28/02/2020
NEWS STORY
The teams reflect as the sixth and final day of pre-season testing comes to an end.
Mercedes
Lewis was behind the wheel of the W11 in the morning session, continuing his long-run work from the previous day and collecting additional aero data. Valtteri drove the new car in the final session of the 2020 pre-season test, working on single lap tyre preparation.
Lewis Hamilton: We made it through testing! It's crazy how quickly these past two weeks have gone. It's been intense, with a huge amount of work from everybody at the track and back home at the factories. The car's feeling like a step forward from last year, but it's clear we've still got a few issues we need to iron out ahead of Melbourne. I've got total confidence in the team and know they'll be doing everything they can to make sure we arrive in Australia in a good place. The start of the new season comes around so quickly and now we go racing in just two weeks' time. I can't wait.
Valtteri Bottas: That's it for pre-season testing for another year. I think we can be happy that we've made the most of it, only missing out on a few miles to some small issues. I've already got a nice feeling with the car and it's been good to get the chance to get comfortable with the long and short runs, and practice some starts too. I feel like we've made a step forward in most areas and it's been a successful test. As always we'll be focusing on our own performance and we've got two important weeks coming up now ahead of the first race to put what we've learnt from the test into action.
James Allison: It feels good to wrap up testing at the top of the leaderboard and end two intense weeks for the team with a decent final day on track. We worked through our programme without any hitches today, and spent some time figuring out how best to prepare the tyres for single lap runs. The car's been pretty strong throughout the whole of winter testing and it's been an exciting period for us exploring its potential. We clearly still have some more work to do on the reliability to get us up to the standard that we expect by the start of the season. But if we can do that then I think we've got a decent chance of a good showing in Melbourne.
Ferrari
Ferrari has today finished off its six days of pre-season testing with the SF1000 at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya. Charles Leclerc was at the wheel of the car that will compete in the new Formula 1 season that gets under way on March 15 in Australia. On the final day of testing he rounded off the programme with a simulation of a race weekend, just like Sebastian Vettel had done yesterday. Over the course of this second set of three days of testing the car has completed a total of 490 laps (2,281 kilometres). That means the SF1000 will arrive to the season-opener with a total of 844 laps (3,929 kilometres; 13 GP) under its belt.
The Monegasque driver made his way into the cockpit this morning at 9am on the dot, before leaving the garage a couple of minutes later for an installation lap on the C2 tyres. Having come back into the pits, the mechanics carried out their usual checks before starting off the race weekend simulation - going out on C3, C4 and C5 tyres. Shortly before the lunch break, Leclerc carried out a simulation of the three sessions of qualifying, setting his own best time of the day with a lap of 1'16"360. He finished the morning with a total of 76 laps.
Over the course of the afternoon session the team continued with its race simulation. Charles used only C2 tyres, covering the race distance of 66 laps without any issues. Then, to get the most out of the time available, Charles returned to the track - after the car was checked and freshened up - for another series of runs aimed at collecting data to analyse certain components of the car. Overall, in the course of this second session of tests, Leclerc has completed a total of 181 laps, equal to 843 kilometres. The Monegasque driver will therefore arrive at the first race of the 2020 season having already driven a total of 261 laps (2,058 kilometres), the equivalent of the race distance of seven Grands Prix.
Mattia Binotto Team Principal: "I am satisfied with how these winter tests have gone, from the completed programme to the way the team has worked. We approached these two test sessions in a very different way from last year, using the first three days to get to know our car in all the possible configurations.
"Over the last two days, we have carried out race weekend simulations with Sebastian and Charles. I believe the performance over a dry lap isn't yet where we want it to be - while the indications are relatively better when it comes to reliability and long runs too, albeit not yet positive enough.
"We will head back to Maranello with a huge amount of data to analyse in the knowledge that we have a range of work to do. But as a team we feel ready for the Australian Grand Prix, which will give us a clearer idea of where we stand."
