams like Aston Martin and McLaren piastri raised hopes
Williams overcame Excel spreadsheets and supply chain issues through late nights and heroics to produce their 2024 car
Alpine underestimated the development pace of other teams over the winter
Lando Norris and McLaren are disappointed with lack of progress over winter
The Bahrain track makes compromise between single lap pace and race pace difficult
Early signs point to a competitive order shake up compared to last season
Transcripts
testing is over the race weekend has
started here are the main things we
learned from the first day of practice
at the Bahrain Grand Prix and stick
around until the end for our latest
assessment of the emerging 2024 F1
pecking
order regardless of where Mercedes
stands in the competitive order it has
achieved its top winter Target as George
Russell puts it we talked about the rear
being unstable and we have cured that
problem to use the word cured as an
absolute shows a very high level of
confidence and what Russell said was
backed up by how the car looks on track
while it's not at Red Bull's level in
terms of the impression it leaves on you
watching it Trackside it's a consistent
car that does allow the drivers to
commit on Corner entry Mercedes also
appears to have made progress since
testing in understanding how best to set
up the car Lewis Hamilton and Russell
were one two in fp2 and the level of
performance in the car while not truly
representative yet pleasantly surprised
the drivers that said the car still
isn't perfect as Russell discovered when
he suffered from some aggressive
bottoming out at turn 11 before a tweak
eliminated that problem bouncing it
seems is still something Mercedes has to
be wary of there was a suggestion that
Mercedes might have been hiding its true
Pace during testing but teamb boss Toto
wolf was adamant that wasn't the case
what really matters is that Mercedes has
a foundation it can work from for the
rest of 2024 and 2025 regardless of what
its real pace is relative to Red Bull
that's a major
positive we already knew the 2024
Williams came together late but speaking
to team principal James V and chief
technical officer pat fry in Bahrain
we've started to understand better just
how severe the situation was over the
winter Val spoke preseason about the
enormous task of overhauling the
technology used to design and produce
Williams's chassis which resulted in a
massive increase in the number of
individual parts that make up the new
2024 car but it turns out there were
more fundamental problems behind the
scenes some of williams' processes have
not moved with the times Val said the
car build was being managed entirely in
a sprawling Excel spreadsheet with no
automated digital system and while this
has now been implemented by the time the
winter came around there were still
people having to search the factory for
parts at one stage there seemed to be a
real chance the FW 46 in the form we see
it now would not make it to the track in
time but it didn't come to that Williams
got on top of it aided by some
overnighters in the factory fry
described this as needing someone to put
their Superman underpants on over the
outside of their trousers rush around
and save the day which he says was how
things were 20 years ago not how modern
F1 teams are meant to operate fry says
he's not seen a winter like it and never
wants to relive it in some respects it's
a minor miracle Williams overcame that
to ready its 2024 car and improve on its
2023 weaknesses while also facing up to
the reality of an immense cultural and
technological shift still required to
properly modernize this team
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are in the description below terms and
conditions
apply I've been backtrack side under the
lights in representative conditions in
fp2 to watch the cars with the fuel out
and soft Ties on and then some longer
runs either side to see what's different
from testing one thing that's not
different is how good the Red Bull looks
and I have to say on low fuel and on the
longer runs it did look like Ferrari was
second best the Mercedes just not quite
as comfortable especially as Ferrari and
and Red Bull through the slow turn 10
left hander it just looks a little bit
awkward the same has to be said of the
McLaren that was never particularly
impressive when it came by me Lando
Norris having a harder time of it than
Oscar pastri the Aston Martin looks good
and I have to say the RB looks good on
the medium tire but less impressive on
the soft tire on low fuel and high fuel
it's very very difficult to to judge or
or split the other cars one thing I will
have to say is when the Alpin came
through here it did look difficult it
was the only car actually it was estan
ocon's car that seemed to be showing up
a bump on the entry to turn N9 or coming
through turn n towards turn 10 that
looked like it was really unsettling the
car obviously I'm only getting a
snapshot of the cars here at one corner
one slow corner but fortunately once
they're done with me at turn 10 they
head down to me at turn 11 a faster
leftand Corner usually taken in fifth
gear on a qualifying lap very different
challenge I have to say it's interesting
Scott mentioned the alpines bump
reaction because on one occasion one of
the alpines took a little bit too much
curb on the entry and reacted very very
badly to it the Mercedes was interesting
looked like a step from testing a more
stable car but was hitting the ground
pretty aggressively earlier on in the
session have to say the Red Bull still
looks very very strong at one stage even
Perez was getting very very good
rotation on Entry which we don't always
see from him if he's not confidence in
the car if it's a little bit too sharp
