Carlos Sainz and Ferrari top day 2 in Bahrain, Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo

Many expected Red Bull Racing to set the time sheets alight on the second day of testing. Instead the fire it set was internal.

Sergio Pérez’s day had barely got going before a front-right brake fire locked him into his garage.

It was ultimately only a minor delay. His mechanics had the corner changed rapidly, costing him only around half an hour of running. It’s exactly the sort of thing testing is designed to weed out.

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The morning session had only just got going into a rhythm — the cars this year have been metronomically reliable almost without exception — when it was called off with a bang by Formula 1’s old nemesis: a loose drain cover.

A grate had been sucked out of some kerbs in the opening hours of the test and finally freed itself with a little help from Charles Leclerc. Ferrari’s mechanics must’ve had flashbacks to Las Vegas, where a similar accident obliterated Carlos Sainz’s car.

The damage was relatively minor this time, and only a new floor was required — thankfully for both Ferrari and F1 fans, because what we got after the break was certainly interesting.

The repairs SF-24 was quickest by the end of the evening — and it gave us a little hint that maybe it’s packing a bit more of a punch than expected.

FERRARI RISES?

Ferrari has felt like it’s within only a few steps of challenging Red Bull Racing ever since it held the lead in both championships early in 2022.

Even last year, as the team slumped down the title order, principal Frédéric Vasseur insisted the car had inherent speed based on its pole-challenging single-lap pace. It was just a matter of taming the nervy car to behave over a race distance.

Day 2 of pre-season testing is a glimmer of hope that the Italian team is on the right course.

Carlos Sainz topped the time sheet after a flurry of low-fuel laps. His 0.7-second advantage — over Sergio Pérez, no less — suggested the SF-24 has lost none of its predecessor’s one-lap performance.

There’s a caveat on Sainz’s time, however. The Spaniard used a softer tyre in the faster evening session to move to the top of the order. The C4 compound — which is too soft to be used at next weekend’s grand prix at this track — is figured to be worth more than half a second.

All other teams bar RB (Daniel Ricciardo) and Williams (Logan Sargeant) used the slower C3 tyre.

Still, the tyre difference probably only brings Sainz to roughly on par with Pérez’s RB20. F1 fans would take that after the concern of day 1.

There’s one other reason to be hopeful about Ferrari.

With basic checks complete from the day before, teams were able to focus more on long-run performance.

A weakness of Ferrari for much of last year, Sainz appeared to put in a very impressive race simulation in the afternoon.

Pérez, conveniently, ran a very similar simulation with the same series of tyre compounds.

Discounting slow laps and pit stops, both drivers completed 52 laps in three stints on the C3, C2 and C1 tyres, the same ones set to be used next weekend.

The comparison had the Ferrari comfortably ahead.

On average the Sainz was 0.9 seconds a lap faster. He completed the 52 laps almost 47 seconds faster than Pérez.

Simulation breakdown

C3 tyre (soft): Sainz 0.450 seconds faster per lap.

C2 tyre (medium): Sainz 0.596 seconds faster per lap.

C1 tyre (hard): 1.714 seconds faster per lap.

Race simulations don’t eliminate every testing variable, but fuel, engine modes and obviously tyre stints are brought at least closer into line.

Sainz’s advantage is too large to really make sense. It’s wildly improbable that the Ferrari could be that much quicker than the Red Bull Racing car, especially considering the year-on-year swing that would be required.

You might also want to be a little cynical and say that Verstappen could have made the difference based on the big gap between him and Pérez last season.

“The first two days went well,” Leclerc said. “However, let’s be careful, because saying that the first two days went well doesn’t mean anything in terms of competitiveness.

“We need to wait and see for that. My initial feeling is Red Bull remains the reference and ahead for now.”

But it’s still a little glimmer of hope that Ferrari could be close enough to make the season more interesting that we were fearing yesterday.

