Leclerc, Bearman and Beganovic on track in Bahrain

Three days of pre-season testing for this year’s Formula 2 and Formula 3 fields come to an end at the Sakhir circuit. The FDA drivers all did well. 

Pre-season testing for this year’s Formula 2 and Formula 3 competitors ended yesterday at the Sakhir circuit. Driving over the three days were Ferrari Driver Academy students Arthur Leclerc and Oliver Bearman in Formula 2 and Dino Beganovic, with Dino Beganovic in Formula 3, all three on their debut in their respective categories. They tackled qualifying simulations and long runs in preparation for the opening round of this season at this
very same track from 3 to 5 March. 

Formula 2. Arthur completed a total of 156 laps, with a best time of 1’42”437, which came in the afternoon of the second day. He was always a front runner and seemed to feel at home in the DAMS car. Oliver Bearman is racing with Prema and completed 167 laps, with a best time of 1’42”640, clearly at home in a car he first drove in a test back in the autumn. “Both Arthur and Oliver got through a lot of work,” commented the head of the Ferrari Driver Academy, Marco Matassa. “This test allowed them to get to grips with the situations they will encounter in the races, mainly tyre management and overall the test went well. They had the Hard and Soft compound tyres available, which differed in lap time by around two to three seconds. This meant it wasn’t easy especially for the less experienced drivers to get to grips with the change of pace on a qualifying simulation, but Arthur and Oliver both handled it well.” 

Formula 3. Having first tried a Formula 3 car at the end of 2022, Beganovic made the most of the Sakhir test, completing 171 laps. The 19 year old Swede was second quickest on qualifying runs, in a time of 1’47”121, set on the second afternoon. “Overall, I think Dino got a lot out of this test,” commented Matassa. “He made no mistakes and immediately got the hang of the new tyres in qualifying runs. He also did well over distance and there’s some fine tuning which we can work on together. He was competitive in comparison to his team-mates and the feedback from this test overall is very good.”