Scuderia Ferrari’s 2024 season officially got underway with the first of three days of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both drove the SF-24, for a total of 133 laps, equivalent to 719,8 kilometres.
Programme completed. On this first day, the programme for both drivers was virtually the same, as they lapped with various fuel loads, running the C2 and C3 compound tyres. The team concentrated on the usual first day work, taking measurements from rakes fitted to the car and carrying out an aero mapping of the car, primarily seeing how well the track data correlated to that gathered through digital modelling and in the wind tunnel, while Charles and Carlos learned as much as possible about the SF-24.
Charles first, then Carlos. As soon as the light at the end of the pit lane turned green, Charles took to the track for the first of his 64 laps (equal to 346.3 km), first on the C2 and then with the softer C3, with which he set his best time of 1’33”247. In the early afternoon, the Scuderia mechanics then switched the car configuration to suit Carlos and the Spaniard duly completed 69 laps (373.4 km), stopping the clocks in 1’32”584 on the C3 compound.
Tomorrow. Charles will again be first out on track tomorrow, with Carlos driving in the afternoon.
Charles Leclerc #16
Our first morning of testing was quite productive, especially in terms of mileage. As for the performance, it’s just too early to comment or draw conclusions. We ran all the tests we planned to and things are going ahead as expected, which is a positive. We will continue working and hope to have two more useful days of testing ahead of the GP.
Carlos Sainz #55
It’s been a positive first day of testing here in Bahrain with 373 km completed. We managed to go through the whole programme without issues, gathering some useful data to better understand the SF-24 together with the engineers. As usual with pre-season testing, it's too early to draw any conclusions yet, so we'll keep maximising the upcoming two days of running to get ready for the start of the season next week. It felt good to be back properly behind the wheel after the winter break