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It was a solid final day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit for the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team, where both drivers got one final session behind the wheel of the AMR22.

Four-Time World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, was behind the wheel for the majority of the day, the German completed a respectable 81 laps on the final day. His best time of the day was a 1:33.821, however times are fairly irrelevant during testing. Across the three days Vettel completed 166 laps, with almost half of those coming on the final day at Bahrain.

Vettel is happy with the progress the team has made across the test, the German also noted at just how different the cars are this year.

“We ran through our programme and completed a lot of laps this afternoon, which capped a positive three days of testing in Bahrain. Lap times are largely irrelevant, so our focus has been on increasing our understanding of the AMR22. I am happy with the progress we have made, and we know it is going to be a long season of constantly trying to find further improvements.

“These cars are very different; you definitely notice the increased weight and it makes the cars a bit ‘lazier’ to drive. Everyone is coming across similar challenges and that’s part of the game. I think reading into lap-times is even more difficult this year but, behind the usual leading teams, it is a tight pack, so I expect fierce competition. Nobody really knows where they stand yet, and this coming week will be important in making sure we hit the ground running in Bahrain.”

Noah Gragson‘s 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season is off to a blazing start. After finishing third in the first race followed by a pair of seconds, he dominated Saturday’s United Rentals 200 at Phoenix Raceway by leading 114 of 200 laps to win his sixth career race.

Gragson qualified second next to Trevor Bayne, who would be his biggest challenge as he dominated the first stage. The lone incident of the segment came on lap 23 when Riley Herbst spun and hit the turn three wall. At stage’s end, Gragson, Brandon Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, Justin Allgaier, Landon Cassill, A.J. Allmendinger, Josh Berry, and Sam Mayer followed Bayne.

“That was probably one of the hardest hits I have taken,” commented Herbst. While certainly a disappointing day for him, the Herbst family saw more luck in nearby Nevada as his uncle Tim finished second overall in the Mint 400. “I thought we had a pretty good Monster Energy Ford Mustang. I went into (turn) three and hit the brake and it hooked a hard right and went to the floor. I don’t know what happened.”

Issues on pit road like a poor stop and speeding penalty dropped Bayne back, and Stage #2 instead saw Gragson battle with Bayne’s Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Jones for the lead. Mayer, a colleague of Gragson at JR Motorsports, and JGR’s Gibbs clashed on lap 56 as Berry made contact with Gibbs and sent him into a spin, though the field avoided his sideways car. It was the lone caution of the day as the final thirty laps in the stage ran green, during which Gragson fought with Jones before clearing him on lap 70 and leading the rest of the way. Allgaier, Jones, Bayne, Mayer, Nemechek, Allmendinger, Daniel Hemric, Cassill, and Mayer rounded out the top ten.

The final stage was completely green. Although Nemechek had the early advantage, Gragson took the lead on lap 113 and never looked back, only surrendering the position during green-flag stops at the 170-lap marker. With fifteen laps to go, Gragson got by Jones and drove away to the win.

The end of the first day of pre-season testing for the FIA World Endurance Chamionship saw LMP2 team Prema ORLEN as the ones to beat, with Hypercar favourites Toyota Gazoo Racing finishing seventh and tenth fastest.

The morning session was disrupted as a storm blew over the Sebring International Raceway, bringing high winds, heavy rain and the threat of lightning. Once the intermitent weather had blown over, however, the teams were left with a cool, dry and sunny track to get testing underway.

Although they were fastest in what was left of the morning session before the grid broke for lunch, Toyota fell down the timing board in the afternoon, leaving the way for LMP2 cars and the other Hypercar entries to set faster lap times.

Robert Kubica was the one to set the benchmark for the day, circulating the American track with a 1:49.084. If there was ever a sign of competition ahead of this season, the fact that the top 11 cars on the timing board were covered by a second should be proof enough that not one team, especially in the LMP2 class, has emerged as a clear favourite for this year’s title.

Teams to watch include last year’s winners Team WRT, who on day one also showed a strong performance on track, fighting with Toyota for the fastest lap of the morning. The Alpine Elf Matmut LMP1 car also still looks like a strong contender, finishing the day second fastest and only one tenth off the pace of Kubica. Whether they can take the fight to Toyota this year remains to be seen, but it was a good opening day for the French outfit.

