The three days of testing prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix, the opening round of the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship, ended under floodlights this evening at the Bahrain International Circuit. Scuderia Ferrari’s numbers for the three days are 423 laps, equivalent to 2,257 kilometres, the equivalent of over seven Grands Prix, 149 laps (806.4 km) from today.
Drain again. As happened yesterday, once again today, track time was interrupted because of a problem with the rain drainage covers, causing a long delay, as those around the entire track had to be checked. The session resumed at noon, at which point, Carlos had completed 15 laps in the Ferrari, the most of any driver. When the track reopened for business, the Spaniard continued with his programme, running mainly the C3 compound, after starting the day on a set of C4s he had used yesterday on a qualifying simulation run. He tried the car with different fuel loads as well as various settings. Carlos did 71 laps (384.2 kilometres) today with a best time of 1’31”247. Over the whole test his total figure was 227 laps (1,196 kilometres).
Charles. Shortly after 15.00, Leclerc took over for the rest of the day in the SF-24, simulating various phases of a GP weekend, including qualifying and the race itself. Copying his team-mate from the previous day, Charles started off on the C3 compound, setting a time of 1’31”374. The Monegasque then went out on C4s in qualifying trim, posting his fastest time of 1’30”322. In the final 100 minutes of track time, Leclerc then switched to race configuration completing a total of 78 laps (422.1 km) using C3, C1 and C2 compounds. His three day total was 196 laps (1,060.8 kilometres).
Charles Leclerc #16
We’ve wrapped up our third day of testing, having put in a solid number of laps and completed a lot of different tests, which is positive.
The car is reacting the way that we wanted it to, but it is still difficult to assess its level of competitiveness right now. The feeling is better than the base we started from last year. Now, it’s full focus on the race and I can’t wait to be back on track next week.
Carlos Sainz #55
One last push here in Sakhir, maximising these final laps before we move on with the proper Bahrain GP next week. Overall, it has been a good day, despite the red flag that disrupted the running a bit but I enjoyed every single lap in the car today. We tested a lot of different configurations to collect as much data as possible.
The car seems to be in a decent place and I’m proud of the work that the team has done to complete such a solid test programme.
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal
We can be pleased with what we’ve achieved during this test, both in terms of the mileage covered and the raft of data it has provided. On top of that, both Charles and Carlos were happy with how things went. These were three productive days, with no technical problems, which is what you want most, especially when it’s the only session before the start of the season.
“Our first goal was to see if the SF-24 performed predictably, not being overly sensitive to variations in the external conditions and that it was easy to drive. From what Charles and Carlos have said and looking at the consistency of their performance over a long run, it seems we were successful on this front. It’s very important to have the car behave like this as it means the driver can quickly get an understanding of its characteristics and then get the most out of it.
“But this is just a test session and now we simply have to wait exactly one week when we will all be back on track together for the first qualifying session of the season. However, I feel I can say that, looking just at our own performance, we have got off on the right foot. I expect several top teams to all be at a very similar level and I can’t wait to see exactly how our package compares to that of our competitors.