Bahrain Grand Prix: New rules bring famous old name in Ferrari
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Ferrari's Leclerc (left) will start on pole for the Bahrain GP, while Sainz starts in third
The new era of Formula 1 began in Bahrain on Saturday and it has a very different shape from the last one, at least for now.
Ferrari are back, and their extravagantly talented driver Charles Leclerc beat Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen to pole position in an exciting and close battle.
Only 0.129 seconds covered the first three cars as Carlos Sainz made it a Ferrari one-three on the grid, while Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have slipped from their pedestal and face a struggle to get back to their familiar position at the front.
Hamilton ended up 0.68 seconds off pole in fifth place on the grid. And it says a lot about the place Mercedes are in that team principal Toto Wolff said the team were "a little bit upbeat about where we have been able to consolidate ourselves".
Sunday's race should distil down to a straight fight between the Ferrari drivers and Verstappen, although the Dutchman's team-mate Sergio Perez is fourth on the grid and may have something to say about that.
Hamilton admitted: "Those guys ahead of us are on another level at the moment. We're not quick enough to win."
The battle at the front
In many ways, the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull was a relief. Verstappen and Red Bull had looked so strong on the final day of pre-season testing and through practice this weekend that there were fears they might have a car with which they could dominate the season, in the manner of 2011 or 2013.
Ferrari, though, had always looked strong, and come qualifying they proved it was no illusion.
For them, relief was one of the emotions mixed in with the delight. Ferrari had targeted the new regulations introduced this year as an opportunity to get back to the front after a number of difficult seasons.
In 2019, they were reasonably competitive, and Leclerc took more poles than anyone else but towards the end of that year they lost performance after some rule clarifications on engines. That winter it was revealed they had come to a settlement with governing body the FIA, which believed the engine was not always being run legally - something Ferrari denied.
Whatever the truth, Ferrari took a massive step backwards in engine performance in 2020 and had their worst season for 40 years. There was progress last year but it was 2022 that they hoped would be a return to competitiveness after putting a huge amount of effort into the new rules.
"The last two years have been extremely difficult," Leclerc said. "I knew it was just a matter of time before we got back to the top because we were working well. But until you actually do it you always have the doubts.
"Finally this season we managed to do a car that is back where it deserves to be, at least in the mix for the top positions."
Verstappen described his qualifying as "a great start" and is optimistic for the race after a very strong race-simulation run in Friday practice.
"I think we have a good race car, all the time on race fuel the car has been feeling quite stable and good on tyres so that's important," he said.
The race will also be the first test for the new rules, and the intention that they will enable the cars to race closer together for longer.
Sainz said: "If the pace of the three cars is similar, it could be an exciting race because we are actually able to follow closer; we don't need to open gaps to manage tyres like in the past, so it could be a bit more close racing.
"It doesn't mean overtaking all over the place but maybe the cars can run a bit closer. Max in particular had very strong race pace. Maybe he has a small advantage there, so we need to make sure we find a step to keep up with him and keep him behind."
Where are Mercedes?
Seven-time world champion Hamilton will start the Bahrain GP from fifth on the grid
Heading into the weekend, Ferrari and Red Bull still believed Mercedes had been hiding their true potential to a degree in pre-season testing and were open to the possibility the world constructors' champions may suddenly re-emerge at the front.
"I personally still had doubts after final practice," Leclerc said. "It was quite obvious they were not at ease, but considering what happened in the years before [when] they were hiding their gains quite a lot, [and were] maybe a bit more this year.
"But actually they weren't hiding their gains. They were struggling more than other years but I still expected them to be fighting with us."
Mercedes' problems are rooted in an aerodynamic phenomenon known as "porpoising", when the car bounces on the straights as the downforce fluctuates.
It is something to which all cars are prone following the new rules, which have reintroduced a phenomenon called "ground effect". But Mercedes are suffering from it more than most.
It means they have to run the car higher than they would like, to reduce the incidence of porpoising. But this also reduces its overall downforce levels and therefore performance.
As Hamilton put it: "It's ultimately downforce - because of the porpoising we don't have the downforce we need."
"You can clearly see the bouncing they have, the car is not so easy to drive," Verstappen said. "It seems like a bit hit and miss - sometimes they can do a decent lap but sometimes it is more difficult to nail the balance.
"But they just need to figure out a few things. And if they can figure it out that package can be really quick.
"It's nice to be ahead now but I also know from last year how quickly they can develop a car and at one point it was really difficult to beat that car."
But Mercedes do not believe it will be a quick fix. Hamilton's team-mate George Russell, ninth on the grid after making an error on his one qualifying lap in the final session, said they did not yet know exactly why they were having the problem.
"We have indications," he said. "I wouldn't say it's trial and error but we have to try things and then see if it's a positive direction or not.
"We have tried things but we still get to that limit quite quickly. We have made progress and we truly have closed the gap to the leaders. If we fully optimised everything today, we were 0.5 seconds behind and we were certainly one second plus behind last week."
A Danish fairytale
Between Hamilton and Russell on the grid, Magnussen had a lot to smile about
A month ago, Kevin Magnussen thought his F1 career was long over. He was dropped by Haas at the end of 2020 in favour of Russian pay driver Nikita Mazepin and had turned to a career in endurance racing.
But when Mazepin's contract was terminated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the team turned back to the popular Dane. He surprised himself by saying 'yes' immediately and now it turns out that Haas have done a great job and have a decent car.
Magnussen qualified seventh, despite being hampered by a hydraulic leak that limited him to only one lap in the final two sessions and a less-than-ideal out-lap.
An hour or so later, he was still smiling.
"Yes, it's so strange all of this," he said. "I had a whole year to 15 months of trying to get used to the fact F1 wasn't going to be part of my life any more. I kind of got to a good place with that.
"I was happy with the opportunity I had in F1 and was able to look back and be grateful and happy about that and be excited about the future with having a kid and still being a racing driver, but suddenly this happened, this opportunity with Haas, back in F1 with my daughter. It's so strange and now back in Q3 and hoping for points. It's kind of crazy."
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