Cumulative Bahrain test stats breakdown and recap - MotorSportsTalk

There was a bit more to draw from the four-day Bahrain test than the four-day Jerez test earlier this winter. For one, you had all 11 teams in Bahrain, and this test would ideally provide an opportunity for teams to sort out the initial niggles and move onto further race simulations and pit stop practice.

Some teams got there, and others did not. Let’s get to the numbers:

For the week, Mercedes-powered teams racked up nearly double the mileage of their two engine competitors. Combined, 2,322 laps were completed over four days:

Mercedes: 1,147 (238 Wednesday, 306 Thursday, 342 Friday, 261 Saturday)
Renault: 619 (95 Wednesday, 201 Thursday, 209 Friday, 114 Saturday)
Ferrari: 556 (149 Wednesday, 169 Thursday, 144 Friday, 94 Saturday)

However, a further look inside those numbers reveals Ferrari isn’t as behind as you’d think. While Mercedes runners swept the top five in times, Ferrari was best of the rest, and both Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen completed over 100 laps each. They were the only non-Mercedes team to have achieved that mark, as both Mercedes’ and McLaren’s pairs of drivers also hit the mark.

Ferrari’s cumulative numbers were also dragged down by the fact it only has three teams, compared to four for Renault and Mercedes. And one of the three for Ferrari, Marussia, completed only 29 laps in what was a seriously testing week for the Anglo-Russian team.

Here’s the team lap breakdown:

Williams-Mercedes: 323 (Valtteri Bottas 171, Felipe Nasr 87, Felipe Massa 65)
Mercedes: 315 (Nico Rosberg 174, Lewis Hamilton 141)
McLaren-Mercedes: 296 (Jenson Button 169, Kevin Magnussen 127)
Ferrari: 287 (Fernando Alonso 161, Kimi Raikkonen 126)
Caterham-Renault: 253 (Marcus Ericsson 102, Kamui Kobayashi 83, Robin Frijns 68)
Sauber-Ferrari: 240 (Esteban Gutierrez 151, Adrian Sutil 89)
Force India-Mercedes: 213 (Nico Hulkenberg 137, Sergio Perez 76)
Toro Rosso-Renault: 139 (Jean-Eric Vergne 77, Daniil Kvyat 62)
Red Bull-Renault: 116 (Sebastian Vettel 73, Daniel Ricciardo 43)
Lotus-Renault: 111 (Pastor Maldonado 85, Romain Grosjean 26)
Marussia-Ferrari: 29 (Max Chilton 21, Jules Bianchi 8 )

Williams led the overall combined lap chart, although those numbers are a bit skewed with Valtteri Bottas’ 55 laps on Friday counting only as in-and-out laps for pit stops, with no official time registered.

Still, the Finn’s 116 laps on Thursday were the most by any driver on one day over the course of the week, and coupled with third driver Felipe Nasr’s 87 laps Saturday, it turned into quite a successful test for Williams despite the fuel system issue that halted their Wednesday.

At Red Bull, the situation is in fact, bad. Lotus nearly outran the four-time defending champions in terms of total laps, and that’s after missing most of Wednesday and missing the Jerez test entirely. It seems that during this week’s test, more mechanical issues have halted Red Bull’s progress, and they’ll have a major thrash between now and Thursday in Bahrain.

When you shift to lap times, again, they don’t mean too much. But ordinarily you wouldn’t be seeing Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil and Romain Grosjean as low as they are. They were among those with the lowest lap counts for drivers, and additionally ran earlier in the week, when less rubber had been laid down and times were at their slowest.

The combined times breakdown is below:

Combined times, total laps, best session:

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 33.283s, 174 Laps, Session 4
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 34.263s, 141, Session 3
3. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren-Mercedes, 1m 34.910s, 127, Session 2
4. Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes, 1m 34.957s, 169, Session 4
5. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1m 36.455s, 137, Session 2
6. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1m 36.516s, 161, Session 2
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 36.718s, 126, Session 4
8. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1m 37.066s, 65, Session 3
9. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber-Ferrari, 1m 37.180s, 151, Session 3
10. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1m 37.328s, 171, Session 2
11. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1m 37.367s, 76, Session 3
12. Felipe Nasr, Williams-Mercedes, 1m 37.569s, 87, Session 4
13. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Renault, 1m 38.707s, 85, Session 4
14. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso-Renault, 1m 38.974s, 62, Session 3
15. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1m 39.837s, 43, Session 4
16. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham-Renault, 1m 39.855s, 83, Session 2
17. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault, 1m 40.224, 73, Session 1
18. Adrian Sutil, Sauber-Ferrari, 1m 40.443s, 89, Session 1
19. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso-Renault, 1m 40.472s, 77, Session 4
20. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Renault, 1m 41.670s, 26, Session 2
21. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham-Renault, 1m 42.511s, 102, Session 2
22. Max Chilton, Marussia-Ferrari, 1m 42.511s, 21, Session 2
23. Robin Frijns, Caterham-Renault, 1m 42.534s, 68, Session 1
24. Jules Bianchi, Marussia-Ferrari, no time, 8, Session 4

Additionally, here’s a look at how many laps each driver did per day with their best time. All are 1 minute ahead of the number (i.e 1:33.283, 1:36.965, etc.):

TIMES (BY LAPS)
Driver  Saturday        Friday          Thursday        Wednesday       Laps
ROS	33.283	(85)			36.965	(89)			174
BOT			NT (55)	        37.328	(116)			171
BUT	34.957	(66)	34.976	(103)					169
ALO					36.516	(97)	37.879	(64)	161
GUT			37.180	(96)	40.717	(55)			151
HAM			34.263	(67)			37.908	(74)	141
HUL					36.455	(59)	36.880	(78)	137
MAG					34.910	(46)	38.295	(81)	127
RAI	36.718	(82)	37.476	(44)					126
ERI	45.094	(4)	42.130	(98)					102
SUT	NT (7)						40.443	(82)	89
NAS	37.569	(87)							87
MAL	38.707	(59)	39.642	(26)					85
KOB	43.027	(17)			39.855	(66)			83
VER	40.472	(19)			40.609	(58)			77
PER	39.258	(19)	37.367	(57)					76
VET					40.340	(59)	40.224	(14)	73
FRI							42.534	(68)	68
MAS			37.066	(60)			NT (5)		65
KVY			38.974	(57)	44.346	(5)			62
RIC	39.837	(15)	40.781	(43)					43
GRO					41.670 (18)	44.832	(8)	26
CHI			46.672 (4)	42.511	(17)			21
BIA	NT (5)						NT (3)		8

In case you missed anything from the week in Bahrain, here’s a link to all Bahrain test-related posts on MotorSportsTalk:

Day 1: Report, Notes/Quotes, Video Recap
Day 2: Report, Notes/Quotes, Video Recap
Day 3: Report, Notes/Quotes, Video Recap
Day 4: Report, Notes/Quotes

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”