Nine of the 10 F1 teams on the first day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit. Run more than 100 laps.
Who is the only team without a century? Williams. Two different technical flaws – Alexander Albon’s fuel pump failure during the morning session and Logan Sargent’s driveshaft problem midway through the afternoon run – meant the team was only able to complete 61 laps on Wednesday.
Still, Dave Robson, the team’s head of vehicle performance, said it was an “informative” day for the team.
“Today wasn’t as smooth as we had hoped. We had two time-consuming issues that forced us to end both sessions early. Alex had a fuel pump failure and Logan had a driveshaft problem. ” Robson outlined in the team’s post-session media report.
“Although both drivers had only limited driving, they were able to complete some useful work to understand the basic characteristics of the FW46 and relate them to the simulation. Improving the balance of the car There is certainly room, but we are now in a strong position to focus on this tomorrow,” Robson added.
Albon was able to complete 40 of those laps. when his efforts fall to dust Good for P15. Although it was probably a shorter stint than he would have liked, the driver said the FW46 “fixed” some of the issues the team had with its 2023 challenger, the FW45.
“The first day was OK. It was hot and windy so not necessarily the best conditions for driving, but overall it was a relatively smooth day. Towards the end of the session we had a problem with the fuel pump. It happened and we fixed it,” Albon explained. “We are trying to understand how different the car is from last year, but we know it is still early to say what the car is like.
“Some of the previous issues have definitely been fixed, but as a result you will be fighting balance trade-offs. We have three days of testing, which never seems like enough time, but we are already there. We have reached and are making progress.”
After the FW46 was unveiled in New York City earlier this month, Albon said track-to-track consistency is what he expects from this year’s challenger. “I think more often consistency is the big characteristic this year and that’s what I want to see,” Albon told the media, including the media. SB Nation, early this month. “If you look at it from last year to this year, we had a lot of high mountains, but at the same time we ended up racing on weekends where we knew we weren’t going to get any points.
“It’s just the limitations of the car and how unique our car was. We’ve been doing some simulator work and development on that part this year, but we’re taking a completely different approach than we’ve done in the past. This is completely different from how teams have been designed over the past three or four years.
“I believe we can still keep most of what’s good about us. But hopefully when we go to tracks like Monaco or Barcelona, we’re more on the line instead of going out in Q1 and struggling.” We should see a car that is in line with that,” Albon concluded.
Albon’s early retirement on Wednesday was only part of their story on the first day of testing. During the afternoon session, the team witnessed Sargent spin out at Turn 9, but a driveshaft issue on his FW46 ended the day early.
“We didn’t accomplish everything we wanted to do today, but it wasn’t all negative. The cars are different, so we have to work it out in a positive way,” said Sargent.
“That’s the direction we want to go in with the car, but there are still some balance issues that need to be adjusted, but a lot of the big issues we had last year have been resolved. It’s just a new way of managing things, so if you understand that, you’ll have a better car,” added the American driver. “As of now, we’ve only done 21 laps so I’m looking forward to spending a full day in the car tomorrow. I hope we can understand and resolve the issues that happened today.”
Sargent managed to finish the day in 11th place.
Albon will complete his full workload on Thursday before finishing the week on Friday.
Looking ahead, Robson believes his team can make the most of their time over the next two days and be at the front of the pack for the start of the campaign.
“Having shared the driving with Alex today, Logan will have a full day to complete tomorrow. This will give him valuable time in the car and will also give him new tires at various fuel loads It will give us an opportunity to use it back-to-back,” Robson said.
“Ideally, we could have done more running today, but we were able to do some very valuable testing and we uncovered some issues in the process. There are two full days of season testing left, so we have plenty of opportunity to complete our preparations for the upcoming season,” Robson added.
The second day of testing begins in just a few hours and will show whether Williams can take a step forward after a mixed first day.
