Scuderia Ferrari’s SF-23 completed 136 laps (736 kilometres) on the first day of the only pre-season test for this year, held at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.
Programme. There were three main objectives for the day: the usual aerodynamic mapping of the car, effectively correlating the data acquired on track with that seen in the wind tunnel and in digital modelling; checking all functions on the car over a greater distance than the 115 kilometres completed at the Fiorano track during the demo-drive at the launch on 14 February and the following day’s filming day; and for Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to learn as much as possible about the new car.
Morning. Carlos drove out of the garage as soon as the pitlane light turned green, shortly after 10am (8 CET) and tried the C2, Prototype and C3 compound tyres. He completed 72 laps (390 kilometres) setting a best time of 1’33”253 on the C3 compound.
Afternoon. After the lunchbreak, it was Charles’ turn to get behind the wheel. His time in the car was a bit busier, with various set-up changes. He did 64 laps (346 kilometres) running the same compounds as his team-mate. Tomorrow, it will once again be Carlos to drive in the morning and Charles in the afternoon.
Carlos Sainz #55
"Overall a positive first day. Reliability was good and we could run smoothly, covering the whole run plan and gathering valuable data, which is encouraging. We progressed well with the setup during the day and we also managed to get good reads on the tyres we tested in Abu Dhabi so, overall good progress made so far and I’m looking forward to continuing tomorrow".
Charles Leclerc #16
"We have a busy first day of testing behind us. We completed 64 laps on my side, testing a bit of everything. Our focus was on set-up work, combined with some tyre and aero testing, as well as runs with different fuel levels. We’re going to analyse our data now and I look forward to another session tomorrow".