Red Bull
The second and final test of F1's pre-season programme concluded today at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona. Alex took charge of the RB16 in the morning with Max taking over after lunch. Concentrating on set-up work, Alex worked on the harder tyre, completing 59 laps before, a little after mid-day, a wind-assisted trip through the gravel cut short his final stint. Alex kept the car going and brought it back to the garage, ready for Max to take over after the break. Max added 45 laps, running through the three compounds from the middle of Pirelli's range and concluding our winter testing a few minutes before the chequered flag.
Alex Albon: "It's been a really solid and smooth six days of testing. We've pushed the mileage and completed a lot of laps, testing and experimenting with a lot of development parts and everything is looking good. We have a lot of data to look through but we now have more of an understanding of the car and we've definitely found some good things, so it's been a positive test. Mercedes are clearly very quick and there's more to see from Ferrari, so it's hard to know for sure where everyone stands at this point. We've been happy with the car since day one and it felt strong from the first lap, but we won't know where we are until we get to Melbourne. I can't believe it's already time to go racing, I'm excited and now I can't wait to get out there."
Max Verstappen: "I definitely feel ready for Melbourne and the last two weeks have been a good preparation. We tried everything we wanted to over the six days which is very important from our side, so I'm happy with that. Overall, I can't complain but that doesn't mean we should stop the hard work and there are always things to improve. No car is ever perfect, especially at this stage in the season, so we will keep pushing to make improvements. Me and Alex had a few moments but I'm not worried and I want to find the limit of the car in testing instead of at the first race. It's better this way rather than being caught out and realising there is more pace in the car in Melbourne. Mercedes also look very fast as expected but I don't really look too much at them as nobody knows exactly what they are doing, so it's better to focus on ourselves. Overall I think the pace looks pretty good, it's been a positive start and I hope it's enough to be competitive in Melbourne."
Guillaume Rocquelin, Head of Race Engineering: "Generally the plan for today was to give the drivers some practice time in the car ahead of Melbourne and that went well. We experimented with a set-up option overnight which didn't quite work out as we had planned but that proved no issue as that's what testing is for. We're quite happy with the balance and performance, particularly when we reverted back to a decent baseline in the afternoon which Max was pleased with. We feel between the reliability and long runs we completed in the first week, and the performance tests in the second, we're quite well prepared for the first race of the season in Australia. Obviously, this year we had six days of testing instead of eight to tick off all the jobs on our list and I think we approached this with a good structure and discipline which meant we were able to make the most of the time given to us."
McLaren
Carlos Sainz: "We've ended testing with a good day. In the morning we managed to tick off some test items I still had left to do, and we managed to make some conclusions and get a clear read of the car. The afternoon was more about long runs and race simulations, testing the car in different conditions, and again this felt like a decent run. Thanks to the whole team for their hard work over the pre-season.
"I think we can say we are now ready for Australia and I can't wait to get there."
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "Pre-season testing 2020 completed. It's been a good and productive second test week for us, with plenty of laps covered. We've introduced a number of new updates to the car throughout the week which have worked as expected. The conditions have been varied across the few days, particularly in terms of wind, but this has given us good variations in data.
"This test has been the best for McLaren for some time, with strong reliability enabling us to complete our programme as planned and collect valuable information for analysis. We head to Melbourne feeling prepared for the start of the season, with good information on areas we need to develop and a good understanding of the work to be done.
"We knew coming here that 2020 was shaping up to be a competitive season. This test has only reinforced that. The competition is so close and the fans can expect a tight and exciting battle - it will be a great season to watch.
"Thanks to the entire team, both here in Barcelona and back at the factory. Their hard work over the winter has enabled us to complete these strong pre-season tests. Thanks also go to Renault for their efforts and continued support. Finally, thanks to Carlos and Lando for their commitment throughout the winter and pre-season."
Check out our Friday gallery from Barcelona, here.
Renault F1 Team brought to a close six days of pre-season testing with Daniel Ricciardo third on the timesheets and Esteban Ocon sixth on the final day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Daniel drove the Renault R.S.20 in the morning session for the final time before the 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season begins in Melbourne, Australia on 15 March.
