The final day of Bahrain F1 Pre-Season testing has concluded with Charles Leclerc and Ferrari standing at the top of the leaderboards.
This morning's testing session fell victim to similar disturbances like yesterday, but this time it was a Red Bull who felt the wrath of a loose drain cover. Sergio Perez continued his bad fortune run in testing by disrupting the drain cover and damaging the floor to the RB20 similarly to Charles Leclerc yesterday.
Perez's incident caused an early stoppage to the morning session, putting a bit more urgency on time for Red Bull and other teams who were splitting work loads between drivers. The sole driver to put in the century lap mark was Williams' Alex Albon logging 121 laps as fellow driver Logan Sargeant sat the day's session out. Albon didn't participate in yesterday's training which led to his heavier workload today, as Williams welcomes the veteran driver's input.
McLaren ran into some technical difficulties regarding their clutch, as this only further crunched them on time when switching seats for their drivers. Both McLaren's drivers looked quick but reliability may be something to watch out for in the MCL38 during the 2024 F1 season.
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Will Ferrari Keep Up with Red Bull in 2024?
Ferrari set the standard early with Carlos Sainz posting the fastest time in the morning session. This was then followed by Charles Leclerc setting the afternoon session a blaze in logging and holding the quickest lap throughout the session. Mercedes' George Russell came only a few hundredths of a second off of Leclerc's time towards the end of the Day 3 F1 Pre-Season testing.
The Scuderia as a whole was pleased with the Pre-Season performances but still hold their breath on just how competitive they will be this season in relation to Red Bull's dominance last season.
Leclerc stated during the session,
"How competitive we are, it's difficult to understand. My feeling is that Red Bull are ahead. We have a stronger base compared to last year. Last year, it was difficult to understand which direction to develop. Very different story this year, know where we need to improve, gives us more hope."
Ferrari team Principal Fred Vasseur followed up on his driver's thoughts as well.
"I'm excited to be back on track. For sure it's better to be at the top than down the back, but you don't know about the fuel loads of the others or the engine settings.
"The important thing for us is the feeling of Carlos and Charles and they both seem happy with the feeling in the car and the driveability. We also have to stay calm with this, trust the feedback and know we have a lot to do on the development - for sure Red Bull are ahead," Vasseur added.
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