Alex analysis: Bahrain testing

February 26th 2024

Published

26 Feb 2024

Est Reading Time

3 min

The first race weekend of 2024 is now just days away after testing came to a close in Bahrain last Friday. Across the three days we got to see Alex step foot in the FW46 for the first time, completing a total of 161 laps and setting a best lap of 1:30.984 - the eighth quickest of any driver.

Day one saw a bright start with Albono recording 40 laps in the opening session. However, after setting a quickest lap time of 1:34.587, a fuel pump issue meant his running was cut short. Alex concluded the day commenting: “It was an OK first day. It’s hot and windy out there so not always the nicest conditions to drive in, but generally, it was a relatively smooth day. We had a fuel pump issue towards the end of my session which we fixed. We’re trying to understand just how different the car is from last year, however, we know it’s early days to say what the car is like. It has definitely fixed some of our previous issues, however, as a consequence, we’re combating some balance trade-offs. We’ve got three days of testing which never feels like enough time but we’re getting there and making inroads already.”

For day two of testing we got to see Alex in a slightly different role off the track, analysing how the car was performing from the sidelines with teammate Logan Sargeant behind the wheel. Albono tried his hand at some trackside photography with Team Principal, James Vowles, and even stepped into the Sky Sports commentary box to compare the smell of champagne to cleaning wipes, give an insight into F1 opener poses & more. He shared his thoughts on how teams try to develop an understanding of their 2024 cars in such a time-limited test, all whilst giving us a glimpse into a potential career post-F1…

Back on track for the final day of testing, Alex recorded 121 laps of the Sakhir Circuit - the most of any driver that day! A lap time of 1:30:984 meant he was only 0.662 shy of the fastest lap on Friday. As the session concluded, Alex was feeling positive following his second time behind the wheel of the FW46, commenting, “Firstly, we’ve got a decent car to go racing with. I do think we struggled a little bit with the car across day one and two with just how different it is, struggling to rebalance it, but we made some big headway in making the car more drivable. With the changing car characteristics, we shifted some of our historical problems to different areas. Still, we’ve been able to fix some of these, but, unfortunately, in the process, we’ve picked up a few things we didn’t like. Despite this, we did a bit of a radical set-up today and this worked out for the better. Looking at the rest of the grid, the midfield has closed up a lot with everyone making a big jump from last year, so it’s all quite equal throughout the field. This year is going to be all about the fine details and potential tracks that better suit others, so there are going to be lots of interesting battles.” Roll on the first race in Bahrain this weekend!

Bahrain GP

29 Feb - 02 Mar

Event completed

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