A number of regulatory changes have been made for the 2021 season regarding aerodynamics, among other things. The expectation beforehand was that this would make the cars slightly slower, which would take some of the pressure off the tyres. Meanwhile Pirelli comes with more robust rubber this year and with that they go into the new season. Still the cars appear to be very fast again this year.
Qualifying vs winter test
On Instagram we compared the qualifying times at the Bahrain circuit with the times driven during the winter test. From the overview, see below, it appears that the differences are very small. Kimi Raikkonen and Carlos Sainz for example are very close to their 2020 qualifying times. Other drivers have a slightly bigger difference, but it is generally within two seconds.
Now the winter test is anything but a representative picture of what the cars are really capable of, as none of the teams want to blow their brains out. In other words, the teams still have some room for manoeuvre, especially when it comes to qualifying, and this opens up an interesting prospect for this weekend's qualifying session.
We can then compare times directly, but this first impression gives the impression that the cars are at least as fast or maybe even faster than last year. In that case it also means that the teams have already surpassed the step back in terms of regulatory changes.