SAKHIR, Bahrain – Formula One champions Red Bull wrapped up the third and final day of pre-season testing at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit on Saturday, with Mexican Sergio Perez setting the fastest lap of the week.
Perez’s 1min 30.305sec was 0.359sec quicker than Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. It was also 1.9sec faster than anything at the pre-season Bahrain test in 2022.
“We got a good understanding of our car,” said Perez, after a fault-free day and 133 laps with the fastest Pirelli C4 tyres.
“I think we did the most we could today, we did a lot of analysis on set-up and tyre choice. We ran without any big problems, got a lot of laps in and had good reliability in general.
“The team back in Milton Keynes have done a tremendous job, we have a good-paced car and certainly think we can work on that more.”
Although testing times can be taken lightly, with the cars running on different fuel loads and set-ups, Red Bull still looked the team to beat with double world champion Max Verstappen leading the opening day.
“The car is working really well,” said the Dutchman, targeting a third straight title after retaining his controversially gained 2021 crown four races from the end of last season with a record 15 wins.
“Red Bull seem to be very strong in these three days,” said Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after Verstappen had been quickest on the first day of testing on Thursday.
“I feel we have some work to do,” added the Monegasque, who will be hoping new Ferrari chief Frederic Vasseur can bring an improvement on race day after Ferrari’s title challenge last term was derailed by multiple instances of poor strategy and reliability.
The first race of a record 23 this season is at the same desert circuit on Sunday.
Hamilton did his best lap on the softer C5 tyres but the team said progress had been made, with no sign of the bouncing or “porpoising” that tormented their drivers in 2022, even if more pace was needed.
“We’re not quite where we want to be, but it’s a good platform to start from,” said the Briton, whose teammate George Russell drove in the morning and ended up eighth overall.
“We don’t know where we will be next week but we will stay positive and continue to push to the maximum.”
Russell agreed, saying: “I believe we have improved the car over the course of testing and got the W14 in a much better window today.
“There is still plenty of work to do but we’re in better shape for next week with more to come.”
Valtteri Bottas was third-fastest for Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo overall on the C5s, ahead of Ferrari’s 2022 runner-up Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz. Alfa’s Zhou Guanyu was fastest on Friday.
Brazilian Felipe Drugovich, 22, will make his Formula One race debut in this weekend’s Bahrain season-opener if Lance Stroll cannot return in time from a cycling injury while training in Spain, Aston Martin said on Sunday.
The team said they would give the 24-year-old Canadian, son of the team’s billionaire owner Lawrence, every chance to race.
“Should he not be fit to compete, then Felipe will drive the AMR23 alongside Fernando (Alonso),” they added.
The update ends speculation that Aston Martin’s former driver and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who retired in 2022, would make a surprise comeback and replace Stroll.
Stroll missed the three-day pre-season test from Thursday to Saturday with reserve driver and reigning Formula Two champion Drugovich doing 117 laps as a stand-in alongside double world champion Alonso. REUTERS, AFP
