2023 Bahrain Grand Prix - Buildup, Practice & Qualifying Thread

[stasera]

according to Martin Brundle Ferrari is sandbagging, today, he restated it again.

he claimed same thing during the testing

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/18364...ra-petrol.html

[tifosi1993]

I still don't think FP2 times are very representative, so I'm not going to get too despondent, the times are pretty close at the front and quali will be a bit mad, no team seems to be on another planet just yet but tomorrow may be a different story! Forza ragazzi!

Don't worry wisepie! This car is very good and a huge improvement over last year's car. It doesn't show in the timings, but comparing last year's pole lap with today's FP2 lap, the SF23 is faster in every corner. The gap between SF23 and F1-75 in turns T11 and 12 is night and day.

Charles is faster than Alonso out of every corner and able to get on the throttle faster, but his acceleration and speed is lower than Alonso's, AKA, lower engine mode.

Our battle is with both Red Bulls tomorrow, not just Max.

[stasera]

Charles Leclerc:

“The feeling with the car was better for me than testing.”

“Today it went well, but we had some confirmations. It seems that Red Bull is a little ahead of everyone. Aston Martin also seems very strong.”

[tifosi1993]

Charles Leclerc:

“The feeling with the car was better for me than testing.”

“Today it went well, but we had some confirmations. It seems that Red Bull is a little ahead of everyone. Aston Martin also seems very strong.”

T1 and T10 is where the RB looked faster than Charles. Charles had more understeer, which to me suggest that he was carrying more fuel.

Hulk, who's using the same engine, was much slower than Charles through T1 but catches up to him due to having more acceleration and speed. Again shows how much Ferrari is holding back with the engine.

But all will be reveled tomorrow.

[stasera]

Carlos Sainz:

"The car doesn't feel the same for me as in testing. We are evaluating what it could be. The track conditions and maybe the performance have changed a bit."

"The car doesn't respond exactly as I expected or as it did in testing."

[Tifoso]

according to Martin Brundle Ferrari is sandbagging, today, he restated it again.

he claimed same thing during the testing

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/18364...ra-petrol.html

Why would they, though?
“Hey, I have an idea: let’s pretend to be slower than we are the day before qualifying. That way the rest of the teams will think we are not a threat and, even though they race against the other top tier teams, too, they will drive slower during qualifying.”

[jgonzalesm6]

I'm just the messenger.....


"I don’t think we have the performance for pole"

Charles Leclerc doesn't expect Ferrari to be able to fight for F1 pole at the BahrainGP.

[Autosport]

[stasera]

Why would they, though?
“Hey, I have an idea: let’s pretend to be slower than we are the day before qualifying. That way the rest of the teams will think we are not a threat and, even though they race against the other top tier teams, too, they will drive slower during qualifying.”

i dont know it, but in the past years, mercedes sandbagged many many times. why they did sandbag while they are annihilating everyone?

[stasera]

��️| Carlos Sainz:

"We were testing some things on the car in FP1, and it didn't all go to plan. It wasn't intentional, but it was a test gone wrong. I lost some track time, and probably paid the price in FP2."
"The car doesn't feel the same for me as in testing. We are evaluating what it could be. The track conditions and maybe the performance have changed a bit."

"The car doesn't respond exactly as I expected or as it did in testing."
"We will take a look during the night and try to put the pieces together tomorrow."

[stasera]

Lewis Hamilton: “We are in the same place as last year, if not a little further behind. We're just on the wrong way. We're a long way from the guys in the front. We made good progress last season but the gap was not as big as it is now.”

i feel that he is lying

[tifosi1993]

I'm just the messenger.....


"I don’t think we have the performance for pole"

Charles Leclerc doesn't expect Ferrari to be able to fight for F1 pole at the BahrainGP.

[Autosport]

Last year, he said that he can't fight the Red Bull on race pace but won the race easily.

[jgonzalesm6]

Last year, he said that he can't fight the Red Bull on race pace but won the race easily.

Max DNF'd last year at the same track which is why Leclerc won it so easily.

[brucewayne]

Max DNF'd last year at the same track which is why Leclerc won it so easily.

Our pace was better, had nothing to do with a Max DNF.

[jgonzalesm6]

Our pace was better, had nothing to do with a Max DNF.

Your probably right, but it possible that RedBull were handicapped at that race(Bahrain2021) from the get go and ran both cars on a lower power mode....unfortunately, both cars couldn't handle the load and both doubled DNF'd.

[Brembo]

Anything on how Carlos did and commented ? Was he there?

[Greig]

Your probably right, but it possible that RedBull were handicapped at that race(Bahrain2021) from the get go and ran both cars on a lower power mode....unfortunately, both cars couldn't handle the load and both doubled DNF'd.

IIRC it was a fuel issue, not engine related and they had no reason to run lower power modes, not sure why it was unfortunate either....

[FerrariF60]

Lewis Hamilton: “We are in the same place as last year, if not a little further behind. We're just on the wrong way. We're a long way from the guys in the front. We made good progress last season but the gap was not as big as it is now.”

i feel that he is lying

just like Charles is with the comments in his interviews....everyone is sandbagging....we;ll find out soon enough though

[FerrariF60]

Max DNF'd last year at the same track which is why Leclerc won it so easily.

even if he wouldn't have DNF'ed he had no answer for Ferrari/chalres pace

[Greig]

Anything on how Carlos did and commented ? Was he there?

Carlos had a spin, does not look good in the car that was designed for him.

[nani_s23]

Carlos had a spin, does not look good in the car that was designed for him.

[stasera]

Anything on how Carlos did and commented ? Was he there?

he is not comfortable as good as in the testing

[Aziz]

just like Charles is with the comments in his interviews....everyone is sandbagging....we;ll find out soon enough though

Yeah, we will sandbag for the entire season

[nani_s23]

Seeing Perez right there with Max & Carlos struggling in Ferrari car … isn’t a good sign.

We need every bit of luck this season.

[Aziz]

Hamilton also said they were not far of Ferrari in the long runs, and Aston Martin is the second best behind RB..

[nani_s23]

Yeah, we will sandbag for the entire season

Looking at HULK laptime compared to Lec. There’s more to come from ferrari.

I guess this AM pace is just a hype.

[nani_s23]

Hamilton also said they were not far of Ferrari in the long runs, and Aston Martin is the second best behind RB..

AM ran with lighter fuel & showed their hand already. Come tomorrow you will have actual picture of them.

[brucewayne]

Hamilton also said they were not far of Ferrari in the long runs, and Aston Martin is the second best behind RB..

We will see. AM being faster than us would be a disaster to be honest. But I don’t expect this outcome.

[Greig]

Alonso v Max would sure be insteresting, but I really don't see it being that way.

[jgonzalesm6]

Alonso v Max would sure be insteresting, but I really don't see it being that way.

Have you seen the telemetry between Leclerc, Max and Alonso.......it's really really close....like all their shifts and braking are identical....amazing and age difference compared to Alonso.

[nani_s23]

Lap time comparison, #BahrainGP FP2, 2023 vs 2022:

-3.051s Aston Martin
-2.046s Williams
-1.710s McLaren
-1.709s Haas
-1.402s Alpine
-1.365s Alfa Romeo
-1.096s AlphaTauri
-0.986s Mercedes
-0.860s Red Bull
-0.656s Ferrari #F1

Clearly Ferrari & RB are carrying Sandbags