10 March 2022

Following the three-day shakedown in Barcelona in February, the team headed to the host venue for the opening Grand Prix of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, aiming to build on the solid foundation laid at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

 

Esteban took driving duties in the morning session under the searing Bahrain heat, completing 42 laps, with Fernando in the car during the afternoon-twilight session in much cooler conditions.

Fernando posted 24 laps with a small issue limiting his running for a large part of the session. The problem was identified and solved to allow Fernando some track time under the lights during the final hour of the day.

 

Tomorrow, Esteban returns to the A522 for a full day’s running with Fernando back in the car on Saturday.

 

Esteban Ocon:

 

“I completed half a day driving today and we managed just short of a race distance in that time. It was good to feel how the 2022 car works in Bahrain, which is very different to Barcelona with completely contrasting conditions. We focused more on one compound of tyre today to begin to understand the degradation and performance of it. Our focus was not on full outright performance and we’re still learning on every run we do and that is the absolute target of these test days. I’m happy with my half day and I’m back in the car tomorrow where we hope to add more laps and gain more valuable information on this year’s package.”

 

Fernando Alonso:

 

“It was nice to be back driving the car here in Bahrain. Things went quite smoothly for Esteban this morning, but we did encounter a small issue with the car after the lunch break. So, we didn’t complete as many laps as we’d have liked in the afternoon. Despite this we still learnt a lot about our car in the hot conditions and we tried some different things with the car setup. We’ll take what we learnt today into tomorrow and Saturday.”

 

Pat Fry, Chief Technical Officer:

 

“Firstly, it’s great to be back in Bahrain for the next phase of pre-season testing. It wasn’t our smoothest day of running with the usual niggles of testing popping up, which sometimes occur when you’re running through an extensive programme. It looks like ‘porpoising’ is less of an issue here than in Barcelona, which is certainly interesting. We identified an issue with the car after lunch and that limited Fernando’s afternoon. We were able to resolve the problem but, of course, adding as much mileage as possible only aids what you learn about the car and we fell a bit short on that front today. For tomorrow, Esteban is in the car to continue our learning and preparation for the first race. We have two busy days on track coming up.”