Hi everyone! F1 Newsbites is back once again and here is your Bahrain Grand Prix edition. Let’s look at the latest news coming from the paddock:

 

 

FIA and Formula 1 set out framework for 2021 onwards

 

In over two years time, the sport of Formula 1 is aiming to start a whole new chapter in it’s history that will feature new rules, governance structure, revenue distribution strategy and cost controlling. On Tuesday at a meeting in London, F1 moved another step closer in making it a reality for 2021 and beyond.

 

F1 bosses and the FIA have been working on framework together for the past few months, which included sporting and technical regulations, power unit rules, costs, governance and revenue distribution, that were all presented on Tuesday.

 

The day began with a Strategy Group meeting and then followed a F1 Commission meeting, which brought together all of the sport’s stakeholders to see how the vision has transformed nearly a year on from the presentation Formula 1 made to the FIA and teams at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

 

F1’s ultimate goal is to bring the cars more equal and closer together, producing exciting action, making the drivers heroes and the business models more sustainable.

 

F1 Post-Bahrain Test

 

 

Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso and son of seven-time World Champion Mick Schumacher are among the names of the drivers that will be undertaking the post-Bahrain Grand Prix test on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

 

Alonso was named as McLaren’s ambassador during pre-season testing, with the Woking-based outfit confirming the Spaniard will take part in selected tests throughout the year.

 

The Spaniard will drive the MCL34 on both days of the test, but undertaking tyre development with Pirelli and will split his running on Wednesday with fellow Spanish-compatriot Carlos Sainz.

 

On Tuesday, Lando Norris and Sainz will share the car following McLaren’s usual test programme with the former getting a full day in the MCL34 the day after.

 

 

The Schumacher name is one step closer to a brilliant return to the sport of Formula 1 with Mick, son of legendary seven-time World Champion Michael, taking the wheel of the Ferrari SF90 on Tuesday and Alfa Romeo Racing’s C38 in the post-Bahrain Grand Prix test.

 

Schumacher is climbing through the motorsport ladder, winning eight races and scoring 14 podiums on his way to clinch the FIA F3 European crown last year, before signing a deal to race for Prema Racing in Formula 2, the feeder series for F1 this championship campaign.

 

The 20-year-old German joined the Ferrari Driver Academy earlier this year and earned his place in the iconic marque’s driver academy with that move opening the door for a Formula 1 test.

 

“I am obviously more than excited and would like to thank Ferrari and Alfa Romeo for giving me this opportunity,” explained Schumacher. “I am really looking forward to what I’m sure will be a great experience. But for the moment, I am consciously putting all thoughts of the test to one side, because I am also very much looking forward to competing in my first F2 race and would like to focus a hundred percent on the weekend to come.”

 

The opportunity comes after Schumacher junior makes his debut weekend in Formula 2.

 

Meanwhile young British F2 racer Callum Ilott who is also part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, will run a full day of testing during the second in-season test at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya in May after the Spanish Grand Prix.

 

 

Head returns to technical consultant role at Williams

 

In a bid to turn it’s 2019 campaign woes around, ROKiT Williams Racing have tempted co-founder Sir Patrick Head back to Grove to support the team in a consultant role.

 

Head has legendary status with the Grove-based squad, with his return being a huge coup. The Briton co-founded the team with Sir Frank Williams in 1976 and remains a shareholder to this day. Head was the pioneering spearhead to the team’s design department.

 

As both Technical Director and later Director of Engineering, he helped guide Williams to seven Driver’s and nine Constructors World Championships before stepping down from the team in 2011.

 

Since then, Williams have scored only one victory and two third-placed finishes in the World Constructors Championship. Currently they sit last in the standings, having finished in that position last season, and have a car that is far off the pace of it’s rivals.

 

With their Technical Officer Paddy Lowe taking a leave of absence from the legendary outfit due to personal reasons, Head’s return in this capacity, even if it’s short term will give them much needed stability.

 

Williams confirmed to Formula 1 in a statement: “We can confirm that Sir Patrick Head is currently offering some support to our engineering team on a short-term consultancy basis.”.

 

Post-Free Practice 1 & 2 Driver Quotes (Letting the Drivers Tell the Story)

 

 

Sebastian Vettel #5, Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow SF90. “The car is not yet where it was in Barcelona. Certainly, it’s better today than in Australia. It was a better day overall, but we still need to pick up the pace for tomorrow. I am not entirely happy. It has been quite a tricky day because the track was very slippery and it was difficult to always extract the best from the tyres. We were on a different strategy compared to other drivers and teams, that’s why for tomorrow we still need to improve. I think we have some more potential in the car that we have to unleash for qualifying”.

