Barcelona F1 Test Report

Over the last two weeks we have seen the Queen of Motorsports come back into action. Formula 1 testing took place at Barcelona, the place, where Spanish Grand Prix is held. The circuit lap time records got beaten daily, fans finally got to see 2018 cars in action with Halos all over the place. Whether you like Halo or not, that's a topic for another article.

Let's get going over what happened in the test. Ferrari has topped the time sheets with a solid 1-2 (as usual in testing for them) led by Sebastian Vettel and followed closely by Kimi Raikkonen. After a whole bunch of reliability problems for McLaren - Renault, Fernando Alonso, quite surprisingly as put in a third fastest lap time. McLaren has improved the most in terms of lap times, as they were 3.564 seconds faster than they were in 2017. Fastest Honda powered car was more than a second off McLaren's pace, so it was the right decision for the team to make afterall... Right behind Nando sits Ricciardo with his cheeky smile, putting his Red Bull into fourth with only 5 tenths down. Renault's factory team is sitting nicely in fifth, then goes the Haas of Kevin Magnussen being JUST faster than Pierre Gasly in a Toro Rosso - Honda. Only 0.003 of a second separates those two. Lewis Hamilton and a long-running Mercedes goes 8th fastest, on medium compound. Romain Grosjean placed in a nice Merc-sandwich is 9th, followed closely by Bottas in 10th. That is the top ten and check the chart below to see full standings.

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Place - Name - Team - Fastest Testing Lap - Number of Laps Completed

1 - Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1'17.182 - 425

2 - Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari - 1'17.221 - 206

3 - Fernando Alonso - McLaren - 1'17.784 - 150

4 - Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull - 1'18.047 - 257

5 - Carlos Sainz - Renault - 1'18.092 - 293

6 - Kevin Magnussen - Haas - 1'18.360 - 248

7 - Pierre Gasly - Toro Rosso - 1'18.363 - 223

8 - Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - 1'18.400 - 362

9 - Romain Grosjean - Haas - 1'18.412 - 259

10 - Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes - 1'18.560 - 372

11 - Nico Hulkenberg - Renault - 1'18.675 - 229

12 - Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren - 1'18.855 - 189

13 - Brendon Hartley - Toro Rosso - 1'18.949 - 275

14 - Esteban Ocon - Force India - 1'18.967 - 293

15 - Charles Leclerc - Sauber 1'19.11 - 235

16 - Sergey Sirotkin - Williams - 1'19.189 - 227

17 - Marcus Ericsson - Sauber - 1'19.244 - 268

18 - Robert Kubica - Williams 1'19.629 - 73

19 - Sergio Perez - Force India - 1'19.634 - 252

20 - Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1'19.842 - 317

21 - Lance Stroll - Williams - 1'19.954 - 243

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This Pre-Season Testing left me really impressed. Toro Rosso and Honda not breaking down once, McLaren getting so fast (even though the reliability will be the problem), The looks of the cars. This season should be really interesting to watch, possibly a 4-way fight at the front, really competitive mid-field and to be honest not too much of outsiders.

If my forecasts proves to be right, we could see Mercs, Ferraris, Red Bulls fighting each other and maybe even McLarens chasing them. The big question mark is the Renault factory team, they have promised to completely rebuild their car from the Lotus days and jump up the grid to the front runners. Either they were sandbagging (which is slightly unlikely) or they haven't met their goals set to themselves. Either way, there is still a visible improvement to the car's performance and it should be a strong mid-field contender.

Really can't wait for the Australian Grand Prix, where all the questions will be answered and we will see the true performance of the teams.

#Testing #F1 #Barcelona