McLaren and Lando Norris send a warning to the rest of the F1 field

Tests before Formula 1 season were in the rearview mirror, with all 10 teams struggling to jump into the data. It takes less than two weeks for the lap times to be counted at the Australian Grand Prix season opening. For the second straight season, Carlos Senn Jr. broke through the timing sheet and put Williams FW47 at the forefront of the field after doing the same with Ferrari in the SF-24 before the season.

However, one of the data points that many people see comes from the second day of the test, not when the sign was posted to Williams. Instead, it's three race simulations that Lando Norris did with the MCL39, and at this point it could be a bit worried about the rest of the field.

Norris' best lap in Bahrain – 1:30.430 time – was just 13th in the field in three days of the test. However, the consistency that Norris and MCL39 showed these three long runs on Thursday is not ignored, especially when compared to race simulations from other teams.

Even with the usual warning about taking time to test with salt grains.

Norris first expanded runs, first with an 18-lap effort, followed by a 16-lap stint and another 18-lap stint, with a total of 52 laps over the three long periods.

For reference, the Bahrain Granpurin itself is 57 wraps.

Here, courtesy High speed F1,The lap times for those laps are as follows:

In the first stint, Norris' fastest lap was 1:35.099, and he was featured on lap 23 overall, and on lap 12 of that run. His latest time was 1:36.372.

These wraps appeared in C3 compounds.

Then came the second stint. McLaren bolted the bolts with a set of C1 tires on the MCL39. The fastest lap in that 16 lap run was 1:34.071, and the first lap of the stint was 1:35.010. Apart from that first lap, each one ran around the Bahrain International Circuit was in the 1:34 range.

Next is the final stint where the set of C2 tires is bolted. This was the fastest of the three race simulations, with Norris' fastest lap clocking at 1:32.267. He had one lap on lap 57. It was an outlier of 1:34.196, but most were in the 1:32 or 1:33 range.

Here, courtesy F1 tempo, Norris' Tuesday is in graphic format in Bahrain.

These lap times standing alone may not make much sense, but when you compare his racing simulations to what other drivers did in Bahrain, the photos begin to form. Also, take a picture of this graphic F1 tempocompares his race simulations with those of Charles Leclerc and Andrea Kimmi Antoneri. First, a comparison between Ferrari and Leclair:

As you can see, Leclerc had his own long run, but Norris was consistently faster than these long stints.

The same applies to Antoneri, who was impressive in his own rights despite being a rookie in his first pre-Formula One season test session.

As Andrew Benson I wrote it BBC Sports If you extrapolate these simulations to race,[Norris] He won “races” for over 30 seconds, averaged over 0.5 seconds, and was faster than his rivals. ”

For those wondering about the F1 drivers' championship fight between Norris and Max Verstappen, the defending driver champion ran a medium-length stint on Friday, comparable to Norris' first Thursday stint, ranging from 1:34/1:35.

Again, it is premature to draw a decisive conclusion about the state of the field, and test times are taken skeptical. Still, the pace that McLaren and Norris showed in Bahrain was Paddock's story. “Norris is an outlier.” Sky Sports F1 Karun Changduk said Thursday. “It's very fast in his final stint.”

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella The issue that was neglectedhe says to “be careful” to read too much data from Norris's run. He also pointed to the cool situation on Thursday, saying, “They are enjoying our car, they're cool and not very windy.”

But Norris' run on Thursday certainly stands out as the team and the media jump into the data.

Does something similar happen when the lap times are actually counted?