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There was no big surprise in Bahrain’s qualifying, as the first row was Mercedes, and the second row went to Red Bull, in the “usual” order: Lewis Hamilton for the German stable and Max Verstappen for the Austrian team.
A much more interesting picture emerges if we look at how much the teams have improved or deteriorated compared to their 2019 time trial lap time. It shows how much the Ferrari team has lagged in engine power, as well as how far Williams has progressed, no matter how spectacular his progress has been since last year’s disastrous season.
So Williams improved more, but a total of 5 teams were able to improve more than 1 second. A total of three teams deteriorated: Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Haas, plus the last two stables fell more than 1 second compared to last year.
Ferrari won pole last year through Charles Leclerc, but this year both of its drivers dropped out of Q2, and sporting director Laurent Mekies expects the Scuderia to have a grueling race on Sunday.
Did that also contribute to Bottas’ time-lapse loss?
F1 will use the ‘oval’ line in the second race in Bahrain in December, which we have yet to see in the king category of formula racing. Now, in an onboard recording, you can see how a circle paints on the “oval” on Assetto Corsa.
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