The Australian recorded his fastest time of pre-season testing with a 1min 16.276secs around the 4.655km course, which proved third-fastest of anybody on the last day in Barcelona.
Esteban concluded testing for the team after taking over driving in the afternoon. Conditions became overcast and cool after lunch as the Frenchman worked through his programme assessing different set-ups on the car. His best time was 0.157secs adrift of Daniel.
Over the six days, the team posted 743 laps - Daniel with 367, Esteban 376 - equivalent to 3,458km or 11 Australian Grands Prix. Renault engines covered an impressive 7,191km across the two tests underlining a good step in power unit reliability ahead of the year.
Daniel Ricciardo: "I'm pretty happy with my running today and finishing top of the timesheets in the morning session was a bonus, so it's a nice way to round-off pre-season testing. But it is testing, so I'm not getting overly excited about it. In the morning we resolved a few issues from yesterday, and looking back at the week as a whole, it has been positive for us. We've improved the overall balance of the car, worked through some set-up changes and our reliability has been strong. I believe we've cranked up more kilometres on the engine tests back at Viry than we've ever had before, so this combined with our results over the two tests are ultimately encouraging signs ahead of the start of the season in Australia."
Esteban Ocon: "It was a very decent day and the car felt very strong. We continued on from yesterday in a good direction and the car today felt the best it has over these two weeks, so I'm pretty pleased with that. We did some pit-stop practice towards the end of our running and it was nice to get back into doing that again with the guys performing very consistently. Overall, it was a very positive day and I'm happy with how everything went. It feels good to finish the test with a day like that with lots of laps on the board. There are some areas we need to work on, but I feel ready to go into Melbourne for the first race."
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal, Renault F1 Team: "Today was the culmination of a smooth and productive pre-season test fortnight, which we leave feeling content with our work. The R.S.20 ran well and pretty much as we expected, courtesy of the progress made by Enstone and Viry over the winter to ensure all parts were delivered to the track to a high standard and in good time. This preparation meant we were well placed to complete all major test items with little fault over the two weeks. We initially concentrated on assessing the main characteristics of our package and determining reliability levels across chassis and engine, before working through different set-up options with some ideas proving interesting and others not.
"We can be very pleased with the reliability of the engine with one power unit being used for each us and our customer, McLaren, throughout the six days. Our absolute performance level is in line with our expectations from the winter gains, a positive sign of the correlation level between our development facilities and the track, something that will be crucial for the very aggressive development plan we have in place. As for our competitiveness level relative to a very competitive midfield, it is right now very difficult to assess, but we look forward to racing again."
AlphaTauri
Daniil Kvyat: "It was a very productive day, we completed many laps and we can be happy with the work that we've done. We're still understanding and learning a lot about the car each time we are on track, so we will analyse all of the data from today, put it all together and come up with the best package for the first race in Australia. The issue we had earlier in the day on my fastest lap cost me a couple of tenths of a second, but we managed to fix that quickly between the sessions which meant the afternoon ran to plan."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "The track conditions overall improved this morning compared to yesterday, which in itself provided some useful data. The morning programme was executed as planned, however, the final runs in the session were slightly compromised as we were managing a small issue which we easily resolved over the lunch break.
"In the afternoon session, we continued to gather a lot of useful data which will feed into the development and correlation process. We learned more about how the car and tyres behave during longer runs and we completed this part of the programme using a couple of the available compounds. We also managed to finish some of the outstanding test items on the final runs of the day which was useful. Overall, today's running has been productive along with the entire winter test, and with the amount of mileage covered and all the data collected, we can now be fully focused on the coming season."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "For Scuderia AlphaTauri, pre-season testing was a success as the car shows good performance and is reliable. We were also very lucky with the weather because most of the days we had quite high temperatures for this part of the year. It was only in the second week, especially on Thursday afternoon, that the wind has made running a bit trickier, but this gave us the possibility to test our new AT01 in different conditions.
"We've had two fewer days of testing this year, but I think we made the most out of it and learned a lot during these six days about the car, covering a total of 3580 km without any major problems. We experienced a few little issues which is normal at this stage, but we are generally satisfied with how everything went.
