The second day of the only 2021 pre-season test session saw Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz working on slightly different programmes to one another at the wheel of the SF21. Between them, the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow drivers completed 129 laps today, equivalent to 698,1 kilometres. It means that over the two days so far, they have done 244 laps (1,321 km).
Morning. As planned, Carlos was the first to drive, going out at 10 local (8 CET), to tackle a programme aimed at evaluating the Pirelli tyres over a long distance. The Spaniard did a series of quite long runs, using both the C2 and C3 compounds. Sainz did 56 laps, the quickest in a time of 1’33”072.
Afternoon. After the lunch break it was Charles’ turn to get to work and in the early afternoon, he too did some long runs on the C2 and C3 tyres. In the final part of the session, the Monegasque did a series of runs aimed partly at a qualifying simulation with various tyre compounds. By the end, Charles best time of 1’30”886 was set on the C5 compound, completing a total of 73 laps.
Programme. The action continues tomorrow at Sakhir’s Bahrain International Circuit with the third and final day of testing. Charles will be first out in the SF21 from 10am local time (8 CET) with Carlos taking over for the afternoon.
Laurent Mekies Racing Director
"Another very busy day of testing in Bahrain, with almost 700 kilometres covered during the eight hours of track time. The weather was much better than yesterday, although the wind was still a feature, especially in the first part of the day. We worked a lot on management of the Pirelli tyres over long runs and we got plenty of data which we will now analyse carefully. In the final hour, we also began to look at how the SF21 went in terms of outright performance and here too, we gathered a lot of useful information.
These three days are vitally important and we are taking a methodical approach, because the work we do now will be the key to how we get on during the season. Therefore the most important thing is to complete the planned programme and that’s what we have done so far. As for the competition, we can start thinking about that in two weeks time, in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix."