Driver Charles Leclerc of Ferrari has cautioned that if Formula 1 doesn’t address the drain cover problems that plagued two of the three days of official pre-season testing in Bahrain, there may be serious repercussions.
Thursday morning’s morning session was cancelled as track repairs were being done after a cover broke off at turn 11 of the circuit, damaging Leclerc’s car’s floor.
The issue resurfaced on Friday morning, with Sergio Perez of Red Bull sustaining minor damage to the RB20 as it came into touch with the debris.
It was all very similar to the disastrous beginning of the first Las Vegas GP weekend last year, when Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz’s car suffered severe damage in FP1 and caused major disruptions to the schedule.
Following the tests, Leclerc warned that there would be serious repercussions if local organisers in the sport didn’t stay on top of these issues in the future.
Leclerc told the journalists, “It’s a serious issue because it can have big consequences.” In order to prevent it from happening in the future, we must investigate.
“We were quite lucky that it didn’t happen in a place and in a situation similar to Vegas, but in Vegas it was quite serious for Carlos,” he stated. “However, I’m sure everyone is aware of it and trying to figure out the best way to handle that.”
At the several formal FIA press conferences held during the week, the subject was a hot topic of discussion for all of the drivers.
Lewis Hamilton commented, “Hopefully the FIA are on top of it, welding these things well in advance before us getting there.” “Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as the one Carlos hit [in Vegas], but we still need to stay vigilant.”
The return of ground effect aerodynamics to the sport at the beginning of 2022 may be the root of the current wave of these issues.
Teams can use this to create vehicles that can “suck” themselves to the ground in order to increase handling and downforce. However, the vacuum that forms beneath the vehicle also indicates that the track beneath it is being forced upward more forcefully.
Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull team is among the best at utilising ground effect in car design, stated, “For sure, with the ground effect cars, probably it’s a little bit worse.”
We are aware that there may be an issue with these vehicles,” he said. So, before you start driving on the weekend, make sure everything is in working order for the approaching circuits.
In terms of opening up bends and other things, it also appears that we are travelling in areas where few other automobiles are,” he said.
“When you go to certain tracks, you know where the drain covers are,” he stated. “Perhaps these kinds of phenomena could be investigated further.
Aware of the financial and safety ramifications, he continued, “We don’t want another scenario where automobiles get wrecked. “These things don’t happen nice, especially now that there is a budget cap in place.”