| By: Charles Bradley, Global Editor in Chief
Great to see Formula 1 back on track in Bahrain today in the first of three days of testing ahead of the 2021 season – so who was hot and who was not?
You can never read much into the headline times, as teams run to their own agendas and a mid-session sandstorm didn’t exactly help the track conditions! Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ended the day with the fastest time, carrying over the strong form following his end-of-season victory in Abu Dhabi.
The reborn McLaren-Mercedes combo also looked promising, with new signing Daniel Ricciardo topping the timesheets at the midway point and Lando Norris going P2 in the evening. Alpine also looked good, with Esteban Ocon running 129 laps on Day 1, second-only to Verstappen's 139 – always an encouraging sign.
One conclusion you can draw from testing, even at this early stage, is if someone is in trouble. Mercedes suffering a gearbox failure certainly raised my eyebrows, and Toto Wolff only underlined the concern by admitting the team was struggling to understand the cause. We shall need to keep an eye on this over the next two days… |
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| Editor's Choice
Red Bull's Max Verstappen has topped the first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain, as Mercedes' 2021 campaign got off to a low-key start. |
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