for his liking so that's encouraging the
RB looked decent a bit underst steer
with the Aston Martin very very nice and
consistent the McLaren was interesting
often pretty good but it looked a bit
wind sensitive and it would pick up
quite a lot of under steer with a
Tailwind here on occasion and leave
drivers struggling a little bit on the
exit but ultimately the Ferrari kind of
as we expect pretty solid as the the the
second strongest car dynamically I'm
talking rather than in terms of pace but
impressive to see how much progress has
been made with all the cars they all
look more consistent and fixed and
sorted and well set up than they did in
testing Alpine struggles were one of the
big talking points heading into this
weekend with Pierre gazley admitting
some targets have been missed in terms
of timeline and that the car is not easy
to drive expectations outside and even
inside the team where that Alpine would
be at or near the back and the fact the
Alpine was the ninth fastest car based
on fp2 single lap pace and slowest on
Long Run Pace backs the expectation that
it's likely to fall in q1 on track the
car delivers on gaz's description
reacting badly to bumps and struggling
to achieve a consistent balance at the
fifth gear turn 11 left-hander the car
is visibly more sluggish than its Rivals
Alpine has a huge amount of work to do
it needs to get weight out of the car
fully understand its modified mechanical
platform and make some big strides in
terms of the arrow having underestimated
how far the game would move on
development wise over the winter the
only saving grace is that it's not too
far behind to be a lost
cause Mercedes Innovative front Wing
specifically its highly trimmed rearmost
element sparked questions over legality
during Bain testing technical director
James Allison describes it as a
convenient way for Mercedes to reduce
load on that part of the wing and it
remains an outlier design for the first
race of the new season team principal
Toto wolf remains confident over its
legality but F1 Chief technical officer
pat Simmons has questioned whether the
wing might go against f1's overall
mission to diminish outwash airf flow in
the lead up to the first practice
session in Bahrain FIA single seater
director Nicholas tbis suggested the
wing presents no issue saying the
governing body's usual round of checks
comparing real world designs to CAD
drawings in pit Lane scrutineering had
thrown up only a couple of minor
discrepancies that were easily fixed by
the teams in question and tatsis was
even more forthright in denying any
reason for the FIA to act to clamp down
on F1 team's use of outwash Arrow saying
it would take the emergence of a
gigantic loophole for the FIA to feel
moved to change the rules before
2026 like Lando Norris we're slightly
disappointed with the progress Mclaren
has been able to make over the winter
McLaren looks in the mix but not totally
happy in Bahrain which has traditionally
been one of its weaker tracks in recent
years the 2024 car is an improvement
over its predecessor but not by enough
to address the specific weaknesses that
limited McLaren in low speed Corners
last year that was hinted at in testing
and was Apparent at times in practice
too this track highlights the
limitations that McLaren clearly needs
more time to address and Norris looked
to be struggling with these more than
oscap piastri in the second session and
yet the pace was there to a degree
piastri was fifth fastest and had the
best long run behind the Red Bulls in
fb2 Norris had a pretty terrible session
and looked unhappy in the car so maybe
the McLaren can be faster to track like
Bahrain and might achieve a decent
result here too but it's not in its
comfort
zone the fuel came out the soft tires
went on the qualifying simulations were
completed and mercedes's fastest the
pecking order on one laap pace was
Mercedes Aston Martin Ferrari McLaren
Red Bull H Williams RB Alpine and saber
an untypically cool track for second
practice coupled with Gusty CR wins
probably played its part in mixing up
the order here Max fappen was not happy
with the balance of his Red Bull and no
one seriously believes he'll be only
sixth fastest when it really counts the
pattern of the Red Bull's performance
whereby it lost around 3/10 of a second
on the straights to the Mercedes
Ferraris and Aston Martins suggests it
was being run with a conservative engine
setting B stappen also made a small
error at the last corner of his best lap
the picture was more favorable to Red
Bull when analyzing the limited amount
of longrun data available there Red Bull
assumed its expected place at the head
of the Order ahead of McLaren's Oscar
piastri the two Mercedes drivers
Norris's McLaren and the two Ferraris
there is always a serious compromise to
be made at this track between one laap
pace and race Pace as the circuit is so
hard on rear tires typically cars will
be set up with under steer Which is less
than ideal for a single lap but which
will pay handsome rewards in the race
it's possible that Rebel has just chosen
a more conservative compromise rather
than the car having any underlying
balance problem Mercedes and Ferrari
appear to be running with a setup more
favorable to single act performance our
track side perspective was that the Red
Bull looked the most consistently hooked
up whereas the Mercedes looked more
peaky in its good moments it looked very
good in others less so we'd be surprised
if the fb2 times reflect the final grid
for Saturday's Grand Prix but this early
glimpse of a pecking order raises hopes
for an intriguing weekend even if the
underlying data hints at Red Bull still
having a good Advantage where it counts
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