Oracle Red Bull Racing ended their 2022 pre-season on top at the Bahrain International Circuit, thanks to a 1:31.720 by World Champion Max Verstappen.

Verstappen completed 57 laps during the afternoon of the final day of pre-season, whilst team-mate Sergio Pérez completed 43 laps during the final morning. Red Bull spent their final day going through a variety of tyre compounds and set-ups, in preparation for the season opener in Bahrain next weekend.

Head of Race Engineering, Guillaume Rocquelin, isn’t paying attention to Verstappen finishing the day top, with times being somewhat irrelevant at testing. Rocquelin does think though that the team have established a good foundation for the season ahead.

“The lap times are irrelevant. Today was more about putting together the lessons we have learned over the past few days. It was about going through the process of running different compounds, so that the drivers are happy and that we have a platform to work from for next week. There were some slight differences in the tyre allocation between Max and Checo, but generally the idea was the same, to establish a good baseline with which we can start the race weekend and I think we achieved that.”

Fernando Alonso ran for the entire final day of testing with BWT Alpine F1 Team, completing 122 laps and finishing the day with a best time of 1:32.69, set on the C4 compound, placing him third position overall. 

Alonso had a smooth day of testing and was able to test several tyre compounds and set-ups. The Spaniard focused his energy on preparing for the first Grand Prix next week, as the position of competing teams remains largely uncertain.

“It was a good day of testing for us building on Esteban’s strong work yesterday. We’ve learnt a lot with the car and completed many laps, so I’m pretty happy. We are all still learning about the new cars and set-ups. We’ve tried several things with some clear results, and that’s what you want from testing. It was very productive.

“We don’t know what the others are doing, what programme they are following and how much fuel they have, and we need to wait until next Saturday to know. We’ll focus on ourselves and our plan is to arrive into next week with 100% effort.”

Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was pleased to have made up for lost running time in Barcelona, with both Alonso and Esteban Ocon completing a large number of laps for the team in Bahrain. As a result, the team have been able to make considerable progress. 

Max Verstappen ended Pre-Season as fastest, after bringing the final day at the Bahrain International Circuit to a close. Verstappen ran in the afternoon for Oracle Red Bull Racing, with team-mate Sergio Pérez running in the morning.

Verstappen focused on the tyres he will use next week at the season opener during his final pre-season session in the car, the Dutchman still managed to end the day fastest though with a 1:31.720. The World Champion will begin his defence of his title at Bahrain next weekend, where he will be hoping to start the year on the top step.

Verstappen is happy with how the car felt, despite ending the day on top though he doesn’t think too much should be read into the timing sceen.

“The main focus today was testing the tyres we are going to use next week. The car felt alright and we completed the programme we set out to do, so that’s always positive. No one gives full beans or goes to qualifying spec at testing, so we can’t read too much into the timing screens. The new parts we tested today worked well which is what we always hope for.”

“We have definitely learnt a lot” – Sergio Pérez

Sergio Pérez got his final pre-season run during the morning of the final day, the Mexican completed 43 laps, the best of those was a 1:33.105. Pérez believes he has learnt a lot during pre-season but is also aware that there is still so much to learn about the new cars.

Scuderia AlphaTauri are feeling fairly optimistic with the performance of their AT03, after their Pre-Season was brought to a productive close. Both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda drove for the team on the final day.

The team across the three days completed all their programmes, as well as lapping the Bahrain International Circuit 371 times across the test. Throughout the few days AlphaTauri have gathered vital data and information, which the team will analyse in depth with the first Grand Prix just a week away.

Jody Egginton, AlphaTauri Technical Director, is pleased with the team’s performance across the test, one where the team have found a good understanding of the AT03.

“It’s been a very productive final day of testing, which has allowed a good number of test items to be covered and our understanding of the AT03 has moved a big step forward, with some interesting set up directions being identified. Pierre completed a program of long runs in the morning, where we gathered some important tyre data, and allowed the engineers to get a good read of the compounds.

