Bahrain Testing Day 2: Sidepods, Max Verstappen vs Lewis Hamilton and Haas receive extra time
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Published 11/03/2022 at 11:40 GMT
On the second day of testing at Bahrain's Grand Prix circuit, a few topics dominated discussion with a little over a week to go ahead of the season-opening race. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton may need to impress, sidepods continue to divide, and Haas receive extra time to refine their car after missing yesterday's first session.
Lewis Hamilton
Image credit: Getty Images
Day 2 testing at Bahrain’s Grand Prix circuit kicked off on Friday with Thursday’s developments still to be addressed and resolved.
Controversy, delays and the two great rivals were the subject of speculation yesterday and there is plenty still to be decided over the weekend. March 20 sees the season kick off, again in Bahrain. There are three key points to watch on Friday.
Will Mercedes be allowed to keep their sidepods?
The German team turned up in the Middle East with a radical new design, with sidepods that were almost non-existant, and with an air vent that appeared to be much smaller than any other team’s design.
Initially it was reported that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had described the design as ‘illegal’ but he quickly clarified that he had said no such thing. Whether that is correct or not, Max Verstappen followed up in a press conference to profess that he was largely indifferent to the development.
Formula 1’s managing director Ross Brawn acknowledged that he was "surprised" at the new-look attempt from Mercedes, but he too would not be drawn on whether the design met the rules, either the spirit or the letter of them.
Friday could conceivably see a ruling given by the governing body. If they strike off the design and force Mercedes back to everyone else’s drawing board, then that is two days wasted for their engineers and technicians. If the design is allowed, then it still has to be shown that it offers an advantage, at which point we could expect everyone else to follow suit, and the benefit would quickly be whittled away.
Will Verstappen and Hamilton show up?
The Ferrari team set the pace on Friday, along with Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri’s racer Pierre Gasly the single fastest driver.
Notable by their absence were current champion Max Verstappen and his great rival Lewis Hamilton. Day 2 could see them back behind the wheel helping to refine their cars. There is no reason to be alarmed yet - like football pre-season friendlies, results are more or less meaningless - but there could be initial signs of disquiet about the new designs and whether they can guarantee a strong title challenge.
Haas get an extra allotment
The US team have stumbled from one problem to another. Nikita Mazepin left along with his father Dmitry’s Uralkali sponsorship following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
When they arrived in Bahrain they were able to confirm Mazepin’s replacement as their former driver, Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen, but he did not get out onto the circuit on Thursday because they were still waiting to receive equipment that failed to arrive in time. Pietro Fittipaldi was given the opportunity in the second session, and the team have now been granted an extra four hours over the next two sessions.
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