"The whole team did a fantastic job to get the car ready in time and performed well during the condensed schedule at the track. Honda made another step forward with the PU, improving both performance and reliability, which made our running smooth. I believe we had a strong pre-season thanks to the efforts from everyone in Bicester, Faenza, and Sakura, which resulted in an almost seamless test.
"Both Pierre and Daniil have performed extremely well, providing valuable feedback for the engineers to help develop the AT01. They worked professionally which made analysing all the data easy and efficient. I'm confident we are well prepared for the upcoming F1 season and I am looking forward to the first race in Australia."
Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director): "6 days of winter testing have now ended, and we were able to get through it without any major issues, completing a good number of laps with both teams. Overall it was a very positive session, going through many different tests on the PU and gathering lots of data.
"769 laps with Scuderia AlphaTauri and 780 laps with Aston Martin Red Bull Racing means 1,549 laps and 7,211km in total for Honda and this is quite a respectable mileage. It is too early to talk about the competitiveness of both teams as everyone ran different programmes in varied conditions, such as track temperature, wind, humidity, which all have a significant impact on the modern F1 car. But we can say it was a good preparation for the start of the season. Now, we will go through the analysis of data and the PUs themselves that we ran over these 6 days and that work will continue right up to the very last minute before the opening race. There are only 16 days to go before we race in Melbourne. We'll be aiming to start the season in good form."
Check out our Friday gallery from Barcelona, here.
Sergio Perez: "We've got plenty of useful data from these six days and I think we are now well-prepared to start the season. I'm looking forward to it and hoping we can be competitive from the first race - but of course, it's going to be a long season. It doesn't matter where you start in Melbourne, it matters where you finish in Abu Dhabi. A big thank you to everyone here at the track and back at the factory - everybody has done a huge amount of work over the winter. For me, the plan now is to do some more physical preparation, with a bit of down time to relax as well before the travelling begins. It's a long way to Australia, but I can't wait to get out there and go racing."
Tom McCullough, Performance Engineering Director: "Overall, it's been a positive winter for us. As with Lance yesterday, Sergio didn't put a foot wrong today. Between them they've helped us get through a very busy test programme across the six days - which hasn't always been easy with the weather. We spent the morning finishing off our optimisation work based on the knowledge we've gathered of the car thus far. The lower winds certainly made it easier to understand what we were looking at relative to the tricky conditions of yesterday.
"We had a small technical issue at the end of the morning session, which was traced to an electrical fault. While not a significant concern, we elected to carry out some precautionary checks - as it's important to understand and iron out these niggles before we go racing - which unfortunately cost us some running on the softer tyre compounds.
"The afternoon was focused on long run performance - putting our car balance and set-up work from the preceding days into practice - with some positive feedback from Sergio to end the test. We've learned a lot about the RP20 over the past two weeks. Now it's a matter of ensuring we make the best possible use of that data ahead of the opening races. It's been a busy winter for everybody trackside and back at the factory, with some long hours and an incredible amount of work going on behind the scenes. A big thank you to each and every member of the team."
Alfa Romeo
A productive day of on-track action brought winter testing to an end at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The C39, in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen, raised our total pre-season tally to 735 laps, a good return from six days of testing.
On a day which included both qualifying and race pace runs, the team was able to gain the clearest indication so far of its new car's absolute performance ahead of the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix. Of course, it won't be until Saturday afternoon in Melbourne that we, and the world, will know where we stand compared to our rivals...
Jan Monchaux, Technical Director, Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN: "We can look back at the last two weeks with satisfaction for a job well done, although we are fully aware that the real task is still ahead of us. Over these two tests, we have gained a good understanding of the C39 and we feel prepared for the start of the season. We have completed nearly every item on our testing list, which is what you set out to do before even looking at performance, and we can now look forward to putting the final touches on the car before flying to Australia."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Being in the car for just two and a half days before the season is a far cry from what we used to do in the past, so it was important to make the most these two weeks. Testing may not be glamorous and the days are long, but the work we do here sets the foundation for our season. We have done our homework, next time we'll be in the car is when it matters, in Australia."
