What did the first training sessions in Bahrain show? Hamilton and Mercedes in trouble, Red Bull and Ferrari are the favourites

The first and second practice sessions kicked off the new Formula 1 season, and these opening practice sessions have already hinted at a lot. Mercedes and McLaren are still struggling, while Red Bull and Ferrari suggest that their drivers could be the favourites to win pole position.

We’ve had both opening practice sessions, which already give us an idea of how the teams might fare in qualifying on Saturday.

Especially based on the results of the second practice session. However, this is how FP1 (Free Practice 1 – ed. note) turned out, with Pierre Gasly of the Alpha Tauri team winning. The talented Frenchman left both Ferrari monoposts behind him.

And it was the Alpha Tauri that showed solid performance both in the opening practice and in the pre-season tests, even on the hardest tyre compound, marked with a white H.

Friday’s second act then kicked off at 4pm and brought some interesting times from Haas and Alfa Romeo in particular. Mick Schumacher finished FP2 in eighth place, with his teammate Kevin Magnussen completing the elite ten.

Valtteri Bottas set the sixth fastest time in his Alfa Romeo. Not to be forgotten were Fernando Alonso’s fifth and eighth places in his Alpine.

The big headache, though, is with the McLaren team. Their monoposts are still struggling with brake cooling problems and it seems that the British team is currently unable to permanently solve this problem and is only coming up with a temporary solution.

Andreas Seidl, meanwhile, said not long ago that they were able to understand the problem and come up with a solution, albeit, as we wrote above, only a temporary one. However, based on the information from the practice sessions, it seems that the technical solution did not work as McLaren expected.

But it’s not the only team currently plagued by technical problems. Mercedes is still struggling with the aforementioned rocking, or porpoising.

Why is this effect happening? Because the mythical ground effect is returning to Formula 1, which is why monoblocks have floors with so-called venturi tunnels. And it is the floor that is the key point in this context in terms of generating downforce.

Porpoising is indeed a major aerodynamic problem and a tougher nut to crack for all engineers. In order for the ground effect to work properly, the air underneath the floor must be constantly flowing.

Due to the high speeds of the monoposts, especially on the straights, there is such a vacuum that it literally presses the cars to the road, the car sits down and thus interrupts the air flow under the monopost.

This, of course, results in an immediate loss of downforce, but as a result the car rises again. If the formula is constantly rocking on the straights in this way, not only can the floor be damaged, but above all the monoposto is harder to control in the braking zone.

In the opening practice sessions, we could see that Mercedes is clearly suffering the most from this rocking of all the stables. In practice, it then works so that the drivers can’t be as aggressive on the brakes and have to brake a little earlier.

Otherwise, understeer often occurs and this is a problem that obviously affects the performance of the whole car.

However, Red Bull and Ferrari are doing very well so far. Thanks to their concepts, both teams have entered the first practice sessions well, with Max Verstappen dominating FP2 and Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finishing second and third each time.

The third and final practice session starts on Saturday from 1pm to 2pm, with qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix starting at 4pm.

Sources