3 Takeaways from Day Three of Formula 1 Testing

Here at the Faceoff Sports Network, we are always expanding to more sports and sports betting content. Stay tuned for more Formula 1 content and my F1 Faceoff Podcast.

Recap day 2 of testing here.

Teams Beginning to Show Their Hand

With teams facing the last day of testing, it was time for the teams to start showing their hand and learning the full performance of their cars. Throughout the day, teams started putting in more single lap runs, seeking to learn how strong their cars are after five days of checks and tests.

Red Bull came out strong posting several fastest laps and pushing the car faster and faster, particularly as the lights went out in Bahrain and the grip levels increased. Ferrari similarly was pushing the car throughout the day, which wasn’t shocking as they have appeared the most consistent throughout the first two days.

While McLaren continued to struggle to get a handle on the brakes, they also began pushing the car and exhibiting speed, but more surprisingly, Alpha Romeo demonstrated decent speed, with Valtteri Bottas spending a decent amount of time in the top five of the timesheets. There’s plenty left to learn, and I don’t think we’ve truly seen any team go all out yet, but today gave us the most insight into the 2022 pecking order that we’ve seen so far.

Updates from Red Bull

Red Bull saved their Bahrain updates for the final day of testing, where they updated the side pods, a prominent feature of the 2022 Formula One cars as discussed in my Day One Recap. These updates included some more detailed molding of the side pods to more intentionally direct the flow of air around the car.

As mentioned above, once they brought out these updates, they immediately went to the top of the timesheets, bringing smiles and celebration to Red Bull leadership. As always with testing, it is hard to determine if this increased performance was solely due to the changes on the side pods, but surely it sent a signal to the field that Red Bull was ready to compete.

Apart from the timesheets, these new updates made Red Bull look like the best car on track, exhibiting the most stability and eliminating nearly all the porpoising effects (more on that momentarily). While the Red Bulls look strong, there are plenty of questions remaining going into the first race at Bahrain.

Continued Porpoising

If you haven’t heard yet, there is a common trend among the various cars known as porpoising (yes, like the turtle). Porpoising is a phenomenon that occurs with cars that rely heavily on downforce created by the floor of the car, known as the ground effect. With the new technical regulations this season, we have entered into a new ground effect era of Formula One, and with that, the return of porpoising.

Porpoising occurs when there is so much downforce on the car that the car gets sucked into the ground to the point where the airflow stops, causing a sudden lack of downforce, which immediately pops the car back up, and the pattern repeats. This causes the cars to bounce down the track, particularly on large straightaways.

This trend was first identified in the shakedown in Spain, but it has continued throughout Bahrain testing. No team has struggled with it more than Mercedes, who have managed to extract decent performance out of the car despite this trend, seemingly waiting to address the issue in between testing and the first race at Bahrain.

Early in the season, the teams that solve porpoising, such as Red Bull and Ferrari already have, will certainly have an advantage.

With pre-season testing now over, we’re on the cusp of racing weekends and getting a full look at the team’s positioning.

3 Takeaways from Day Two of Formula 1 Testing