“Yuki then took over for the afternoon and focussed on a range of mechanical and tyre related set-up items, which again yielded some useful data. Overall, we are satisfied with our testing here in Bahrain.  We now have to process and analyse the huge amount of data we have collected to be as prepared as possible for the first race of the season.”
 
Franz Tost, Scuderia AlphaTauri Team Principal, is equally happy with how not only the test in Bahrain but also how the test in Spain went, he does believe though that some work is still needed to be done.

Scuderia AlphaTauri enjoyed a strong final day of the Official Pre-Season Test at the Bahrain International Circuit, where both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda got behind the wheel of the AT03.

Gasly was in the car first on the final day of pre-season, before the season kicks off back at Bahrain next weekend. The Frenchman completed a strong 91 laps with the best of those being a 1:34.865, enough for twelfth fastest by the close of the day. The highlight of Gasly’s day came in a mini-battle with Lewis Hamilton, the pair overtook each other multiple times in quick succession.

Gasly enjoyed the fight with Hamilton and believes following another car is much easier this year, he does believe though that the team still have plenty to work on.

“It’s good to be back to the nice weather here in Bahrain. We’ve had a pretty smooth test from our side, we completed all the program that we had planned for the three days here. We had a lot of question marks coming here and we’ve already managed to get some answers to these. I think we still need to sit down for a few days and review all the data we’ve collected, to try and put the puzzle together, so we can get the best possible car for next weekend.

“Obviously, it’s a new car so there are lots of things to learn, I would say there are still areas that we need to improve for the season but that’s part of the game when you have such a big change in F1. We have a rough idea of where we might be in the midfield, but we still don’t know where we’ll be until next week. It was great having the battle out there with Lewis today, we overtook each other a few times. Following definitely felt like an improvement to the previous car so that’s a big positive for the upcoming season, racing should be quite fun this year.”

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN brought their pre-season to an end at the Bahrain International Circuit, after completing 150 laps on the final day. This total was the most the team managed to complete across any single day, they did face late issues though.

The team missed the final forty minutes of running at Bahrain, after a late technical issue during Valtteri Bottas’ running. Rookie Guanyu Zhou was at the wheel of the C42 in the morning session, the Chinese driver racked up 82 laps with the best of those being a 1:33.959.

Zhou was pleased to end his first ever Formula 1 pre-season with a strong day, he feels more than ready now for the season to commence.

“It feels good to finish pre-season testing with a strong day: I feel we made another step forward. It’s nice to see constant progress from the team every day and to be able to get some proper short and long runs on a day when it all came together.

“I had my busiest day in the car and I was also able to go through the procedures that we’ll use during next week’s race weekend: there’s a lot for me to take in tonight but I can be satisfied with the work we have done in pre-season. The team did a great job making me feel at ease and giving me the tools to prepare properly. I feel I am fully ready for the start of the season.”

During the final day of Pre-Season Testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, McLaren Racing made the exciting announcement that current IndyCar driver Colton Herta, will be a member of the 2021 MCL35M car testing programme in 2022.

The American driver became the youngest-ever winner in IndyCar history in 2019 when he took victory at the Circuit of the Americas. Since then, the 21-year-old has won six times and claimed seven pole positions.

The opportunity for Herta has arisen due to the new Formula 1 sporting regulations, which enable teams to test one-year-old cars, under the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) provision. McLaren will announce further details regarding their TPC in due course. The McLaren F1 TPC programme provides an opportunity for the team to test potential drivers and evaluate young talent for the future, with Herta certainly being one of them.

Andreas Seidl, Team Principal, McLaren F1 is glad to have Herta onboard and is interested to see how he gets on behind the wheel of an F1 car.

“Colton is a proven talent in IndyCar and we will be interested to see how he adapts to a Formula 1 car. We believe this testing programme will provide him with valuable experience while demonstrating the benefit of expanding previous car testing to showcase promising drivers for the future.”

Max Verstappen topped the third and final day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit at Sakhir in Bahrain. Verstappen headed Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso as pre-season testing came to a close.

Verstappen set the fastest lap of time of 1m31.720s on the softest compound of Pirelli tyres (C5). The Dutchman was the only driver to dip below the 1m32s mark and was 0.695 seconds faster than Leclerc.

