Baréin día 2 (SPA-ENG)

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Otra constante aunque en esta oportunidad negativa es la que mantienen Aston Martin y Cadillac, nuevamente entre los de peor rendimiento, muy lejos de los demás.

Y aunque los mejores sigan siendo los de siempre, no dejan de asombrar los tiempos que se mantienen muy por encima del récord del circuito, aunque estas no dejan de ser pruebas y los monoplazas son totalmente nuevos, parecen ciertas las afirmaciones de varios pilotos de que estos vehículos son sensiblemente más lentos que los de años anteriores, algo que no preocuparía tanto si las carreras fueran más divertidas; cada uno de nosotros tendrá una opinión pero no nos adelantemos, veremos todo el panorama más claramente cuando la temporada se ponga en marcha, solo faltan 2 semanas.

Con la sesión matutina de esta segunda jornada a punto de finalizar, la situación está estable y sin grandes cambios, solo mencionar que ya se ha terminado para el Aston Martin de Alonso por problemas que no cesan de aparecer. Los últimos 10 minutos son reservados a pruebas de largada, a estas alturas parece un tema trascendental.

Mañana seguimos.

Bahrain day 2

Given the time I post, I can only talk about the first half of the day, although nothing prevents me from summarizing what happened the following afternoon, and that's precisely what I'll do now: a recap of yesterday afternoon and an account of what's happening right now, with more than 3 of the 4 hours of the morning shift already gone.

Yesterday afternoon's session held no major surprises. The four teams that have been dominant so far filled the top seven places in terms of times. Mercedes took first with Russell and fifth with Antonelli, McLaren secured second and fourth with Piastri and Norris in that order, Ferrari finished third thanks to Leclerc and seventh with Hamilton, Hadjar finished sixth with Red Bull, and Verstappen rested, being the only driver of 22 who did not see any action during the day, perhaps because his teammate was unable to run all morning due to problems with the only car allowed, which disrupted the practice plan orchestrated by the team.

Eighth place went to Williams with Carlos Sainz, and ninth to the resurgent Alpine with Colapinto. Tenth place went to Bortoleto, who finally managed to extract some performance from the unpredictable Audi.

As you can see, the trends are being confirmed, and so far, nothing suggests that this year there will be a dark horse to break the hegemony of the four major teams in the category, even with the new regulations.

What worries many is the unusual battery management, as they seem to run out before the end of the main straight of this circuit, which isn't the longest on the calendar. Incidentally, several drivers have stated that it seems strange to have to slow down mid-straight to avoid running out of power—very odd. Could this have been a miscalculation by those responsible for writing the current regulations?

Another sign of the energy problems these revamped cars are facing was yesterday's meeting to change the starting procedures and allow for a longer waiting period to reach 100% battery charge. The fact is that several practice starts were observed yesterday, and two more are scheduled for today, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Now let's move on to this morning's action. So far, the trend remains the same as yesterday's session; only the positions have changed. McLaren with Norris is in first place, Verstappen with McLaren is second, and Russell with the Mercedes is third. Next are Albon with Williams, Bearman with Haas, and Colapinto with Alpine. The latter is an unexpected driver, at least for me, as I thought today would be Gasly's turn unless the French team has split the testing into three half-days for each driver. We'll find out this afternoon. If Colapinto returns, then the final day would be entirely for Gasly.

The Ferrari with Hamilton at the wheel this morning has had problems and has only completed five laps so far. Others with technical issues are the Racing Bull and the Audi, with 11 and 14 laps respectively, which contrasts sharply with the more than 60 laps completed by Mercedes.

Another constant, although this time negative, is that of Aston Martin and Cadillac, once again among the worst performers, far behind the rest.

And although the best drivers remain the same as always, the times they're posting are still astonishing, well above the circuit record. While these are still tests and the cars are completely new, the claims of several drivers that these vehicles are noticeably slower than in previous years seem to be true. This wouldn't be so concerning if the races were more exciting. We'll each have our own opinion, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll see the whole picture more clearly when the season gets underway; there are only two weeks to go.

With the morning session of this second day drawing to a close, the situation remains stable and without major changes, except to mention that Alonso's Aston Martin session is now over due to persistent problems. The final 10 minutes are reserved for practice starts, which at this stage seems to be a crucial issue.

We'll continue tomorrow.