Winter test 2020 vs 2021; Mercedes the big loser

The winter test in Bahrain is over and the teams and drivers are preparing for the first Grand Prix. Before the GP, it will be interesting to see who was able to practice the most in these three days and also how the drivers fared in 2020 compared to 2021.

Hamilton has a very poor start

In 2020, the winter test consisted of six days instead of three and it was held on a different circuit. The man with most laps in 2020 was Lewis Hamilton. He drove a total of 466 laps. In 2021, the pre-season test went a lot less smoothly for the Brit. He drove just 154 laps, which put him in a shared sixteenth place with Lando Norris.

Hamilton's fastest lap in 2021 was good enough for fifth, but crucially he was over a second slower than Max Verstappen, who drove his fastest time on harder compound tyres. In 2020 Verstappen drove the second-fastest time, again on the medium tyre, slower than only Valtteri Bottas.

Alfa Romeo and Haas make progress

In 2021, it was Alfa Romeo that managed to complete the most laps. The team completed a total of 422 laps, making them the only team with more than 400 laps under their belt. Alpine and Williams also managed to complete plenty of laps this time around. Looking at the table, it's clear that Haas have improved a lot; the American team were last in the list of most laps in 2020, whilst they were joint sixth place this year. Mercedes went from having the most laps in 2020 to the fewest in 2021. The team drove just 304.