Leclerc was in first position for most of the afternoon session with a lap time of 1m32.415s set on the C4 compound tyres. Carlos Sainz who drove in the morning session finished in thirteenth position as the two Scuderia Ferrari drivers combined to record 119 laps.

In the morning session, Sergio Pérez was on top of the time charts for the Oracle Red Bull Racing team. The Mexican set the fastest lap time of 1m33.105s on the C4 tyres and finished in seventh position overall at the end of the day.

Alonso moved into third position at the end of the session on the C4 compound tyres as he recorded 122 laps on a good day of testing for the BWT Alpine F1 team.

Italian racer Pietro Delli Guanti will remain in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine and will race for the new Race Performance Motorsport team.

Delli Guanti raced for Monolite Racing last year and scored points on three occasions, his best finish coming in race two at the Red Bull Ring when he finished an excellent fifth.  He ended eighteenth in the final standings but now moves to the team that has taken over the entry from DR Formula in 2022.

The eighteen-year-old is eager to get going with his new team and build on his performances from last year, with regular points finishes the primary aim for Delli Guanti.

“I’m so much enthusiast to start this new challenge with RPM, I would like to thanks all the team and Keith Donegan for this opportunity, I truly believe that the team has a great potential and I would be able to use it on the best possible way,” said Delli Guanti.

“We never tested together during the winter tests but I’m very confident about the team’s organisation. In the upcoming season I will try to improve the results I gained in the 2021.

The BWT Alpine F1 Team would allow the McLaren F1 Team use Oscar Piastri should Daniel Ricciardo remain unavailable for next weekend’s season opener in Bahrain.

Ricciardo has been unable to run in this week’s test at the Bahrain International Circuit after testing positive for COVID-19, and although his isolation is set to end before the race weekend begins, his position on the grid remains uncertain until he tests negative and has zero symptoms.

McLaren do not have its own nominated reserve driver and have been informed in the past that Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team test drivers Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries can compete should a race driver become unavailable.

But Alpine have now reached an agreement with their rivals to allow their reserve driver, 2021 FIA Formula 2 champion Piastri, to race for them should he be needed, although he will remain fully contracted to the Enstone team.

“In the spirit of offering maximum racing opportunities to our stable of young talent, we have agreed that McLaren may call upon BWT Alpine F1 Team reserve driver Oscar Piastri in the event one of their drivers is unable to race,” read a statement from Alpine on Saturday.

Otmar Szafnauer has revealed that it was time to move on from his role as Team Principal as things were changing within the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team.

Rumours were rife around the end of the 2021 season that the American was on the verge of leaving Aston Martin to join the Alpine F1 Team, but these rumours were denied at the time.

Szafnauer ultimately left after the end of the season, and he later joined Alpine, as well as BWT, a long-time sponsor of the team throughout their time as the Racing Point Formula 1 Team through to when they became Aston Martin ahead of the 2021 season.

And the American says it was good for all parties that he left Aston Martin, with things changing behind the scenes, such as the appointment of Martin Whitmarsh as the new group CEO.

“At that point, there was no intention of leaving,” Szafnauer is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com when asked about the rumours at the end of 2021.

Pietro Fittipaldi admits missing out on the drive with the Haas F1 Team ‘hurts’ but ultimately, he understands why Kevin Magnussen was chosen over him.

The Brazilian was tipped to replace the ousted Nikita Mazepin at the team in 2022, but Team Principal Guenther Steiner revealed to him that they were after someone with experience, and his two races with the team at the end of 2020 while replacing the injured Romain Grosjean were not enough.

Ultimately, the decision was made to rehire Magnussen, who had previously raced for Haas between 2017 and 2020, but rather than be deflated with the decision, Fittipaldi has said he will continue to work hard for the team and prove his worth to them, and he has not given up on his dream of racing full-time in Formula 1 in the future.

“[Steiner] told me it was really only two candidates under consideration, and it was me and I didn’t know who the other driver was,” Fittipaldi is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.

“It was Kevin, and it went his way. And I respect the team’s decision. Obviously, as a racer at heart, it’s disappointing, it hurts, because I know the potential we have, and the potential I know I can deliver.