Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto predicts that the teams will be able to gain a much more realistic idea of where they are relative to each other in the second pre-season test in Bahrain.
Between them, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc managed 438 laps in the opening week of pre-season testing in Barcelona, with the Monegasque going fastest on day two.
Leclerc was also quickest on the morning session of day one in Bahrain, putting 64 laps on the clock.
Binotto reveals that Spain was all about learning the individual aspects of the car’s characteristics, while predicting that Bahrain would present the opportunity to explore the performance niches of the machines amid massive changes to the technical regulations in 2022.
“Certainly I think that in Barcelona, at the first session, the idea was to collect data and try to understand the correlation,” he said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“But when we go to Bahrain, and then it will be very close to the first race of the season, we will all I believe, try to simulate some race simulations, and qualy simulations.
“We will want try to extract the most of the performance from the car itself. So certainly, in Bahrain, I think the relative competitiveness of the teams will become more clear.”
One of the key issues of the first test in Spain was that of porpoising. Due to the return of ground effect, the cars are now generating downforce through the floor of the car, and the cars are much more planted due to the abolishment of the previous rake design.
This has led to the cars bouncing off the ground, resulting in violent and nauseating head movement in the cockpit.
The Italian reckons that the teams did not anticipate the issue as well as they might otherwise have.
“I think most of us, at least, underestimated the problem. By the time we were on track we were certainly bouncing more than we expected,” he revealed.
However, he affirmed that the problem will be easily solved and, while the Mercedes of Sir Lewis Hamilton appeared to be doing a lot of bouncing on Thursday morning in Sakhir, Leclerc’s car looked relatively smoother.
“We certainly knew, with the ground-effect situation, that it was going to be different. It is a learning process,” he added.
“Solving it can be quite straightforward, optimising the performance because it should not be a compromise but trying to avoid the bouncing by getting the most out of the car, that could be a less-easy exercise.
“I’m pretty sure that at some stage, each team will get to the solution. How long will it take? I think the ones that get there sooner will have an advantage at the start of the season.”