Friday Analysis | Verstappen aces long runs, Mercedes struggle on straights

Max Verstappen and Red Bull seemingly have the best package ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Ferrari attacking their heels, especially during the qualifying runs. The Dutch World Champion is in a class of his own on the long-run data, but that could all change as the sandbags come off and teams maximise their packages. Mercedes are seemingly behind, with the W13 struggling with porpoising and straight line-speed. 

Sector one and three

In Sakhir, the first and third sectors are virtually mirror images of each other.  These two sectors will really test the power of the cars and porpoising. Cars bouncing along the straights under high speeds has caused issues for drivers and teams in pre-season testing. The first and third sectors will really showcase which teams have a better balance of this. The run down to turn one is something to look out for. 

With four significantly long straights, there's a serious power focus at this circuit with which the new engines for all 10 teams will thrive with. In testing, the Mercedes car didn't get into top gear thus confirming they were hiding lots of power. Ferrari and Red Bull were also hiding their full hands, but the question is how much were they hiding? Ultimately, we'll only find out in Q3 of qualifying. 

In the second free practice session, Verstappen recorded the best times in both sector one and sector three. This shows that the Honda power is strong, and they've got porpoising under control. During the session, Mercedes seemed to have aggressive bouncing with the porpoising and therefore losing a lot of straight-line speed. According to the Mercedes Twitter account, Hamilton was unable to use DRS which also resulted in slower straight-line speed. 

During the lunch break, Mercedes mechanics worked hard on Lewis Hamilton's car. The team made a set-up change in the hope to reduce the bouncing. Inside the first 20 minutes of the session, the problem looked worse for Hamilton going into turn one. 

Middle sector 

The middle sector is completely different. Sector two in Bahrain is much more twisty and has a range of corners from slow-mid. Cars that record the quickest sector times here are perhaps holding on to more downforce. Acing all three sectors shows a good package. The times in the middle sector are much closer together. It's impossible to say which car is performing better on the twistier sector but we know Ferrari and Red Bull have a strong all round package. 

Long runs

The long-run data paints a very interesting picture. It looks like Max Verstappen is in a class of his own when it comes to the long runs. He was more than half a second faster than his teammate who, according to team boss Christian Horner, was experimenting with different parts. Behind Verstappen, all drivers are pretty close to each other. 

Lewis Hamilton's long-run pace was 1.2 seconds slower than his 2021 World Championship rival. Though the Mercedes driver used tyres a step harder. At this stage, it looks like Verstappen and Red Bull are looking like they have the strongest package. But we will get confirmation during qualifying.