The season has officially started and if last week's tests gave us any clues, it will be these three that will give us confirmation free practice sessions in Bahrain. Sessions starting exceptionally on Thursday, having to compete in the Grand Prix Saturday. Starting from the first, which as often happens, either because it takes place in the morning or because there are two others that can be used, has turned into a sort of extension of the pre-season tests, with teams engaged in the final checks on the aerodynamics and on correlations with data collected in the wind tunnel. These free practices are fundamental especially for those teams that had problems during the tests, and which ran less on the track, such as Williams, McLaren or Alpine. So let's see what happened in the first 60 minutes of free practice 1 in Bahrain! In the meantime, we also remind you that it is possible to insert formations at Fantasy F1.
Where were we
We have reached the third year of the new regulatory cycle with ground effect cars. In the past two years there has only been one team to dominate, that is Red Bull. Most of the teams followed the design philosophy of the Austrian team. Which in the meantime has taken another path by bringing the RB20 to the track. A hybrid between its own solutions and those seen on other single-seaters. This difference upset the competition quite a bit, convinced that they could fight for something more than a second place. In particular, Ferrari has the highest ambitions. The Maranello team sees a more predictable and consistent car in the SF-24. In the tests both Leclerc and Sainz showed good pace. As well as Mercedes, which dreams of being able to return to the top in the last year with Lewis Hamilton in the team.
What free practice session 1 in Bahrain tells us
A very frenetic session in the morning, with everyone immediately taking to the track, except for the reigning champion Max Verstappen, to find a correlation with the data collected during the tests. And it is the Dutchman who immediately takes the lead in the session in the first minutes. Followed by teammate Sergio Perez who had quite a few problems during testing, and by Charles Leclerc. The times in the initial phase started to drop lap after lap as the track started to get rubbery. The one who appeared to be in difficulty again in free practice 1 in Bahrain is Alpine. The French team doesn't seem to find the pace, confirming the doubts that emerged during the testing phase. The two play at the bottom of the rankings.
After the first half hour, the top 10 of the ranking sees Piastri at the top, followed by Verstappen, Russell, Perez, Hamilton, Alonso, Leclerc, Sainz, Norris and Stroll. All with medium tyre. The first to attempt the soft are Ricciardo, Tsunoda, Norris and Piastri.
Among these four, Racing Bulls shows up, first with Daniel Ricciardo and fourth with Yuki Tsunoda. There are very high expectations on the former AlphaTauri, considering the increasingly significant closeness with Red Bull and the feelings expressed by the two drivers on the eve of the weekend. Leclerc and Russell's time with the C2s was also interesting. The two drivers, by a few thousandths, placed themselves immediately behind Verstappen, the best on the same compound. Between Verstappen and Leclerc's Ferrari, although the fuel loads are not known, there is a gap of around 4 tenths. Both are pretty consistent.
Ricciardo ends the session in first place
In the final phase of the session, many tried the race pace with different timings, thus leaving them relatively undisturbed Daniel Ricciardo who takes his first personal revenge with this first place in free practice 1 in Bahrain. At the end of the session the top 10 of the ranking is as follows:
Daniel Ricciardo 1:32.869
Lando Norris +0.032
Oscar Piastri +0.244
Yuki Tsunoda +0.314
Fernando Alonso +0.324
Max Verstappen +0.369
George Russell +0.382
Charles Leclerc +0.399
Lewis Hamilton +0.433
Valtteri Bottas +0.485
