23/02/2022
NEWS STORY
Lando Norris topped the timesheets at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya today, ahead of Ferrari pair, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
With the three day test officially relegated to 'event' level, Bahrain having paid for the privilege of hosting the sole pre-season test, it was appropriate that all in all it was a largely uneventful day.
Indeed, on a day the only incident was Norris stopping at the end of the pitlane due to an engine mode issue and Fernando Alonso was somehow officially confused with Esteban Ocon, the highlight of the day was the much anticipated appearance of the Red Bull RB18.
Then again, Adrian Newey's latest creation is likely to dominate conversation over the coming days and possibly beyond, such was the excitement it caused.
Looking at the timesheets one might be forgiven for thinking the RB18 is a bit of a dud and Max will require all the help from race officials he can get, however this week is all about consistency, reliability and data acquisition as opposed to outright pace. Therefore the fact that the latest from Milton Keynes completed the most laps (147) will send the Dutchman to bed smiling tonight.
Despite the fact the official timing transponder though Esteban Ocon was driving this afternoon - even though Fernando Alonso was in the A522 for the whole day - the fact is the Alpine completed 146 laps, compared to 153 (Ferrari), 127 (Mercedes) and 121 (AlphaTauri).
Alonso's tally was all the more impressive because he missed the first hour of running after lunch, while technical issues compromised Haas and Alfa Romeo in both of today's sessions.
Having set the early pace, Verstappen began to slide down the timesheet as he switched to the harder tyres, and while Charles Leclerc was the pace-setter for much of the day, around a half-hour before close of play Lando Norris went quicker, the McLaren driver subsequently consolidating his top spot with a quicker time.
Though aero rakes and flo-vis were in much use this morning, this afternoon attention switched to longer runs.
While, other than the aforementioned issues for Haas and Alfa, there were no serious issues, Lewis Hamilton lost track time this afternoon as his team worked on his front suspension, however, all-in-all the German team will be happy with its first day of testing.
Along with Red Bull, AlphaTauri, Alpine and McLaren were the only teams to run just one driver, the rest opting to split duties.
Tomorrow sees a number of drivers get their first taste of the 2022 regulations, including Guanyu Zhou, Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez.
Again we stress , today wasn't about pace but rather reliability and the 1,122 laps completed with brand new, out of the box, cars is a good sign.
Initial thoughts?
Mercedes and Red Bull looking good, as does Ferrari. Too early to even try making other predictions, but while McLaren looks good also, it looks as though it could be another long, hard year for Haas and Alfa... Valtteri is going to wonder where he went wrong.
"I'm really happy to be back behind the wheel," said Norris at the end of today's running. "It's nice to be in the car again and get to push the limit. It's been good for me to get used to this new car, because I've driven the same regulations for my whole F1 career.
"It's nice to have a change and it was a productive day. We learned a lot of things for the team, and we got all the information we wanted to. We can now compare it back to the simulator and the wind tunnel. A good day, and a good start to this test."
"After two years in the design process, it's great to finally see the MCL36 on track, alongside all of the other new cars," added technical director, James Key. "It's remarkable how many laps have been completed by teams today, considering how new these cars are, and how much there is to learn. It's good to see F1 getting winter testing off to such a positive start.
"This has been a productive first day for us. We're not taking any notice of lap times at the moment, it's all about learning and following our own directions and priorities. We gathered some important data points during this first day of testing and learned a great deal, both to carry forward for the rest of this test and also to use as we develop the car further.
"Like many teams, we undertook initial runs with aero rakes on the car this morning which provided some useful initial correlation data. Aerodynamics is the biggest change with the '22 cars so it is important to take some basic initial measurements at an early stage. Through the rest of the day, we did a fair amount of set-up and exploratory work, beginning to understand the car and the tyres a step at a time. I think we can be pleased with the number of laps we've covered with Lando today and look forward to going again with Daniel tomorrow."
"I think the car looks good but the most important thing is that it is fast, and that's what we are trying to see," said Verstappen. "We wanted to get laps in today to get used to the car and to get a general understanding about how it's behaving. As well as that, we needed the mileage to see how the parts held up. Everything worked pretty well, so it was a good start and a positive day.
"Tonight, we will look into things in more detail and see what we need to do to improve. Checo will drive tomorrow and then I am looking forward to getting back in the RB18 on Friday."
"It was a very short off-season," added Christian Horner, "but it's great to be back at the track and see the number one on the car, it's been a long time since it's been on an F1 car and our target this year is to keep it there. We are excited to get this new era of the sport underway and see the car run on track in anger for the first time.