 

Charles Leclerc #16, Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow SF90. “I think it was a good Friday and balance wise I think we are definitely looking better than in Australia. Having said that, it’s better to keep our feet on the ground. I’m pretty sure our rivals didn’t show their real pace today, so tomorrow will not be an easy day for sure. Overall I’m satisfied as we were able to run our full programme, including some fast laps in the second session, as FP3 will not be that representative because of the temperatures. I felt more comfortable in the car lap after lap. Now it’s all about putting everything together tomorrow”.

 

 

Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W10 EQ Power+: “FP1 is always a bit difficult in Bahrain because the track is still a bit dusty and the track temperatures are very high, much higher than they are in Qualifying and the race. The car balance didn’t feel great in the first session, but we made some changes in between the session and the car felt much better in FP2. It looks like it’s going to be very close between us and Ferrari, they are clearly faster around here than they were in Melbourne. So we will have some work to do to improve the set-up of our car and I personally also have room for improvement left. It looks like it will be a hard fight tomorrow, which should make Qualifying very exciting.”

 

Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s hard work out there for everyone; FP1 is incredibly hot, the track is at 50 degrees, so everyone is struggling with the tyres. The Ferraris have been quick from the get-go and picked up more pace from there, so it’s completely different to what we’ve seen in Melbourne. We had some issues with the balance of the car, but we’ve made improvements for FP2. At the moment it looks like the Ferraris are ahead, so we have to keep our heads down, keep working, analyse things tonight and try and come back stronger tomorrow. I think as we get to Qualifying, everything will get a little bit closer, but it is going to be a tough battle.”

 

 

Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda RB15: “Today was ok but it could have been better. On the medium tyre we look pretty competitive and I should have been fastest on my first short run but I had a little issue at the last corner which lost me two or three tenths. On the softest tyre I just didn’t have enough grip, so we need to look into that and extract more out of it. On the longer runs we also looked competitive on the medium tyre which should be the most dominant tyre for the race. We still have a bit of set-up work to do, especially as we will probably only get one timed lap on the tyres in qualifying. It also looks like the issues Ferrari had in Melbourne have been resolved, they look fastest at the moment so we need to work to close that gap.”

 

Pierre Gasly, #10, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda RB15: “I think the performance was really good in FP1 and at the start of FP2. The balance was not ideal, but that’s normal, especially as it was very hot this morning when we had the first session. This afternoon in FP2 we were fast with the medium tyres but then with the softs we were lacking some pace. I couldn’t really push on the first laps, so I had to do it on the third, which is not ideal. I think overall the car is good, we’re just missing a bit of pace with this set-up and need to improve our understanding of the soft tyres. I feel confident with the car, for sure it’s a different track than Melbourne so we need to optimise everything but I’m confident we can get it right tomorrow.”

 

 

Daniel Ricciardo, #3, Renault F1 Team R.S.19: “I struggled this afternoon and we were off the pace from where we would like. We started on the Hard tyre, which was tricky for grip, but once we put the Soft on it felt slightly more comfortable. I know there are things we can improve on, especially with the balance of the car. We conducted a lot of work to understand more about the car in the garage this afternoon and then we did the long run, which was a little better. We aren’t as competitive as we should be and obviously I want to be quicker tomorrow, so we will do some homework tonight.”

 

Nico Hulkenberg, #27, Renault F1 Team R.S.19: “Overall, it’s been a productive day’s work in Bahrain. It’s always a tricky place to arrive to for the second Grand Prix of the year with the heat and challenging climatic conditions with wind and dust. There was a distinct lack of grip in FP1 making it quite hard to drive and become comfortable in the car; we had to deal with a lot of oversteer. FP2 was under more representative conditions and I feel we’ve made a good start for both short and long run preparation. Fifth place on the leaderboard always looks nice, but we’re realistic and have our focus totally on qualifying tomorrow.”

 

 

Romain Grosjean, #8, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team VF-19: “We’ve done some good work today, and there’s more to be done before tomorrow. It was interesting to drive the car on a very hot track in FP1, then later in more representative conditions in FP2. We’re still learning about the VF-19, so I’m pretty happy to see how it performs. I’d like a bit more rear grip, especially on the long runs, that’s an area I think we can do a bit better, I’m confident we’ll find it. I think we’ve got some good margins to improve the car though, and that’s always a good thing before qualifying. We’ll be in the mix.”

