Teams struggle with reliability: 'Chance for unexpected win in Bahrain'

Now that the test days are over, all attention turns to the first race weekend. The teams are already in Bahrain and can now get ready to hit the track this Friday for the first free practices. A real ranking of the ten F1 teams cannot be made yet, but in the paddock the expectation is that a ranking will not even be important in the first Grand Prix.

According to Auto, Motor und Sport in fact, the reliability of cars will play a more important role than the actual performance. The German medium expects the smallest problem to cause a driver to drop out, and such minor problems can occur quickly with current cars.

Whereas the teams could still bring the car in for repairs in the event of issues during the test week, this is not the case during the Grand Prix. On top of that, there is also the porpoising effect, which gives the teams headaches. The chance that something breaks down because of all the vibrations during a race of 56 laps is high.

In the coming days, the teams will have to decide how much risk they are going to take. Helmut Marko notes that there could be a surprise winner in Bahrain next weekend. "Nobody is going to sacrifice Sunday for Saturday. Everyone will be looking for the best compromise," Marko expects. And if not? "Then we'll get a surprising winner in the first race."