REPORT: ‘Solid platform’ following first practice sessions in Bahrain

The team are reflecting on an encouraging first day of practice ahead of Saturday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

At a cool but gusty Bahrain International Circuit, our FP1 was exclusively focused on medium tyre running. Alex recorded 17 laps on the yellow-walled Pirelli rubber, with Logan completing 19, ending in P13 and P16 respectively.

In the more representative practice session, soft tyres were bolted onto both FW46s during FP2.

Alex’s best time of 1:31.333 placed him P11 after 26 tours, with Logan in P13 following a 1:31.715 within his 27 laps.

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, reflected on Thursday’s two hours on track by sharing: “It was good to get the car running again and have all 20 drivers on the track.

“Inevitably teams start to converge on run programmes once we are into a race weekend and so the competitive picture becomes a little less fuzzy. That said, we won’t know until tomorrow evening what the order really is.

“Both drivers had productive days despite the windy conditions. The FW46 was performing well and reliably, and we were able to test some different setup approaches, which helps to correlate the simulator to the track, and prepares us for hotter events to come.

“We didn’t quite get everything from the Soft tyres today but we can improve that tomorrow.

“We also need to watch the weather as we will likely face cool and calmer conditions as the event progresses. There is work to do but we have a solid platform to build on.”

Alex continued our Thursday reaction by adding: “We were relatively surprised by our pace in FP1 but by FP2, we found a good pace on the Medium tyre, however lost a little bit on the Softs.

“The cars around us are quicker than I’d like, especially the Haas, so we need to look at what we can do better.

“The car feels different behind the wheel but it’s not yet translating to performance, so we've got some work to do.

“Everyone seems to have made a big step over the break as well, so it’s difficult to say but it’s early days and there’s still a lot to learn from the car.”

Logan completed our round-up by sharing: “Today was good. The car felt like a big step forward from the test and shows that the work that Alex and the team did on day three was a step in the right direction.

“I’m generally happy with the car and the balance. There’s some fine-tuning to do but I’m quite confident with the car I have underneath me, we just need to see where we are pace wise tomorrow.

“It’s good to be starting my second season this weekend and I’m looking forward to continually improving myself and being consistent through the year.”