TESTING DAY 2 — TEAMS BY TIME

1. Ferrari (Carlos Sainz): 1m 29.921s (C4 tyre)

2. Red Bull Racing (Sergio Pérez): +0.758s (C3)

3. Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton): +1.145s (C3)

4. McLaren (Lando Norris): +1.335s (C3)

5. RB (Daniel Ricciardo): +1.440s (C4)

6. Aston Martin (Lance Stroll): +2.108s (C3)

7. Alpine (Esteban Ocon): +2.140s (C3)

8. Sauber (Valtteri Bottas): +2.306s (C3)

9. Williams (Logan Sargeant): +2.657s (C4)

10. Haas (Kevin Magnussen): +6.690s (C3)

*Pirelli’s tyre range spans from C1 (hardest, slowest) to C5 (softest, fastest)

BUT NO CONCERNS AT RED BULL RACING

But we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. Red Bull Racing is still the team to beat, not least based on consensus from the other frontrunning teams.

There are several reasons to think the RB20 is still the quickest car.

First, RBR has a history of not showing its hand in testing until the end of the final day. Call it confidence or call it tactics, it only ever hints at its speed, and often you have to piece together clues based on short runs on the last evening to understand where the car really sits.

Read in conjunction with its advantage at the end of the first day and it’s hard to believe the team would have fallen behind.

Second, while its 2024 car is a major revision on what it’s run for the last two years, it had virtually all last season to perfect it. There are of course no guarantees that successful wind tunnel models translate into the real world, but the risk in making a big change is markedly reduced in this case.

Finally, the team is clearly confident. It completed its full run plan on the first day, and even that brake fire early yesterday couldn’t prevent it from completing another two full grand prix distances.

“I think it is definitely a step forward in the right direction with the car,” Sergio Pérez said after a full day in the RB20.

“We will find out next Sunday,” he added with a smile.

Perhaps the team doesn’t have a massive advantage over the field. but it’s clear we should still expect the RB20 to be the bar, even if we’re tempted to believe it will be only marginal.

McLAREN EARLY DATA SAYS FIELD IS CLOSER

McLaren had a somewhat troubled day on Thursday, with a fuel system issue limiting running in the evening session. Combined with the loss of time in the morning to a red flag for drain repairs, Woking ended up with just 87 laps.

But what we did see from the car was again competitive, with Lando Norris putting the MCL38 in what appears to be the frontrunning pack.

The day was otherwise spent gathering aerodynamic data about the upgraded car, which team boss Andrea Stella said was performing “in line with expectations”.

Teams are constantly monitoring the performance of rival cars. While they can’t know all the variables, the available telemetry information combined with some internal assumptions and what they know about their own cars give them a clearer picture of the shape of the field.

Stella also passed judgement on the frontrunning pack at the end of the second day, and it was both heartening and potentially disappointing.

“Overall I can see that many cars have made a step forward, which is normal,” he said, per Racer.

“I would say the [frontrunning] group was already quite compact last year, and to me it looks even more compact this year. That’s what we have learned from a competitiveness point of view.

“There’s one car that seems to have found a big step. Unfortunately the car that was already the quickest last year.”

You don’t need any guesses to know which team he’s talking about.

In that general leading pack, RB again looked good, although Daniel Ricciardo used that softer C4 tyre to put the car fifth. Correcting for the compound and combined with the first day’s results, that might perhaps put Faenza in the leading midfield group behind the frontrunning teams with Alpine and maybe Aston Martin — though Aston Martin still seems confident of returning to the leading group.

The summary of those assumptions is that — as usual — it’s still to early to be definitive about an order.

TESTING DAY 2 — TEAMS BY DISTANCE

1. Ferrari: 138 laps (747 kilometres)

2. Sauber: 135 laps (731 kilometres)

3. Red Bull Racing: 129 laps (698 kilometres)

4. RB: 128 laps (693 kilometres)

5. Aston Martin: 127 laps (687 kilometres)

6. Haas: 124 laps (671 kilometres)

7. Mercedes: 123 laps (666 kilometres)

8. Williams: 117 laps (633 kilometres)

9. Alpine: 111 laps (601 kilometres)

10. McLaren: 87 laps (471 kilometres)

*One lap of Bahrain is 5.412 kilometres. The Bahrain Grand Prix is 57 laps.