Pirelli Motorsport director Mario Isola has admitted that the fast lap times posted by teams during three days of pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit had come as a bit of a surprise.
Although there had been no major changes to the technical regulations over the winter, there were still some tweaks made to tackle last year's problems with 'porpoising'.
This had been expected to cut about half a second off the lap times of this year's cars at the start of the season - but that certainly wasn't the case when the 2023 models hit the track for this first time this week.
Sergio Perez set the quickest time of the three days of testing with a lap of the 15-turn, 5.412km circuit clocking in at 1:30.305s. That's already a quarter of a second faster than 2022's pole time of 1:30.558s set here by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
On average, the teams' fastest times from last year’s pre-season Bahrain test were 1.9s slower than this year, using the 2022-specification C4.
Williams improved the most this week, picking up two and a half seconds, while Alpine was the only team that failed to go faster with this year's car compared to 12 months ago.
"The lap times recorded today are surprising as they are on average around 1.5s quicker compared to the same compounds in 2022," commented Isola.
"That’s even more significant on a circuit like Sakhir, where traction and braking are key and there aren’t many longer corners that work the tyres hard.
"The teams have been able to fine-tune the setup of their cars in preparation for next weekend’s race, while the drivers have had time to find confidence with the new construction in the latest Pirelli range."
Pirelli gave the teams full access to the entire 2023 P Zero range of tyres consisting of six different slick compounds, plus a prototype C3 produced at the back-up F1 factory in Turkey as well as intermediates and wets not needed in Sakhir.
All the teams were allowed to run up to 30 sets of slick tyres and two sets of prototypes per car, with a minimum pressure of 21psi at the front and 18.5psi at the back. Tyre blankets were used at 70C, with a maximum two-hour heating time.
"These three days of testing have been very useful for the teams, the drivers, and also for us," Isola said. "The new C1 - which could be a good option for the race next weekend - was also well-received by all the teams, showing a good level of performance.
"With a wider range of tyres, we now have more flexibility in the nomination [of compounds made available to teams for a race], so we can choose the compounds that are best suited to each circuit."
Pirelli noted that the teams had found the key to managing degradation better, as shown by Saturday's’s long runs compared to those of the previous days. Track temperatures peaked at 44C before settling down to 27C once the sun set.
Pirelli determined that the temperatures remained consistent throughout all three days of testing and did not negatively affect performance, with less wind on the final day compared to Thursday and Friday.
After his first try of the new Pirelli tyres, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc had been unconvinced when asked if they would address the team's problems with tyre management experienced in 2022.
“In terms of degradation, maybe it’s a bit of a stronger front tyre,” he told the media including Motorsport.com. “For us, last year it wasn’t always the same issue when we were speaking about tyre degradation.
"Sometimes it was the front, sometimes it was the rear," he said. “It was more the way we managed those tyres, what we thought the degradation was going to go, and on that we have done a lot of work.
"I think we are better than last year, bBut I don’t think the change of tyres will help us or hurt us in any way," he said.
"I don’t think the change of tyres will help us or hurt us in any way," his team mate Carlos Sainz said. “So, I don’t think it will have a big effect."
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