Haas
Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen split driving duties in the VF-20 on the final day of pre-season testing Friday at Circuit de Barcelona - Catalunya.
Grosjean squared away a busy morning run plan, which included a series of stints sampling both the Pirelli C3 and C4 compounds before a longer run to complete 86 laps before the break. The Frenchman set the team's fastest outright lap in testing at the Spanish track, his best time of 1:17.037 - set on the softer C4 tire, was good for 11th from the 14 participating drivers.
Magnussen was back behind the wheel of the VF-20 in the afternoon but a clutch issue 16 laps into his outing sidelined the Dane to the garage for most of the session. A stellar effort from the Haas crew enabled Magnussen to get back on track 25 minutes out from the checkered flag. Shod on the C4 rubber he clocked a best time of 1:17.495 to place 13th.
Haas F1 Team recorded a total of 676 laps across six days of pre-season testing for 3146.78 kilometers (1954.992 miles). The mileage was divided between Grosjean (399) and Magnussen (277).
Romain Grosjean: "From my side it was a good morning, we completed a lot of testing. It's the last day so everyone's going for a bit of performance - which is fun. We managed to get a longer stint in at the end just to see how the car behaves and evolves. I'm very happy with the job everyone's done in testing. We need to put all our best tools together now to prepare for Melbourne."
Kevin Magnussen: "We were unlucky to have the clutch issue in the middle of the day. We got back out in the end; the guys got the car back together which was a really good job from them to do in the short time they had. I got two short runs at the end which was useful as it was on the C4 tire which I hadn't run before. It wasn't an optimal day in terms of running but we learned from it."
Guenther Steiner: "It was a good morning with Romain (Grosjean) in the car, we completed our full program again. We made some progress, and everything's seemed to align over the last few days of testing. Kevin (Magnussen) unfortunately had limited running this afternoon, it's frustrating, but we take the positives from the track time he's had in the car such as yesterday's full race simulation. Through six days of testing we've only had the two hiccups, today's clutch issue and the problem with the rear wheel last Friday at the end of the first test. Overall, we've logged good mileage and we've learned a lot. We've worked hard to get this data and hopefully we'll translate it into good results in Australia."
Williams
Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal: We have had a very busy time in Barcelona. Everyone in the team, here and at the factory, has done a fantastic job to ensure we managed to complete the majority of our planned programme. Unfortunately, some of our run plans were impacted by the number of engine reliability issues that materialised over the six days, and which primarily affected Nicholas's running, but we have every confidence that Mercedes HPP will resolve these prior to actually racing. It's still early days, but the car certainly looks better than last year's and that's what we wanted to demonstrate, that we can make progress. We now have some time to go through all the data we've gathered in order to make sure we have the optimum configuration going into Melbourne. We will continue to fight hard to bring continual improvement to the car and look forward to seeing it take to the track in Australia.
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Conditions for the final day of this season's winter testing were good with cool calm conditions this morning and light cloud cover during the afternoon. Following the rain yesterday morning, the track seemed to have recovered fully to be in very good condition. George was back in the car today and completed a programme like that of Nicholas yesterday. Performance running in the morning featured the softer compounds as we looked to finalise our setup testing. During the lunch break we conducted a full grid simulation before going into some longer high fuel runs using the harder compounds from the 2020 range. Like Nicholas yesterday, George enjoyed a productive day, refining his car setup and reacquainting himself with the vagaries of race tyre management.
Overall, we have had a good winter testing period and have made the most of the six days available in this newly compressed format. We have completed in excess of 100 laps on all but one of the days, which has allowed us to complete almost everything that we intended.
George Russell: It was a productive day and we got in almost all the laps we wanted to. We had a good morning doing qualifying simulations and managed a race simulation in the afternoon. We got plenty of laps on the board and it was good preparation ahead of Australia. No doubt we are in a better position than last year, but we're not going to get carried away. I am optimistic that we can go to Melbourne and be in the fight, but until we get there we won't know for sure. From both myself and everyone at the team, we are going to go there and do our best to get everything out of the car.