 

Kevin Magnussen, #20, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team VF-19: “I’m reasonably happy with our day. It was good to get FP2 in the darker, cooler conditions. FP1, well, it wasn’t scary, but it was very tricky with the hotter temperatures. It made the tires tricky, and the car was not behaving well, but it was the same for everyone. It was good to get into it in FP2, we got to see how the car acted in the conditions that we’ll have in qualifying tomorrow. I was happier in those conditions than in the earlier session, so that’s a positive. The car was behaving much better.”

 

 

Sergio Perez, #11, SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team RP19: “It’s been a challenging day to start our Bahrain weekend. We need to work hard to find a few tenths overnight and improve the balance of the car, otherwise it’ll be very difficult to reach Q3. The sessions earlier in the day, FP1 and FP3, are not that relevant because the temperatures are so much higher than what we expect for qualifying and the race, so the opportunities to work on the set-up are limited. We tried lots of things on the car today, which will help our learning in the long term, and we collected all the usual tyre information ahead of the race.”

 

Lance Stroll, #18, SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team RP19: “It wasn’t easy today. We need to review the data and work hard to understand where we can find some more performance. The first session was very busy with big changes to the car – running different aero parts – and trying to understand the best direction for the rest of the weekend. We know it’s very competitive in the midfield so we have to find some speed tonight if we are to be in the top ten tomorrow.”

 

 

Lando Norris, #4, McLaren-Renault F1 Team MCL34: “There are still things to improve upon but it’s been a decent start to the weekend. I feel more confident because I know the procedures a little more. I think FP1 went reasonably well: we got through everything we had to and I got a good feeling for the track. The track temperature in FP2 came down a lot meaning the car felt pretty different and obviously lap times were much faster. We ended that session with a small issue which didn’t allow me to do as many laps as I wanted – but I still did a longer run on the higher fuel plus short runs at the beginning of the session, so I got a decent feeling.”

 

Carlos Sainz, #55, McLaren-Renault F1 Team MCL34: “It was a smooth Friday and we could complete our programme without any issues. Overall, the performance looks good and promising, but we know that tomorrow the others will turn up their engines, so we have to be cautious there. Happy with today. We just need to make sure that one timed lap is nailed a bit better to maximise the result in quali. Still some margin to improve the car as well so I look forward to tomorrow.”

 

 

Alexander Albon, #23, Red Bull Toro Rosso-Honda STR14: “It was a pretty good day in the office. I think, as we’ve seen already, the midfield is really close which leaves no room for error. We struggled a bit with balance in the morning session but we were able to fix that for FP2, although we need to make some changes overnight to further improve the performance of the car. There’s definitely a few things we need to tune in order to be ready for tomorrow, so it’s just going to be about maximising the package we have and being at the sharp end of the midfield. We know what needs changing, so hopefully we can be more competitive tomorrow for Qualifying.”

 

Daniil Kvyat, #26, Red Bull Toro Rosso-Honda STR14: “Generally, we had quite a productive Friday. We managed to cover all of the useful test items we planned for the day, and also covered both short and long runs – which is very important for Friday practice! It seems like everything is quite tight in terms of performance among the midfield teams, so we will work hard overnight to optimise the car for tomorrow in order to put us where we want to be.”

 

 

George Russell, #63, ROKiT Williams Racing FW42: “I enjoy driving in Bahrain it’s a really nice track with a good flow to it. I think we are very slightly closer, as the circuit generally suits the team more than others, but we are where we expected. FP1 was quite a challenge, however I think everybody was struggling out there in the hot conditions. FP2 was much nicer to drive but the laptimes are still a long way off and we have a lot of work to do. Whilst we are in this position we need to use it to optimise everything else so when the car does become competitive we are ready to pounce.”

 

Robert Kubica, #88, ROKiT Williams Racing FW42: “It wasn’t an easy day, but we know what we need to work on. After the first race I had some doubts and questions, but those have now gone. In Australia, I ran a different set-up to George and we could clearly see the different characteristics of the car, here we started with the same set-up and the characteristics are still different. I just hope we are able to solve it, but we have some tests to do so we understand the reasons.”

 

No comments from both Alfa Romeo Racing drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi via my press releases.