What we saw in Barcelona was only an appetizer of what will be seen in the race starting from March 20 in Bahrain, but also of what the teams will show in the next test session which will start on the 10th of this month again from Sakhir. In fact, in the Montmelò paddock it was taken for granted that Mercedes was preparing a sort of ‘B’ version of its W13 after the initial tests which in any case saw it close at the top of the standings, although both Toto Wolff and George Russell spent words to honey against the rivals of Ferrari. But not only that, Red Bull could also bring a rather important package of updates, to better address a project that started with good potential, according to what was declared by the team’s consultant, Helmut Marko.
At Ferrari, Mattia Binotto hinted that he is more focused on optimizing and fully understanding the potential of the F1-75, than on introducing new immediate updates, it being understood that the teams’ most urgent problem seems to be to fix the ‘porpoising’, or rather the obvious jolts on the straight shown by the new generation of cars. What we saw in Barcelona, at the regulatory level, seems to have been satisfactory for the men of the Federation, who are however aware that from Manama it could be a completely different story. To support this thesis also the Germans of Auto, motor and sport: “We learn from FIA sources that the honeymoon with the teams could already end in Bahrain. Apparently the FIA has already been able to notice from the CAD data for checking the legality of the updates, that some teams will bring developments that do not exactly adhere to the spirit of the regulation“.