"With such a big regulation change it's even more fascinating this year. We've got a great Team and we're fully motivated coming into this season. Max felt the car was good to drive, so it was a positive first morning. It is going to be a good year for Checo, now he is in his second year with us more familiar with the team."
"I'm happy because today went really well for the team," said Head of Race Engineering, Guillaume Rocquelin. "We gave ourselves the optimistic target of 700km and we finished around three laps short of that, which for the first day of testing is quite unusual. Things went well, we did some tests and we have a good direction for how to improve the car. Max is pleased so far, there are some balance limitations but nothing that makes us think we need to turn things upside down to make the car work."
Both Ferrari drivers had several items on their worksheet. First off was a function check for the car over a longer distance, the F1-75 having previously only completed 15 kilometres in a demonstration event on the 18 February, plus a further 100 during yesterday's filming day. Another task for the drivers was for them to familiarise themselves with what is a totally new car. Today was also an opportunity for the drivers and the team to get used to the car's increased size, with particular regard to pit stops. Another item was correlating the car's behaviour on track compared to the results of the simulation work carried out during its design phase.
Tomorrow continues along the same lines with the two drivers on duty once again: this time Carlos will start the day while Charles will take over in the afternoon.
"The first day of testing is behind us," said Leclerc. "This is always a really exciting moment at the start of each season. It was the first time that we could really push in our new car and it felt really good to be back behind the wheel. We completed all the tests we wanted to and ran through our full programme smoothly, which is good for a new car. I'm looking forward to being back on track again tomorrow.
"The initial feeling is not bad, but we shouldn't get carried away by the timesheets today, as these are early days and everyone is still hiding their true form. It's impossible to have a clear picture just yet, so we have to stay focused and keep working hard. We put in a lot of laps, more than any other team today, and that's a positive we will build on."
"Today was the first time I was in the car with a proper run plan," added Sainz, "unlike the previous times when we basically did shake downs. We could finally push a bit and start learning from these cars. The timesheet is unimportant at this early stage, but it was very positive to put in a good number of laps and get a real feel at the wheel.
"We still have a lot of work to do but today we could already start feeling some differences from last year, although in terms of getting used to it I don't feel it's going to take too long. For sure the last tenths will be tricky to find, but that is the interesting part! Anyway, that's not the aim here in Barcelona as we still have more testing ahead of the first race. A good first day and I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
Check out our Wednesday gallery from Barcelona, here.
"We got through a lot of work today," said Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin, "and both drivers have been able to give us their initial impressions of the W13. Overall the day has been surprisingly straightforward although looking up and down the pitlane, you can see how high the reliability standards are and most teams seemed to be running their programmes without issue.
"There really is a lot to try and cram into the six days of winter testing when you consider how different the car and the regulations are," he added. "Nevertheless, we have made good progress on understanding the aerodynamics and the tyres, while at the same time getting nearly 600km under our belts. From a pace point of view it's too early to say where anyone stands, we've also got a few wrinkles to iron out in terms of balance and performance before really trying to put times on the board. However, our overall feeling from today is a good one and we're looking forward to making more progress tomorrow."
"It's good to be back after such a long wait," said Alonso. "We've spent a long time preparing for this moment at both factories and in the garage, a lot of hours have gone into this moment. The cars are very different to last year and we need to adjust to a lot of new characteristics. We still have a lot of work to do but this is why we are at testing.
"We completed some good mileage and our reliability has been quite strong for the first day of testing. Mileage and reliability is more important than performance in testing, so overall we're quite pleased with the first day in our new car."
"Today is the culmination of so much hard work over the last two and a half years by everyone at the team across Enstone and Viry," added technical director, Matt Harman. "Congratulations to them for the immense effort in reaching this important milestone.
"For today, we're very pleased with our lap count with 129 laps completed. We did have one or two issues to solve, which we were able to rectify quickly and that's shown in our high lap count.
"The feedback from Fernando was good, he commented on overall balance and had good responses to different set-up ideas and tyre options. We did a lot of pre-validation work prior to arriving in Barcelona. That said, we had a few things we wanted to check and validate further, which is the aim at days like this. It's been an impressive day for the team, a great milestone in the journey of the A522 and we're looking forward to seeing Esteban in the car on Thursday."
"It's been a really productive day and a good start to testing for the team," said Yuki Tsunoda. "This is the first proper outing in the 2022 car, so everything we've done has been super important for our learnings, as obviously this car is completely different to last year.
"Mileage, and also the changes we were making to the set-up, were key today and we managed to achieve everything we wanted to. We found a few things that we still need to play with but we're happy with how things are going so far.
