Five things to watch at F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain

Haas under the microscope

Before anything moves, Haas will face the most scrutiny in the run-up to Thursday as it seeks to deal with the awkward situation the American-owned team finds itself in. As we know, Nikita Mazepin and his father’s Uralkali roubles have been rejected in a principled and assertive team response to the awful war Russia has imposed on Ukraine. As I write, it’s not yet known who will replace Mazepin. Reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi, grandson of legendary two-time world champion Emerson, is an obvious choice given he has already raced for the team, as substitute for Romain Grosjean in the wake of the Frenchman’s fiery accident in Bahrain in 2020. But others have been mentioned, including the vastly experienced Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine reserve Oscar Piastri, the reigning Formula 2 champion. Expect an announcement before Thursday, given that whoever lands the drive will need as much seat time as possible to prepare for the season opener.

Then again, will the team be searching for the highest bidder, given the circumstances it faces? Haas will this week be dealing with an all too obvious and crippling financial shortfall. Let’s face it, Mazepin didn’t land his drive because of his soaring talent. The decision Haas has taken was really its only option in the circumstances, although it deserves credit for acting so quickly and decisively in support of the people of Ukraine. Now it has to live with the consequences and secure new funding to get through the season. 

Michael Andretti is looking to enter F1. Time for these two US companies to join forces? Now there’s a thought.

Haas and Alfa Romeo desperately need miles

On top of all that, the Haas team also needs to focus on adding mileage to its VF-22 following a difficult week in Barcelona. The team only managed 160 laps because of reliability troubles, the worst of which was an oil leak that left the newly all-white cars on the sidelines for most of the final day. The new Haas isn’t necessarily off the pace – but the team desperately needs a smooth three days in Bahrain to find out exactly what it has.

Alfa Romeo is also under extra pressure this week after a similarly trying first test. Ex-Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas was brought back to earth with a rude bump in Barcelona as he and rookie team-mate Guanyu Zhou managed just 175 laps between them. The early signs are that Bottas could be in for some pain as he reacclimatises to life at the other end of the grid. Early suggestions in Spain were that Alfa could be in trouble.

Steadying the ‘porpoise effect’ will be key

Another big talking point in Spain was how the teams were caught out by ‘porpoising’ caused by the return of ground-effect aerodynamics. The term is used to describe the bounce effect caused by the bind and stall of the massive amounts of downforce created under these cars. Back in the late 1970s and early ’80s when ground effects changed the shape of F1, porpoising bounce was a headache all engineers faced in the era of air pressure-sealing sliding skirts that ran under the cars’ long sidepods. The trouble is, many of the engineers in F1 today weren’t even born when ground effects was banned at the end of 1982… For all of the modern simulation tools, it genuinely seems to have been overlooked or at least underestimated by some.

One who we can expect to fully understand the phenomenon is Adrian Newey, who worked at Fittipaldi and March as a young aerodynamicist back then. Last week Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner suggested the problem wasn’t a surprise – although like Mercedes and Ferrari, Newey’s team will need to get a grip on the bounce that gave the frontrunners something to think about in Spain. “I think it’s something all the teams have got,” said Horner. “It’s obviously a consequence of these aerodynamics, but I think you’ll be able dampen it. Whether you’ll be able to remove it I don’t know. Adrian has been around long enough to know some of the complications, and some of these issues weren’t unexpected to him. They weren’t a huge surprise.”

But as Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto suggested, whichever team calm the porpoise effect the quickest and most effectively could well come out of the blocks the fastest in the opening rounds. Of the top four teams, McLaren appeared to suffer the least amount of porpoising and Lando Norris was fastest on the opening day in Spain. Could this be a chance for his big breakthrough to make up for his near miss in Sochi last year?

Mercedes and Red Bull are worried about Ferrari

Another big takeaway from Spain was that Ferrari appears to have a competitive F1 car again, following a fallow couple of years. Charles Leclerc topped the second day in the handsome F1-75, but more importantly, the new car appears to be consistently quick and not just over one lap. The team also logged by far the most miles in Barcelona, on 439 laps compared to Mercedes on 393, McLaren on 367 and Red Bull on 358. A repeat performance in Bahrain would bode well for Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. – and for Binotto too. The boss is under immense pressure – as always at Ferrari, but more than ever in the midst of a win drought dating back to Singapore in 2019 – and could find himself pitched out of his job if the team hasn’t found a winning formula in the new rules. Nothing less than regular wins will do for the red and black cars in 2022.

Verstappen vs. Hamilton simmers… for now

Both Lewis Hamilton and new world champion Max Verstappen had satisfactory first runs in their new cars in Spain. Hamilton’s fastest time on Pirelli’s softest compound on the last day left him quickest overall, while Verstappen was complimentary about his new RB18 – and has since signed a ‘golden handcuffs’ deal extension with Red Bull to underline just how happy he is as the Milton Keynes squad. Expect both to keep a low profile this week as they knuckle down to hard work. As ever in pre-season testing, lists of fastest times will not tell anywhere near the full story in Bahrain. The true state of things will only emerge when the first qualifying session plays out on 19^th March. But with the TV cameras trained on every move this week, that won’t stop the analysts pouring over every detail. In a time of global crisis, F1’s return – like all sport – will at least serve as a comforting distraction.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.