It did not take long for the red flags to reappear on the third and final day of Bahrain F1 2024 testing due to further drain cover troubles.
The schedule on Day 2 was altered after Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari SF-24 sucked up a drain cover when he ran wide over the kerbs at Turn 11 during the morning session, which was also then hit by Lewis Hamilton.
With that opening session red-flagged and then declared over more than an hour early to allow for a full-track drain inspection, the afternoon running was extended to five hours to compensate. And with less than half an hour of running on the final day complete, we had fresh drain dramas at play.
As the red flags came out to neutralise the morning running early on, it soon became clear that the Turn 11 drain cover which sparked Thursday’s shenanigans had once more come loose.
This time, it was after Perez had taken his Red Bull RB20 over the kerbs.
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With the session red-flagged and the drivers back in the pit lane, frantic work began to get that misbehaving drain cover back and welded in place.
Leclerc confirmed yesterday that his encounter with the piece of metal had left a hole in the floor, with Ferrari having informed PlanetF1.com that a floor change was required on the SF-24.
“It wasn’t huge. There was a bit of a hole in the floor, which we had to change,” Leclerc told F1TV.
“I had no warning. I saw something, but honestly it was so thin that I thought it was a plastic thing. We see sometimes some of them around the track and we just go on them and nothing is happening, but this time obviously it was metal, so it hurt the car a little bit more.”
More to follow…
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