Probably absolutely nothing. But also, maybe we saw some hints as to how the season may go.
We can say that nobody has really shown their true colours because it would be a dead giveaway before the season starts and nobody wants to do that. But, there are some teams who may be struggling now and might continue to for a while.
All eyes on Mercedes?
The eight time constructor’s champions Mercedes who have dominated the competition for eight years in a row (such an impressive feat) had everyone talking at testing in Bahrain. Barcelona testing in February was not televised and many cars had changes to them, so, when they arrived at Sakhir, the “no sidepods” sidepods concept took many teams by surprise.
New driver for the team George Russell has downplayed the strength of the Mercedes car, mentioning how Ferrari were “potential favourites” ; however, Carlos Sainz says it’s “typical George and typical Mercedes” to downplay their efforts and hype up their competition.
But, seven time world champion, Lewis Hamilton also says that “Mercedes are not in the hunt for wins right now like Red Bull and Ferrari”.
So, the question is: what do we believe?
Are Ferrari really title contenders?
There was definitely pace in that Ferrari and we probably should count them in the title race, with the red car looking very stable on track. Many also wouldn’t be surprised to see them on pole on Saturday, they had that much pace.
They ran the most laps and probably looked the most consistent and reliable. According to team principal Mattia Binotto, the team has a “good basis” to build on.
What’s the situation at Red Bull?
The car looks very good on track, and with a blistering lap time to finish off testing in Bahrain, the Bulls look like they mean business.
The Milton Keynes team seemed to hide their true pace for some of testing, with many speculating they had more up their sleeve. When the upgrades came about, (with a different sidepod design) they showed their hand.
McLaren troubles?
The McLaren car looked to be good enough on track but with Daniel Ricciardo missing all three days of testing due to testing positive for Covid-19, they seem to be on the back foot and the Aussie will be lacking sufficient preparation for this race weekend.
Lando Norris took the reigns for the papaya team, getting all the data the team needed. He also mentioned how he communicated with his teammate daily to update him on the car.
Although, Norris mentioned how testing had been “less than ideal” for McLaren, leading us to wonder what the situation is with the car.
The McLaren car also had pace but struggled with break issues (for which they had to get new parts to solve this problem) that ultimately hurt their ability to run more laps.
Where do AlphaTauri rank?
Gasly and Tsunoda completed many laps (370) and did not have much to worry about with reliability. The fight for the midfield looks even closer and with this pairing showing confidence in the car, they might throw a spanner in the works for others.
Alpine: A threat to consider?
The eye-catching livery of Alpine stole even more attention when Ocon showed great pace in the car on Day 2. They finished the testing with good data and results once they had figured out how to manage their porpoising, something many teams were struggling with. They are definitely a team to keep an eye out for.
Aston Martin: What can we say about the green team?
Not much really, it is very difficult to make a decent guess about how the Aston Martin team will do this season. Testing looked to go relatively smooth for the green team. It seems are there are not any major problems for them to worry about so we’ll have to wait and see.
Alfa Romeo: Is Bottas right to worry?
With a completely new line-up of Bottas and Zhou people may not be expecting much from Alfa Romeo, but they may cause some problems for the rest of the midfield due their pace and the many laps both drivers put in.
Bottas does fear about the reliability of the Alfa Romeo but only time will tell if it will be a key factor in this season.
Williams: A year of progression?
We are wondering what kind of year we’ll have at Williams with the new pairing of Latifi and Albon who were previously been teammates before in 2018, in Formula 2. After starting well, the Williams team encountered some problems when the brakes caught on fire and they could not run again on Day 2 as they were unable to fix the car on time. Day 3 went well for them so we are left to imagine where they will fit in on the board.
Haas: A future point scoring team?
They encountered plenty of problems at the wrong time. With the team replacing Mazepin with their former driver Magnussen who had lots of experience, there was hope for the team. But with freight delays, the team were running behind schedule; and, when certain teams blocked Haas’ request for extra running on Sunday to make up for time lost, things did not look good.
With extra time to run on Friday and Saturday, Magnussen and Schumacher put in impressive lap times, bringing them high up on the table.
They may be scoring points some time soon.
We can definitely see things heating up as there were a few moments of racing during testing, meaning the drivers are ready to go. The pack seems tighter and we might see some more aggressive stuff from the guys on track when things kick off in Bahrain this weekend.
One can definitely tell it’s going to be an exciting season as we start this new era.
The Fastest Sector 