"The car has been really reliable today, we needed to get as much data as possible and we've managed to do this. We've still got five more days of testing to go before the first race, I think currently the car looks quite fast, but we won't know the true performance of it until Bahrain Qualifying."
"We have had a very successful first day," said Jonathan Eddolls, the Faenza outfit's Chief Race Engineer. "With a brand-new car, tyres and regulations it's important to firstly validate the pre-event sim work, so we spent the morning trialling a large variety of set-up direction and quickly honed in on a set-up that seemed to be a good compromise. That left the afternoon to start completing set-up test items and to better understand the tyres.
"Yuki was happy with the feel of the car, it remained reliable throughout the day, and we had no major issues. We have an extensive test plan for the three days of testing here and then again in Bahrain, to ensure we head to race one well prepared and in the best shape possible. We've had a positive first day following our plan and have already gathered a lot of data, which we will analyse tonight and feed into the test plan for Pierre, who takes over, tomorrow."
"It's been a solid day starting to understand the FW44," said Williams Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson. "We had very few problems given how many new concepts there are on the car and both drivers had a good opportunity to complete long runs on several of the Pirelli tyre compounds. It is very early days, but we have made a good start and have identified several opportunities to improve the performance of the car.
"Alex was immediately comfortable in the car and was on the pace straightaway. He will drive the car again in the morning before Nicholas returns in the afternoon. We are looking forward to another productive day as we continue our preparation for the season ahead."
"The first session back in the car after a few months off is always interesting," said Latifi. "You can tell it's a different design philosophy, especially with the tyres, as it was my first time driving the new 18-inch Pirellis. Overall, it feels different and there are a few things that, for me, feel quite positive already compared to last year and there are things that need adjusting. But it is still very early days.
"This morning's focus was about understanding the systems and the aero platform sensitivities. It was a good day overall."
"I'm really happy with my first proper session in the FW44 this afternoon," added Albon. "The car felt great and the team here in Barcelona did an incredible job. We got some good mileage in which is really important and a great start to the year. The first days on track are usually spent making sure everything is running smoothly and, because it is, we managed to make a start working on the performance of the car.
"We only have six days testing before the first race, so to be honing in on performance already is a real positive. I'm looking forward to getting back out tomorrow morning!"
"It's always nice to get back behind the wheel after the winter break," said Valtteri Bottas who ended the day 10th quickest after completing 23 laps, "especially with a new car, a new team and a new generation of Formula One cars.
"I did enjoy my time in the car, even though we had some issues that turned out to be pretty costly in terms of time lost. The important thing, however, is that we were able to understand them completely and we know how to fix them: we may have run out of time to do that today, but we still got some running under our belt and we know how to progress.
"Now I hope we can get two good days tomorrow and Friday to catch up on the time we lost today and complete our programme for the test. My first impression of the car is positive, so far I did not feel massive differences between the old-generation cars and the new ones, definitely not night and day. Of course, one needs to adjust the driving a little bit, but nothing too drastic: still, we have a lot of learning to do and we're keen to get back to work on track tomorrow."
"It wasn't the best of mornings as we had a couple of issues that limited our running," admited Robert Kubica who completed just 9 laps. "The guys did a good job to solve them and it's nice to see the spirit with which the team faced them, but in the end we lost a big chunk of time. The little running I did feels like an appetiser, but obviously I wanted more! That's racing, though, the important thing is that we can recover some ground tomorrow and continue discovering our new baby. The first impressions of the car are positive, but there's so much more we need to find out."
"Firstly, it was great to get out," said Nikita Mazepin. "The whole team is coming alive, and the car has been born.
"It felt nice because the set-up and the way you run the car during these days is different to how we ran it on filming day. Unfortunately, we didn't get too many laps in – we had a cooling leak which prevented us from doing more laps – but it's just the beginning.
"I think the car is looking strong when figuring out the balance. Everyone is learning about this very new car and there are some things that don't quite match the simulations, but we're quick learners!"
"Nothing to be concerned about," insisted Mick Schumacher, "the smile isn't as big as it could be as we would've liked a three-digit number on the board but those things happen.
"It's now about trying to get the laps that we lost today in tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see what Bahrain looks like but at least we're developing the car this year and can react to things, making things better."
"Well starting off, it's a positive to be back at track and finally seeing the VF-22 come to life," added Guenther Steiner. "The entire team has worked incredibly hard through our car build to get us to this point.
"Unfortunately, it's been one of those days where a few small issues end up costing you considerable time in the garage. So, there's not necessarily a lot to take from today other than hopefully that's some of our issues over and done with.
"All being well tomorrow we'll have greater reliability and we can get into a more thorough run-plan for both Mick and Nikita."